I do, but only to get through all that bragging and reports of dumbass training. I've given up after day 3.

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"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

Tom,

Glad you brought this up as I thought about it also.

Generally I stick to freestyle in my training and I'm conflicted about it. I think about all the muscle imbalance problems I could be fostering in focusing on one movement... but when I throw in some fly, breast or back I feel I may be devoting time that could be better utilized on form drills to improve my freestyle times.

Does anyone have any studies that show if practicing strokes other than the stroke you intend to use in competition harms/helps competition performance?

TIA,

John

I believe G has said If you want to be a good swimmer then train like a swimmer. Flys are the same as free except you use both arms. Swimming other strokes helps balance out the muscles as well. Adding some backstroke can help with musc les not used in free.



Keep in mind as you read this that I am a lousy swimmer.

I doubt that you are planning on bench pressing or doing leg squats at your next IM either. That doesn't stop us from weight training, so mixing up your strokes absolutly helps your swimming, especially doing fly. It strenghtens the shoulders, which by the way get much more stressed in the open water. You put on a wetsuit and then have to recover higher to avoid hitting chop and waves. This really taxes the shoulder area, so some fly in workout will produce some nice benifits to your overall open water swim times. Doing other strokes also balances out the body and gives you different feels for the water. It also helps me from going absolutely bonkers, by breaking up those long sessions in the pool....

I expect it is to break up the sessions a little bit, and to generate strength gains, as butterfly is a pretty strong stroke when done correctly (ie not easy pace).

Caffeine pills: yup from time to time.Each one I pop has 100mg, about the same as a coffee.I rotate my caffeine cosumption between guarana/coffee/pills.Its all the same to me , the pills =3 coffees

What Monty said.

Also, when I drop my swim volume, I like to include more strength oriented work (Medley and Band Only). As it turned out, the stronger folks didn't drop the swim volume much.

Also, as the creator of the points system, I wanted to include some very challenging main sets 12x100/150 (IM/Free, continuous) and 10x200/100 (IM/Free, 10s RI) are tough sets and 'fun' if you like to be challenged. You'll find that the IM elevates the HR so you are at a nice steady-state HR for the entire main set.

For wetsuit and open water swimming, I think fly is a useful stroke for building specific strength. Back is useful for body position and to work counter to free. Breast is useful for catch. All of the strokes play a role in improving free -- also medley gives a time efficent whole body workout. Basically, the more stuff you can do in the water (flip turns, strokes, drills, bilateral 3/5/7/9...) the more comfortable you are in the water. The more comfortable we are, the more economical we become. Most of us start out as very uncomfortable swimmers -- I know that I certainly did.

As for caffeine, Scott uses Vitamin V once in a while, the rest of us drink coffee and have cola if we get a bit smoked. Interestingly, Mister A is caffeine-free except for a little bit in his infrequent cola -- so you don't 'need' this stuff to kick ass. The crew use a range of amounts. Personally, I've found that caffeine is best in moderate dosages. If you're shaking like a leaf then it's probably not helping much. Still, the training camp is an extreme experience and folks will experiment with things when they are under duress.

With the fly, I don't think that you need to be technically perfect to get the benefits. While I only like band only for 60-min IMers (or faster), I think that fly can be used (in moderation) for most tri-swimmers. A good alternative for weaker swimmers is water polo free -- head up, hips up, head stable freestyle.

g

Butterfly drills... really?!?!?!

I am going to look like a madman in my pool... there's not going to any water left for the rest of you when I am done splashing it out.

For grounding: I swim 1000 yards in 15 minutes. 4x1000yards in just over an hour.

The drills I do are the (A) Long Slow Distance. (B) Sprints - 50y, 100y, 250y. (C) Form drills from total immersion camp.

Would adding the fly improve my time.

Do I hafta.