Reply To: Roadblocks to Adoption
Matt,
No filtering. We take the good with the bad.
On average there are 6 to 14 per event, does vary by year (right now I’m loaded with girl 100/200 Breaststrokers and boy 100/200 Freestylers, just the cycle?) they have to swim that event at least 4 times in a season. Minimum number of swimmers in an event is 4; have to have at least that to be included in the data. I don’t included events that have an “N” of only one or two as it’s not really valid like 400IM or mile. It would make the stats look better with improvement rates of 15% or better with an “N” of one. That’s why I posted no data on 400IMs/miles.
The total number would be 110ish. Figure a group turns over on average every 5 years with 22-24 in the group.
The reason I started tracking it was when we stopped lifting I want to see if it had any impact on performance and as you can see no real impact, actually better rates of improvement. My question would be “where’s the advantage to lifting?”
The 6’4” 200 beating the 6’4” 160 is a little simplistic saying the 40 lbs somehow makes him faster. I’ve watched the evolution of size from 1988 and yes guys are taller, a lot taller. To put a percentage on how many race under 200 is probably out there just accessing their race weight would be hard. I know Cesar Cielo races at under 200 lbs and was under 200 when he set the WR. Just last year he tried racing at 205 thinking that he need to be bigger and couldn’t get it going, dropped back to under 200 and is swimming well. Roland Schoeman also races under 200. (Personal communication with their coaches)
They are the pinnacle of the performance pyramid “cream rises to the top” with genetics, technical skill, ability to generate power in the water and a boat load of fast twitch muscle fiber. They train powerfully in the water i.e. explosive underwater work, 12.5s, 25s and 50s which is going to create a degree of muscle hypertrophy regardless whether they lift or not.
The issue of strength training in swimming has been well researched and the majority of the conclusions are that it’s not a determining factor for increasing speed. In a side note there has been research into strength and running i.e.sleds, wt. vests and the like and they found not much of a correlation to increasing running speed. My take away from the research was been if you want to run/swim faster, then run/swim faster.
just thoughts,
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