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?
I think the question would be better phrased, "Are masters swimmers training incorrectly?"
Training should be very individualized, based on what the swimmer wants to do. As ~80% of masters swimmers don't do meets, the team needs to take what works best for the majority. Nearly every team I've trained with has had different options for every workout. With the Mesa team, there are typically 3-4 coached options one can select from. Of course one could also opt for an empty lane and swim solo.
I'm curious how many masters swimmers train for and compete only in 50s. Personally, I see 50s mostly as filler to pass time between other events, when I focus more on 200 or above. As someone who may do 2 meets a year, I just don't see the need to focus so much on 50s.
I think the question would be better phrased, "Are masters swimmers training incorrectly?"
Training should be very individualized, based on what the swimmer wants to do. As ~80% of masters swimmers don't do meets, the team needs to take what works best for the majority. Nearly every team I've trained with has had different options for every workout. With the Mesa team, there are typically 3-4 coached options one can select from. Of course one could also opt for an empty lane and swim solo.
I'm curious how many masters swimmers train for and compete only in 50s. Personally, I see 50s mostly as filler to pass time between other events, when I focus more on 200 or above. As someone who may do 2 meets a year, I just don't see the need to focus so much on 50s.
