Speed through Endurance

The title of this post is the famous principle by legend Forbes Carlisle and I was reminded of it by an article on swimnews recently pointing out that Ryk Neethling had finaled in both the 1996 and 2000 1,500 freestyle events then gold medaled in the 4 x 100 in Athens 2004.

The example of starting in the distance events before developing into a world-class sprint star is not unusual. Tom Jager (pictured in what has to be the best ever picture of a power start) first held the world 50m record on 6 December 1985 and eventually reliquished it on 16 June 2000, taking it from 22.52 to 21.81. However, the first time he qualified for US Nationals he did so on the 1,500. Mark Spitz held the 400m freestyle world record twice. Ian Thorpe combined a 48.56 100m and a 7:39.16 800m.

It's highly unusual for a swimmer to be good at short and long distances at the same time, although Shane Gould managed to hold the world records at all distances from 100m through 1,500m during the 1970's (FINA did not recognise the 50m at that time), and Brett Naylor won the NZ Championships at every freestyle distance, 50m through 1,500m, but they are exceptional exceptions. It's not unusual, though, for swimmers to stand out at different distances as they develop and mature. In these cases the pattern is invarably long to short, giving substance to the 'rule' that younger swimmers should be given a substantial diet of aerobic-based work and lending evidence to the 'command' of Carlisle; speed through endurance.

The Magical Number Nine (or Twelve)

Mark Spitz' seven gold medals in seven world records in 1972 remains the benchmark of a perfect swim meet but it could all be history in a few weeks time.

In early March I posted a blog entitled The Magical Number Seven about the possibility of club team mates Kaite Hoff and Michael Phelps each going for seven and the possibility that Hoff may do it BEFORE Phelps. One or both of them may make it to the cover of Rolling Stone magazine like Spitz did in 1973.

The USA trials start this coming Sunday, 29 June, and run through to 6 July, mirroring the eight days of Olympic competition and while Hoff has entered seven events with the possibility of making at least two relays Phelps has entered a staggering nine events and will likely make all three relays. Apart from his usual 100 and 200 on both fly and free and 200 and 400 IM he has decided to have a go at the 400 free, 100 and 200 back. So let's have a poll on how many world records he sets.

Trendy Excellence

Nick Thierry at swimnews kindly provided me with the results of all Olympic games and World Championships back to 1988. They provide fascinating reading to anyone interested in the trends and progressions in our sport.

I've transcribed them into graphical display and also converted the actual times in each event to FINA points. Nick won't like that because he invented the IPS points and they each use a different formula to produce the results, however the FINA system is open source so its easy for anyone to duplicate it on their computer.

FINA will update their points at the end of each Olympic quadrenniel but I've used the 2004 calculations right through from 1988 to 2007 for ease of comparison. See this article for a look at the changes over the years.

An interesting point of the analysis is the lack of pattern in many events between 1st, 3rd, 8th. and 16th places. Another is the significant rise in standard across most events at the 2000 Sydney Games. That was when Speedo introduced the new racing suits. This year with the next generation of suits from all manufacturers we are seeing an even greater jump in standards.

During the recent SCAT Conference I showed the series of graphs and you can see and download the Excel file here.

Bear Necessities

Tom's club competed in a country carvival type meet last weekend on Vancouver Island. It seems a splendid time was had by all but the highlight was something you're unlikely to encounter in Godzone:

'Warmdown at the meet was running around the play area and park next to the pool, the highlight of the first day came during a game of catch which was interrupted by a young bear wandering through the park!'

Three Vital Components

The design of corporate tests has been a thorn in the flesh of the High Performance Group for far too long; no one can agree which tests should be used, how often, for which swimmers, who should interpret the results and who should see them. It's not just New Zealand, it's the same the world over.

I've recently had a few queries from coaches asking about testing - which tests, what do they show etc? There's no single answer of course, as usual, 'It depends.' It depends what you want to find out. Clearly identify that and a test will mysteriously appear as if by magic.

I was surfing the world wide interweb this morning looking for examples of swim race models and, lo and behold, I came across an article I wrote for Swimming Technique magazine ten years ago.

It appears I have changed my name to Clice in the intervening ten years, however, I think two parts still reverberate as good analysis. The first is the segmenting of the race (any distance) into four parts; start and early meters, mid-race part 1, mid-race part 2, end part. Obviously for a 50m race the mid-race 1 and mid-race 2 segments are relatively short but they do conform with the now common training design technique of using 'speedcharts' to target specific race segment speeds. In longer events the mid-race 1 and mid-race 2 segments take on a different significance.

The other interesting concept in the article is what I call 'The Three Vital Components' of sporting performance. These are, Endurance-the velocity during, predominantly, aerobic work. The lactic acid value at maximum effort and the power relationship between these first two components.

Testing for these three components will tell you almost everything you need to know about any athlete.