Speed

Research and scientific training enjoyed by athletics, has always been well ahead of that available to swimming. Interval training, the foundation of most swimming programmes came from athletics. In fact, very little meaningful scientific research on the physiology of swimming training is available. This, no doubt, is due to the fact that there are very big financial rewards and commercial profit in athletics. It is only relatively recently that swimming dropped the amateur code and has attracted some financial interest, and a measure of spectator and sponsor support, at least in South Africa.

Athletes in all sports have potential for different events; muscle fibre types, to a great extent, seem to select individuals for particular events. For example it has been found that sprinters have a low 26% of Type 1 ST (slow twitch fibres). Swimmers and cyclists 50% ST; Middle-distance runners 45 – 52% ST; Elite distance runners 72 – 88 ST.( Fink et al 1977)

But now, however, it seems that the above percentages could change. Prof Noakes in Lore of Running 4^th edition has this to say: “However, as the longer distances , especially the standard marathon, become more lucrative and therefore as attractive as track running, the elite middle-distance runners with a higher percentage of Type 2 FT(fast twitch) fibres will begin to dominate these races. Our data on world-class black distance runners shows this to be the case; these runners have between 40-60% Type2 FT fibres. Certainly, I would predict that the sub-2 hour marathon….will not be achieved by a runner with a low proportion of Type 2 fibres”.

What has all this to do with swimming? Muscles perform the same whatever the sport; So how does the famous Arthur Lydiard statement relate to swimming: “ The sprint test is the best way to judge your potential….All the training in the world won’t make you a champion…If you can’t run a 400 in 51secs, you can’t run an 800 in 1:50sec. And if you can’t do that, you don’t have a chance in today’s racing circles”.

If you want to swim way under 15 minutes for the 1500m, what should your 100m look like? Where should you be concentrating for a 400m? How are you going to find your way down or up from 1500m to 100m or the other way around? Can you only swim any longer distance other than at a certain percentage of your fastest 100m time? Some opinions from coaches would be interesting, please lets have your thoughts. I have followed the performance of a few stars like Perkins and Hackett and Thorpe. Both Perkins and Hackett have fair 100m times, 50-51’s; Is that the cut off for success in longer races? It is almost impossible to type Thorpe 48+, I believe he could choose almost anything and win, but I don’t think that even he, can go to 1500m and still be tops in the shorter distances. Before trying to determine the possible answers to the questions, I’ll await some opinions. There is a known warning that ‘speed kills’. As one coach said…”It does too, if you haven’t got it”.