Coaches Corner Issue 2

Posted on 12, February 2014

in Category Club News, Coaches Corner

Following our first article on training systems we are now moving on to Endurance 2. Over 70% of training for all swimmers is done in this system. Again depending on the time you can swim any distance from 1000 to 3000 meters sets of 100/200/400/800 may be used plus other combinations. Intensity is around 75% to 80 % of max effort, rest should be short but no shorter than 8 seconds and no longer than 30 seconds, on your 100s and 200s and adjust accordingly on the longer distances. Swims should be hard but bearable. Sets should last at least 30 minutes or their abouts. This system was originally called anaerobic threshold. A good rule of thumb in setting up in your threshold sets is to take your 100 FC P.B time and add 30 seconds, e.g 100 FC best time of 1.15 repeat time 1.45 x 15 100s. If you feel you are getting too much rest decrease your repeat time another example is 100 PB 1.30 then 2.00 minutes would be your guideline. Obviously the fitter you are the less rest you need to recover on each swim. Personally I would recommend 200 meter swims for this type of training it is easier to move up and down to the other distances. The great Ian Thorpe was a great believer in 200. Back crawl and fly can also be swam in threshold mode but there is no threshold in breast stroke as breaststroke is very drill orientated i.e. kick and pull 70% 30% full stroke.
I am going to write a small bit about stroke length in this article. Swimmers mostly think it as how far you reach forward and backward with your hand which is not a bad thing in itself but it is really about how far your body travels through the water on each stroke. The best way to measure this is to count your strokes at all speeds . Work on this during all your training.

Yours John Dempsey Club Coach
Remember keep streamlined