Key Pre-Season Swimming Evaluation, Workouts and Schedule
By Ryan Riell
The preseason is a great time of year to dedicate some time in proving
an athlete swimming ability. In this article, I will lay out for you how to
evaluate your swimming ability and then 3–4 key swim workouts that
can be performed each week, in the form of a weekly training plan
designed to improve your swimming ability.
Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this article, let's take a
second to talk about the laws of diminishing returns. It’s generally
accepted that if an athlete participates in only two training sessions per
week in a given sport, they will come close to reaching 50% of their
potential. With three sessions per week, that percentage goes up to 75,
with four sessions it goes up to 92% and with five sessions per week, it
has the ability to get close to 95% of an athlete’s potential. It should
also be said, the athlete is able to maintain their fitness levels with as
little as 2–3 sessions per week, as long as they are well structured,
with a very clear task and purpose.
In general, during the preseason, there are two methods that an athlete
can use to improve their swimming ability. The first is a more traditional
approach, which utilizes aerobic endurance, force and speed skill
workouts. The second approach, which is the approach taken here at
Break Through Multisport, approaches the swing training is independent
4- or 8-week training blocks that are designed to provide rapid
improvement in athletes swimming ability.
The first thing we're going to need to do is determine your natural abilities as a swimmer. The three main abilities that we're concerned with are force, speed and endurance. Endurance is the ability to delay the onset of fatigue and reduce its effects. Force is the ability to overcome resistance, when swimming, it would be swimming in rough waters. Speed, or “speed skills” is the ability to move efficiently and economically while swimming, which is primarily driven technique.
In order to determine your natural abilities*, please answer the following questions as either true or false.
_____ 1. I prefer to swim in rougher or chop your waters and most of my training partners.
_____ 2. The shorter the swim, the better I perform.
_____ 3. I am much stronger at shorter swimming intervals.
_____ 4. I am stronger at the end of a long swim workout in my training partners.
_____ 5. I am more muscular than most in my age group.
_____ 6. I prefer long races.
_____ 7. I enjoy pull–sets and using paddles while swimming.
_____ 8. I enjoy high–volume training weeks.
_____ 9. My swim stroke is short, with a high turnover.
_____ 10. I have always been better at sprint and endurance workouts or events.
_____ 11. I am a stronger swimmer than most in my age group.
_____ 12. I can do more push-ups, or use more weight while doing lat pull downs than others in my age
group.
_____ 13. I am better at swimming in rough water than most others in my age group.
_____ 14. I prefer short and fast training sessions.
_____ 15. I am confident of my endurance at the start of a long race.
Questions Score
Force__________1, 5, 7, 12 & 13Total ______
Speed__________2, 3, 9, 10, & 14Total ______
Endurance__________4, 5, 8, 11 & 15Total ______
For each question you answer as “true,” that counts as a +1, where each question that you answer “false,” counts as a -1. Now add up all of your final scores for force, speed and endurance. If you have a score between 4 and 5, that indicates a strength. A score of 3 or less indicates a weakness.
If you look at the figure below, it is a graphical representation of the relationship between endurance, force and speed skills, which are the three foundations of endurance sports. If endurance, force and speed skills are the three foundations, they are tied together by “advanced” abilities such as muscular endurance, power and anaerobic endurance.
An athlete must have a solid foundation, consisting of endurance,
force and speed skills prior to training more advanced abilities,
which is why the self-test above is so important.
If two of the three foundations scored at four or higher,
training a more advanced ability is not only doable, but
highly recommended. For example, if your scores for
endurance and force or both above 4, it is highly
recommended that you add muscular endurance workouts
to your training program.
Based off of the law of diminishing returns, it is
recommended for most age group athletes to swim 4 times
per week while trying to make drastic improvements in their swimming ability, which has the ability to have the athlete reach approximately 92% of his/her potential. With that being said, here are two sample training programs, each one week long.
All swim programs, are written with distances for a half Ironman or Ironman triathlon, or perhaps a more advanced Olympic distance athlete. If the distances seem to be too much at the beginning, feel free to reduce them by 10 to 20%, by primarily subtracting distance from the main set first, then the cool down. I would not recommend reducing the distance of the warm-up since it is important for you to be fully warmed up prior to the main sets. In order to modify this program, to follow this area progression, is safe to add 10 to 15% to the volume, primarily to the main set.
Sample Program One:
Program one is designed for an athlete who scored a 3 or less in at least two of the three foundations.
