Every 6 weeks I like to test the swim squad over 400m. There are a few reason for this:
How much should a swimmer be improving? To be honest its impossible to put a benchmark figure out there, people improve for all kinds of reasons. What I hope is that the figures below give you a good idea of what is possible. Its goes without saying that the slower swimmers will obviously knock off bigger chunks of time, but its also worth noting that this is also true when we look at % improvement. The Results from 5/2/2014: (Without names!) 12:59 (12:55 6 weeks ago) 12:39 (18:00 6 weeks ago) 12:23 (13:24 6 weeks ago) 12:12 (17:10 6 weeks ago) 11:39 (12:40 18 weeks ago) 11:17 (14:27 6 weeks ago) 10:40 (14:55 18 weeks ago) 10:39 (10:45 (18 weeks ago) 10:11 (11:04 6 weeks ago) 9:23 (8:59 6 weeks ago) 9:07 (8:55 6 weeks ago) 8:33 (8:31 6 weeks ago) 8:24 (9:00 12 weeks ago) 7:52 (8:08 6 weeks ago) 7:52 (8:22 12 weeks ago) 7:48 (7:50 6 weeks ago) 7:40 (7:48 6 weeks ago) 7:17 (7:30 12 weeks ago) 7:17 (7:48 18 weeks ago) 7:15 (8:10 6 weeks ago) 7:11 (7:02 6 weeks ago) 7:04 (7:30 6 weeks ago) 6:40 (6:55 6 weeks ago) 6:33 (6:51 12 weeks ago) 6:24 (6:15 12 weeks ago) 6:24 (6:21 6 weeks ago) 5:47 (5:54 6 weeks ago) So that means: 20 ' Improvers' 7 'Non- Improvers' 6 'First Timers' (Didn't bother factoring these in to the stats) What can we learn? The 'Non Improvers' are all actually pretty close to their 'PB' from last time, so not a disaster, but the 'improvers' have knocked some considerable chucks of time off. The most notable improvements: 12:39 (18:00 6 weeks ago) 12:12 (17:10 6 weeks ago) 11:17 (14:27 6 weeks ago) 7:15 (8:10 6 weeks ago) 7:04 (7:30 6 weeks ago) 6:33 (6:51 12 weeks ago) Why might a swimmer NOT have improved? How many times has the swimmer been training outside of our group sessions? (We have 1 per week) The swimmer needs to be swimming at least 2 or 3 times per week to get a decent improvement. Is the swimmer ill, over-trained or feeling fatigued? Any one of these will effect the swimmers times. PBs don't happen every day. You need to be feeling good on the day to hit them, especially when you get to the quicker end of the times. Are the swimmers training at the correct speed? Quite often swimmers can be swimming too slow or too fast in training. There is a fine balance when hitting the right training speed. Its explained very well here by Swim Smooth: http://www.swimsmooth.com/training.html Are there any patterns in our 'Non Improvers'? Yes!... Two of them complained of feeling fatigued/tired before the test started. This will probably account for the small amount of time that they missed their PB by. Also, ALL of the 'Non Improvers' are swimmers that are swimming at the back of their training lane. This means they are possibly training at a pace that is slightly too fast for them. This can lead to going 'anaerobic' and also to scrappy messy technique. It may feel to the swimmer that they have worked very hard (they have!), but actually the training is not at an ideal pace. So what can we learn? Well most importantly... your hard training is working. Some MASSIVE improvements across the squad. It is possible that some people are swimming in the wrong lanes....and this could be effect swimmers improvements. So don't be suprised if in the next few weeks you have all been moved around a bit. Its to maximize everybody's improvements! Overall I am amazed by some of the improvements over the past 6 weeks! Lets hope for the same again next time! Until next time...! Adam Gibson Head Coach GreenlightPT
3 Comments
Ian
7/2/2014 05:26:33 am
Thanks Adam that's really interesting and helpful. I have definitely improved since moving down a lane and, while working hard, focussing on technique too.
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