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?
Have you or others on your team chatted with your coach about what your individual goals are? Or maybe chatted with others on the team on what they want/need to do during workout?
Good question and I don't really know. For the events I swim I'm happy with the training, but I could see how a sprinter might not be getting what they want or need. My team doesn't have a lot of people who compete regularly, so maybe it isn't a big issue for us, but I'm thinking on a more generic level than just my team. However, my team has a board meeting next week and I'll be sure to bring this topic up.
Have you or others on your team chatted with your coach about what your individual goals are? Or maybe chatted with others on the team on what they want/need to do during workout?
Good question and I don't really know. For the events I swim I'm happy with the training, but I could see how a sprinter might not be getting what they want or need. My team doesn't have a lot of people who compete regularly, so maybe it isn't a big issue for us, but I'm thinking on a more generic level than just my team. However, my team has a board meeting next week and I'll be sure to bring this topic up.
