Reading the Eddie Reese article in the SFF thread and the importance of an aerobic base I was led to wonder, how do you establish and maintain an aerobic base, and how do you know when to go from building the aerobic base to working on non-aerobic training? Do you split your season or do you work on all aspects all the time?
I know it's a big question but...
I'd be interested to know if Eddie Reese's thinking on this has changed over the years. That article was from 1997 if I recall correctly. At that time distance swimming wasn't looking great in the US, but in recent years there have been some great US distance swimmers, both male and female. Guys like Vanderkaay, Jensen and Vendt and gals like Ziegler and Hoff.
Allen,
This is an important topic and I'd love to hear from other coaches. Specificity training is well understood and I think we nod our heads up and down but most coaches still create workouts that are nothing more than "tire you out" sets. I know you understand very well what I'm talking about but the coaches coming up in the ranks, if they're like most coaches, still use training strategies they grew up with. I recently recevied a newsletter from ASCA and one of the articles listed the top 5 hardest training sets. It pointed out that these tough sets made the great swimmers who did them, -- Great. I don't think it did and the article contributed to the notion that 10 x 1000 made a swimmer faster. I remember a great flyer who broke a world record and attributed his success to the 20 x 200 fly sets on 2min, he did consistently but his record was broken the next week by Michael Gross who trained with micro-yardage comparitivly speaking. Thanks again for keeping the thread alive. Coach T.
How can one measure the aerobic capacity? I know in running there is this Cooper test.
Is the time that you can hold your breathe (for instance time under water) an indication?
Is the time that you can hold your breathe (for instance time under water) an indication?
No. We're not training to hold our breath. One typical test is a timed swim for distance. For example, a T-30 (30 minute swim). Based on this you can determine your threshold pace and you can benchmark yourself by doing the T-30 every month or two.
www.swimmingcoach.org/.../newsletter10.pdf
Masters shout out:
5 X 100 on 1:10...4 X 200 on
2:10...3 X 300 on 3:10...2 X 400
on 4:10...1 X 500 on 5:10. Two
minute break and then we did the
same set but the intervals were on
a minute.
I had a distance guy from
California, a guy from New York, a
guy from Florida, and a guy from
Texas, and they all made it. The
best performance was by Matt
Hooper, who probably helped you
down at the ASCA registration
booth. He did this set and when he
did it on a minute he went :56s on
the 100s, 1:53s on the 200s, 2:51s
in the 300s, 3:48 in the 400s, and
4:35 in the 500. That is a heck of
a set.
www.usms.org/.../indresults.php
I'm going to post an unscientific reply:
I have the time, alongside work, family and other commitments to train 3 times a week in the pool (for an hour). If I'm disciplined I can do a couple of gym sessions and/or jog.
I don't have time to spend focusing on aerobic development. I don't believe that, in the time I have, I will develop a huge aerobic capacity. So, although I do more aerobic work further from my taper meets I focus more on getting up to race pace, which means 50-200 pace/intensity. By the last month or so before my main meet I am doing almost exclusively race pace work. I get a small amount of aerobic maintenance in warmups etc.
Alongside swimming, my land work is important. I like to run, and will do 10ks etc. I suffer from chronic bowel disease so my commitment to running is inconsistent. However, this is still virtually my only purely aerobic exercise.
In the gym I don't do sets of heavy weights. I "complexes" much of the time, which are mini circuits of 6 sets of 6 reps of 6 exercises (so 36 reps in a set, of varied exercises) using multiple body parts. This feels much like 100-200 race pace work in the pool - with my heart rate getting up towards 180 bpm and I'm serously sucking in air at the end! So I guess this is anaerobic.
In short, if I had double the time in the pool I'd probably do more aerobic work. But not a lot!
How much does childhood aerobic training impact aerobic characteristics later in life?
It helps, significantly.
Your ability to swim fast comes from yourtechnique, strength, body shape, fitness and conditioning. Prior training and prior ability contribute to current ability.
Consider:
How fast were you at your peak ability?
How many years did you train at that level?
How many years has it been between you peak ability and now?
How fit did you keep during your hiatus?
How have you recently trained?
How old are you?
Even if you didn't do significant aerobic training during your pre teen, teen, & post teen years. You can start now and improve.
