H2O Swimming Works

How you should train Ⓒ

1/10/2024

Many lap swimmers are self-coached or don’t have access to a qualified coach. We have varying reasons for swimming, but I have put this together to help those relatively new to the sport on HOW to train if you are seeking improvement. Fitness has 5 components so in order to be truly 'fit' you need to be working all 5 components.

1. Cardiovascular fitness (or aerobic fitness)
2. Muscle Strength
3. Muscle Endurance
4. Flexibility
5. Body composition.

With aging they all deteriorate unless you work at them, and we do need all of them to lead a healthy aging lifestyle. Next, there are 3 different systems you get energy from and unless you train all 3 in a systematic way, you are going to end up plateauing. Sadly, we will all get to an age where we stop improving simply because we are old, even if we do all of the above. The energy systems are:

1) ATP-CP system (Adenosine Tri-Phosphate and Creatine Phosphate) which is responsible for fast immediate action, such as running out of the path of an oncoming car while crossing the road. It is your maximum speed over short distances that keeps your reflexes sharp. The energy supply is stored ready for immediate use but only lasts about a short 20 seconds after which your body switches to the second energy source described below. It is typified by 100% effort over short, under distance sprints (Meaning less than 50 meters) with long rest and full recovery in between. Studies show it takes approx. 2 minutes to resupply the working muscles, so this informs us how to construct a sprint set. So you swim approximately how far you can go all out in 20 seconds. For most people this is about 25meters.

For an Olympic sprinter this might be 50 meters. Others may do only 20 or even 15 meters. But irrespective of ability, most squads will do even shorter distances over 10 or 15 meters at times to practice their skill work (Starts, turns and finishes). This develops explosive speed, power and muscle strength, so is good for toning muscles.

A typical set might be 8 x 25 maximum effort on 2 minutes, and you can also do easy swimming in between to aid recovery so you are fresh for each one. Your work:rest ratio is 1:3 or higher eg 20 seconds swimming/60 seconds resting OR MORE! You can also practice your dives or turns doing this set. A good turn set would be to start out from the wall 10meters, swimming in at maximum speed, turning and swimming out at maximum speed for 15 meters making 25 meters overall and working at executing a perfect approach, turn and streamline, plus breakout strokes.

2) LACTIC ACID System. Lactic acid which is an inefficient energy source is naturally produced in your body even at rest, but is metabolized through our circulatory system as quickly as it is produced so we rarely feel it's effects. Typically, we don't feel its effects until we do sustained speed. The Lactate builds up to a point where our kidney and liver can no longer metabolize it away, so that it progressively accumulates. Ultimately it is toxic, but most people will stop well before it ever gets to that sort of level. You will feel pain, heaviness, burning, and possibly nausea, and jelly like limbs. Elite swimmers may even push to the point of vomiting though I wouldn’t recommend it! We call it the 'blood and guts' training as you would be swimming at 80-95% of your fastest swimming speed.

Training in this system needs careful planning and monitoring as too much can lead to burnout or even a state of 'overtraining'. In a training program at an elite level for someone training 10 times a week, they would likely only have 2 sessions per week with a Lactic Production or Tolerance type set programmed, because of how stressful they are and the need to allow the body to recover for at least a day or 2 in between.

BUT if you do this sort of work your body can build up a higher level of tolerance to the lactate which means the effects of fatigue is delayed and you generally recover quicker. In racing it means you can finish your race fast even with high levels of lactate, instead of 'dying' at the end.
Warming down slowly facilitates removal of the lactate faster than simply stopping, which is why it is such an important part of a training or racing regime.

Work:Rest ratio is usually 1:1 or less. eg Swim 60 seconds/rest 60 seconds. Each successive repetition starts with increasing amounts of fatigue and times will drop off because of it - but that's the point - pushing through that - it's the 'No pain No gain' training. So, for someone who is a fast 100m swimmer with a PB of less than 55 seconds, they might swim 10x50s in 30 seconds or less, departing every minute. It is a tough set even though it is not long on distance. These sets build speed with endurance and the ability to swim fast under duress. If you are after weight loss and muscle tone, this is big bang for your buck, but only do these type of sets if you are fit, have built up to it and have your doctors blessing.

They ARE stressful and NOT recommended for anyone with injuries or medical conditions that might preclude them which includes colds/flu/ heart conditions/high blood pressure etc. If in doubt talk to your GP! notably they should NEVER be prescribed for prepubescent children and only cautiously used with younger teens as they can lead to burnout and turn kids off the sport altogether.

These first two energy systems are anaerobic in nature.

3) AEROBIC ENERGY which most people understand - trains your heart and lungs to better deliver oxygen to your working muscles and burns body fat as its fuel, and also helps develop muscle endurance. Within this sort of training there is a huge range of variation but generally it is at slower intensities (75% or less of your fast speed) with lower heart rates and over longer distances. Swimming purely in your 'aerobic' range means swimming at a comfortable speed that you can maintain. If you can't maintain it over increasingly longer distances you either are not aerobically fit (in which case set your goals or expectations lower) or you are swimming too fast.

Work:rest ratio is generally 3:1 or greater. In other words, swim for 30 seconds: rest for 10; Swim for 60 seconds: rest for 5 to 20 seconds; etc... As the distances increase, the rest has to remain short so if you are doing a set of, say, 5 x 200’s freestyle on 4.00 you might take 3min 30 seconds to swim it, which gives you about the maximum amount of rest - 30 seconds. Anymore and your heart rate lowers or recovers too much between repetitions. The short rests mean your heart rate remains moderately elevated throughout the entire set keeping it in the aerobic zone, but you can go a bit faster than if you just did a non-stop swim.

Swimmers in a coached program do most of their training using sets of shorter distances (repetitions) with short rest, rather than just swimming non-stop. This is true for distance and marathon swimmers as it is for sprinters. So, they might still do a 3km set but they might do it as 5x 200s on 4.00 + 10x 100's on 2.00 + 20 x 50's on 60. The total is still 3km but they will swim with more QUALITY and faster than if they do it without stopping! By working to a pace clock and monitoring how fast you swim each repetition, you can learn how to pace yourself for even swimming, holding the same speed over and over again.

It gives you direct, measurable, quantifiable feedback as to how you are going each session over the days, weeks, months and even years. It also adds a huge amount of variety and allows you to progress a set as you improve EG. 15x100m on 2mins but holding 1.45 each 100m will give you 15 seconds rest. If you can’t hold the 1.45 pace for all 15, do it on 2.05 or greater instead until you can master it.

Then you can either 1) increase the number of repetitions eg 18x100s on the same time 2) go slightly faster eg try to do all 15 in 1.43 or 3) cut down the rest eg 15x100 holding 1.45 on 1.55. The types of sets you can do are limitless but add variety and comparison when you repeat them over time. Note: Don't do the same set over and over again in a short period - this just gets you into a rut. Repeat it every couple of weeks. Do not expect you will improve every time as lifestyle factors always play apart, work, stress, sleep will impact a good swim from a poor swim.

Ultimately, a good program balances work in all 3 energy zones. For a swimmer who only swims 3 times a week you might do what I call a "mixed bag", where you do a bit of each type of work every session. If endurance is your goal, you still do your typical endurance set but you would ALWAYS still do some speed work either at the start of your swim when you are fresh or at the end of your swim. To get your lactic tolerance work in you might do your endurance set descending. In other words, you increase your speed or intensity toward the end of your swim finishing as fast as you can so your times get quicker, but increasing the amount of rest as you go.

For instance, a set totaling 2250m for a person who can hold 1.45/100m over long distance is broken into 3 x 400’s on 8 minutes swimming at 70% speed; 3 x 200’s on 4.00 @75 - 80%; 3 x 100’s on 3.00 at 85-90% and 3 x 50’s @95-100% on 3.00.

If you swim more than 3 times a week, you might dedicate one session working more with speed, and another more in the lactic range, but you should still do your aerobic work as drills, kick, pull or whatever, and other sessions for recovery or faster paced aerobic sets (anaerobic threshold which will be a topic for another time).

So how to train to get faster and swim further?

The MOST improvement will come with (first and foremost) improved technique and swimming slowly to get more detail, control and mastery.
Secondly, check your breathing as many lay swimmers do not have good breathing technique, over inhaling or exhaling too fast and through the mouth instead of gently through the nose.

Lastly, it is HOW you train.
A good coach will take away the guess work for you. Setting specific goals that you can work toward in training is also helpful so you can train specifically to those goals. But that's the subject for another time. Hope this helps.

Lighthouse parents have more confident kids

30/9/2024

First published: The Atlantic Daily 22/9/24. Shared from Apple News
Russell Shaw is the head of school at Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C. USA

Sometimes, the best thing a parent can do is nothing at all.
When my son was a toddler, he liked to run in our driveway until he fell. He would then turn to me to see if he was hurt. If my face betrayed worry or if I audibly gasped, he would wail. If I maintained equanimity, he would brush himself off and get back to running. Learning that I could so powerfully influence his mental state was a revelation. Here was this human being who was counting on me to make sense of the world—not just how to tie his shoes or recite the ABCs, but how to feel.

Years later, when he was in middle school, this lesson came back to me. One night while doing homework, my son told me about a classmate who had been unkind to him. My first instinct was to rush to fix it—email the parents, call the school, demand action. (Calling his teachers would have been complicated, given my role as the head of the school.) But instead of reacting, I paused. “That sounds hard. What did you do?”

“I decided not to hang out with him for a while,” my son replied. “I’m going to try playing soccer at lunch instead.” “That’s a great solution,” I said, and he went back to his homework. These otherwise ordinary parenting moments crystallized for me an important truth: Sometimes, the best thing a parent can do is nothing at all.

Parents of any age can conjure up the feeling they had when they first held their child and thought, Oh. Here you are, this person whom I’m in charge of. And they can tell you that no single piece of parenting wisdom can prepare you for this new, magical, terrifying endeavor. Parenting is joyous and challenging and sometimes stressful. In fact, a recent advisory from the surgeon general argues that parenting is hazardous to people’s mental health.

The report cites a range of factors that are contributing to a perilous parental landscape—from the complexities of social media to worries about children’s safety. It goes on to propose an array of solutions, including investments in child care and federal paid family leave. There’s no question that many American parents desperately need more support. Yet the surgeon general is missing one important strategy that is within the control of every parent: a look in the mirror. What if the ways in which we are parenting are making life harder on our kids and harder on us?

What if by doing less, parents would foster better outcomes for children and parents alike?

I’ve spent the past 30 years working in schools, and I’ve watched thousands of parents engage with educators and with their children. Too often, I watch parents over-functioning—depriving their kids of the confidence that comes from struggling and persevering, and exhausting themselves in the process. Although this has been true throughout my career, it’s growing more acute. Most Americans now believe that young people will not be better off than their parents. They see greater competition for fewer resources—be it college admissions, jobs, or housing. Parents are scrambling to ensure that their kids are the ones who will be able to get ahead.

We’re biologically wired to prevent our children’s suffering, and it can be excruciating to watch them struggle. A parent’s first instinct is often to remove obstacles from their child’s path, obstacles that feel overwhelming to them but are easily navigable by us. This urge has led to pop-culture mythology around pushy parenting styles, including the “Helicopter Parent,” who flies in to rescue a child in crisis, and the “Snowplow Parent,” who flattens any obstacle in their child’s way. A young person who grows accustomed to having a parent intervene on his behalf begins to believe that he’s not capable of acting on his own, feeding both anxiety and dependence.

I want to make a case for the Lighthouse Parent. A Lighthouse Parent stands as a steady, reliable guide, providing safety and clarity without controlling every aspect of their child’s journey.

Here’s an example: A child comes home feeling overwhelmed by school and frustrated that she is doing “all of the work” for a big group project that is due next week. The over-functioning parent is ready with an array of next steps: “Why don’t you assign the other group members what they each have to do?” “You should put your name next to all of the parts that you did so the teacher gives you credit.” “I’m going to email the teacher so she knows that you’re doing all of the work.” These tactics may address symptoms, but they fail to get at the underlying issue. They also inadvertently communicate to a child that what’s needed is parental involvement. Sometimes what a child needs is simply to be acknowledged: “Wow, that sounds like a lot.” “I can tell you are working really hard.” “Do you have ideas about what you want to do?”

Like a lighthouse that helps sailors avoid crashing into rocks, Lighthouse Parents provide firm boundaries and emotional support while allowing their children the freedom to navigate their own challenges. They demonstrate that they trust their kids to handle difficult situations independently. The key is learning when to step back and let them find their own way.

One of the most important shifts that parents can make is learning to substitute our impulse to fix problems with the patience to listen. A fix-it mindset is focused on quick solutions, at quelling or containing emotions or discomfort; listening is about allowing emotions to exist without rushing to solve a problem. Listening teaches resilience; it communicates confidence in your child’s ability to cope with challenges, however messy they might be.

As children grow, parents must move from the role of boss to that of consultant. When our children are young, we make nearly every decision for them, from what they eat to when (in theory) they sleep. Little by little, we remove the scaffolding, creating freestanding adults who have internalized our values and have the capacity to embody them in the world. At least, that’s the idea.

If children never have the opportunity to stand on their own, we risk setting them up for a collapse later on. They must experience struggle, make mistakes, and learn from them in order to grow. In fact, learning any skill—whether it’s coding, painting, playing a sport—requires repeated missteps before mastery. And yet, in an educational landscape fueled by perceptions of scarcity, students can absorb an unconscious and unintended message that mistakes are permanent and have no value. Too many kids think that their parents want unblemished transcripts, and in pursuit of that unattainable goal, they sacrifice opportunities for growth.

An aversion to owning mistakes can be most visible when it comes to student discipline. Adolescents cross boundaries—this is part of growing up. When they do, they receive feedback on their transgression and ideally internalize that feedback, ultimately making the desired values their own. When a teenager plagiarizes a paper or arrives at a school dance under the influence, one part of a school’s response is disciplinary—it’s a way of providing feedback. In the moment, students don’t thank us for administering a consequence.

I have yet to hear a student who has been suspended say “Thank you for helping me learn a lesson that will serve me well in college and beyond.” Instead they say “This is unfair” or “Other kids were doing it too.” This is when parents need to stand shoulder to shoulder with the school, communicating a clear and aligned message to support their child’s growth. But parents are often more worried about their child’s future college applications than they are about having their child internalize valuable lessons. When parents seek to control outcomes for their kids, they are trading short-term wins for long-term thriving—they’re trading the promise of a college bumper sticker for a happy, well-adjusted 35-year-old.

In the 1960s, the psychologist Diana Baumrind described three parenting styles, which researchers building on her work eventually expanded to four: authoritarian, permissive, uninvolved, and authoritative. Authoritarian parents make all decisions for their children with little room for negotiation. Permissive parents avoid conflict by setting few boundaries, often leading their children to struggle with discipline and focus. Uninvolved parents are disconnected, providing minimal support or structure. Authoritative parents allow for some flexibility, combining clear expectations with the willingness to listen. Authoritative parents are Lighthouse Parents.

They are clear on values, but open to a range of ways in which those values can be put into practice; they balance structure and autonomy. The research shows that authoritative parenting yields the best outcomes for kids, and tends to produce happy and competent adults. Although this framework may seem simple or even intuitive, too many parents struggle to adopt it.

All parents show up as authoritarian, permissive, uninvolved, or authoritative at different times, depending on the situation and on what’s unfolding in their own lives. But remembering to put parenting in perspective, focusing on long-term outcomes over short-term saves, can reduce some of the stress of parenting while also yielding better outcomes for children.

Yes, parenting can be stressful. But when we trust our children to navigate their own course—with us as steady and supportive guides—we lighten our own load and empower them to thrive.
Russell Shaw is the head of school at Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C.