Excellent article and I can see my coach following the thought process here a lot. He believes in quality over quantity. Why do massive yardage badly when you can do lower yardage but at higher intensity and with proper technique. And trust me, he's always stopping us for improper technique. The former age group team I was on is in the opposite came. In 90 min practices they are hitting 5000+ yards. In 2.5 hours practices 10,000+ yards. No stroke instruction and it's all just go, go, go type of swimming. The coach has even told others that he doesn't have time built in to the workout to stop for stroke correction. The swimmers on that team are having issues such as shoulders and knees at younger age. Not that my team isn't but our problems are coming from lifting weights and (in my case) a sprained ankle, not from swimming improper yardage. We train at that race pace about 3-4 times a week and have practices 2 times a day during weekdays and once on weekends, plus dry land and stretching. I hit that lactic acid quite often. This style of training has allowed me to become faster than when I was in high school and is now beating my times from when I was with the mega-yardage team of last year.
Excellent article and I can see my coach following the thought process here a lot. He believes in quality over quantity. Why do massive yardage badly when you can do lower yardage but at higher intensity and with proper technique. And trust me, he's always stopping us for improper technique. The former age group team I was on is in the opposite came. In 90 min practices they are hitting 5000+ yards. In 2.5 hours practices 10,000+ yards. No stroke instruction and it's all just go, go, go type of swimming. The coach has even told others that he doesn't have time built in to the workout to stop for stroke correction. The swimmers on that team are having issues such as shoulders and knees at younger age. Not that my team isn't but our problems are coming from lifting weights and (in my case) a sprained ankle, not from swimming improper yardage. We train at that race pace about 3-4 times a week and have practices 2 times a day during weekdays and once on weekends, plus dry land and stretching. I hit that lactic acid quite often. This style of training has allowed me to become faster than when I was in high school and is now beating my times from when I was with the mega-yardage team of last year.
