Do What You Have To Do

Periodization, performance planning, preparation periods. Macrocycles, mesocycles, microcycles. Anaerobic and aerobic capacity, anaerobic and aerobic power. VO2max, thresholds of all type, lactate this and lactate that.

With all of the big lingo, it’s easy for coaches to get lost and become overwhelmed by the seeming complexity of training swimming. As confusingly, different coaches often use scientifically-sounding concepts to justify their training programs. In many cases, two programs may be polar opposites and still seem to be supported by equally compelling arguments. It can be tough to determine what actually needs to be done.

Make no mistake about it. The human body is incredibly complex and performance is the product of equally complex interactions between many factors. Our instinct is to match this complexity with complex training systems, big words, and in-depth reasoning. By creating creates the illusion that we can understand, control, and predict performance.

I would argue that the opposite approach is warranted. Because physiology is unpredictable, because biology is unpredictable, because adaptation is unpredictable, and because performance is unpredictable (really!), we’re better off taking a different approach. An approach that is characterized by its simplicity and an appreciation that we can’t understand, predict, and control nearly as well as we’d hope.

Behind all of the science, behind the physiology, behind all of the large words, the reality is simple.

To be successful in a race, you have to do what you have to do.

In training you just have to develop the ability to do what you have to do. When you do, you’ll be able to do what you have to do.

With this simple premise, strategies for improving performance emerge. More importantly, the coach is liberated to make decisions appropriate for their own situation, without the need to conform to an arbitrary system.

How Do You Know What You Have To Do?

To accomplish any goal, you have to define it. You have to know where you’re headed. The first step in planning is determining what needs to be accomplished in certain races to achieve certain goals.

The vast majority of championship races at the international level from the past decade are available on Youtube. The same can be said of the NCAA championships, USA Swimming Junior Nationals, NSCA Junior National Championships, and YMCA Championships.

How are these swimmers executing their races? How fast are they swimming? What are their splits? How many dolphin kicks are they taking? What is the stroke rate? What is the stroke count? How does it change over the course of the race?

These are the outcomes that swimmers are producing. They are the outputs that need to be achieved. Beyond considering outputs, consider the inputs. What skills are they executing successfully? How are they swimming? How are their skills different as compared to swimmers of lesser ability?

Of course, you can and should scale these expectations for whatever level you compete at. Watch your high school championships, watch your local club championships. Whatever the level, what are those swimmers doing to achieve the performances you want to achieve? That is what you have to do.

If you coach at the age group level, you should also be working towards what your swimmer will need to do, eventually. Base what they need to do upon what they’ll need to do to swim well at the senior level, not what will swim fast at the youth level.

You have to know what your swimmers need actually be able to do to swim a targeted time. You have to know what is likely required to navigate a selection process (i.e. making the Olympics or qualifying for State) based upon historical trends.

You have to know what you have to do. Now you have to develop a plan and a trainingprogram to trainyour swimmers to be able to execute these skills.

How Do You Do What You Need To Do To Be Able To Do What You Have To Do?

With clear targets in mind, the process of achieving those targets becomes clearer. This is where good coaching begins. It is the process of identifying and solving problems.

At this point, there are no rules, just results.

To make this more concrete, let’s take a look at 3 specific events. I’m assuming that the goal is to compete successfully as senior swimmers, regardless of the level of performance. For age group swimmers, this is what I believe we should be working toward. For younger swimmers, the training focus will likely be different dependent on their developmental progress.

When considering the examples, please appreciate that the examples are not all-encompassing. In addition, there are always exceptions. By definition, those individuals are exceptional. While they shouldn’t be ignored, they might not be the best example of what it takes.

Men’s 500 Yard Freestyle

What’s Required?

Good distance per stroke
Solid kicking throughout the race
Effective dolphin kicking off the walls
Enough speed to take out the race in control
The ability to sustain a pace through the middle of the race
The ability to increase speed over the last 100
The ability to do it all at the same time

What Can to Be Done in Training?

Let’s take the example of addressing distance per stroke. Below are some options as to how to improve distance per stroke, as well as the ability to sustain it.

Long swims/sets with stroke count restrictions
Negative split swims with stroke count restrictions
Pace swims with stroke count restrictions
Sprints with stroke count restrictions
Pull work with stroke count restrictions
Lower body conditioning and an emphasize on leg-drive swimming
Power training in the water
Power training in the water with stroke count restrictions

All of the above options are valid, useful, and perhaps even necessary if a swimmer is going to learn to improve distance per stroke at race speed for 500 yards. It will take a concentrated effort and plan that goes beyond physiology.

The same thought process must be used to develop the other required skills as well.

100 Yard Backstroke

What’s Required?

Great distance per stroke
High stroke rate
Fast and sustained underwater dolphin kicking up to 15m for each wall
Sustaining all of the abilities for the duration of the race

What Can to Be Done in Training?

As an example, to train the ability to achieve and sustain high velocities underwater, the following training options exist.

Sprint dolphin kicking
Resisted dolphin kicking
Kick sets of varying intensities with consistent underwater requirements
Swim sets varying intensities with consistent underwater requirements
Targeted hypoxic training

To be an effective dolphin kicker over the whole race duration, there needs to be great technique, great power, and great fitness. This doesn’t happen by mistake and the coach will need to use of spectrum of training options to facilitate this change. It must be planned.

The same thought process must be used to develop the other required skills as well.

200 Yard Breaststroke

What’s Required?

Create a lot of propulsion with the legs
Create a lot of propulsion with the arms
Combine arm and leg actions for effective timing
Great pull-outs
Switch gears and timing over the course of the swim, as necessary
Sustain all of the abilities for the duration of the race

What Can to Be Done in Training?

The following options exist for improving the ability to create and sustain a large amount of propulsion with the upper body.

Resisted pulling
Resisted pulling with stroke count restrictions
Fast pulling with stroke count restrictions
Longer pulling with stroke count restrictions
Creating fatigue with pulling and pairing it with fast breaststroke swimming
Sculling, resisted and un-resisted

Breaststrokers must have the strength to hold a lot of water, as well as the strength endurance to hold water for the duration of the race. Instead of ‘getting fit’, a systematic approach to improving the ability to hold water with the arms for the duration of the race.

The same thought process must be used to develop the other required skills as well.

Building A Race

The key difference is the framing of why a set is being performed. Using the example of developing a 500 freestyle, a coach could design a ‘distance per stroke maintenance set’ instead of a ‘threshold set’, even though the two sets could be nearly identical. In this case, you’ll get the technical adaptations in addition to the physiological adaptations?. The opposite is not necessarily true. In the backstroke example, one wouldn’t design kick a ‘kick set’, but an ‘underwater sustainability set’.

The framework is ‘how am I building a race?’, as opposed to ‘how am I conditioning a swimmer?’ There are multiple skills and physical abilities that need to be developed over the course of a season, and many options that can have utility in developing these abilities.

The beauty of this approach is that it forces coaches to deeply consider the demands of each event. They must also deeply consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of their individual swimmers. The art of coaching is creating a training program that addresses the demands of the events in conjunction with the specific needs and abilities of individual swimmers.

Coaches can then design training programs to address these realities. If you’re struggling to adequately address the realities, you are forced to find them. This knowledge is directly relevant because it is grounded in performance. Coaches who have consistently navigated this process will develop the ultimate skill, effectively and efficiently identifying problems and then solving them.

Referring to the examples above, the training options examined are relatively vague and open-ended. Many options exist and it is up to the coach to decide which options are most appropriate. How does each type of training and each training set help you better do what you need to be able to do, either directly or indirectly?

This is where traditional training plans and paradigms may go out the window. Traditional training ideas and training ideas may have merit. Non-traditional training ideas may have merit. These training sets may be packaged traditionally or packaged non-traditionally. How the sets are presented should be the result of the problem-solving process, not dictated by training theory.

The question always remains, ‘does this training task help move the swimmer towards better racing, directly or indirectly, sooner or later?’ ANY training set may be appropriate as long as you understand how that task fits into the long-term progression towards faster swimming.

Along the same lines, there are a lot of different components that need to be developed to swim fast. What’s the best combination of these components? That’s up to you to figure out in general, and also specifically for the individuals you’re coaching. It’s fine to a have a ‘system’, as long as that system is flexible enough to meet the needs of all of the swimmers you coach.

Getting Practical

Let’s take a look at how a coach might structure one aspect of a swimmer’s preparation to improve underwater kicking skills. Let’s assume it’s a senior swimmer training for 100 yards/meters short course. The stroke is backstroke.

The first step is to understand the critical technical elements that must be developed for underwater kicking skills. I have outlined my priorities, and you can certainly have your own. The key is to be clear about what’s important to you. These technical elements must be woven throughout all training tasks. The process of accomplishing this task is explored elsewhere on this site.

For this example, I am going to outline how the emphasis on the type of kicking can shift over the course of a season. I’ll provide some sample sets to illustrate the progression over time. There is nothing magical about the sets. It is the thought process, the progression, the technical requirement, and the appropriate application for each individual that makes the difference. Moving forward through the season is dictated by how well swimmers are to execute their technical skills under increasing physiological and performance pressure.

The phases aren’t necessarily concrete. It’s more conceptual to illustrate the progression over the course of the season. There are no hard lines, as it’s more of a gradual transition. When describing the sets, in some cases I will use recovery intervals and in other cases rest durations will be used. I will attempt to describe the expected intensity, although it is difficult to be precise as different coaches have different ways to quantify intensity. Focus on the concepts, not the specifics.

NOTE- This is not the only training the swimmer would perform. Illustrated here is just the kick work and backstroke work that is geared towards improving underwater kicking skills. Even within the framework described below, there are many other options that will yield similar results.

Phase I

In the initial phases, the purpose is to develop a base of speed and a base of endurance. The purpose is to learn and develop skills in the relative absence of fatigue. For the former, the distances are short enough and the rest periods are long enough that fatigue shouldn’t accumulate. For the latter, the intensity is low enough that swimmers can execute their skills effectively. Over the course of the phase, the physiological pressure builds, increasing the challenge to technical skill.

Early Phase

Sprint-Focus

4 rounds through

4*12.5m@1 Blast underwater dolphin kick; resisted**

1*15m@1:30 blast underwater; no resistance

**This can be performed with a parachute, drag sox, stretch cord, vertical kicking, or any other form of resistance a coach can come up with.

Endurance Focus

10*100m@30 seconds rest; Flutter kick on the back; alt 10/12.5/10/15m underwater dolphin kick by 25; moderate effort on the flutter kick; strong effort on the underwater

Late Phase

Sprint Focus

4 rounds through

10 blast kicks + 2 cycles backstroke fast@1 Resisted

12 blast kicks + 2 cycles backstroke fast@1.10 Resisted

14 blast kicks + 2 cycles backstroke fast@1.20 Resisted

16 blast kicks + 2 cycles backstroke fast@1.30 Resisted

25@2 Backstroke blast with 15m underwater; no resistance

Endurance Focus

6 rounds through

200m@30 seconds rest; 12.5m underwater each wall; des effort on the flutter kick 1-3/4-6; strong effort on the dolphin kick

50m@30 seconds rest; 12.5m underwater each wall; strong effort on the entire 50

Phase II

The second phase will continue to build on the fitness and skill developed in the first phase. At this point, the more swimming can be included during the dolphin kick development work to integrate the two skills, as must be done in a race. The goal is to continue to develop the technical and physical to race effectively with full underwater skill

Early Phase

Sprint Focus

3 rounds through

12*25@45 Fast flutter kick on the back; 12.5m blast dolphin kick to start each 25; Use parachute

50@2 ~200 pace backstroke with 15m dolphin kick each wall

10*25@1 Faster flutter kick on the back; 12.5m blast dolphin kick to start each 25; Use parachute

Extra 30 seconds rest

50@2 ~100 pace backstroke with 15m dolphin kick each wall

8*25@1.15 Fastest flutter kick on the back; 12.5m blast dolphin kick to start each 25; Use parachute

Extra 60 seconds rest

50@2 Blast backstroke with 15m dolphin kick each wall

Endurance Focus

3 rounds through

3*150 with 45 seconds rest; 12.5m kickouts; hard effort

1*150 with 60 seconds rest; 15m kickouts;

ODD Repetitions flutter kick on the surface

EVEN Repetitions backstroke swim

Late Phase

Sprint Focus