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 that "Wrong" implies that the only reason folks swim masters is to compete in sprint events.
Most of the folks I swim with don't compete at swim meets and the coaches are usually aware of that and try to offer a variety of workouts over the course of the week that will satisfy the fitness swimmers and the competitors.
I compete, but I'll admit to being a "garbage yardage" guy. Part of that is because that's the way we swam in the '80's and part is because I left the sport for 20+yrs and found out the hard way that sprinting without getting injured is a lot harder at 40+y.o. than it was at 20. I might be wrong, but I don't have as many injuries this year, so I'm happier even if I am wrong. (Of course, I'm also not nearly as fast as most of those who post here.)
So, until I am able to finish 10x100 @ 1:15 (or 1:05) I'm satisfied with grinding out garbage yards most of the time and doing sprint sets once a week - more leading up to a meet. Is it going to take me longer to get faster? Sure, but if I get injured, it could take even longer.
I agree that "Wrong" implies that the only reason folks swim masters is to compete in sprint events.
Most of the folks I swim with don't compete at swim meets and the coaches are usually aware of that and try to offer a variety of workouts over the course of the week that will satisfy the fitness swimmers and the competitors.
I compete, but I'll admit to being a "garbage yardage" guy. Part of that is because that's the way we swam in the '80's and part is because I left the sport for 20+yrs and found out the hard way that sprinting without getting injured is a lot harder at 40+y.o. than it was at 20. I might be wrong, but I don't have as many injuries this year, so I'm happier even if I am wrong. (Of course, I'm also not nearly as fast as most of those who post here.)
So, until I am able to finish 10x100 @ 1:15 (or 1:05) I'm satisfied with grinding out garbage yards most of the time and doing sprint sets once a week - more leading up to a meet. Is it going to take me longer to get faster? Sure, but if I get injured, it could take even longer.
