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 agree, coaches and their programs must cater to the needs of the majority of paying members. The typical work out at Longhorn Masters is middle distance oriented which fits the needs of triathletes, open water swimmers, fitness swimmers, competitive swimmers, and those who want to L B N.
But this is masters, coaches are fine with swimmers doing what they need to do. As long as they keep them in the loop & are nice about it. Plus we all have lives, families, work and home, it's just swimming.
In masters we can show up late, leave early, skip practices, skip sets, and modify sets.
So YOU need to know what you need to do and make sure that you do it.
There's also ways to modify sets and not get in the way of your lane mates.
Make it work.
Stay out of the way, be easy to pass, find your moments.
I occasionally email or text my coach to let her know about what I'm training for as far as events, meets, or special projects.
If there's enough swimmers preparing for the same meet, she'll carve out a few taper lanes and write some taper sets.
I agree 100% with your analysis; however, I disagree in part with the thread title that teams are training "wrong". If you asked each swimmer to write down why they swim and what their goals are, you will get as many answers as their are swimmers on deck. Put another way, my $65 monthly membership isn't worth any more than the slowest lane 8 swimmer's $65/$85 and reasons why they swim.
Given the stats on our team, there is only one swimmer I know of that swims to race 1 meet per month on average, and goal times are to continue to make USA regional/grand prix cuts in local USA A meets, and swimming a full line up only at selected masters meets. For the other 599+ members of the team, they are more interested in open water events, explicitly not swimming any meets, training for triathlons, rehabing/recovering/recuperating and many, many swimmers who basically want to hang on to whatever lane they are currently in, and have no interest in hearing about better technique or anything that in the category of "taking a step back to take a step forward". Their goal is met each practice - which is essentially the opposite of why you might be swimming (that would be sprints. in a meet.)
There is no right/wrong way to approach it - it's just if you want something different, then you have to find a way. My motto is "I love meets! I don't like to practice very hard!" I have never liked training hard, I can't stand to feel the burn, and I really could care less about "toughness of conditioning sets." Even lane 2 marvels when I actually did a 400/300/200/100 without stopping this year. And that was only because I couldn't find a way to skip without totally screwing up the (crowded lanes). I still resent doing that set even today! But if I really can't stand doing those sets, then I also accept the range of times I am or am not capable of swimming. Notice I did NOT say that I SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be swimming - NO SUCH THING!!!
My coaches fully support me, and I think my teammates know me well enough when I sit out on most sets. Put another way, we pay either $65 or $85 a month, and it seems silly to run a business catering to the 1 person who trains as a sprinter rather than the 599+ who like the workouts that are given!
There is some customization - we have sprint day/lanes, distance/open water lanes, fear of water intro practices, fraternity of flyers month, etc. But if you want something really specific, I think it's a one-on-one discussion with your coach and what YOU need to get there. I think there is no better example of the emphasis of the majority of masters swimmers than Jim Montgomery - and most of his team building/program building is geared towards true beginner swimmers.
I agree, coaches and their programs must cater to the needs of the majority of paying members. The typical work out at Longhorn Masters is middle distance oriented which fits the needs of triathletes, open water swimmers, fitness swimmers, competitive swimmers, and those who want to L B N.
But this is masters, coaches are fine with swimmers doing what they need to do. As long as they keep them in the loop & are nice about it. Plus we all have lives, families, work and home, it's just swimming.
In masters we can show up late, leave early, skip practices, skip sets, and modify sets.
So YOU need to know what you need to do and make sure that you do it.
There's also ways to modify sets and not get in the way of your lane mates.
Make it work.
Stay out of the way, be easy to pass, find your moments.
I occasionally email or text my coach to let her know about what I'm training for as far as events, meets, or special projects.
If there's enough swimmers preparing for the same meet, she'll carve out a few taper lanes and write some taper sets.
I agree 100% with your analysis; however, I disagree in part with the thread title that teams are training "wrong". If you asked each swimmer to write down why they swim and what their goals are, you will get as many answers as their are swimmers on deck. Put another way, my $65 monthly membership isn't worth any more than the slowest lane 8 swimmer's $65/$85 and reasons why they swim.
Given the stats on our team, there is only one swimmer I know of that swims to race 1 meet per month on average, and goal times are to continue to make USA regional/grand prix cuts in local USA A meets, and swimming a full line up only at selected masters meets. For the other 599+ members of the team, they are more interested in open water events, explicitly not swimming any meets, training for triathlons, rehabing/recovering/recuperating and many, many swimmers who basically want to hang on to whatever lane they are currently in, and have no interest in hearing about better technique or anything that in the category of "taking a step back to take a step forward". Their goal is met each practice - which is essentially the opposite of why you might be swimming (that would be sprints. in a meet.)
There is no right/wrong way to approach it - it's just if you want something different, then you have to find a way. My motto is "I love meets! I don't like to practice very hard!" I have never liked training hard, I can't stand to feel the burn, and I really could care less about "toughness of conditioning sets." Even lane 2 marvels when I actually did a 400/300/200/100 without stopping this year. And that was only because I couldn't find a way to skip without totally screwing up the (crowded lanes). I still resent doing that set even today! But if I really can't stand doing those sets, then I also accept the range of times I am or am not capable of swimming. Notice I did NOT say that I SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be swimming - NO SUCH THING!!!
My coaches fully support me, and I think my teammates know me well enough when I sit out on most sets. Put another way, we pay either $65 or $85 a month, and it seems silly to run a business catering to the 1 person who trains as a sprinter rather than the 599+ who like the workouts that are given!
There is some customization - we have sprint day/lanes, distance/open water lanes, fear of water intro practices, fraternity of flyers month, etc. But if you want something really specific, I think it's a one-on-one discussion with your coach and what YOU need to get there. I think there is no better example of the emphasis of the majority of masters swimmers than Jim Montgomery - and most of his team building/program building is geared towards true beginner swimmers.
