Once again I feel like a wet blanket…but I’m calling a whole lot of BS on the swimming skill vs strength debate. Especially for those saying it is 80% skill. Maybe that’s a yogiism…like “swimming is 80% skill…the other 90% is physical”.
Yes, you have to have good form to go fast. Yes, young swimmers are really fast and would blow away most triathletes who are probably physically stronger. But to say they are fast because they have so much better technique is not completely true and certainly not the only reason they are fast. They put in a TON of yardage…you don’t put in the kind of yardage they do without developing a whole lot of sport specific strength and conditioning. Olympic level swimmers ain’t exactly the most unfit people.
I will close with this. I came back from a shoulder injury 1 year ago…preceded by 3 years of relatively no swimming (due to a labrum tear that I just didn’t care to deal with and coaching). I was very slow when I came back (for me). I am MUCH faster now than a year ago and probably faster than I have ever been in the water. I didn’t get faster by vastly improving my technique. I got faster because I put in the time and effort. My stroke mechanics haven’t changed much. I must stress…you cannot swim like shit and expect to go fast. But to be dismissive of the amount of hard work it takes to get fast (even for 12 year old boys and girls who are probably swimming 2-3 times as much yardage a week than most people on this forum) really gets under my skin. I’m very doubtful they have figured out a magical technique of kicking faster (in this case) than me.
begin pink font >>Now…I’m sure a whole bunch of former fast swimmers will chime in and tell me how they can break 20’ for a 1500 on 1 day a month of training. << end pink font.
Sorry if the truth hurts.
maybe i should go to paulo’s camp…at least I know we’re on the same page with the BS meter. i need an advil.