Monday 21 December 2009

WHAT IS THE LINE IN SWIMMING?

The idea of swimming in a line treats your body as if it is a stable object. If one end is lifting up, the other is pushing down.

Your line extends from your toes to the top of your head. It is important to be flat on the top of the water. This contradicts the established paradigm of common swimming advice where your body used to be treated as a speed boat, the faster you moved the higher your front end became to split the water.

Swimming the line decreases the amount of frontal and rear drag. Lifting your head high out of the water may feel like you are riding higher out of the water but you are lowering the bottom half of your body.

This goes for all competitive strokes. One line will move through the water faster and easier than the several broken lines of our land based body.

YOU MUST LEARN TO MANIPULATE YOUR BODY TO MAKE IT A LINE!

At first it is a difficult thing to do. It requires practice. One practice drill is to line yourself against a wall. All of your back should be against the wall as you drive your hips/pelvis forward. Your aim is to remove the curve of your lower back.

Saturday 19 December 2009

DRY LAND TRAINING.....

Integrate dry land work into the water programme

Ask yourself the question your session you are performing making you tired or is it training you?

Aim of dry land work is to develop the best swimming athlete possible!

Effort does not equal intensity


Recognise the differences in Male & females in terms of framework.

Make Training accumulative. Quote “1 session does not make an athlete but 1 session could break a swimmer”


Train movements not muscles – aggregate muscle action. “Neurologically, the brain does not recognise individual muscles; it recognises patterns of movements”

Train linkage of muscles


“Train toe nails to finger nails” – the function of a muscle depends critically on the context in which it is activated.

Demands of the event and of the stroke lead to adaptations of the programme – look at what the muscle is doing in the water and then ensure land programme is similar movements.


Failure is ok – as long as this then becomes the new goal!


All components should be trained throughout the whole year.

Machines lead to 1 plane movements therefore want to use all plane movements

Use movements with Med balls, especially before swimming “Wake up to Core”

Serape Effect – diagonal rotation patterns, emphasis on rotation therefore need lighter balls (3kg max)


Use dumb bells instead of bars – allows for more individual muscles and groups to work independently.

Emphasis on catching, not always throwing


When using stretch cords look at doing backwards movements



Use hurdles – especially for breaststrokers

Use core work as warm up then can bring the warm up in the swim session down.


Plan for sessions – Functionally strong, fast, fit, get specific


Periodisation


Foundation Strength – Total body and multiple joints movements with external resistance and body weight.

Basic strength – Volume loading through push/pull/squat sequence work

Power endurance – High Intensity work 20-30sec with 1:1 rest in multiple sets – emphasis on total body work out

Strength Endurance – 30-60secs with recovery up to 1:1 or 1:1.5

Recycle (Taper) – emphasis on recycling all of the above through short periods to refresh those aspects needed.


Ask yourself the question : Is the session you are performing making you tired or is it training you?

STRENGTH VERSUS POWER....

There is no doubt that muscular power is the determining factor in the success of competition swimming. This is even more apparent in sprint swimming particularly the 50m event, which can be regarded as a maximum-effort power event. In this area, weight work will certainly be efficacious – but there are restrictions.

The requirement of the stroke itself creates a problem in an analogous strength-training program. Strength alone – and that appears to be the target of most weight training schedules – is not an important issue.

Power is the product of force and velocity and within this formula lays the success or failure of any gym program.

Demonstrations from researchers have found that it takes .5 to .8 of a second to apply maximum force during the stroke. Unfortunately, the most powerful section of a swimmer’s stroke only lasts for .3 to .4 of a second (Rasulbekov et al 1986), which means of course, that the swimmer cannot achieve maximum efficiency during the pull regardless of strength levels. There simply is insufficient time during the stroke to achieve maximum effort.

The power produced during muscular contractions is largely dependant on both force and velocity. Therefore, increasing the force factor alone may not improve the gain in power if the speed of the stroke is compromised in any way.

However, if Stroke Power could be increased by specific strengthening work, then more force could be applied earlier, and then carried through the whole stroke movement resulting in an increased swim velocity.

These principles need to be kept in mind when tailoring a weight program so that exercises are heavy enough to increase strength and fast enough in application to elicit a response in speed.

A further problem in improving power output is the water itself. Because of its mobile and fluid nature it can be difficult to design a resistance program relevant to the swimming strokes. Another complication is the very nature of the swimming strokes.

Because of the movement patterns peculiar to swimming, it can be difficult to copy those strokes in dry land exercises. Specificity is always the main aim in the design of such programs and care must be taken to assimilate as close as possible the movements, speed, contractions and stroke patterns.

All dry land and water-based exercises within the macro cycle of training that are designed to increase the swimmer’s speed should be focused on production of power regardless of their ergonomic structure. When that power is applied to the stroke efficiently the swimmer’s velocity will increase naturally.

Swimming power could be defined as the ability to combine an efficient stroke application of a maximum effort force with a stroke function velocity, sufficient to achieve an optimal swim speed.

Thursday 17 December 2009

SAM FREAS ON SPRINT TRAINING.........

Let's go to the sets. You have to swim fast every day if you're going to swim fast. How many people sprint the first day? God bless you. How many people sprint the second day? Same people. Why not? Every single day you have to be swimming fast if they're going to swim fast. We trash more people including myself during pre-season than I can possibly imagine.

The book goes into precise sets that we do. I'm going to give you my favorite sets. My first favorite set is what I call speed development, where we have blades on our hands, hands are straight out, we kick, and we keep really high feet.

I don't think we have too many good sprinters right now. There was a time when we had some people going 19.2, 19.3, and a whole bunch of guys in America swimming really fast. And why don't we have people swimming real fast right now? Why don't we have people swimming real fast right now... I love Dennis Pursley as a person, more than you can imagine.

He's a great father. He's everything that everybody should try to be. But taking short course out of the swimming equation in our country is wrong. You can develop speed better in a 15 yard pool, a 12 yard pool, than in a 50 meter pool.

I know we were swimming better in 1974, 1976, than we are now. Why? Because it was the height of... and it's not the only answer, but short course swimming develops speed. A 20 yard pool is really important. A 15 yard pool is really important.

So the drill: head out, full speed, and they have to max out. HAMMER DOWN. MAX OUT! Our whole society doesn't do that. We always hold back. Don't hold back. GO NUTS! And I wasn't afraid to jump up and down and scream and holler and go nuts, while all the other cool coaches were quiet.

A guy that I love, I'll never forget, called me a very dirty name at the Southeast Conference Championships, because I got too emotional. It's okay to get emotional, because we're dealing with the human spirit, it's an emotional thing. How many people when you see "Running Brave" don't feel something special when you see Billy Mills coming out of nowhere in the 10,000 meters. It's an emotional thing.

Hands out straight, feet up. Four of them, maxing out. With blades, head up, water polo stroke, full speed. MAXING OUT! Take the blades off. Head up. Four, no interval. Interval? You put an interval on something they can't max out. The key is learning how to max out.

You have to supervise that. The next thing you do is take your blades off and you either do it with fins and then you max out. And that used to set people pretty well.

Next thing: weight belts. All that weighted swimming is paramount. The one that used to make people blow lunch more than anybody else and would make every swimming coach proud that you had them do it, is that you would put a 10 lb weight on a swimmer, have them dive off the block, and have them descend 5 x 100's.

First length underwater with a 10 lb weight, freestyle with head up out of the water, butterfly with head up out of the water, and then no breath coming back with a 10 lb weight. Descend five of these. Guys: I was as close to getting beat up in that set than any swimming coach in the world. It's a very good one. Swimming underwater, 100's, 50's with the first length underwater maxing out.

The other thing is, don't breathe when you sprint. This longitudinal rotational thing that I've always been taught and you've been taught, it's wrong. Good-bye.

For 200 meters, 400 meters, distance swimming, if you don't longitudinally rotate, you're hurting. But the fastest way to theoretically swim is to try and square your shoulders and get them up out of the water as high as you can. I know I'm blowing your mind. Try it, you'll like it.

AXIOMS...THE FOLLOWING ARE WIDELY ACCEPTED TRUTHS...

I obtained these Axioms from my good friend and sprint coach Dr. Sam Freas...

Speed is lost in freestyle whenever the shoulder is placed into the water by longitudinal rotation.

Make sure you follow through with everything. When things are going well, be even more attentive to detail.

Elevating the pain threshold is extremely important in training a sprinter.

Do not create unnecessary scheduling conflicts in a sprinter's environment.

Do not expect a great championship season unless the preseason and season were properly planned and executed.

You can only control what you do, not others.

Always contact athletes who do not attend practice.

TEN ESSENTIALS OF SPRINTING BY SAM FREAS

1. Race every day in practice.

2. Swim at 100% speed all year long, not just during a taper.

3. Swim superfast all year long, not just during a taper.

4. Always work dryland to improve the components of fitness: strength,
cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, agility and flexibility.

5. Work on starts, turns and finishes almost every day in practice
(at least five workouts per week).

6. Practice swimming with no breath during a 50 and with only a few breath
during a 100. This gives better body position and better speed.

7. Execute a high kick with the heels nine to fifteen inches out of the water...
This a gives better body position.

8. Practice reaction drills every day.

9. Change the training if a loss of speed results due to the trashing of the
cardiovascular system or overtraining of the neuromuscular system.

10. Be happy, don't worry; get plenty of sleep and eat healthily.

Tuesday 15 December 2009

LEARN TO SWIM LIKE A HUMAN....NOT A FISH!

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... that fish can reach velocities of up to 68 miles per hour.
Now, 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.

Professor Bill Boomer states “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. However, we want to use the arms and legs to assist in moving forward, not prevent us from becoming a bottom feeder. 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 getting more on your side (no more than 45 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 current great swimmers all have in common.

1. World Class swimmers have a maximum rotation of 45 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 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 on their side.

Fish do no swim on their side. And if you want to swim at high velocity, you probably should not swim on your side either.

Monday 14 December 2009

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.

Saturday 12 December 2009

SWIMMING SUPER SETS

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.

Friday 11 December 2009

WHAT IS YOUR 4:00.0 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?

VELOCITY TRAINING FOR 800m - 1500m SWIMMERS

While developing the High Velocity Swimming 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.

Wednesday 9 December 2009

SWIM50....WHO ARE WE?

Swim50 aims to provide extensive and exceptional training for Masters, Elite and Age-Group swimmers who are tired of the yardage principle, who are slow to improve, whose event times are not really progressing as they should despite putting in the hours.

We are the first independent squad in the UK that empahsises teaching swimmers how to race above training,the Racing Squad was formed by a select group of coaches and elite athletes dedicated to the art of sprinting.

This enables us to focus solely on the mechanics and the correct training that lead to faster swim times.

Although we have an emphasis towards the 50m event we can very successfully improve your swim times over the 100m—400m distances.

We also hold High Velocity Camps in conjunction with legendary U.S sprint coach Sam Freas.

Competitive swimming is all about swimming fast, and speed, in conjunction with technique, forms the most precious element of a swimmer’s make-up. Coaches should, after all, be dedicated to one task: preparing swimmers to swim their event as fast as possible, but in our experience the vast majority of coaches do not, they just teach swimmers how to train!

High Velocity swimming is a skill, and as such needs to be taught!
Take this short 'quiz' - if you answer most of the questions affirmatively, you may want to join us and LEARN HOW TO RACE…

1) For your 'best events' are you only a little bit faster in swim meets than what you have done in practices? YES or NO

2) Do you do on a regular basis, as an example, swim 12 x 200's Free (or other combinations) and then think "one fast 200" in a swim meet should be easy - only to wonder why you 'really tightened up' the last 50-75 yards? YES or NO

3) Try as you may you can never 'take out' the race any faster, no matter how hard you try? YES or NO

4) For the 'Open Water' swimmers and Triathletes - do you find yourself wishing you had another "gear" you could shift to-in order to breakaway and/or move up to the pack ahead of you? YES or NO


SWIM50 RACING is an independent programme, we are not attached to any UK club and will welcome swimmers from the U.K or Europe.

For many years now, sprinters have been regarded as the bottom- dwellers of the swimming world, in particular the 50 meter sprint specialists. Often people within the swimming community regard these swimmers as a bit of a joke, not giving them the respect they have duly earned.

It takes a special type of person to be a sprinter: some people lack the motivation; others just cannot overcome the pain. Sprint swimming is without a doubt the toughest event in swimming.

The swim itself isn’t the toughest – just ask Grant Hackett or Kieran Perkins - but the training is.

U.K swimming needs to wake up to the race that everyone wants to see. Picture it: a sleek, speedy swimmer fired up before a 50m race, knowing they have absolutely nothing to lose, their end in sight and nothing in their way except 21 seconds (in the case of freestyle), of full-blown power . . . . Now that is very inspirational!


Think about this.

It has been 43 years since we had Bobby McGregor our last finalist in the 100m freestyle at any major swimming championship!

Sprinting in the U.K needs a revival. Sprinting gives you an edge over any race distance. It can be taught. It can be learnt. It must be experienced.

The shorter your race event is, the greater the demand on the anaerobic energy systems...This is particularly true of the 50m, 100m and 200m events, lasting from around 20 to 120 seconds.

The longer events, from 800m upwards, demand a larger contribution from the aerobic energy system.

Evidence for this comes from blood lactate concentrations following 50m 100m and 200m competition swims, which are a very high 16 to 20 mmol/L, pointing to the fact tangible that a great deal of energy is derived from the anaerobic breakdown of glycogen, resulting in lactic acid as a by-product.

The highly anaerobic nature of High Velocity swim events would support the argument for more high-intensity and less high volume training.

Some athletes and coaches go wrong by assuming it is best 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.



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200m - 400m SWIMMING EVENTS

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 high-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 high-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.
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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. For longer events, such as the 800m and 1500m, where the aerobic system is much more important, lactate-threshold training would be relevant, as these swimmers need to maintain intensity levels for much longer thus, relying on their aerobic energy system.

Friday 4 December 2009

D.A.R.E - HIGH VELOCITY SWIM TRAINING EXPLAINED


D.A.R.E Training for the 50m-100m Events

D.A.R.E is an anachronism for:

Defined
Anaerobic
Response
Enhancement
……..And, describes a unique method of developing speed in swimming without the drudgery of the traditional distance overload method used in the UK to train swimmers.

So, if you are a swimmer who is training hard, but slow to improve, despite putting in the hours and distance or a triathelete who wants to see their swim times rapidly improve you have come to the right place



Introduction:


Some individual Swimmers are born with the ability to perform repetitive actions at an unusually fast rate. This characteristic, when coupled with the technique of applying force in the most efficient manner, produces the "Quick 50m-100m" swimmer.
The following, concerns a factor that governs the maximization of all swimmers ability. Its contents have been known for more than 30 years but have largely been ignored by coaches.

Our Present Situation:

In the current sprint events of 50m-100m swimming a few features have become very evident. The performance of swimmers over these distances are highly variable which suggests to me that there is a lack of any defined, correct procedure for controlling the level of training for their 50m-100m sprint event in the UK.
There are a few individuals who cluster at the very top of the performance tree. This, in my view may be interpreted as indicating that the development of this talent is by chance rather than through the design of coaching. The training programmes of these so called sprint swimmers are extremely varied.


In UK swimming, there is a very big problem with the conditioning paradigm of the coaches and swimmers for these events. The problem is crucial, and I hope that if you are reading this, you may start to change the way you approach your training for the 50m-100m events.
Every workout that I have attended or seen written down throughout a swim season is very aerobic in its content, with very little thought given to the real speed work that is needed by the 50m-100m sprint specialists.

It is my view and the view of notable U.S swim coaches Dr. Sam Freas and Dr. David Salo that there is a historical belief that swimmers cannot handle a session that is speed orientated in its content, because it will place a too heavy a demand on the swimmers cardiovascular system.
Traditionally any speed work will command only a very minor proportion of the training session that is provided for the swimmer and is by tradition relegated to the end of the session.
In between, the remaining time is taken up by very inappropriate and what is more important… performance-sapping swim training. All too often I have observed that any sprinters that are within the training group are often combined into the same program and group as the middle and long-distance swimmers.


It has been known since 1998 Costill, 1998 and Trappe, that distance training will cause fatigue to the sprinter and suppresses the sprinters ability to sprint…. as it depletes their functional strength and power.

The most popular trend in the preparation of any sprint specialist is to utilise only a very limited form of interval training as "speed work." But, it never ceases to amaze me how UK coaches tend to fixate on 25m or 50 meters as "the distance" for stimulating their sprint swimmers.

Explanation:


Swimmers and more importantly swimming coaches tend to approach high quality work that is repeated over these distances in a rather tentative fashion because of the high level of fatigue these swims will generate.
Along with this limited exposure to speed stimuli is the fact that any progress at this distance is further compounded by the UK tradition of conducting sprinting at the end of training when the swimmers sprint and power production capacities are very much diminished.

This practice is contrary to known physiological requirements of sprinting which stipulate non-fatigued states to experience maximal and appropriate adaptation because as stated in1999 by Rushall, Rushall & Pyke that: all speed improvements are primarily neural, not physiological
The use of interval training as the most expedient form of training for adaptation to exercise stress is widely accepted.


A further principle of equal importance exists: Training should be specific to the final desired swimming performance:If you wish to perform in the 50m or 100m event, then your training velocities should be at least the same as the velocity of the final anticipated competitive performance.

If there are insufficient practice sessions of performing the intended limb-tract patterns then "skill" (neuromuscular patterning) will not be developed fully.

Sprint limb-tract patterns cannot be learned or developed when executed under fatigue this has been stated in research papers by Williams, McEwan, Watkins, Gillespie and Boyd, in 1979.
Basically your body does not have the capacity to learn movement patterns when highly stressed or in a state of fatigue. This factor is not related to the specificity of training principle associated with overload adaptation in energy systems. The specificity principle of physiological adaptation does not apply to motor learning.


To learn skilled movement patterns that are to be executed under fatigued conditions, that learning has to occur in non-fatigued states.
If you wish to swim 50 meters in 25 seconds then the majority of your training must be repeated at a velocity of at least 1.95 meters per second. For you, as a sprint swimmer to execute any training at a slower speed would result in you training for a slower than desired performance during your major championship meet. Also, your neuromuscular patterns of performance are specific to each increase in speed of swimming.


The skill factor in producing maximal and optimally efficient sprint performances is dependent largely upon the amount of skill executions at a specific performance velocity.
When a desired performance level requires a high velocity then you should train at that velocity or faster to become skilled at that specific limb-tract movement pattern.
Unfortunately, speed work, as it is presently practiced, is so stressful that few swimmers in the UK develop any great skill for sprinting. They simply do not perform sufficient repeats nor experience the appropriate intrinsic and extrinsic feedback to enable them to develop strong consistent sprint-movement patterns.


In the UK, swimming coaches are confronted with a perplexing problem on a daily basis: How can an increase in the amount of sprint training be prescribed if it is so stressful?
If a coach increases the total amount of sprint training then the participating squad members will succumb very quickly to excessive stress.
A very obvious solution would be to strike a preference for quality (the development of specific skill) or quantity (the development of stress adaptation). However, it is possible that no dilemma should exist at all. The amalgamation of research findings of psychology and physiology suggest another alternative that allows both sprint skill and appropriate physical adaptation to be developed simultaneously.


What Research tells us about Sprint Swimming:


The principle of specificity in exercise skill is very convincing. The integration of neural and physiological functions in a skilled motor activity is very complex and specific.
For example, it is not difficult to demonstrate the complete disparity of energy and motor functioning in swimming 50 meters in 25 seconds and 32 seconds. The greater the amount of training entertained at a set speed the more predictable will be final performances.

One should expect that if a sprint swimmer has practiced a great deal at their desired race pace then on the given day, their performances would be quite predictable with little variation.
The majority of swim coaches know that the energy for muscular contraction stems from three sources, aerobic and two forms of anaerobic metabolism.

The liberation of aerobic energy is dependent upon oxygen being delivered to the working muscles via the cardiovascular system.
However, in brief spurts of very intense activity the supply of aerobic energy is very inadequate. Most of the energy for sprint swimming is acquired from anaerobic sources. This produces the phenomenon of “oxygen deficit”.


There are three anaerobic energy sources within their swimmers muscles that can be utilised effectively. Our D.A.R.E programme is based around two of these systems:
Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) is a complex chemical compound that is stored in all cells, particularly muscle cells.


ATP is required for the biochemical reaction of allowing a muscle contraction to take place. It is comprised of Adenosine bonded to three phosphates. During muscular contraction, ATP is broken down. This results in the release of energy through the breaking of a phosphate bond to the Adenosine. This leaves Adenosine Diphosphate (ADP) and a free phosphate. The greater the demand that is placed on a muscle the faster this breakdown of ATP will be. During intense exercise the ATP that is stored within muscle cells is quickly depleted. For continued muscular contractions to occur, ATP within the muscle must be quickly replenished. This is accomplished by the biochemical processes of the three energy systems.

Creatine phosphate (CP) is a chemical compound stored in muscle that is important for replenishing ATP after the initial stores are exhausted. In this process, creatine phosphate donates its phosphate to ADP to create ATP. In this way, the creatine phosphate serves as an immediate source of high energy phosphate which can be used to replenish ATP. Because of its limited quantity, creatine phosphate only contributes to ATP replenishment for the first 15 seconds of intense activity

As stated, your alactacid energy system is functional only over the first 10 and possibly up to 17 seconds of maximum swimming effort as it uses existing energy sources that reside in the muscles. This energy source is restored within seconds over an ensuing rest period. There is no accumulation of lactate.

This duration is longer than is commonly thought of or spoken about because not all the swimming training over a given distance involves swimming strokes, the push-off from the wall, etc. the glide phase at the start of a race
As well, the muscles of your upper body are particularly endowed with Type II muscle fibers and so can perform anaerobic functions quite well. If the period of intense work is greater than 15 seconds the functional limit of alactacid energy source will very likely be surpassed.

Research on D.A.R.E Intervals:


In 1977, Astrand and Rodahl related research findings that have been known since the late 1950s to the swimming world. If the work duration is short enough, even though intensity is very high and if recovery periods are short, energy sustains mechanically efficient "fast" work while no buildup of lactate occurs.
As well, glycogen levels remain high throughout the short intervals, good news for you as a 50m/100m sprint swimmer.

Another benefit from utilising D.A.R.E interval training is that your recovery is rapid and is significantly shorter than that required for the traditional accumulated-lactate work bouts.
In swimming terms, that facilitates an increased number of executions of skill cycles.
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Distribution of energy during D.A.R.E workouts:


The energy that is used throughout an ultra-short interval set of a high number of swimming repeats will change from the early to late stages within the set and with training.
Early on in the set, the energy that exists within your muscles is primarily used, alactacid sources being exploited more than lactacid sources. Aerobic energy is gradually stimulated into action and increases its function with each successive swimming repeat. As your set progresses, alactacid energy is still employed. Type II (fast-twitch glycolytic) fibers are continually stimulated along with Type I (slow-twitch oxidative) fibers. Some glycolysis does occur but not in amounts that lead to any significant lactate accumulation. The amount of oxidative work at the end of an ultra-short set is greater than at the start while swimming speed remains the same.

As you employ D.A.R.E intervals consistently in your swim practice, some of your Type IIa fibers (low-oxidative or glycolytic fibers) will be converted to Type IIb fibers that will become oxidative while still maintaining their fast-twitch contractile functions. With the adaptation of these fibers, any work that is performed earlier on in a set is more oxidative than it would be in an untrained state. That means more sprint work is "fueled" by oxygen rather than lactate-producing anaerobiosis. Your capacity for producing work through your alactacid energy system is increased although only by about 2-3 second’s duration.


There still is some requirement for glycolytic work. The frequent but mild stimulation that is involved in these very short but very fast repetitions produces some adaptation although, that improvement might not be as great as that experienced in heavy sprint sets where lactate accumulates to high levels.

Consistent D.A.R.E training produces sprinting performances that sustain fast-twitch (Type IIb) fibers use but will your energize performance with greater amounts of oxygen. This extends your ability to sustain a sprint with good mechanical function. Eventually, your glycolytic anaerobic function will be also improved. When you experience a heavy traditional sprint set, you will often enter an over trained state before any maximal adaptation is achieved. However, while the milder D.A.R.E work does not produce as rapid lactacid adaptation, it eventually does produce higher levels of glycolytic adaptation and consequently produces further performance improvements.

D.A.R.E swim training will develop your alactacid energy production, your fast-twitch oxidative, fast-twitch glycolytic functions, and aerobic adaptation, all while executing race-specific motor skill patterns.
These outcomes facilitate better sprint performances than those fostered by typical, and mostly inappropriate, sprint training for swimming.

Implications for Sprint Training for the 50m-100m events:


Research carried out comparing very short (17 seconds or less) to longer (30 seconds or more) work intervals have shown the latter to be extremely fatiguing.
It is possible to do more sprint swimming training without the problematic fatigue effects of typical programs. The utilization of "D.A.R.E repeats" produces all the benefits of desirable sprint training and adds some exciting new advantages.
It falls onto the individual coach to work with their swimmers to find the interval distances in which repeated performances will be at least equated to desired performances. To be on the safe side for the 50m event, the work period should be in the vicinity of 10-17 seconds seconds.
Thus, distances of less than 20 meters will become important training units for the 50m – 100 sprinters.


For example, a female 50m butterfly swimmer who aims at a time of 32 seconds must repeat each 12.5 meters in 8.0 seconds, or faster.
For the 100m swimmer the training repeat distance can be increased to a maximum of 37.5m utilizing much shorter sets of say 4x(6x37.5) at maximum velocity. Because of the slight increase in the production of lactate, the swimmer should only start the next repeat when they feel absolutely ready to do so.


The implication of these formats in the training of swimmers is clear. The more training that can be accomplished at the pace of the desired performance the better will be the final performance.
A Reluctance on the behalf of the coach to remove the pools lane lines to allow swimming across the pool is not an acceptable excuse for not using desirable distances and time periods for sprint training.


The benefits of the D.A.R.E system are highly desirable. Its characteristics and qualities have been validated in the laboratory. It now remains for swimmers to benefit from this model for training.






Thursday 3 December 2009

INTRODUCTION....

Dear swimmer,

You have one main obligation to yourself and that is: To be able to swim lifetime best times at your biggest meets of the season.Everything you do in practice from your warm up to your warm down revolves around this one goal.If you find that you are not consistently swimming fast when it counts - during the biggest meets of year, then your entire season is tainted.Because PB times only matter when they’re swum in races that matter.

Fast times at big meets is what competitive swimming is all about. Some individual Swimmers are endowed with the ability to perform repetitive actions at an unusually fast rate. This characteristic, when coupled with the technique of applying force in the most efficient manner, produces the "Quick 50m" or the "Quick 100m" swimmer.

The Swim50 concept concerns a factor that governs the maximization of a swimmers sprinting ability be they Elite, Masters or Triathletes. The way to train for these sprint events have been known for more than 30 years but have largely been ignored by a very large contingent of British coaches.Fact: G.B's last successful sprinter in the 100m freestyle was Bobby McGregor in the early 1960's !

Our Present Situation: In the current sprint events of 50m-100m swimming a few features have become very evident. The performance of some Swimmers over these two distances are highly variable which suggests to me that there is a lack of any defined, correct procedure for controlling the level of training for their 50m-100m sprint event.

There are a few individuals who cluster at the very top of the sprint performance tree. This, in my view may be interpreted as indicating that the development of this talent is by chance rather than through the design of coaching. The programmes of these so called sprint swimmers are extremely varied. Every swimming workout that I have attended here in the UK has been almost totally aerobic in nature with very little time spent on speed work.

I believe the basis for this is that many coaches believe swimmers cannot handle a session that is all speed work because they wrongly believe that it is too heavy a strain on their cardiovascular system. We are still just starting to understand how unbelievably fast swimmers can swim and how tough they can be at pushing themselves.

In UK swimming there is a very big problem with the conditioning paradigm of the coaches and swimmers for this sprint event. The problem is crucial, and I hope that if you are reading this, you may start to change the way you approach your training for the 50m-100m events.

Swim50 represents the very latest training and stroke mechanics available to train and empower swimmers of all standards to competate and improve their sprinting ability and take full control of their swimming performance!

The concept is simple! Just as someone can be traumatized and conditioned to under perform when they compete in the 50m or 100m event every time they face a sprint situation after just one bad swim, Swim50 engineers a positive experience in a very short time, which provides conditioning to control and even use the fear and adrenaline rush that inevitably occurs in any intense competitive situation.

With Swim50, we consistently do this for competitive swimmers of all levels with 100% success!