coachdaz wrote:
Hi guys,
I was a bit bored this sat afternoon 31st Dec, so slowtwitch I headed for 10 min, and now 40 min later I am writing something.
Love the discussion and I must say in my defence i didn't read everything in this section so apologies if i waste your time:
I've had the pleasure to help some good number of athletes improve their swims very significantly, incl barb riveros, nordo, kate roberts, lauren campbell and others making WCS first packs for the first time.
My latest projects are Anne Haug (GER trying to make London) and Bart Aernouts (2010 world du champ who races 70.3 now) and like the others they are investing a LOT of effort, mental energy and wet and dry time to the challenge. Mileage about 30kpw, 7-8 sessions/weekly, 2 massage sessions/wk, core and specific muscle work also and after months we make really strong gains, but while we normally need two such off seasons to make the first pack, we normally get there. Sutto and I are miles away in methodology, but I would suggest that I now am getting close to his level of impact, and I'll give some insight into our approach and common errors:
We make great gains with multiple swims a day (every second day), broken into a skill based session and then fitness based session within the daily sequence only long enough to keep skills (under fitness load) at an acceptible level. We spend 'dry' time to improve ROM (with our team rehab guy) and specific strength; plus in every single case i have had to undo bad skills or very poor previous coaching, even from olympic medalist level swim coaches (eg my latest projects):
What i normally get is someone who:
1. pulls the water and has no idea about leavering the body past the forearm - guys, there is no such thing as pulling with your hand vis rowing like, rather think kayaking where the core is working lots.
2. kicks a 6 beat which is out of timing with their hips and they also kick from the knee creating more drag at the knee and via the bubbles produced at the foot than it is worth -guys we teach correct kick action (often 2 beat) that help the action of hips coordinate with the upper body and loosen the bits that create drag. also we drop the feet back in the water rather than above it and have people kick from the hip
3. range of motion is 30% or more below par and this causes overreaching the centreline, poor alignment but the bottomline is both propulsion and drag is compromised - athletes act bewildered when we finally get enough range to let them function properly
4. they know little of how to sort out body position - why drag an anchor when you don't need to?
5. they spend way too much time gliding and worrying about s shape pulls and what 'feel' they have in their hands - forget it guys there are so many bubbles when swimming in a pack the front end has no 'feel' even if you could
6. they are all weak - mid to back end of the stroke is the place to get the gains, so become strong
6. lastly they freak out in pack in the OW and cannot swim straight to save their life - we teach them to swim in the open water and this week we did two sessions in the open water over an hour each with specific longer and short duration efforts in packs with feedback from a coach sitting in a kayak so that tells you have much we rank this activity
But you will never hear me say 'strokes per length', we don't do any total Immersion stuff, do not rush no matter what, and I haven't used a stop watch in the first 2 months of this 2012 prep yet. There is a time and a place for everything.
For age groupers I have some thoughts - invest in ROM, build specific swim based strength, don't get fancy (look up cricket bowling and use that as a stroke recovery action), and mix up the workouts with absolutely no slow FS swimming in the warm down (get rid of the fluff), and forget min strokes per length.
Hope this has helped,
Daz
This is VERY helpful to see how a coach of your caliber is addressing the swim with top elite athletes and the challenges these athletes have with the swim. Thanks for taking time to post.