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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Would you really want more points as form falls apart?
Definitely not. I wasn't proposing a tweak, just pointing out why it happens.
Maybe if your only goal was to burn calories, then you'd want to reward poor form. But if your goal is to swim better, then you shouldn't get any bonus when your form falls apart. Instead, the points act as an incentive to only swim fly for as long as your form holds together, since it becomes too painful to earn points with longer reps.
Would you really want more points as form falls apart?
Definitely not. I wasn't proposing a tweak, just pointing out why it happens.
Maybe if your only goal was to burn calories, then you'd want to reward poor form. But if your goal is to swim better, then you shouldn't get any bonus when your form falls apart. Instead, the points act as an incentive to only swim fly for as long as your form holds together, since it becomes too painful to earn points with longer reps.
