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 I'm among the fortunate. My team has 25 coached practices weekly including 3 geared to the long distance swimmer. Within those practices, there are 3 groups based on interval. Within the week there are focused days dedicated to stroke, speed, and aerobic sets. Something for everyone.
Freestyle is always an option for non-strokers, and we can always change groups if we want a longer interval with more rest for sprints or stroke work. Our coach is accomodating and flexible as long as we are mindful of the clock and our lane mates. What could be better!
I think I'm among the fortunate. My team has 25 coached practices weekly including 3 geared to the long distance swimmer. Within those practices, there are 3 groups based on interval. Within the week there are focused days dedicated to stroke, speed, and aerobic sets. Something for everyone.
Freestyle is always an option for non-strokers, and we can always change groups if we want a longer interval with more rest for sprints or stroke work. Our coach is accomodating and flexible as long as we are mindful of the clock and our lane mates. What could be better!
