Cesar Cielo is fastest swimmer in the world -- 25 yards in 8.88 to the foot -- he was just trying to "maintain" on the second 25...
There are 3 ways to swim faster in any given race:
1) Improve your technique -- if you become more effecient in your technique, your times will drop across the board
2) Maintain a pace as close as possible to maximum speed -- You can hold your maximum speed for 6-8 seconds. There are no swim races of that length - so when training for any swimming race (50 up the mile), you are trying to maintain a pace as close to your maximum speed as possible.
3) Get Faster = improve your maximum speed
I would say on average, Masters swimmers (and age-groupers) spend their in the water workout season according to the following breakdown (rough guess):
1) Improving technique = 20-30%
2) Maintaining close to max = 65-79%
3) Improving Max Speed = 1-5%
Think about it -- if you swim 4-5 times per week, that equals about 20 hours a month. Did you spend more than a full hour in October on maximum speed ?
This Thread is all about Category 3 -- Improving your Max Speed --
Parents
Former Member
Never got to finisgh my mesh bag list - and NO - I am not getting it back. I only found my kick board and drag suit. Although the kickboard is important - got to have a fast board ....
Fins - I finally found good zoomers and I do use them now for 3 things: Fly kicks to get more power in my legs / core; Sprints = one of the ways to swim faster than race pace (also great for underwater feeling your best streamline position); occasionaly use them for longer aerobic sets to mix it up and swim clean (like 3 rounds of 3x150 > 1 without > one with PD > one with fins and paddles) -- but overall, I use them mostly for really fast stuff
PD - I have to pairs and I use them for sprints (got to be careful with this) - it really helps my power and turnover (once I take them off afterwards); PB and PD = I hardly use them in regular workouts - maybe in the beginning of the season when it's a very choppy workout
Tempo Trainer - as mentioned before, I use this for sprints; I am also planning on speeding up my SDK and think this could be good for footspeed.
Drag suit - use this to build up to using the parachute > sprints and faster stuff only.
Never got to finisgh my mesh bag list - and NO - I am not getting it back. I only found my kick board and drag suit. Although the kickboard is important - got to have a fast board ....
Fins - I finally found good zoomers and I do use them now for 3 things: Fly kicks to get more power in my legs / core; Sprints = one of the ways to swim faster than race pace (also great for underwater feeling your best streamline position); occasionaly use them for longer aerobic sets to mix it up and swim clean (like 3 rounds of 3x150 > 1 without > one with PD > one with fins and paddles) -- but overall, I use them mostly for really fast stuff
PD - I have to pairs and I use them for sprints (got to be careful with this) - it really helps my power and turnover (once I take them off afterwards); PB and PD = I hardly use them in regular workouts - maybe in the beginning of the season when it's a very choppy workout
Tempo Trainer - as mentioned before, I use this for sprints; I am also planning on speeding up my SDK and think this could be good for footspeed.
Drag suit - use this to build up to using the parachute > sprints and faster stuff only.
