Are Most Masters Teams Training Wrong?

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?
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  • Former Member
    Former Member
    My coach knows that is he gives me this workout 4x125 on 2:30 4x50 drill 3x125 on 2:20 4x50 kick 3x125 on 2:10 4x50 easy 3x125 on 2:00 that all those 125's after the first 4 are going to become 75's where I sprint a 50 and then go easy 50, or I'll put on fins for a set and work SDK. And he knows better than to say anything...and my lane mates know I will stay out of their way or stay on the opposite end of the pool as them.
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  • Former Member
    Former Member
    My coach knows that is he gives me this workout 4x125 on 2:30 4x50 drill 3x125 on 2:20 4x50 kick 3x125 on 2:10 4x50 easy 3x125 on 2:00 that all those 125's after the first 4 are going to become 75's where I sprint a 50 and then go easy 50, or I'll put on fins for a set and work SDK. And he knows better than to say anything...and my lane mates know I will stay out of their way or stay on the opposite end of the pool as them.
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