Competitive swimming is all about swimming fast, and speed, with technique, determines swimmer’s success. Competitive honest coaches have one responsibility: preparing swimmers to swim their event as fast as possible. Some swimmers are born physically and mentally strong and possess a greater degree of natural speed than other. They have a natural feel of water and great balance and posture. They will succeed to a great extent in spite of the training (or bad training) and become champions at age group level. Eventually they will not live up to the promise shown at the junior levels and all their dreams of making it to Olympics get shattered. Only a well planned training program can improve swimming speed and competitive performance of all swimmers. Under such a program, gifted swimmers reach international standards and at the same time the others also are able to give close to national top timings. I understand that everyone cannot reach the top but when a program is good then you will have a huge number of swimmers who are very close to being at the top. Here in India only a few swimmers excel and the rest lag behind. I am a critical of High Volume and High Intensity Training High Volume and High Intensity training ruins and breaks the career of hundreds of swimmers because it is inhuman and torturous. It defies logic and yet coaches follow it. Survivors in this system become top swimmers in age group and then due to years of torture stagnate, hit a plateau, burn-out, get injured and leave swimming. The high-volume high-intensity approach has the following features: • Give all swimmers as much volume and intensity training as they can handle (or more importantly can’t handle). • Three weeks out from the meet reduce the volume and do a few sprints. • Rest one week out by drastically reducing the volume and pray that the speed will come when the swimmers are rested. • If speed does not come (and it won’t after rapid body growth stops at about 15 in females and 16-17 in males) blame the swimmers, parents, the system, and everyone else except the coach himself. This swimming approach, sometimes seen in swim programs with a big feeder system, works on giving swimmers a great deal of non-specific work. If a coach adopts this approach, then they can be confident that the average fitness of their squad will be higher than the average fitness of most other squads, making them very competitive at most levels. Many coaches have been relatively successful using this coaching method. It is generally falsely accepted that a well-developed aerobic base is necessary for success in swimming at the highest level. The high-volume and high intensity approach can often produce great age group results and is particularly effective when working with large teams. Coaches who have achieved relative success using this technique are understandably reluctant to change a tried and proven method. In the long-term however, neglecting overall development in the effort to maximize training volume and intensity in the hope of short-term goals, is more likely to limit success at older age group and elite levels. Remember, “Many meaningless miles means mass mediocrity”! Pros • Swimmers get very fit and are competitive at most levels of competition. • Swimmers develop a large aerobic base. • Easy to control large group of swimmers. Cons • Potentially an increased risk of illness and/or injury. • Does not permit training to be tailored to individual needs. • Swimmers may become over trained and burned out. • Performance can be limited at the top level owing to neglect of the full development of all energy systems and swimming abilities.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 00:12:12 +0000
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