Training for 7 Events in 6 hours

[billratio]

Many of you know I was very pleased with how my high school season turned out. We had 10 hours of pool time a week when we didn’t have meets. Most of these girls only had 2 events at sections so it was really easy to get all the USRPT training they needed, especially when we focused on just those specific events.

Here is my new challenge. Our club team only has 6 hours(4×1.5 hour practices) of pool time a week and they can swim 7 events at our final meet (plus relays). I could see maybe fitting 3 sets(but it would be pushing it) per practice but that would only be 12 sets a week. If we need 3 exposures per week per event then that would only be 4 events to train for.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do? Has anyone had experience training for that many events in such a small amount of time?

Do I just train twice a week per event? Do I just train for the 4 most important events?

If I have a girl that I think will be doing 50 free, 100free, 200 free, 100 IM, 200 IM, 100 fly, 100 back, what would be the best way to train her?

My thoughts right now are to maybe train for events that could benefit each other. 200 free training could also get the last 50 of the 200 IM. 100 free could get the last 25 of the 100 IM. Maybe 100 fly training could be the training we need for both IMs as well. Not sure 100 back training will get the 50 in the 200 IM where it needs to be but it’d be better than nothing. Even with that we are already at all 4 events and haven’t trained for the 50 free or the breast legs of the IMs.

"Most people have the will to win. Few have the will to prepare to win."

[oldschoolc]

Billratio,
For me your best idea was getting her to narrow down and focus on 3-4 events. If you can’t then your thoughts are correct in that you are going to have to depend on some cross-over. When I have kids that swim multiples I use an IM approach and that way it will cover most of their events. The tricky one is the 50 free.

Here are some formats I’ve used.

Format I
25s fly
25s ba
25s br
50s fr

Format II
25s fly
50 ba
25s br
50s fr

Format III
25s fly
25s ba
50s br
100s free, seen a correlation of ½ the pace time equals 2IM spilt and covers our 200 free. Look at your race splits for IM and see if you see the same thing? Or could just be my kids.

I have tried 50s fly but the technical breakdown as numbers get higher I just won’t tolerate.

With the 50 free, it just doesn’t fit with the other events well. I’ve tried getting in 6-8 x 25s or 10-12 12.5s (with longer rests you know the routine :)) at pace right after warm-up to address the power aspect and keep away from CNS depression. We’ll do it 3 x per week.

Have fun!
Oldschool

"Only in America. Dream in red, white and blue"

[kevin]

Hey Billratio,

I wonder, in the 10-hr week, did you limit practices to 2 sets? What did you do with the rest of the time? I guess 10 hours = 5x 2hr practice?

We have 12 hrs/week (6x2hr) and for 2-hr practices we do 3 sets + 1 skill or 50’s set. Up until now we did a general build-up (each 100m 3x per week, 400m 3xweek and a few times 200m).
But I’m cutting this down a bit, because the kids seem too tired. We start preparing for the first big meet (in 7 weeks) and the goal is to do less sets/week but really focus on their best events and produce more volume/quality per set. I hope that turns out well.

Greets,
Kevin

[oldschoolc]

Billratio,
Got to thinking about number of sets within the time you have. So I tried something. We went 4 on Monday, 3 on Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday and Thursday and we’re going to repeat Wednesday’s workout today Friday. We were able to get 4 done in just 1.5 hours. (Not a lot of chit-chat but the kids actually liked the challenge).

What I did was reduce the numbers offered to “one shift” or the minimum it takes for projected one adaption. I’ve attached the results from Wednesday and Thursday just to show they are very capable of handling the work. It does bring up even more questions.

Just thinking,
Oldschool

"Only in America. Dream in red, white and blue"

[oldschoolc]

sorry about that. Trying to share data on this site is crazy with only 512k

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"Only in America. Dream in red, white and blue"

[billratio]

Kevin,
With our 10hr weeks we were doing 2-3 sets per day and lots of turns/starts/underwater work. It was really easy to get our training in when we only had 2-4 events to really focus on in that last month. I tried to pack as much race pace work as possible into those sets though. Multiple rounds etc. I think they got a bit tired but if they are resting when they miss they should be okay. They all claimed to be really tired and a lot of them didn’t get good times until we did the full rest for sections.

Oldschool,
Thanks for that info. I think as we get more experienced we will be able to make it work. Right now we are barely fitting 3 sets into a 1.5 hr practice. This is a completely different group than my high school girls so they are still learning how to do it and I’m still trying to get them to buy in. It seems to leave very little time for skill work though. I’m working on adding a 5th practice which should help a lot.

"Most people have the will to win. Few have the will to prepare to win."

[oldschoolc]

Billratio,
You bet it’s tight with regards to technical skill and race sets. It does become easier when the kids get it! I’ve still been playing with the 4 sets per workout and using their recovery as technical skill opportunities. They do have to be quick with the transition. I’ve been staying with Monday 4, Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4, Thursday 4 and Friday 4 with Saturday either 3 or 4 depending on needs i.e. technical or race pace work.

Just thinking out loud and if you can use it fine and if not you’re not going to hurt my feelings.

Oldschool

"Only in America. Dream in red, white and blue"

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