How about workouts for the 200 fly?

Fly is a kick dominiated stroke and most of Tom's work is focused around his goal of swimming 5K fly. Without analyzing his stroke directly, much of my comments on the article are based on the writers interpretation of Toms stroke. Overall, I feel that you need to focus your training on your goals, so your training should reflect what your goal is and what you are training for. When you focus your work, you would be amazed at what you can accomplish. Looking at Tom, he seems to be very fit (by looking at his pictures) and focuses his workouts on developing his core body strength (abdomen, gluts, lower back, psoas, thighs and hamstrings) If you have a strong kick, you will find fly easier to do. Every individual has strengths that they bring to their swimming, and I feel that Tom's strength lies with his development of his kick. I think something that Tom could work on would be his stroke efficiency. He states that he goes 10 strokes/25y. High stroke rates generally mean that the power generated is not being used efficiently and he is slipping in a part of his stroke. I would recommend that he work towards 8 strokes/ 25y (in a pool of course) as I generally recommend that a swimmer go 9-10 strokes/25m length. I feel that the analysis of the kick is correct and that most swimmers kick down hard and 'relax' on the upbeat. I feel that you need to set up a strong, steady kick and time your arms around your kick - not the other way. That said for the average masters swimmer, the reality is that they are not swimming 5K fly and have not developed the upperbody strength and flexiblity to be able the swim at that level. No matter how strong your kick is, if you have no flexiblity or strength between the shoulder blades, you will fatigue after 100 -150 metres or so. I feel a more rounded approach works for most swimmers. For myself and my masters swimmers fly training, I spend 1/3 of my time on kick(on back or with board), 1/3 on fly drills, and 1/3 on fly full stroke. I very rarely use pull bouys as I find that swimmers will very quickly focus on their arms and forget about their legs. My drills include: vertical kicking, dolphin dives. single arm (arm at side)on your side, side kicking, fins, swimming full stroke with fins, etc. When working on any drill it is important to know what areas of the stroke the drill is meant to work on. For example, the side arm drill is meant to focus on the timing of the arms around your kick. Time the hand entry with the downbeat of the kick and the second downbeat with the finishing of the stroke.

Fly is a kick dominiated stroke and most of Tom's work is focused around his goal of swimming 5K fly. Without analyzing his stroke directly, much of my comments on the article are based on the writers interpretation of Toms stroke. Overall, I feel that you need to focus your training on your goals, so your training should reflect what your goal is and what you are training for. When you focus your work, you would be amazed at what you can accomplish. Looking at Tom, he seems to be very fit (by looking at his pictures) and focuses his workouts on developing his core body strength (abdomen, gluts, lower back, psoas, thighs and hamstrings) If you have a strong kick, you will find fly easier to do. Every individual has strengths that they bring to their swimming, and I feel that Tom's strength lies with his development of his kick. I think something that Tom could work on would be his stroke efficiency. He states that he goes 10 strokes/25y. High stroke rates generally mean that the power generated is not being used efficiently and he is slipping in a part of his stroke. I would recommend that he work towards 8 strokes/ 25y (in a pool of course) as I generally recommend that a swimmer go 9-10 strokes/25m length. I feel that the analysis of the kick is correct and that most swimmers kick down hard and 'relax' on the upbeat. I feel that you need to set up a strong, steady kick and time your arms around your kick - not the other way. That said for the average masters swimmer, the reality is that they are not swimming 5K fly and have not developed the upperbody strength and flexiblity to be able the swim at that level. No matter how strong your kick is, if you have no flexiblity or strength between the shoulder blades, you will fatigue after 100 -150 metres or so. I feel a more rounded approach works for most swimmers. For myself and my masters swimmers fly training, I spend 1/3 of my time on kick(on back or with board), 1/3 on fly drills, and 1/3 on fly full stroke. I very rarely use pull bouys as I find that swimmers will very quickly focus on their arms and forget about their legs. My drills include: vertical kicking, dolphin dives. single arm (arm at side)on your side, side kicking, fins, swimming full stroke with fins, etc. When working on any drill it is important to know what areas of the stroke the drill is meant to work on. For example, the side arm drill is meant to focus on the timing of the arms around your kick. Time the hand entry with the downbeat of the kick and the second downbeat with the finishing of the stroke.