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?
One of the biggest mistakes I see is that many coaches/swimmers fall into a pattern of coaching/training that really has no pattern. Weekly micro-cycles training tied into an overall seasonal and yearly plan takes a lot of thought and work and when only a small percentage of your swimmers are competing its easy to just train everyone hard (and often long/aerobic) because the majority of the swimmers THINK this is better for fitness (or triathlon development).
We have held to the belief that if your coming to train with us then your going to train like a "swimmer"...and to that end we have a program thats built around avoiding over-training by using a systematic program that cycles through each energy system and is recovery base....and follows Dennis Cotterell's belief that "everything is about speed" (a talk he gave at an ASCA convention discussing training Grant Hackett).
So what does this mean? Well for starters our open water, fitness and Tri folks all do at least one day a week of speed work at a minimum of 4:1 rest to work ratio. Those that have bought in have learned to love it and have improved dramatically...some don't stick around or ask for their own lane (which we don't offer) and thats Ok as we are committed to what we are doing and the team has gone along with it.
BRAVO!!
Was hoping that a head coach from a large masters program would chime in here.
It is kind of known that I "swim around"... so it's no secret to me which of the clubs train for true health & fitness.
If the program doesn't have a training cycle and a focus on technique, there are going to be athletes who get injured and or burned out. (unhealthy)
There are those athletes who know deep down that they need this type of practice/training and will even ask the coach for it! But if they don't follow the program laid out and or practice poor technique, the result will eventually be as problematic as swimming with an unplanned program.
If you live too far away from one of the great programs, inquire if the club offers a "Satellite" membership.
When I coached at Nova in Irvine, we offered this option and the workouts were emailed out each month. I remember the coach telling me, if you just do the workouts as written, you'll improve. They were planned and had evolved over 20+ years of coaching masters. Technique is written into the workouts and the intervals are stated at 4 levels.
I watched this program for 2 years. It serves a huge number of novice/fitness swimmers. As well open water, triathletes, and competitive swimmers. They improve - and yes, get a lot faster.
I never experienced an injury with one of the athletes unless they were doing something outside the pool or refused to slow down and work on their poor technique.
This is the one yearly training plan I experienced first hand and could recommend. I would be very interested in hearing about others around the country outside of the workouts posted here on the forum.
I'm one of those swimmers who find it impossible to train alone for long. Often we swim in poorly planned workouts for the sake of swimming with friends and training partners.
It can be a huge trade off.
Unfortunately for some, there are few other options.
But perhaps The Fortress has successfully demonstrated a way to combine training alone, with friends and occasionally with a club. And you know she has a plan!
One of the biggest mistakes I see is that many coaches/swimmers fall into a pattern of coaching/training that really has no pattern. Weekly micro-cycles training tied into an overall seasonal and yearly plan takes a lot of thought and work and when only a small percentage of your swimmers are competing its easy to just train everyone hard (and often long/aerobic) because the majority of the swimmers THINK this is better for fitness (or triathlon development).
We have held to the belief that if your coming to train with us then your going to train like a "swimmer"...and to that end we have a program thats built around avoiding over-training by using a systematic program that cycles through each energy system and is recovery base....and follows Dennis Cotterell's belief that "everything is about speed" (a talk he gave at an ASCA convention discussing training Grant Hackett).
So what does this mean? Well for starters our open water, fitness and Tri folks all do at least one day a week of speed work at a minimum of 4:1 rest to work ratio. Those that have bought in have learned to love it and have improved dramatically...some don't stick around or ask for their own lane (which we don't offer) and thats Ok as we are committed to what we are doing and the team has gone along with it.
BRAVO!!
Was hoping that a head coach from a large masters program would chime in here.
It is kind of known that I "swim around"... so it's no secret to me which of the clubs train for true health & fitness.
If the program doesn't have a training cycle and a focus on technique, there are going to be athletes who get injured and or burned out. (unhealthy)
There are those athletes who know deep down that they need this type of practice/training and will even ask the coach for it! But if they don't follow the program laid out and or practice poor technique, the result will eventually be as problematic as swimming with an unplanned program.
If you live too far away from one of the great programs, inquire if the club offers a "Satellite" membership.
When I coached at Nova in Irvine, we offered this option and the workouts were emailed out each month. I remember the coach telling me, if you just do the workouts as written, you'll improve. They were planned and had evolved over 20+ years of coaching masters. Technique is written into the workouts and the intervals are stated at 4 levels.
I watched this program for 2 years. It serves a huge number of novice/fitness swimmers. As well open water, triathletes, and competitive swimmers. They improve - and yes, get a lot faster.
I never experienced an injury with one of the athletes unless they were doing something outside the pool or refused to slow down and work on their poor technique.
This is the one yearly training plan I experienced first hand and could recommend. I would be very interested in hearing about others around the country outside of the workouts posted here on the forum.
I'm one of those swimmers who find it impossible to train alone for long. Often we swim in poorly planned workouts for the sake of swimming with friends and training partners.
It can be a huge trade off.
Unfortunately for some, there are few other options.
But perhaps The Fortress has successfully demonstrated a way to combine training alone, with friends and occasionally with a club. And you know she has a plan!
