Stop the Heart

Ernie Maglischo once said to me, 'Heart rate gets you into the stadium but it doesn't get you a good seat.' And, he's right.

Using HR prescriptions as the primary means of training intensity is stupid. Its a scatter gun approach which makes life too easy for the committed swimmers and too easy to cheat for the uncommitted. Swimmers can settle in to repetitions at, say, 160 bpm, and stay there with no real effort, commitment, concentration, focus or application at all. They can do the set brainless. Ask them to swim the same set holding a particular time, holding a particular stroke count and, just out of interest, watch what happens to their HR and you get a different story; they are now challenged. They have to think. They have to concentrate. They have to be conscious. They have to manage their technique, effort and application to complete the set correctly. While they're doing all that the coach can easily check their time and stroke rate and, therefore, know if they're 'holding steady' falling apart or randomly bouncing around all over the place.

Do not use heart rate as your primary intensity check. No two swimmers are the same, they have different maximums and different resting levels, therefore they have different functional ranges. Check out the FAQ's here and design your sets with layers of complexity starting with time targets, then stroke count or stroke rate targets as checks of effectiveness, then check what is happening to the heart rate as an indicator of improved or deteriorating efficiency.

Compile training times using the colour-coding system on the Cone, e.g. 10 x 200 'red' and have charts on the pool wall so swimmers can look up and learn their particular speed ranges for each colour zone. Recording test set information on a regular basis will enable you to do this relatively easily.

By all means have a heart but don't use it!