Coaches Corner Issue 3

Posted on 27, March 2014

in Category Club News, Coaches Corner

In our third article we now move on to Endurance 3, i.e. Aerobic Capacity. Swims are hard with rest from 1 minute, with distance from 400m up. A good test set would be 6*400M max effort with a minute rest or more after each set. Sets such as this are helpful to long distance swimmers to improve their endurance over a long period. It can also break the monotony of continuous swimming and is very beneficial to swimmers who like to swim 200m fly. Heart rate should be 80% plus.

The greatest challenge which is unique to swimmers is that they have to swim four different strokes which involve all parts of the body and also not like lad sports you have to provide your own base of support as you are in water. To improve this situation we must do balance drills i.e. kick, single arm etc… Also we should be trying to improve our core body strength especially our stomach muscles. Owing to restriction on time you should do this at home or go to a fitness class on the non-swimming nights. There are plenty of programmes on the web that you can look up. Maybe if a dew people would like to get together they could organise a night. I know we have fitness instructors in the Masters. Without doubt swimming itself is the most effective way to become better and faster but other components outside the water can play a part in the overall improvement of your swimming.

Finally, please try to be on time for your training. Every minute to an average swimmer is 50M, 5 minutes is 250M add that over 3 sessions over 4 weeks I will leave it to you.

Yours, John Dempsey,Club Coach                                                             Remember keep streamlined