FindinFreestyle wrote:
MikeyC-anada wrote:
I don't have many posts on this forum but i am a long time lurker & Swimmer by background ... i found this whole thread very interesting but the one thing your equation doesn't seem to allow for is different stroke types / kick types.
The reason you may have a lot of swimmers saying this works is because on this forum you may not have swimmers who alter there stroke. However, maybe the coaches have a similar mindset to my own experience; being that, when I'm doing a 50 all out, I'm not breathing and am typically using an all out kick (call it a six beat if you want) and my stroke is shoulder driven for faster turn over. I translate into a much more hip driven lop sided stroke (think KL) for 200-400's but do not have the stamina or muscular strength to maintain that for a 70.3 or IM swim. So, especially with a wet suit, I let my legs act as stabilizers / provide resistance for my pull and accentuate my rotating to lengthen out my stroke. That too all changes depending on whether i am fighting for a top spot at the FOP, if i am out on my own and what the conditions are like...
just my $0.02 (and keep in mind I am Canadian so it's not even worth that much!)
I can definitely roll with any of those points. I think they ways that a 25 yard sprint is similar to a 3800m IM swim are plentiful enough that the equation has some value. The ways they are different takes away some value for sure. I think enough value remains.
HereÂ’s what I love about your equation, that I think the other coaches are missing: technique is fundamentally connected to what works for speed in swimming. If you get forum folks listening to advice about technique, doing drills, etc, 80% of the time they have no idea what you mean and more often than not it leads to no change or bizarre over-corrections. What people need is an experience of swimming faster.
If you can swim a 15 sec 25, you can start to figure out how to swim like a real swimmer for much more distance. And if you canÂ’t, there are real things you can do to noticeably improve in that area.
Most young age group coaching is 25s and 50s, pretty much all practice. Most real swimmers know how to look at a clock and experiment. Most triathletes have never done either of these. It shows.