I wanted to share something with you that I learnt from my time at the South Australian Institute of Sport. There I learned a number of drills which focused on one hugely important part of freestyle. I have brought this information back with me, to coach here in the UK...
Inertial freestyle as used by the great Murray Rose and Ian Thorpe is the single most obvious difference between the great contemporary Australian freestylers and today’s top British swimmers. The inertial freestyle concept can be observed in the arm recovery of freestyle, backstroke and butterfly, which reflects the terminal phase of the propulsive action.
This inertial action requires the use of the swimmers prime mover muscle groups. In the recocery phase the rime movers are: The adductor, extensor and the medial rotator muscles of the shoulder joint which cause the swimmers hand velocity to increase during the latter stages of the propulsive action. This increse of velocity is not only propulsive, but it can be utilsed to improve the efficiency of the reccovery phase.
The momentum created by the weight and velocity of the swimmers arm, and the change in direction upwards will cause the swimmers upper arm and elbow to exit the water first and permit the arm unit 9including the hand) to swng out of the water with a minimum of muscular effort. The swimmers arm/hand unit will tend to "fly off" at a tangent due to the effect of centrifugal force. This centrilfugal force can then be redirected, causing the swimmers arm/hand unit to swing over to the entry position again, with a minimum of expended energy.
watch the video of Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband in the 200m freestyle Olymipic final they can be both seen to utilise this principle as they recover their arms.
The "high" elbow recovery in freestyle swimming is caused by the abduction of the swimmers shoulder joint and flexion of the elbow joint which is coordinated inertially with the rotation of the swimmers core around the longigtudinal axis, during waht is known as the Inertial round-off and release.
It is worth noting here, as I have mentioned the rotaation word, the latest thinking on body rotation in freestyle swimming:
To create torque in a long axis stroke (freestyle or backstroke), a swimmer must have a semi-fixed point from which to work. The rotation of the swimmers lower extremities of their torso, hips and legs against their relatively stable shoulder girdle and upper torso allows the swimmer to create power, or torque, in the stroke.
If the entire body rotates along the central axis, little or no torque/power occurs, and a great deal of the strength and force of the long axis strokes is dissipated. Rotation and the concomitant torque generated in all power movements in sport occur against a fixed or semi-fixed fulcrum. That is why golfers and baseball players use spikes to completely stabilize their feet so that great momentum can be generated in their swing. If their feet slip during the swing, it greatly diminishes their ability to hit the ball with any real power.
A similar principle occurs in swimming. However, the swimmers semi-fixed body part for the generation of power, or torque, in the stroke is the stable shoulder girdle. If the swimmer drops their shoulder and rolls to swim on their side, the power is lost.
Charles Silvia described the great Murray Rose's stroke as possessing four distinct parts that together formed a stroke that was humanly mechanically superior and is utilised in Australian swimming today...
The 'Big Four,' as coach Silvia named it, are:
• Inertial shoulder girdle elevation and upward scapular rotation
• Shoulder joint medial rotation and elbow flexion
• Shoulder joint adduction and downward scapular motion
• Inertial round-off and release (partial supination and shoulder joint lateral rotation)
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Thursday, 30 December 2010
What is your four minute mile?
One of the greatest discoveries of human potential is that as new realities are demonstrated, new capacities come into being. How many of you remember Roger Bannister?
He was an Oxford medical student who was the first person to run the mile in under four minutes. He broke the "four-minute barrier."
Until that time, it was believed that no human could break that barrier. No such reality was ever demonstrated.
Now the most fascinating part of the story is that within 46 days of Bannister's breakthrough, John Landing broke the four-minute mile. And now, at this time, literally thousands of runners have broken the four-minute barrier. So we see that as new realities are demonstrated, new capacities come into being.
The challenge for us as swimmers and coaches is to open ourselves to the "new realities" that have been demonstrated through recent advances in how our ideas, beliefs and feelings - can dramatically improve our performance in the pool.
The fundamental principle at play is that "ideas have consequences" Ideas, especially about what is possible, can radically improve our performance or diminish it.
By altering the thoughts we think, addressing our unresolved feelings and choosing empowering beliefs, we can begin to develop "new capacities" for faster swimming or swimming at higher velocities.
So, what is your four minute mile? Are you living the life of an acorn or the mighty oak that lies within you? What seeds of greatness lie untapped within you?
If you were to follow your deep inner yearning towards your own swimming development, where would it lead you? How would your swimming performances be different than they are now? What will it take to start moving towards your own swimming potential?
Why not begin now?
He was an Oxford medical student who was the first person to run the mile in under four minutes. He broke the "four-minute barrier."
Until that time, it was believed that no human could break that barrier. No such reality was ever demonstrated.
Now the most fascinating part of the story is that within 46 days of Bannister's breakthrough, John Landing broke the four-minute mile. And now, at this time, literally thousands of runners have broken the four-minute barrier. So we see that as new realities are demonstrated, new capacities come into being.
The challenge for us as swimmers and coaches is to open ourselves to the "new realities" that have been demonstrated through recent advances in how our ideas, beliefs and feelings - can dramatically improve our performance in the pool.
The fundamental principle at play is that "ideas have consequences" Ideas, especially about what is possible, can radically improve our performance or diminish it.
By altering the thoughts we think, addressing our unresolved feelings and choosing empowering beliefs, we can begin to develop "new capacities" for faster swimming or swimming at higher velocities.
So, what is your four minute mile? Are you living the life of an acorn or the mighty oak that lies within you? What seeds of greatness lie untapped within you?
If you were to follow your deep inner yearning towards your own swimming development, where would it lead you? How would your swimming performances be different than they are now? What will it take to start moving towards your own swimming potential?
Why not begin now?
Alternative training for the 800m and 1500m events
While developing the High Velocity Swimming Technique blog, my research led me to the noted sports scientist Per-Olf Astrand and his work with 5,000 and 10,000m runners.I have converted his reasearch for swimming.
A synopsis is presented below :
Per-Olof Astrand stated that short interval training of 10 seconds with 20 seconds rest raises an athlete’s aerobic capacity within the muscle much more effectively than working with longer intervals, such as for exercising for 1 minute and resting for 2 minutes.
This would be only expected if the short exercise period was executed more aerobically than do longer intervals? Surprisingly, this is so. Because of the presence within the working muscle of myoglobin, an oxygen-binding protein which provides a small but important store of oxygen, only a proportion of the oxygen required during the short exercise period can be delivered by the circulatory system, leaving a deficit which must be restored by anaerobic metabolism, and the latter does not train the aerobic system.
Myoglobin in this instance is providing extra oxygen to meet this deficit so that the aerobic system can be used to its OPTIMUM capacity and therefore effectively trained which must be restored by the anaerobic capacity and thereby effectively trained.
However, this is not the ‘trick’ that Astrand revealed. Working at a percentage of an athlete’s maximum during a stipulated distance was a stroke of masterly observation .
To utilise Astarnd's formula it will be necessary for the swimmer to swim flat out for 3 minutes from a push start, covering as much distance as they possible can within that time frame.
Let us imagine that we have a swimmer who has covered exactly 200m in the 3 minute time frame. That distance must be noted as that will be utilised for one month, no matter how long or short that distance may be, because it will be constantly used at different percentages of time.
The first training session involves the swimmer swimming at 80%. That is 80% of3:00.0minutes (180sec) which is a 200m swum in 3:16.0 seconds (216 seconds).This swim is repeated as many times as possible during the session with only 30seconds recovery after each swim, until the distance cannot be swum in the prescribed time, These swims are at about 75% of the swimmers VO2max.
The second pool session, involves the swimmer swimming the noted distance at 90% of 3:00.0 minutes which is 3:18.0 seconds, with 1 minutes recovery in-between each repeat. Again, repeated until the swimmer cannot cover the distance in the stated time. These swims are about 95% of the swimmers VO2max.
The third session involves swimming at 85% of 3:00.0 minutes which is 3:27.0 seconds, with 45seconds recovery in-between each repeat.
We are now in a position to draw up a complete training plan based upon Astrands recommendations.
* Please note that these are main set swims *
Session 1#
Swim sets at 80% of 3:00.0 with 30 seconds rest.
Session 2#
Swim 10 second intervals with 20 seconds rest, attempt to cover more the 12.5m each swim.
Session 3#
Swim sets at 90% of 3:00.0 minutes with 1 minutes rest.
Session 4#
Swim 10 seconds intervals with 20 seconds rest, attempt to cover more than 12.5m each swim.
Session 5#
Swim sets at 85% of 3:00.0 minutes with 45 seconds rest.
After one month of utilising Astrands weekly cycle, it will become necessary to perform the 3:00.0 test swim again to determine whether there has been a major improvement and also to amend the training programme.
A synopsis is presented below :
Per-Olof Astrand stated that short interval training of 10 seconds with 20 seconds rest raises an athlete’s aerobic capacity within the muscle much more effectively than working with longer intervals, such as for exercising for 1 minute and resting for 2 minutes.
This would be only expected if the short exercise period was executed more aerobically than do longer intervals? Surprisingly, this is so. Because of the presence within the working muscle of myoglobin, an oxygen-binding protein which provides a small but important store of oxygen, only a proportion of the oxygen required during the short exercise period can be delivered by the circulatory system, leaving a deficit which must be restored by anaerobic metabolism, and the latter does not train the aerobic system.
Myoglobin in this instance is providing extra oxygen to meet this deficit so that the aerobic system can be used to its OPTIMUM capacity and therefore effectively trained which must be restored by the anaerobic capacity and thereby effectively trained.
However, this is not the ‘trick’ that Astrand revealed. Working at a percentage of an athlete’s maximum during a stipulated distance was a stroke of masterly observation .
To utilise Astarnd's formula it will be necessary for the swimmer to swim flat out for 3 minutes from a push start, covering as much distance as they possible can within that time frame.
Let us imagine that we have a swimmer who has covered exactly 200m in the 3 minute time frame. That distance must be noted as that will be utilised for one month, no matter how long or short that distance may be, because it will be constantly used at different percentages of time.
The first training session involves the swimmer swimming at 80%. That is 80% of3:00.0minutes (180sec) which is a 200m swum in 3:16.0 seconds (216 seconds).This swim is repeated as many times as possible during the session with only 30seconds recovery after each swim, until the distance cannot be swum in the prescribed time, These swims are at about 75% of the swimmers VO2max.
The second pool session, involves the swimmer swimming the noted distance at 90% of 3:00.0 minutes which is 3:18.0 seconds, with 1 minutes recovery in-between each repeat. Again, repeated until the swimmer cannot cover the distance in the stated time. These swims are about 95% of the swimmers VO2max.
The third session involves swimming at 85% of 3:00.0 minutes which is 3:27.0 seconds, with 45seconds recovery in-between each repeat.
We are now in a position to draw up a complete training plan based upon Astrands recommendations.
* Please note that these are main set swims *
Session 1#
Swim sets at 80% of 3:00.0 with 30 seconds rest.
Session 2#
Swim 10 second intervals with 20 seconds rest, attempt to cover more the 12.5m each swim.
Session 3#
Swim sets at 90% of 3:00.0 minutes with 1 minutes rest.
Session 4#
Swim 10 seconds intervals with 20 seconds rest, attempt to cover more than 12.5m each swim.
Session 5#
Swim sets at 85% of 3:00.0 minutes with 45 seconds rest.
After one month of utilising Astrands weekly cycle, it will become necessary to perform the 3:00.0 test swim again to determine whether there has been a major improvement and also to amend the training programme.
Balance....
“A swimmer cannot improve their efficiency or velocity without first forming a relationship with the water”
Establishing your Balance:
The human being is shaped into a land-based animal through basic design and a lifetime of exposure to the land environment. As a swimmer, you need to recognise that the aquatic environment is very different and much more complex than your familiar home on land.
You will also need to understand that the land developed body structures, reflexes, and instincts very much limit your full potential when they are applied to the art of control and movement in the water.
Your skin is stretched around your skeleton, and this skeleton can be divided into two distinct parts:
• Your Axiel skeleton
• Your Appendicular skeleton
The axial skeleton includes the bones in the center of the body, namely the spine, rib cage, and pelvis. The appendicular skeleton includes the bones that support the extremities.
Improving your performance through the water will mean keeping the resistance you create as low as is humanly possible. You can reduce resistance or water drag by establishing correct posture and good balance in the water.
The traditional paradigm of increasing performance levels through increasing the amount of power you can produce has second priority to reducing drag. Bill Boomer, the best technique-coach in the world, explained to me, why and how you can achieve this.
Your Problem:
During you training session things are going smoothly, then you start to realise that your legs are too low in the water and are creating a lot of drag. You feel the force of this tremendous resistance and your immediate reaction is to kick even harder to get your legs up towards the surface, where you know they should be.
At first your legs do ride higher, but the energy costs are also high. Before long, your legs begin to tighten up, your heart rate soars, and your lower body is lower than ever!
Your Short Term Solution:
So, what do you do? You grab a pull buoy or put on a pair of fins and then continue your workout. Congratulations, you've successfully treated the symptom. Now let's do something about the root cause.
The Facts:
You are a land-based animal by nature and design, and whenever you enter the water, you are not just a traveler to a new land; you are a visitor inside a new world. A world that is approximately One thousand times denser than air you breathe.
Water will create an environment where all your forward motion will encounter considerable resistance. Buoyancy will try to push your chest up towards the surface, as gravity tries to pull your legs down towards the bottom of the pool, and the resulting torque force twists you towards a vertical position. If this torque effect is allowed to continue you will assume a position known as a ‘Dead Mans Float’.
Buoyancy and Weight:
These are opposing forces that act upon the whole of your body, through a single point. If these forces act through points that are close together then your body will be able to achieve a stable horizontal base position in the water. If these opposing forces act through points that are apart, a Torque or Rotation away from your stable horizontal base will be created, as described above.
Your weight is the force that is exerted by gravity (a downward force) and this force acts through your Center of Gravity or COG.
Buoyancy provides an upward force on the object.
According to Newton's first law of Motion, if the upward forces (including your buoyancy) balance the downward forces (including your weight) the object will either remain at rest or remain in motion at a constant rate. Otherwise, it will accelerate upwards or downwards.
Buoyancy is the force that is equal to the weight of water that is displaced (an upward force) and acts through your Center of Buoyancy or COB, which is located in your chest area, and therefore closer to your head than your COG.
The relevant magnitude of these two opposing forces, and the relevant position of your COG and COB will be the determining factors in enabling you to achieve a very stable horizontal base, from which you can direct your swimming from.
As you have grown and matured, a very natural change in the size and the composition of the tissue in your body has taken place. An increase in your bone mass and muscle mass has made you denser or heavier in the water.
At the same time an increase in your lung volume and body fat has made you less dense or lighter in the water.
Your swimming technique will have become influenced by the relative balance of these forces as your body has matured.
These changes have resulted in a number of trade offs, that manifest themselves in your ability to produce a propulsive force against a large increase of resistance you will encounter, due to the change in the structure of your body as it moved through the water.
The platform upon which you must apply force (the water) is far less stable than the ground you are used to pushing against when you run or walk. Further more because of your land based posture it is not intuitively obvious to you how to maneuver in a fluid.
Boomer’s Universal Law of Rotation:
States that: "On land you will rotate towards your platform of stability, in water you will rotate away from your platform of stability, when you lose your balance.”
You will need to achieve a dynamic balance that allows you to move forward efficiently through the water, yet you have few instincts or behavior patterns on which you can rely. Rather, you must first learn to find your balance. If you don't, a large percentage of the energy you will impart to the water will tend to increase your own instability rather than propel you forward.
So, how can you achieve this dynamic balance of opposite forces? Bill Boomer’s answer is to think of your body a First Class long lever.
Why a First Class Long Lever?
This lever can be considered a balancing tool that is experience driven; as you develop you learn the basic principles of balance via learning how to stand. The more you ‘played’ as a child the more this lever became involved. Once you achieved your aim of learning how to balance, this lever became very efficient in the use of energy. The fulcrum for this type of lever is located between the force and the resistance.
There are two other types of lever that you as a human being use they are the Second Class lever and the third class lever.
The second class lever is utilized to gain force. Its fulcrum is located at one end, force at the opposite end, and the resistance can be anywhere in-between the fulcrum and the force, but usually close to the fulcrum. This lever is associated with your emotional response via your ‘Fight-Flight’ mechanism and is extremely inefficient in its use of energy and is extremity focused. This lever is utilised by 99.9% of all swimmers. In the scenario above the swimmers legs started to sink, so the swimmer went to their legs for support, now that is a very good example of second class levers in action!
The third class lever is used to gain speed. It has its fulcrum located at one end, resistance at the opposite end and with the force (your body) relatively close to the fulcrum. You make use of this lever every time you recover your arm when swimming front-crawl. This lever has high quickness coupled with a low force output.
Achieving Balance:
To achieve balance in the water you will have to move your center of gravity forward along the your established line, towards your center of balance, and the closer you can get these two opposing forces of nature to each other the less torque rotation will be acting upon your body.
To really counter these forces you will have to extend your arms forward and point your toes away from you.
By gently ‘Loading’ your line (gently shrug your shoulders) you will increase your downward pressure on your center of buoyancy.
It is from this balanced position that you will create your stable platform from which you can direct your arms and it is also from this position you can establish your rhythm line that will direct your stroke from your hips.
This is a crucial condition for having the ability to increase your velocity through the water.
Establishing your Balance:
The human being is shaped into a land-based animal through basic design and a lifetime of exposure to the land environment. As a swimmer, you need to recognise that the aquatic environment is very different and much more complex than your familiar home on land.
You will also need to understand that the land developed body structures, reflexes, and instincts very much limit your full potential when they are applied to the art of control and movement in the water.
Your skin is stretched around your skeleton, and this skeleton can be divided into two distinct parts:
• Your Axiel skeleton
• Your Appendicular skeleton
The axial skeleton includes the bones in the center of the body, namely the spine, rib cage, and pelvis. The appendicular skeleton includes the bones that support the extremities.
Improving your performance through the water will mean keeping the resistance you create as low as is humanly possible. You can reduce resistance or water drag by establishing correct posture and good balance in the water.
The traditional paradigm of increasing performance levels through increasing the amount of power you can produce has second priority to reducing drag. Bill Boomer, the best technique-coach in the world, explained to me, why and how you can achieve this.
Your Problem:
During you training session things are going smoothly, then you start to realise that your legs are too low in the water and are creating a lot of drag. You feel the force of this tremendous resistance and your immediate reaction is to kick even harder to get your legs up towards the surface, where you know they should be.
At first your legs do ride higher, but the energy costs are also high. Before long, your legs begin to tighten up, your heart rate soars, and your lower body is lower than ever!
Your Short Term Solution:
So, what do you do? You grab a pull buoy or put on a pair of fins and then continue your workout. Congratulations, you've successfully treated the symptom. Now let's do something about the root cause.
The Facts:
You are a land-based animal by nature and design, and whenever you enter the water, you are not just a traveler to a new land; you are a visitor inside a new world. A world that is approximately One thousand times denser than air you breathe.
Water will create an environment where all your forward motion will encounter considerable resistance. Buoyancy will try to push your chest up towards the surface, as gravity tries to pull your legs down towards the bottom of the pool, and the resulting torque force twists you towards a vertical position. If this torque effect is allowed to continue you will assume a position known as a ‘Dead Mans Float’.
Buoyancy and Weight:
These are opposing forces that act upon the whole of your body, through a single point. If these forces act through points that are close together then your body will be able to achieve a stable horizontal base position in the water. If these opposing forces act through points that are apart, a Torque or Rotation away from your stable horizontal base will be created, as described above.
Your weight is the force that is exerted by gravity (a downward force) and this force acts through your Center of Gravity or COG.
Buoyancy provides an upward force on the object.
According to Newton's first law of Motion, if the upward forces (including your buoyancy) balance the downward forces (including your weight) the object will either remain at rest or remain in motion at a constant rate. Otherwise, it will accelerate upwards or downwards.
Buoyancy is the force that is equal to the weight of water that is displaced (an upward force) and acts through your Center of Buoyancy or COB, which is located in your chest area, and therefore closer to your head than your COG.
The relevant magnitude of these two opposing forces, and the relevant position of your COG and COB will be the determining factors in enabling you to achieve a very stable horizontal base, from which you can direct your swimming from.
As you have grown and matured, a very natural change in the size and the composition of the tissue in your body has taken place. An increase in your bone mass and muscle mass has made you denser or heavier in the water.
At the same time an increase in your lung volume and body fat has made you less dense or lighter in the water.
Your swimming technique will have become influenced by the relative balance of these forces as your body has matured.
These changes have resulted in a number of trade offs, that manifest themselves in your ability to produce a propulsive force against a large increase of resistance you will encounter, due to the change in the structure of your body as it moved through the water.
The platform upon which you must apply force (the water) is far less stable than the ground you are used to pushing against when you run or walk. Further more because of your land based posture it is not intuitively obvious to you how to maneuver in a fluid.
Boomer’s Universal Law of Rotation:
States that: "On land you will rotate towards your platform of stability, in water you will rotate away from your platform of stability, when you lose your balance.”
You will need to achieve a dynamic balance that allows you to move forward efficiently through the water, yet you have few instincts or behavior patterns on which you can rely. Rather, you must first learn to find your balance. If you don't, a large percentage of the energy you will impart to the water will tend to increase your own instability rather than propel you forward.
So, how can you achieve this dynamic balance of opposite forces? Bill Boomer’s answer is to think of your body a First Class long lever.
Why a First Class Long Lever?
This lever can be considered a balancing tool that is experience driven; as you develop you learn the basic principles of balance via learning how to stand. The more you ‘played’ as a child the more this lever became involved. Once you achieved your aim of learning how to balance, this lever became very efficient in the use of energy. The fulcrum for this type of lever is located between the force and the resistance.
There are two other types of lever that you as a human being use they are the Second Class lever and the third class lever.
The second class lever is utilized to gain force. Its fulcrum is located at one end, force at the opposite end, and the resistance can be anywhere in-between the fulcrum and the force, but usually close to the fulcrum. This lever is associated with your emotional response via your ‘Fight-Flight’ mechanism and is extremely inefficient in its use of energy and is extremity focused. This lever is utilised by 99.9% of all swimmers. In the scenario above the swimmers legs started to sink, so the swimmer went to their legs for support, now that is a very good example of second class levers in action!
The third class lever is used to gain speed. It has its fulcrum located at one end, resistance at the opposite end and with the force (your body) relatively close to the fulcrum. You make use of this lever every time you recover your arm when swimming front-crawl. This lever has high quickness coupled with a low force output.
Achieving Balance:
To achieve balance in the water you will have to move your center of gravity forward along the your established line, towards your center of balance, and the closer you can get these two opposing forces of nature to each other the less torque rotation will be acting upon your body.
To really counter these forces you will have to extend your arms forward and point your toes away from you.
By gently ‘Loading’ your line (gently shrug your shoulders) you will increase your downward pressure on your center of buoyancy.
It is from this balanced position that you will create your stable platform from which you can direct your arms and it is also from this position you can establish your rhythm line that will direct your stroke from your hips.
This is a crucial condition for having the ability to increase your velocity through the water.
Swim Like a Human....
Over the span of a decade or so I have seen many articles, a few books, videos and a growth industry in clinics and individual tuition from various companies, that have been flooding the swimming and triathlon communities, promising to teach the secret to successful, fast swimming.
The information disseminated through the media of these articles, books, DVD’s and clinics sounds very impressive, as they encourage swimmers of all abilities to stop trying so hard during their swim sessions and ‘tune into’ swimming slippery.
But, that is not all, these articles etc go on to inform us that as coaches we are teaching/coaching, and training swimmers incorrectly. To this end the mantra we are subjected to enable our swimmers to swim fast, is that we must teach our swimmers to swim on their sides like a fish, and maintain a body position like a racing yacht.
These ideas are not based on biomechanical principles of propulsion, Physics or the analyses of world-class swimmers.
Since we are human and in no way assembled like fish, it is foolish to base any stroke technique or an entire training philosophy around these principles.
If you ever hear a Coach/instructor state that they "will have you swimming like fish" walk away,or better still tell them to go to the nearset Aquarium! No human can swim like a fish,not even close.
Check the speed that fish can attain I did and if I just pick one, say the Sailfish... now,that fish can reach velocities of up to 68 miles per hour.
That is quite quick even for a car. In comparison, a world-record freestyle swimmer limps along at barely five miles per hour.
A fish's bulging muscles are packed along its sides. That's where a fish gets most of its swimming power. Fish may be up to 80 percent muscle, and these muscles are different from swimmers muscles.
Next time you buy some fish for your dinner look at the fish meat before you cook it. Fish muscle look like sideways W's stacked inside each other. These W's are called Myomeres (my-oh-mears).
When a fish wants to move forward, it begins a side-to-side wiggle that starts at its front and moves to its back. As this wiggle goes backward,the fish goes forward. The wiggle starts when the myomeres behind the fish's head on one side pull themselves shorter, and then the myomeres on the other side pull themselves shorter.
This much like football fans at the World Cup performing the now famous Mexican wave, these muscle contractions progress from side to side toward the back of the fish,and end with the flip of the fish's tail.
Of course, all fish are better swimmers than people. That's to be expected since they were born in the water and get to practice swimming every day. But if you put a fish on dry land, you can outrun it every time!
It has also been stated, by the promoters of “fish like” swimming that, “the most hydro-dynamically position that your body can be in is lying on your side, one arm extended for length and balanced. Not so very different from the way fish do.”
This statement really does upset my equilibrium, because 99.9% of fish in the oceans of the world DO NOT SWIM ON THEIR SIDE.
Take a look a very close look at fish... and you will become aware of a large fin sticking up toward the surface of the water. This fin is called the dorsal fin, and in my dictionary dorsal means back or upper surface. The dorsal fin is on the fish’s back, which means the back is up, and the front is down toward the bottom of the sea. In other words……. fish swim on their stomach not on their side.
The truth of the matter is that the concept of swimming like a fish lacks a whole lot of creditability. It is like seeing an advert in a magazine or a book that states you can perform gymnastics like an orangatang!
Can you imagine the break through this type of discovery would mean to the world of gymnastics?
Here are just a few of problems with the concept of fish like swimming…
• When swimming freestyle holding your body on it’s side will not increase or decrease the amount of drag or resistance than what is created when holding the body in a prone position. (On the Stomach) Why? Because buoyancy, lift forces from the water remain the same no matter what the position of the body.
• It is virtually impossible to generate propulsive forces from a long side stretched position. The muscles of the upper body cannot achieve efficient position to execute an effective freestyle pull, if the body is rotated perpendicular with the bottom of the pool.
• When a swimmer maintains this long stretched position as has been suggested, they will experience a drop in velocity followed by an increase in velocity. When a swimmer decreases their velocity and the suddenly increases it also known as negative acceleration and positive acceleration they must over come inertia. Newton’s first Law implies that far more energy is required to overcome inertia than is required to maintain inertia. Therefore the swimmer is wasting valuable energy repeatedly overcoming inertia.
• Maintaining a streamlined position is not more important than maintaining balance. If a swimmers streamlining is improved and no change occurs to their balance in the water, the swimmer will get not faster. If a swimmers balance iis improved and no change is made in regards to their streamlining, the swimmer will get faster.
But, if both are improved the swimmer will see the greatest increase to their velocity through the water of all. To eliminate one at the expense of the other is a waste of time and effort and will not result in successful swimming.
Since humans are not fish, it does not make since to try and copy either in an effort to gain improved efficiency when swimming. This is not to say that a streamlined position is not desirable, it is.
Streamlining is very important but should not be emphasized at the expense of developing great balance in the water.
This is achieved via a series of unique swimming drills to develop a sense of floating or feeling “suspended” in the water creating a horizontal position, not vertical.
Balance is important because without it in the water there is no way to stay afloat unless the arms and legs are constantly moving to keep us from sinking to the bottom. The swim instructors of our youth gave us some poor information by telling us to “kick harder” or “move the arms faster”.
Once a swimmer is feeling more balanced the next step is to begin the process of streamlining and lengthening the bodyline. By rotating more on your side (no more than 60 degrees) to streamline and extending the arm to lengthen the body, drag is reduced in the water.
If you want to design a fast moving boat, engineers design a long, slick, narrow hull. The same is true for humans: create a long swimmer and you will have continuous force application.”
The best approach to improving swimming is to learn from what the very best are doing. Here are a few characteristics that the current great swimmers all have in common.
1. World Class swimmers have a maximum rotation of 60 degrees to the left and to the right. Not the “fish like” goal of 90 degrees to each side.
2. World Class swimmers do not leave their arm extended for a long period of Time. The length of time the upper arm is extended for is dependent on the duration between arm recovery and propulsion. Taller male and female swimmers all always demonstrate this stroke characteristic. Federica Pellegrini is a great example of this of stroke style.
3. The best swimmers are very good at streamlining and have effective propulsion.Swimming technique is not limited to any one aspect of the stroke. Swimming is a complicated sport where the athlete is suspended in fluid, and every action will create an opposite and equal reaction. (This is Newton’s third law. Just in case you were wondering.) Sometimes the reaction is positive, other times the reaction results in technique flaws and hampers performance.
Freestyle is a stroke that requires constant movement through a range of motion, no pauses should occur in any one position, especially if that pause detracts from or limits propulsive forces.
To recommend swimming on ones side (90 degrees) may reduce a small amount of resistance. I say may because most indications suggest that it is no different than swimming in a prone position.
However, the restriction and reduction of propulsive forces make it not worth the effort and in fact will harm performance. One thing is certain; none of the great freestyle swimmers swim 90 degrees on their side.
Fish do not swim 90 degrees on their side. And if you want to swim at high velocity, you probably should not swim on your side either
The information disseminated through the media of these articles, books, DVD’s and clinics sounds very impressive, as they encourage swimmers of all abilities to stop trying so hard during their swim sessions and ‘tune into’ swimming slippery.
But, that is not all, these articles etc go on to inform us that as coaches we are teaching/coaching, and training swimmers incorrectly. To this end the mantra we are subjected to enable our swimmers to swim fast, is that we must teach our swimmers to swim on their sides like a fish, and maintain a body position like a racing yacht.
These ideas are not based on biomechanical principles of propulsion, Physics or the analyses of world-class swimmers.
Since we are human and in no way assembled like fish, it is foolish to base any stroke technique or an entire training philosophy around these principles.
If you ever hear a Coach/instructor state that they "will have you swimming like fish" walk away,or better still tell them to go to the nearset Aquarium! No human can swim like a fish,not even close.
Check the speed that fish can attain I did and if I just pick one, say the Sailfish... now,that fish can reach velocities of up to 68 miles per hour.
That is quite quick even for a car. In comparison, a world-record freestyle swimmer limps along at barely five miles per hour.
A fish's bulging muscles are packed along its sides. That's where a fish gets most of its swimming power. Fish may be up to 80 percent muscle, and these muscles are different from swimmers muscles.
Next time you buy some fish for your dinner look at the fish meat before you cook it. Fish muscle look like sideways W's stacked inside each other. These W's are called Myomeres (my-oh-mears).
When a fish wants to move forward, it begins a side-to-side wiggle that starts at its front and moves to its back. As this wiggle goes backward,the fish goes forward. The wiggle starts when the myomeres behind the fish's head on one side pull themselves shorter, and then the myomeres on the other side pull themselves shorter.
This much like football fans at the World Cup performing the now famous Mexican wave, these muscle contractions progress from side to side toward the back of the fish,and end with the flip of the fish's tail.
Of course, all fish are better swimmers than people. That's to be expected since they were born in the water and get to practice swimming every day. But if you put a fish on dry land, you can outrun it every time!
It has also been stated, by the promoters of “fish like” swimming that, “the most hydro-dynamically position that your body can be in is lying on your side, one arm extended for length and balanced. Not so very different from the way fish do.”
This statement really does upset my equilibrium, because 99.9% of fish in the oceans of the world DO NOT SWIM ON THEIR SIDE.
Take a look a very close look at fish... and you will become aware of a large fin sticking up toward the surface of the water. This fin is called the dorsal fin, and in my dictionary dorsal means back or upper surface. The dorsal fin is on the fish’s back, which means the back is up, and the front is down toward the bottom of the sea. In other words……. fish swim on their stomach not on their side.
The truth of the matter is that the concept of swimming like a fish lacks a whole lot of creditability. It is like seeing an advert in a magazine or a book that states you can perform gymnastics like an orangatang!
Can you imagine the break through this type of discovery would mean to the world of gymnastics?
Here are just a few of problems with the concept of fish like swimming…
• When swimming freestyle holding your body on it’s side will not increase or decrease the amount of drag or resistance than what is created when holding the body in a prone position. (On the Stomach) Why? Because buoyancy, lift forces from the water remain the same no matter what the position of the body.
• It is virtually impossible to generate propulsive forces from a long side stretched position. The muscles of the upper body cannot achieve efficient position to execute an effective freestyle pull, if the body is rotated perpendicular with the bottom of the pool.
• When a swimmer maintains this long stretched position as has been suggested, they will experience a drop in velocity followed by an increase in velocity. When a swimmer decreases their velocity and the suddenly increases it also known as negative acceleration and positive acceleration they must over come inertia. Newton’s first Law implies that far more energy is required to overcome inertia than is required to maintain inertia. Therefore the swimmer is wasting valuable energy repeatedly overcoming inertia.
• Maintaining a streamlined position is not more important than maintaining balance. If a swimmers streamlining is improved and no change occurs to their balance in the water, the swimmer will get not faster. If a swimmers balance iis improved and no change is made in regards to their streamlining, the swimmer will get faster.
But, if both are improved the swimmer will see the greatest increase to their velocity through the water of all. To eliminate one at the expense of the other is a waste of time and effort and will not result in successful swimming.
Since humans are not fish, it does not make since to try and copy either in an effort to gain improved efficiency when swimming. This is not to say that a streamlined position is not desirable, it is.
Streamlining is very important but should not be emphasized at the expense of developing great balance in the water.
This is achieved via a series of unique swimming drills to develop a sense of floating or feeling “suspended” in the water creating a horizontal position, not vertical.
Balance is important because without it in the water there is no way to stay afloat unless the arms and legs are constantly moving to keep us from sinking to the bottom. The swim instructors of our youth gave us some poor information by telling us to “kick harder” or “move the arms faster”.
Once a swimmer is feeling more balanced the next step is to begin the process of streamlining and lengthening the bodyline. By rotating more on your side (no more than 60 degrees) to streamline and extending the arm to lengthen the body, drag is reduced in the water.
If you want to design a fast moving boat, engineers design a long, slick, narrow hull. The same is true for humans: create a long swimmer and you will have continuous force application.”
The best approach to improving swimming is to learn from what the very best are doing. Here are a few characteristics that the current great swimmers all have in common.
1. World Class swimmers have a maximum rotation of 60 degrees to the left and to the right. Not the “fish like” goal of 90 degrees to each side.
2. World Class swimmers do not leave their arm extended for a long period of Time. The length of time the upper arm is extended for is dependent on the duration between arm recovery and propulsion. Taller male and female swimmers all always demonstrate this stroke characteristic. Federica Pellegrini is a great example of this of stroke style.
3. The best swimmers are very good at streamlining and have effective propulsion.Swimming technique is not limited to any one aspect of the stroke. Swimming is a complicated sport where the athlete is suspended in fluid, and every action will create an opposite and equal reaction. (This is Newton’s third law. Just in case you were wondering.) Sometimes the reaction is positive, other times the reaction results in technique flaws and hampers performance.
Freestyle is a stroke that requires constant movement through a range of motion, no pauses should occur in any one position, especially if that pause detracts from or limits propulsive forces.
To recommend swimming on ones side (90 degrees) may reduce a small amount of resistance. I say may because most indications suggest that it is no different than swimming in a prone position.
However, the restriction and reduction of propulsive forces make it not worth the effort and in fact will harm performance. One thing is certain; none of the great freestyle swimmers swim 90 degrees on their side.
Fish do not swim 90 degrees on their side. And if you want to swim at high velocity, you probably should not swim on your side either
Training for the 200m-400m Events
It is extremely safe to state that the majority of UK swimmers and their coaches will focus upon the number of hours spent in the pool as the main ingredient of swimming success at the 200m/400m distances.
It will also be safe to state that distances of up to 6,000 meters per practice session are common in UK swimming circles. But, is this really the key to success, or is there an alternative approach that can produce faster times and improved performances?
I am suggesting that the traditional distance orientated model of training will not optimise performance, especially for the 200m-400m swimmers.
I say this in the light of research carried out on swim training, the scientific analysis of the demands of competitive swimming, and athletic track training methods that have been shown to optimise performance.
The research into the effects of distance based swim training on performance throws forth a new paradigm… that there is no advantage to just piling on the distance covered in training.
Legendary American sports physiologist Dave Costill has undertaken extensive research on swim training over the past thirty years. In one of his many studies, his team of sport scientists followed two groups of swimmers over a 25-week training period.
Both of these groups began with one session per day in the training pool, but one group moved to training twice a day for five weeks in weeks 10-15, reverting to once daily for the rest of the study period.
At no stage of the 25-week training period did this group show any enhanced performance or an increased aerobic capacity as the result of their extra training. Basically, it was a waste of time.
In another study, Costill tracked the performance of competitive swimmers over a four-year period, that tracked and compared a group of swimmers averaging 10,000m per day with a group that averaged only 5,000m per day to evaluate them in relation to changes in competitive performance time over 100, 200, 500 and 1600 yards.
The results showed Improvements in swim times were identical for both groups at around 0.8% per year for all events. Again, even though one group did double the amount of training, both groups benefited to the same extent in the long term. To quote Costill directly: "Most competitive swimming events last less than two minutes. How can training for 3-4 hours per day at speeds that are markedly slower than competitive pace prepare the swimmer for the maximal efforts of competition?"Research from France supports Costill’s conclusions. A team of sport scientists analysed the training and performance of competitive 100m and 200m swimmers over a 44-week period. Their findings were as follows:
• Swimmers trained at five specific intensities. These were swim speeds equivalent to 2, 4, 6 and a high 10 mmol/l blood lactate concentration pace and, finally, maximal sprint swimming
• Over the whole season the swimmers who made the biggest improvements were those who performed more of their training at higher paces. The volume of training had no influence on swim performance.
Feeling at ease is not the point:
The only conclusion that I can draw from this research is that faster velocities and not longer training is the key to swimming success. Nevertheless, the high-volume, low-intensity training model probably remains the most common practice among UK swimming coaches, with even sprint swimmers focusing on clocking up the aerobic kilometers rather than more race pace- specific training.
One of reasons for this high-volume bias as I understand it, is that it has become an unwritten law that has been handed down from coach to swimmers that swim technique, efficiency through the water and the ‘feel’ of the stroke are only truly optimized through covering large aerobic distances in the pool.
I have even heard Masters’ swimmers say they do not feel as comfortable in the water and confident about their technique unless they complete high doses of training.
As a coach I acknowledge that swim technique is extremely important. However, the idea that high-volume training equates to a far superior race technique has no logical or physiological basis especially in the 200m-400m events.
If UK swim coaches were ever to take charge of a 200m -400m runner and told them that the best way to improve their technique at maximum velocity would be to complete many miles a week at 10,000k pace, they would be laughed off the track!
Track coaches who train sprinters focus on workouts and technical drills that are performed at high intensities and they verdantly avoid the low intensity/high volume training because it inhibits power development.
The same rules that track coaches adhere to must be also true for swimming; if a swimmer wants to increase their stroke efficiency and technique during a competition, surely the best way to do this is to train at target race pace?
The more training time is spent at target race pace, the more comfortable it will feel in competition.
Dave Costill states that:
‘Large training volume prepares the athlete to tolerate a high volume of training but likely does little to benefit actual performance’.
When I hear UK coaches and their swimmers talking of ‘feeling comfortable’ in the water, I am convinced that they are referring to the sub-maximal speeds that they swim at in the training pool and not the maximal efforts required in competition.
Not only does volume training offer no benefit for swim performance over the 200m-400m distance, I believe it has negative effects on the swimmer.
Two known consequences of high-volume training are the depletion of the swimmers glycogen muscle stores and the fatigue of their fast twitch muscle fibers, both of which will reduce the effectiveness of high-intensity race pace training sessions and severely compromise any competitive performance.
Research has also shown that periods of volume training will greatly reduce the force production in the fast twitch muscle fibers, which are essential for attaining high velocities.
High-volume training will do nothing for these fibers: indeed it will dampen their production of force by reducing the velocity at which the muscle can shorten and contract.
.
The Metabolic Demands of swimming 200m-400m
The 200m and 400m swim events place a greater demand on the swimmers anaerobic system resulting in lactic acid as a by-product.
The highly anaerobic nature of these two events supports the argument for a greater focus on high-intensity and less high-volume training.
Swimming coaches get it wrong by assuming it is far better to do training that will reduce blood lactate concentrations. This philosophy is based on the idea that high lactate is bad and will have a negative impact on performance. (A statement I have heard time and time again)
This leads to the employment of training programmes that focus on ‘lactate threshold’ training to improve the turnover of the swimmers lactate and enhance the ability of the aerobic systems to produce more of the energy required for the event.
There are two problems with this training paradigm:
1. Swim coaches need to be careful about assuming high lactate levels are a bad thing. What they need to remember is that lactic acid is the by-product of the anaerobic breakdown of glycogen. Lactic acid splits into the H+ ion and the lactate ion. It is the acidic H+ ion that is the bad guy, interfering with force production in the muscles and reducing the rate of glycolysis, thus slowing the swimmer down. The lactate ion simply diffuses through the muscle and into the bloodstream, with no evidence to suggest it has any negative impact on muscle function or energy production. In fact, this lactate ion can be recycled in the energy production cycle and used positively to help produce energy. So a high level of lactate in the blood is not bad in itself: it simply is just an indicator that a lot of anaerobic energy production is occurring. The training adaptation that should be sought after is not a reduction in lactate production, but rather an increase in the buffering of the H+ ion. Training at high velocities and therefore generating high levels of lactic acid helps the swimmers body adapt to the increase in H+ in the muscles and improve its ability to buffer the acid;
2. Anaerobic glycolysis involves the fast breakdown of glycogen into energy-giving phosphates, while aerobic glycolysis involves a much slower breakdown. Without the anaerobic energy systems, maximal power and high velocities would be impossible, as the swimmers muscles would not get a fast enough supply of energy. If a swimmer wants high power they have to have high levels of anaerobic energy supply. For the 200m-400m distance, anaerobic capacity is the good guy and it needs to be developed. If an event places great demands on the swimmers anaerobic system, the swimmer needs to become more anaerobic!
This may seem odd and from the ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ to those of you with established traditional beliefs about training for these two events, but it is true. Through focusing on high-volume aerobic training to reduce lactate levels you are in fact compromising your anaerobic fitness, which is the most important attribute for competitive success in swimming 200m-400m events.
For swimmers who compete at these distances, lactate-threshold training which is geared to keeping their lactate levels low is, I would argue, totally irrelevant.
For the 200m-400m events, the accumulation of high levels of lactate does not matter: indeed it is probably a good thing as it reflects a good anaerobic capacity.
It will also be safe to state that distances of up to 6,000 meters per practice session are common in UK swimming circles. But, is this really the key to success, or is there an alternative approach that can produce faster times and improved performances?
I am suggesting that the traditional distance orientated model of training will not optimise performance, especially for the 200m-400m swimmers.
I say this in the light of research carried out on swim training, the scientific analysis of the demands of competitive swimming, and athletic track training methods that have been shown to optimise performance.
The research into the effects of distance based swim training on performance throws forth a new paradigm… that there is no advantage to just piling on the distance covered in training.
Legendary American sports physiologist Dave Costill has undertaken extensive research on swim training over the past thirty years. In one of his many studies, his team of sport scientists followed two groups of swimmers over a 25-week training period.
Both of these groups began with one session per day in the training pool, but one group moved to training twice a day for five weeks in weeks 10-15, reverting to once daily for the rest of the study period.
At no stage of the 25-week training period did this group show any enhanced performance or an increased aerobic capacity as the result of their extra training. Basically, it was a waste of time.
In another study, Costill tracked the performance of competitive swimmers over a four-year period, that tracked and compared a group of swimmers averaging 10,000m per day with a group that averaged only 5,000m per day to evaluate them in relation to changes in competitive performance time over 100, 200, 500 and 1600 yards.
The results showed Improvements in swim times were identical for both groups at around 0.8% per year for all events. Again, even though one group did double the amount of training, both groups benefited to the same extent in the long term. To quote Costill directly: "Most competitive swimming events last less than two minutes. How can training for 3-4 hours per day at speeds that are markedly slower than competitive pace prepare the swimmer for the maximal efforts of competition?"Research from France supports Costill’s conclusions. A team of sport scientists analysed the training and performance of competitive 100m and 200m swimmers over a 44-week period. Their findings were as follows:
• Swimmers trained at five specific intensities. These were swim speeds equivalent to 2, 4, 6 and a high 10 mmol/l blood lactate concentration pace and, finally, maximal sprint swimming
• Over the whole season the swimmers who made the biggest improvements were those who performed more of their training at higher paces. The volume of training had no influence on swim performance.
Feeling at ease is not the point:
The only conclusion that I can draw from this research is that faster velocities and not longer training is the key to swimming success. Nevertheless, the high-volume, low-intensity training model probably remains the most common practice among UK swimming coaches, with even sprint swimmers focusing on clocking up the aerobic kilometers rather than more race pace- specific training.
One of reasons for this high-volume bias as I understand it, is that it has become an unwritten law that has been handed down from coach to swimmers that swim technique, efficiency through the water and the ‘feel’ of the stroke are only truly optimized through covering large aerobic distances in the pool.
I have even heard Masters’ swimmers say they do not feel as comfortable in the water and confident about their technique unless they complete high doses of training.
As a coach I acknowledge that swim technique is extremely important. However, the idea that high-volume training equates to a far superior race technique has no logical or physiological basis especially in the 200m-400m events.
If UK swim coaches were ever to take charge of a 200m -400m runner and told them that the best way to improve their technique at maximum velocity would be to complete many miles a week at 10,000k pace, they would be laughed off the track!
Track coaches who train sprinters focus on workouts and technical drills that are performed at high intensities and they verdantly avoid the low intensity/high volume training because it inhibits power development.
The same rules that track coaches adhere to must be also true for swimming; if a swimmer wants to increase their stroke efficiency and technique during a competition, surely the best way to do this is to train at target race pace?
The more training time is spent at target race pace, the more comfortable it will feel in competition.
Dave Costill states that:
‘Large training volume prepares the athlete to tolerate a high volume of training but likely does little to benefit actual performance’.
When I hear UK coaches and their swimmers talking of ‘feeling comfortable’ in the water, I am convinced that they are referring to the sub-maximal speeds that they swim at in the training pool and not the maximal efforts required in competition.
Not only does volume training offer no benefit for swim performance over the 200m-400m distance, I believe it has negative effects on the swimmer.
Two known consequences of high-volume training are the depletion of the swimmers glycogen muscle stores and the fatigue of their fast twitch muscle fibers, both of which will reduce the effectiveness of high-intensity race pace training sessions and severely compromise any competitive performance.
Research has also shown that periods of volume training will greatly reduce the force production in the fast twitch muscle fibers, which are essential for attaining high velocities.
High-volume training will do nothing for these fibers: indeed it will dampen their production of force by reducing the velocity at which the muscle can shorten and contract.
.
The Metabolic Demands of swimming 200m-400m
The 200m and 400m swim events place a greater demand on the swimmers anaerobic system resulting in lactic acid as a by-product.
The highly anaerobic nature of these two events supports the argument for a greater focus on high-intensity and less high-volume training.
Swimming coaches get it wrong by assuming it is far better to do training that will reduce blood lactate concentrations. This philosophy is based on the idea that high lactate is bad and will have a negative impact on performance. (A statement I have heard time and time again)
This leads to the employment of training programmes that focus on ‘lactate threshold’ training to improve the turnover of the swimmers lactate and enhance the ability of the aerobic systems to produce more of the energy required for the event.
There are two problems with this training paradigm:
1. Swim coaches need to be careful about assuming high lactate levels are a bad thing. What they need to remember is that lactic acid is the by-product of the anaerobic breakdown of glycogen. Lactic acid splits into the H+ ion and the lactate ion. It is the acidic H+ ion that is the bad guy, interfering with force production in the muscles and reducing the rate of glycolysis, thus slowing the swimmer down. The lactate ion simply diffuses through the muscle and into the bloodstream, with no evidence to suggest it has any negative impact on muscle function or energy production. In fact, this lactate ion can be recycled in the energy production cycle and used positively to help produce energy. So a high level of lactate in the blood is not bad in itself: it simply is just an indicator that a lot of anaerobic energy production is occurring. The training adaptation that should be sought after is not a reduction in lactate production, but rather an increase in the buffering of the H+ ion. Training at high velocities and therefore generating high levels of lactic acid helps the swimmers body adapt to the increase in H+ in the muscles and improve its ability to buffer the acid;
2. Anaerobic glycolysis involves the fast breakdown of glycogen into energy-giving phosphates, while aerobic glycolysis involves a much slower breakdown. Without the anaerobic energy systems, maximal power and high velocities would be impossible, as the swimmers muscles would not get a fast enough supply of energy. If a swimmer wants high power they have to have high levels of anaerobic energy supply. For the 200m-400m distance, anaerobic capacity is the good guy and it needs to be developed. If an event places great demands on the swimmers anaerobic system, the swimmer needs to become more anaerobic!
This may seem odd and from the ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ to those of you with established traditional beliefs about training for these two events, but it is true. Through focusing on high-volume aerobic training to reduce lactate levels you are in fact compromising your anaerobic fitness, which is the most important attribute for competitive success in swimming 200m-400m events.
For swimmers who compete at these distances, lactate-threshold training which is geared to keeping their lactate levels low is, I would argue, totally irrelevant.
For the 200m-400m events, the accumulation of high levels of lactate does not matter: indeed it is probably a good thing as it reflects a good anaerobic capacity.
Swimming Super Set Training
Introduction
Super sets or super setting is a very familiar training technique among body builders and power sports athletes. Super sets, which are also known as compound sets, involve performing two or more different exercises without the use of recovery between the exercises.
When used during strength training, an example of super set would be performing a series of bench press repetitions followed by a series of incline bench press repetitions without any rest between the two exercises. This type of training is very efficient at building strength and muscle mass.
Most swimmers perform interval training that involves short to moderate length repeats at a fast pace followed by short recovery intervals. Interval training has been used for many years and is highly effective in building swimming fitness. But, swimming - super sets can provide you with even higher levels of fitness and race performance.
Swimming super sets are very similar to strength super sets. You perform two or more intervals at different paces without a rest period. These super sets for swimming are excellent workouts for improving your lactate turn point, vVO2 max, swimming economy and your ability to hold race pace when fatigued. There are three primary types of super sets for swimming:
• Drop sets
• Progressive sets
• Compound sets
Drop Super Swim Sets…
Drop super sets are the most commonly used type of super set for swimming. When doing drop sets you start with a short swim at nearly full race pace. You then drop your pace for each successive part of your super set.
An example of a drop set is a 4 x (25m + 50m +100m) super swim set. To perform this super set you would swim 25m at max effort. Then slow to 100m pace for the 50m before slowing again to 200m pace for the 100m.
You would not rest at all between the different paces, but would recover for 4 minutes between each super swim set. You will be generating a considerable amount of lactic acid during this super set.
Your body is forced to become more efficient at clearing that lactic acid and using it to produce energy.
Starting with a very fast pace also makes your 100m and 200m paces feel easier. You become a more efficient swimmer and you will be able to “float” or “glide” with a more relaxed technique at race pace.
Progressive Super Swim Sets…
A progressive super set is the direct opposite of the drop sets. With a progressive set you start your workout at below race pace. As your progress through the workout you gradually speed up to max out speed. This type of workout is great for training you to swim a race pace or faster when you are already fatigued.
This is similar to the pre exhaustion technique used by strength athletes. An example of a progressive set is 3 x (100m + 50m + 25m). You start the workout with 100 meters at 200m pace. You then increase your speed to 100m pace for 50m and finish with 25m at the fastest pace you can maintain.
This is a superb workout for developing your ability to bring your race home. You take no recovery between the different paces, but recover for 4 minutes between each super set.
Compound Super Swim Sets…
This type of workout is combination of drop sets and progressive sets. This type of swimming super set is an excellent way to practice race conditions. During a race you rarely swim at the same pace.
You will have bursts of speed when you are passing other competitors and at the end of the race with your finishing effort. You may drop your pace slightly in the middle of the race or after a strong surge for recovery.
The purpose of compound super setting is to duplicate those types of race conditions.
An example of a compound set is 3 x (25m +100 + 50m +25m). To perform this workout you start with 25 maxing out. You then slow to 200n pace for 100 meters before speeding up to 100mpace for 50m. Finish this super set with 200 meters at full pace. Take no recovery between the paces, but recover between each superset for 4 minutes.
There are two other types of compound super sets that are commonly used – peak sets and valley sets. Peak sets are compound sets in which you swim at progressively faster paces up to the peak and then back down with progressively slower paces.
For example: (100m + 50m + 25m + 50m + 100m) You would swim 100 meters at 200m pace, 50 meters at 100m pace, 25 meters at max effort and then back down with 50m at 100m pace and 100m at 200m pace.
A valley set goes in the opposite direction:
(25m + 50m + 100m + 50m + 25) Start with 25m max out, slow to 50m at 100m pace and 100 meters at 200m pace. Then back up with 50m at 100m pace and 25 meters maxing out.
As you progress through your training cycle you should gradually adjust your super sets so that they become more and more specific to your training target time.
Your volume should increase and your recovery time between super swim set should decrease.
Super sets or super setting is a very familiar training technique among body builders and power sports athletes. Super sets, which are also known as compound sets, involve performing two or more different exercises without the use of recovery between the exercises.
When used during strength training, an example of super set would be performing a series of bench press repetitions followed by a series of incline bench press repetitions without any rest between the two exercises. This type of training is very efficient at building strength and muscle mass.
Most swimmers perform interval training that involves short to moderate length repeats at a fast pace followed by short recovery intervals. Interval training has been used for many years and is highly effective in building swimming fitness. But, swimming - super sets can provide you with even higher levels of fitness and race performance.
Swimming super sets are very similar to strength super sets. You perform two or more intervals at different paces without a rest period. These super sets for swimming are excellent workouts for improving your lactate turn point, vVO2 max, swimming economy and your ability to hold race pace when fatigued. There are three primary types of super sets for swimming:
• Drop sets
• Progressive sets
• Compound sets
Drop Super Swim Sets…
Drop super sets are the most commonly used type of super set for swimming. When doing drop sets you start with a short swim at nearly full race pace. You then drop your pace for each successive part of your super set.
An example of a drop set is a 4 x (25m + 50m +100m) super swim set. To perform this super set you would swim 25m at max effort. Then slow to 100m pace for the 50m before slowing again to 200m pace for the 100m.
You would not rest at all between the different paces, but would recover for 4 minutes between each super swim set. You will be generating a considerable amount of lactic acid during this super set.
Your body is forced to become more efficient at clearing that lactic acid and using it to produce energy.
Starting with a very fast pace also makes your 100m and 200m paces feel easier. You become a more efficient swimmer and you will be able to “float” or “glide” with a more relaxed technique at race pace.
Progressive Super Swim Sets…
A progressive super set is the direct opposite of the drop sets. With a progressive set you start your workout at below race pace. As your progress through the workout you gradually speed up to max out speed. This type of workout is great for training you to swim a race pace or faster when you are already fatigued.
This is similar to the pre exhaustion technique used by strength athletes. An example of a progressive set is 3 x (100m + 50m + 25m). You start the workout with 100 meters at 200m pace. You then increase your speed to 100m pace for 50m and finish with 25m at the fastest pace you can maintain.
This is a superb workout for developing your ability to bring your race home. You take no recovery between the different paces, but recover for 4 minutes between each super set.
Compound Super Swim Sets…
This type of workout is combination of drop sets and progressive sets. This type of swimming super set is an excellent way to practice race conditions. During a race you rarely swim at the same pace.
You will have bursts of speed when you are passing other competitors and at the end of the race with your finishing effort. You may drop your pace slightly in the middle of the race or after a strong surge for recovery.
The purpose of compound super setting is to duplicate those types of race conditions.
An example of a compound set is 3 x (25m +100 + 50m +25m). To perform this workout you start with 25 maxing out. You then slow to 200n pace for 100 meters before speeding up to 100mpace for 50m. Finish this super set with 200 meters at full pace. Take no recovery between the paces, but recover between each superset for 4 minutes.
There are two other types of compound super sets that are commonly used – peak sets and valley sets. Peak sets are compound sets in which you swim at progressively faster paces up to the peak and then back down with progressively slower paces.
For example: (100m + 50m + 25m + 50m + 100m) You would swim 100 meters at 200m pace, 50 meters at 100m pace, 25 meters at max effort and then back down with 50m at 100m pace and 100m at 200m pace.
A valley set goes in the opposite direction:
(25m + 50m + 100m + 50m + 25) Start with 25m max out, slow to 50m at 100m pace and 100 meters at 200m pace. Then back up with 50m at 100m pace and 25 meters maxing out.
As you progress through your training cycle you should gradually adjust your super sets so that they become more and more specific to your training target time.
Your volume should increase and your recovery time between super swim set should decrease.
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