Fortress' impressive three world record performance over the weekend made me think of this topic. Obviously the things she's doing are working well for the events she likes to swim. She concentrates on SDKs, fast swimming with lots of rest and drylands to aid in explosiveness. Long aerobic sets just aren't a part of her training regime, from what I've seen.
Almost every organized training group I've swum with, on the other hand, focuses on long aerobic sets, short rest, not a whole lot of fast stuff, etc. Basically the polar opposite of how Fortress trains. In my opinion this probably works pretty well for those who swim longer events, but really does very little for sprinters. The sprint events are almost always the most popular events at meets, so why do people choose to train aerobically? I think there are a number of factors at play. There's the much maligned triathletes. There's those who don't compete and "just want to get their yardage in." There's a historical precedent of lots of yardage being the way to go.
So what do you all think? How does you or your team train? I know lots of regular bloggers here DO train differently than my perception of the norm. Examples include Ande, Chris S. and Speedo. Are too many masters teams stuck in a training regime that is not at all what many of their swimmers need to get faster?
Fortress' impressive three world record performance...So what do you all think? How does you or your team train? I know lots of regular bloggers here DO train differently than my perception of the norm. Examples include Ande, Chris S. and Speedo. Are too many masters teams stuck in a training regime that is not at all what many of their swimmers need to get faster?
And to directly answer this last paragraph, I agree 100%. Many people, most people that I see at workouts don't want to "hear it!" Hence, the movement towards wearing huge paddles and pull buoys on swim sets to maintain speed, lane, and rank order. And while it irks me, I have to remember to laugh at myself because the only reason why I am so irked is because all of sudden, these last few years, I actually do care, because I want to race them fair & square! But who am I kidding? They are equally "right" in sizing me up - I am too "wimpy" to do 6 x 200's! And if their "unspoken rules" are that you can use any equipment and go the fastest interval possible, then i'm not "competitive" in their world! tee hee!
Fortress' impressive three world record performance...So what do you all think? How does you or your team train? I know lots of regular bloggers here DO train differently than my perception of the norm. Examples include Ande, Chris S. and Speedo. Are too many masters teams stuck in a training regime that is not at all what many of their swimmers need to get faster?
And to directly answer this last paragraph, I agree 100%. Many people, most people that I see at workouts don't want to "hear it!" Hence, the movement towards wearing huge paddles and pull buoys on swim sets to maintain speed, lane, and rank order. And while it irks me, I have to remember to laugh at myself because the only reason why I am so irked is because all of sudden, these last few years, I actually do care, because I want to race them fair & square! But who am I kidding? They are equally "right" in sizing me up - I am too "wimpy" to do 6 x 200's! And if their "unspoken rules" are that you can use any equipment and go the fastest interval possible, then i'm not "competitive" in their world! tee hee!
