In threads where training philosophy comes up, discussions of TRIMPS and TSS and other training models occasionally intrude. These models are not very well known, and even more poorly understood, so probably SolarEnergy, qbrain and I are just talking to each other and killing threads in those conversations. In any case, I figured I would present a brief overview of what it is that we're talking about when this terminology starts showing up.
Best case, this will introduce these models to the subset of swimmers (or coaches) who would be interested enough to use them, but didn't previously know enough to do so.
Plus, even if you're not the type to be interested in quantifying your training, it can be useful to think about workouts in this general framework.
And, at the very least, this might serve as a place to discuss some of the details without worrying about driving those other threads too far off-topic.
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Former Member
Chris,
Energy points is just energy without the constants and any variables that should be approximately constant for a given swimmer.
Ep = (d/t)^3*t
Ep is energy points
d is distance in meters
t is time in seconds
So velocity cubed times time.
The ratios I suggested are based on the men's worlds records in the 200 of each stroke. I was in a hurry, so I didn't see if the ratios were the same for the women's records. I will check later.
Breaststroke would have a higher multiple because the drag coefficient and the area of the body are larger than freestyle. I am not sure this makes sense for backstroke, because you would expect backstroke to have lower drag coefficient and area compared to butterfly. I was using the energy point ratio to approximate those values, because I can't think of what else would yield similar results.
As for backstroke not being as hard as butterfly. Since the formula only cares about speed, there is no additional function to account for the loss through inefficiency. Kick is the best example. Kick takes a lot of caloric energy, but your not rewarded with more energy points because kick is not an efficient means of forward propulsion. There is a lot of waste pushing water the wrong direction. Better gauges for effort exist, although they are not as simple to collect data for. My goal was to recommend something that was easy to collect data for and would reward speed over quantity. It is meant to compete with GTD not be an advanced model.
Energy in terms of its contribution of forward motion, not effort.
A lot of things don't get rewarded. Doing fly, kick sets, drills, warm up that you might want to encourage. Energy points don't replace intelligent workout design, coaching or anything but maybe GTD.
I posted some spreadsheets here with example calculations.
forums.usms.org/showpost.php
Chris,
Energy points is just energy without the constants and any variables that should be approximately constant for a given swimmer.
Ep = (d/t)^3*t
Ep is energy points
d is distance in meters
t is time in seconds
So velocity cubed times time.
The ratios I suggested are based on the men's worlds records in the 200 of each stroke. I was in a hurry, so I didn't see if the ratios were the same for the women's records. I will check later.
Breaststroke would have a higher multiple because the drag coefficient and the area of the body are larger than freestyle. I am not sure this makes sense for backstroke, because you would expect backstroke to have lower drag coefficient and area compared to butterfly. I was using the energy point ratio to approximate those values, because I can't think of what else would yield similar results.
As for backstroke not being as hard as butterfly. Since the formula only cares about speed, there is no additional function to account for the loss through inefficiency. Kick is the best example. Kick takes a lot of caloric energy, but your not rewarded with more energy points because kick is not an efficient means of forward propulsion. There is a lot of waste pushing water the wrong direction. Better gauges for effort exist, although they are not as simple to collect data for. My goal was to recommend something that was easy to collect data for and would reward speed over quantity. It is meant to compete with GTD not be an advanced model.
Energy in terms of its contribution of forward motion, not effort.
A lot of things don't get rewarded. Doing fly, kick sets, drills, warm up that you might want to encourage. Energy points don't replace intelligent workout design, coaching or anything but maybe GTD.
I posted some spreadsheets here with example calculations.
forums.usms.org/showpost.php
