I am a beginner swimmer so I would absolutely not trust my opinion if I were you.
My guess is 6x/week.
6 times per week.
How do you have time for 6 swims/week? Neglecting of other domains like strength?
The right answer is 6x per week for 2 hours 
Assuming other things are not at issue, like you can actually get yourself in the pool for the allotted times on either plan and it is not messing up your other training, it would come down to how good a swimmer you are, and what type of workouts you are doing. If you are already a very good swimmer, you can make either work. If you are not that great yet and 2 hours is a bit long for you to keep the intensity up, IMHO you’d be way better off hammering 6 1 hour workouts than slogging through the back half of 3 2 hour workouts.
Once you get to the point of acceptable/decent form, the number one factor in swim speed improvement is intensity in your training and in particular doing hard interval sets of relatively short distances you can mostly hold form for (i.e. 50’s, 100’s and some 200 yds/meters repeats on varying rest intervals). More intense one hour workouts are better than the same time spent at a lower intensity over fewer workouts. You do not get fast swimming slow.
That being said, the big potential disadvantage to 1 hour workouts is that if you do the typical tri thing with some drills in there and itching the perceived need to “go long,” you can end up getting very little intensity over the course of the workout. If you are doing 1 hour workouts, you need to get in, start hammering, and keep it up for an hour. So, if drills, kicking and long swims are something you can not live without (and don’t get me wrong, they do have a place but in moderation), do the 3x at 2 hr plan. At least that way you’ll be getting some actual swimming in
To me, it seems to depend on where you are in your swimming career.
When I was working on breaking out of the 2:00 min 100 yards world I found it effective to swim more often for shorter periods of time as I felt I needed to increase my total time in the pool, but also not log too many yards where my form was a total mess.
I’m now at a point where my fundamentals are reasonable and I’m focused on volume - attending as many masters sessions as I can while filling in with my own swims. Longer swims have become more enjoyable as my skill level has increased - so if I had the time to do more 1:30 session I would, but that’s a little hard for me to fit in these days. It’s nice to be in the water most days, going 6x per week, but it would also take more travel time than 3x.
I’d hazard a guess that the most important element is getting 6 hours per week consistently over time and that how those hours are broken down does not matter too much for your swimming outcomes. It would matter for how it impacts other aspects of your training, work, or family life and that’s what I would base my schedule on.
Depends what you are training for and where you are in your training periodization, but in general I would say more frequency is better. Technique is such a big factor in swimming and your technique is best when you are freshest. If your form falls apart after 30 minutes of swimming, you get 3 hours of good form swimming doing 6 x 1hr sessions verses 1.5 hours of good technique doing 3 x 2hr sessions.
The exception to this in my opinion would be if you were peaking for a long OWS. If you are doing a 5 mile OWS race, you are gonna need to do two hour sessions to build your endurance, but in the base period, and for most race goals, I would veer towards 6 x 1hr sessions over longer sessions.
Good swimmer, 3x per week. This person doesn’t need to waste time trying to get to the pool more than that and also can handle the demands of a 2 hr session.
Challenged swimmer, 6x per week. This person needs to be feeling the water as frequently as possible, and also would not hold up well for a 2 hr session, the good form they’re trying to develop would break down.
How do you have time for 6 swims/week? Neglecting of other domains like strength?
How much strength do we need to swim on the level of a decent 10-12 year old?
I swim 4x a week @ about 1.5 hr per hit.
No question for beginner or BOP/BOMOP swimmers, 6 times x 1 hr sessions.
Aside from the points above, simply the reality is that if you’re not at least a FOMOP swimmer in triathlon, the quality of your workout will be terrible for most of the two hour workout, as you won’t have the strength or endurance to finish it with any sort of quality.
Hard to answer without knowing what you are training for. IM? Sprint Tri? Masters Swimming 100 freestyle? 10k marathon swim?
I’m a fairly serious Masters swimmer, and lean pretty firmly towards “frequency and intensity” over “long slogging.” My most recent short course season (Oct-May) average was 5.1 x week, 54 minutes a workout (in water time), even though my primary focus was distance freestyle (1000 & 1650). I went BTSHS (Best Time Since High School) in all 3 events I swam at Masters Nationals on that level of training. But if you’re training for IM, you need at least some long slogging IMHO. Maybe 3x1h & 1x1.5-2h?
How do you have time for 6 swims/week? Neglecting of other domains like strength?
How much strength do we need to swim on the level of a decent 10-12 year old?
God, I wish I could swim like a 12 year old…
…LCM 100 Free Time Standards are like 1:04 per
How do you have time for 6 swims/week? Neglecting of other domains like strength?
How much strength do we need to swim on the level of a decent 10-12 year old?
The swim being the shortest pieces of the race, it’s probably better to cycle and run more.
However, I’m a hippo in the water. It’s all a part of periodization right? So if he’s in the off-season trying to improve his swim I get it. Yet, should I invest 40 minutes of driving time to the pool 6x days/week plus all the bullshit time that comes with that or should you get in the squat rack and on the deadlift platform?
Now, if the guy has a pool or lake off his back porch I will go into the corner and suck my thumb…
Cool dude.
How much strength do we need to swim on the level of a decent 10-12 year old?
Swimming is not about raw power but how much power you can actually apply and how much of that power gets transferred into forward motion vs gets used to overcome drag.
The fast 12 year old can transfer a very high percentage off what strength they have to the water plus they have a body position that has very low drag so a high percentage of that power turns into forward motion. Also, they have a very high ability to repeatedly apply that a high percentage of what strength they have.
Those little fast 12 year olds may not have high raw strength numbers but they have whatever the swimming equivalent is of a light climber’s 5.5w/kg FTP.
6x/week for 1 hour no doubt. Combine with a run immediately afterwards for time efficiency if needed.
Would you agree that they get that from swimming a lot?
Good swimmer, 3x per week. This person doesn’t need to waste time trying to get to the pool more than that and also can handle the demands of a 2 hr session.
Challenged swimmer, 6x per week. This person needs to be feeling the water as frequently as possible, and also would not hold up well for a 2 hr session, the good form they’re trying to develop would break down.
I totally agree, but, truthfully an experienced (read “fast”) swimmer would already know they only need minimal swimming to be reasonably competitive in Triathlon.
On the flip side; unfortunately, poor swimmers don’t realize the investment it takes to get good. Those folks need to embrace the pace clock and swim fast almost all the time. Even then, some won’t get “it.” People say that kids who start competitive swimming will be great swimmers. That’s wrong, they have the same rate of “not getting it” as adults, they just wash out at a younger age. Conversely, there are a few adults who will find they have a talent for swimming and become quite good - with some hard work and coaching.
Back to the original question, I became a fast AOS based on frequency first, and, volume (rarely) when I could. I average 7,300yds/week but swim 5 days most weeks. The mind body connection does well with frequency more so with swimming than B&R.
The right answer is 6x per week for 2 hours
Assuming other things are not at issue, like you can actually get yourself in the pool for the allotted times on either plan and it is not messing up your other training, it would come down to how good a swimmer you are, and what type of workouts you are doing. If you are already a very good swimmer, you can make either work. If you are not that great yet and 2 hours is a bit long for you to keep the intensity up, IMHO you’d be way better off hammering 6 1 hour workouts than slogging through the back half of 3 2 hour workouts.
Once you get to the point of acceptable/decent form, the number one factor in swim speed improvement is intensity in your training and in particular doing hard interval sets of relatively short distances you can mostly hold form for (i.e. 50’s, 100’s and some 200 yds/meters repeats on varying rest intervals). More intense one hour workouts are better than the same time spent at a lower intensity over fewer workouts. You do not get fast swimming slow.
That being said, the big potential disadvantage to 1 hour workouts is that if you do the typical tri thing with some drills in there and itching the perceived need to “go long,” you can end up getting very little intensity over the course of the workout. If you are doing 1 hour workouts, you need to get in, start hammering, and keep it up for an hour. So, if drills, kicking and long swims are something you can not live without (and don’t get me wrong, they do have a place but in moderation), do the 3x at 2 hr plan. At least that way you’ll be getting some actual swimming in
I agree with this 100%.
How do you have time for 6 swims/week? Neglecting of other domains like strength?
Your ability to consistently make ignorant posts is impressive
lol – it is like an ineffective, uninspired Kiley