Reply To: Thoughts on wt. trng
Not sure I’d say totally worthless. But I think time could be better spent improving skill which would have a greater impact on improvement in performance. “It had to be more than just better technique and endurance”. I think that’s what we would like to think that it’s got to be something other than swimming fast and exploring how to get faster in the water i.e. starts, turns and underwater work. But I think it maybe be that simple. If you want to swim fast, then swim faster in all aspects. Especially in yards swimming.
I always ask S&C coaches this question with regards to transference. If strength training helps swimmers. Then why don’t weight lifters swim? Have yet to get an answer. The core strength issue. I’d ask How strong does your core need to be? Does a swimmer after doing a 2+ hour practice 9-11 days a week which heavily involves the core muscles really need to do another half-hour to forty-five minutes of core work 3x a week? Or a swimmer than can do 1000 crunches, better/faster than a swimmer that can only do 800? Maybe better at doing crunches/core work. But we coach swimming.
I will concede there maybe something to Power Racks and or Towers. If we vote I’d vote for Power Racks. But not in the speed development arena. But with regards to acceleration. You have to go to track studies using one of those weighted sleds to see the data. The data doesn’t show any real increase in speed from 10-20m, 20-30m or 30-60m. But it does show improvement in the 0-10m, which is acceleration. There is some data showing that swimmers that get to 15m first usually win.
Just thinking out loud
? All that is not shared... is lost.
