Two Essential Measurements

I want to describe two essential measurements we must include in every performance training set.

If one is looking for genuinely efficient speed then there are two essential measurements to make in every swimming action:

 How does it feel?
 What does it produce?

The problem with noting how fast a swimmer went (or what place he/she got) in the race is that it doesn’t tell us what it cost that swimmer to produce that speed. Speed can be obtained at high cost or lowest cost (relatively speaking), and technique determines where each swimmer falls between those two. To some it didn’t matter how much it cost- the only thing that mattered was that she won. That may be fine for a one-off win, but that ignorance is not going to work for a career of winning and a lifetime of swimming. Competitors, and age, will eventually catch and crush an energy-wasteful athlete.

Efficient Speed

Time, pace, tempo, stroke length, etc – these only tell us what has been produced on the outside of the swimmer. They don’t tell us how well the swimmer used energy to produce them. For an assessment of the cost, the swimmer has to look inside the body…

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To read more of this article – Two Essential Measurements – visit Coach Mat’s Smooth Strokes Blog.

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