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?
Fortress' impressive three world record performance...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?
And to directly answer this last paragraph, I agree 100%. Many people, most people that I see at workouts don't want to "hear it!" Hence, the movement towards wearing huge paddles and pull buoys on swim sets to maintain speed, lane, and rank order. And while it irks me, I have to remember to laugh at myself because the only reason why I am so irked is because all of sudden, these last few years, I actually do care, because I want to race them fair & square! But who am I kidding? They are equally "right" in sizing me up - I am too "wimpy" to do 6 x 200's! And if their "unspoken rules" are that you can use any equipment and go the fastest interval possible, then i'm not "competitive" in their world! tee hee!
if you want something really specific, I think it's a one-on-one discussion with your coach and what YOU need to get there.
Very well said. I think lots of people just go along for the ride. Coaches aren't mind readers, after all.
think about how much time you spend and how much distance you cover in each part of your race and what percentage it is.
Do you spend the same percentage of your training time focusing on that aspect of your race?
Great point, Ande.
I'm not going to dismiss mega-aerobic training since when I trained that way in college, I was faster than I am now. But I don't LIKE training that way, and I don't do distance free anymore, so now I do as little aerobic training as I can get away with. The 400 IM is my second-best event, so some aerobic training is required. But I spend much more time on anaerobic butterfly, focusing on technique, race strategy, and stroke counts. I think for a 200 flyer, that is a better approach than training almost all freestyle and then swimming the 200 fly in meets and hoping for the best. I remember diving in and swimming fly, and it would feel weird since I hadn't done any of it since the last meet... :afraid:
I'm not going to dismiss mega-aerobic training since when I trained that way in college, I was faster than I am now. But I don't LIKE training that way
And I have a feeling there are lots of people who feel the same way. There's this perception that most people want to train aerobically, but I wonder if that's really the case?
There's this perception that most people want to train aerobically, but I wonder if that's really the case?Maybe it's mental conditioning, a bad habit or because I actually prefer it, but I think I do prefer training low rest, aerobic sets. I say this because, when I jump in the water without a workout planned, those are the sets that I'm "attracted" to. I will say, though, that I've really begun to enjoy higher rest, all out sets that are sprint-focused. They're harder in a much different way and provide great variety. I think I'd get bored if I wasn't mixing in those sets these days.
I'm one of those mostly non-competitive swimmers. What competing I've done the past few years has mostly been postal swims. (There is also GTD.) The team I currently swim with has 75-minute workouts, of which I can generally make two, maybe three, per week. I can make it to a one-hour lap swim on Saturday as well. From my perspective, most of the practices seem more "sprinty" to me than I would like. My shoulder definitely doesn't like sprinting. I lost my paddles a couple years ago and don't plan to ever buy another pair.
Hopefully, my next events will be the 5k & 10k postal swims. It's rare when any set at practice includes an individual element of more than 150-200 yards. During lap swim Saturday, my "main set" was 3x500, done mostly to test my shoulder. I quoted "main set" because my total distance was a whopping 2700 yards.
I can understand that sprinters will want higher intensity and more rest than the typical club practice provides, but there are those of us who sit on the other side and wish for somewhat more distance-focused workouts.
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Jazz touches on another thing that's frustrating. Sometimes I see sets written where it's as if just writing "sprint" somewhere in there is going to make it a quality set. Sorry, but "10x100 @ 1:15 sprint" isn't a quality set. I can either make the 1:15 or I can sprint. I can't do both.
I think the question would be better phrased, "Are masters swimmers training incorrectly?"
Training should be very individualized, based on what the swimmer wants to do. As ~80% of masters swimmers don't do meets, the team needs to take what works best for the majority. Nearly every team I've trained with has had different options for every workout. With the Mesa team, there are typically 3-4 coached options one can select from. Of course one could also opt for an empty lane and swim solo.
I'm curious how many masters swimmers train for and compete only in 50s. Personally, I see 50s mostly as filler to pass time between other events, when I focus more on 200 or above. As someone who may do 2 meets a year, I just don't see the need to focus so much on 50s.
Nearly every team I've trained with has had different options for every workout. With the Mesa team, there are typically 3-4 coached options one can select from. Of course one could also opt for an empty lane and swim solo.
Consider yourself very lucky, then. This is not typical in my experience--and the idea of an open lane is a mere pipe dream for most.
I think Leslie's WRs can be attributed to many things, including: dedication and discipline. That being said I did wonder the same thing, "What is Leslie doing that the rest of us aren't?"
The answer is: a lot. She has figured out what it takes for her to swim fast. She is dedicated and disciplined and she has clear cut goals that she wants to achieve. Plus, she obviously has those fast twitch fibers! For masters, the dedication part can be hindered for any number of reasons, not least of all, time and family commitments.
So, really thinking about the question: I don't think that most masters teams are doing anything wrong. I, for one, have numerous friends that are WR holders, and they are on teams. I just think that credit needs to be given where credit is due (in this instance to Leslie).
Swimming with a masters team does not guarantee success or "failure", and neither does swimming by yourself. :2cents:
