cmd111183 wrote:
Wouldn't it be sufficient to say that not only are technique and power both important, but they are important cohesively? I'm just getting to around 1:55/100 in my second month of adult on-set swimming after starting somewhere in the 2:15-2:30 range. I've studied a ton of technique. Read the books. Watched the videos. I try my hardest to focus on the proper technique and over time have become stronger and been able to hold technique longer. That said, to consistently pull with EVF, I need to drastically increase the strength of the muscles and the functional strength of that position. Its a real struggle for me to keep that elbow up and high at the beginning of the catch out in front. Not only that, but the shoulder flexibility required to be able to life and hold your arm at that angle. Funny enough, I assume the faster you are the less extreme that angle, or the less time you spend at an extreme angle because you are moving forward into the pull phase faster. That said, I'd imagine you can do a billion lat pull downs and shoulder presses and I would imagine that you will not see the same increases as doing a functional exercise like the tube work.
I still defer to the other swim gurus here; the insights I've made have been key for my own swimming, but I'm willing to admit that it may be different for others (I don't actually think it is.)
Have said it before, but for MOP swimmers in the range we're talking about (1:45-1:55 range) who are hoping to make a big jump to 1:25 and below (not just a small jump to 1:40-1:50 pace), it's going to be hugely power. At least that what it was for me. The technical improvements were miniscule in comparison for me.
I didn't take on this contrarian perspective willingly. I spent 3 years before that listening to all the fish and high level coaches here and elsewhere that slow swimmers are slow because of their terrible technique, not because of power. I think that's true for raw beginners, but once you're pretty flat in the water and not hugely over-rotating, you're not going to get that big 20sec/100 jump by just body position adjustments and a better EVF without huge jumps in swim fitness/muscular endurance.
I would normally buy all-in to the very reasonable sounding "it's not just power, it's technique+power that gets you faster, and you built both simultaneously", but I believe that my big gains on the Vasa are showing me that at least for me, power trumps all for my level of swimming. I certainly didn't make any big technique gains (or any technique gains) while doing all those hours on a Vasa trainer, and I spent only half the amount of pool time in the water than I did in previous years. Even without any technical gains whatsoever, I crushed my old self - and absolutely crushed any small gains I'd ever made by small technique changes in the prior few years.
I think a lot of coaches and high level swimmers would come over to my side of the power vs technique equation for MOP swimmers if they too either did what I did (lots of Vasa, little water) or trained athletes using this unconventional approach. The reality however, is that most of these very same coaches/swimmers have no clue as to the power contribution to swimming, and only base their claims of power off of anecdotal experience, not actual power numbers, nor have they trained MOP swimmers with a method that almost entirely removes technique from the equation and still watch them improve like I did.
Now that I've done what I've done for signifiacnt swim improvement, I actually think that one of the biggest disservices and worst advice that slower MOP swimmers around 1:50 pace get, is that they should give equal priority to technique vs power with their limited swim volume and swim time. And then these same swimmers (like my old self) wonder why they don't get any faster despite lots of money spent on video, coaching, books, etc. After all, if technique is so helpful, shouldn't they get at least a few sec/100 with all that work?
Make those same swimers crank out 20k/wk, and they'll fly.