Thinking like a swimmer (sam long)

Swimming
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I watched Sam Long’s training day video, it’s pretty good content, he’s an engaging guy.

He said he didn’t know that swimmers tend to naturally descend a set, that is just how swimmers do it (this is very true. When I talk to my son about practice, even the way he summarizes what they did works that way. "we held X for the first 7, down to Y at the end…)

So I was thinking, what are other things that swimmers “understand” that people coming into the sport might not? Here’s a few off the top of my head:

  1. When you do a hard set and there are multiple people in the lane, space permitting, go 10 back (if you don’t know what that means: instead of 5 back, go 10 back).

  2. If you are doing a set of alternating hard and easy, “open the bank.” Example: 8 50’s on 1:00, easy / hard. Instead of leaving on the top for the easy ones, go ahead and leave early to give yourself more wall time before the hard efforts. The point of the set is the hard efforts, recovery is recovery.

  3. Pulling on the lane line doing backstroke is a perfectly acceptable thing to do on recovery efforts. No one acknowledges it. But everyone does it. You can even do double arm backstroke. (Just don’t be the yahoo who does it at other times.). Again, recovery is recovery.

  4. The 400 IM is acknowledged as the hardest event. : )

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  1. Warm up is chill. The fastest 400 IMer in the last squad I was in (squad with a proper coach, rather than just a collection of adults etc) would completely float easy on warm up well at the back of the lane in her own water. Come the main, she would lead her lane and towel up across the four lanes on the distance and IM work.

I won’t go into lane etiquette as not really the point of this.

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Conversely:
When the lane gets crowded(short course) leave 3 seconds or even right on the feet to keep the leader from lapping #5/6/ or 7 in the lane. Just make sure to not be a foot tapper and have the right person leading.

And move up and close gaps if folks are falling off, keep the lane flowing as folks bite the dust, or get warmed up…

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Even at 5s, when the front 2 or 3 folks are all about the same speed, the draft effect gets real in a hurry!

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Ya and when you get 6+ doing the same pace it can be like swimming in a river. Great practice for OW racing too. And I never understood some of the animosity you see in the lane from some swimmers when swimming close, it is often the great equalizer that keeps the lane flowing in longer sets. To me the only etiquette should be hold your line into walls when trailing and dont be a foot tapper.

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