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 --
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Former Member
- don't assume great swimmers do everything correctly. Just because Phelps swims a loping Free stroke, that does not mean it is correct. Just because Ian Thorpe has his head a little higher, that does mean it's the way to swim. Nobody has the perfect stroke and everybody is looking to improve.
Ya, I completely agree with this! Everyone has idiosyncrasies in their stroke, and sometimes it's better to accept these minor variances and make the most of your strengths. We can analyze what Person A-Z does, but what we really need to do is find the fastest flow-state for each particular persons inherent range of motion.
- don't assume great swimmers do everything correctly. Just because Phelps swims a loping Free stroke, that does not mean it is correct. Just because Ian Thorpe has his head a little higher, that does mean it's the way to swim. Nobody has the perfect stroke and everybody is looking to improve.
Ya, I completely agree with this! Everyone has idiosyncrasies in their stroke, and sometimes it's better to accept these minor variances and make the most of your strengths. We can analyze what Person A-Z does, but what we really need to do is find the fastest flow-state for each particular persons inherent range of motion.
