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Ausbalancierte Trainingsprogramme

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Kategorie: Training
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Bernie Wakefield

(Editor’s Comment: "Gone, but not forgotten")

 

The reasons you need to know how to balance a program are (a) So you can get major benefit from the program you set, (b) So you do not damage the swimmers from overstressing and (c) That they get suitable rest and recovery so that the body may adapt to one that is stronger, fitter and faster.

 

Recovery is active rest and means working at a slow enough pace and low enough speed to also let the adaptation take place. These are the two most important values in training -work and rest. One is indispensable to the other. The work, if it is hard enough, will strengthen and condition the body but before fast times can ensue, it first must be rested to enable recovery and therefore, adaptation to take place. Super-compensation, as the scientists call it sounds more like a big insurance payout but I guess it makes sense … to them.

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The ability to balance a program whether it is a Micro (weekly) or Macro (seasonal) or Meso (long term) program is the next most important factor in being a successful coach. To balance means to design a program, daily, weekly seasonal or frill swim-career that will be perfect for that swimmer. The correct formula of Work and Rest needs to be incorporated. Work, in this case means hard intensive workloads involving either aerobic or anaerobic principles. Aerobic can spin off to maximal aerobic and anaerobic to peak lactate type work.

 

The other side of the scale will show REST and its derivatives. Either total rest -meaning lying in bed sucking a sherbet or recovery type work such as slow to medium swimming doing drills or stroke and skill work or playing a light exercise game.

 

So far it has all looked very simple but now comes the difficult part of finding out what is best for your particular athlete and now we can look back at that word I mentioned before … OBSERVATION … and how very important it is to be able to read those stressful signs that are appearing in your swimmer after heavy or intensive workloads. Horses for courses.

 

Depending on how fit your squad is governs how much intensive work you program into those sessions and just when you program rest or recovery periods. Also, the type of intensive work. Generally speaking, the faster the work and amount of fast work – the sooner the period of rest needs to be. Long mileage sessions do not appear to break down the swimmer so fast but that depends too on the intensity of that particular set. The crux of the matter is to OBSERVE and note the changes. Watch the swimmer, listen to the swimmer and know your swimmer. Some will cry wolf too soon and others are far more stoical and tend to go too far before they call enough.

 

There can be no way I could show you a perfectly balanced program that you can take home and give to your swimmers. There are too many ifs to expect your squad to accept an exact copy of mine. And the biggest mountain we have to climb on the way is fitness. The fitter the swimmer in aerobic or anaerobic terms is the essence of the matter. The fitter the swimmer in terms of aerobic conditioning, the faster will be the recovery time.

 

If it is early in the season, two hard sets may be enough in your weekly program. Incidentally, I say weekly only because this period of time is convenient for me. If you had the pool space and the time I would suggest there are better micro cycles than weekly, however most of us are tied to a cycle of seven days because of work, school and space commitments.

 

It may well be that one hard session is enough in those early days of the macro cycle. The Chinese, with assistance from their chemists, showed us it is possible to place as many as five very hard sessions in these cycles. And if your swimmer is fit enough, it is possible to carry out that regime without stress occurring. Now here lies the rub. Without sufficient rest between hard sets there will be no adaptation. That is, the body cannot find time to manage the healing and strengthening processes.

 

This is how it works. If you do a hard session, the body accepts it as a kind of shock and puts into operation all its damage control modes – chemically and mechanically. All those little rips and tears to the muscle fibres are in the process of repair by all those emergency procedures the body contains. Another shock too soon after the last one and the body again swings into repair mode but this time some of its resources may not be ready or even able to repair so quickly or so efficiently. If you continue without sufficient rest to recover, the body’s natural repair system begins to disintegrate and one of the first systems to fail is the immune system. That means, dormant viruses become alive and start attacking, bacteria breeds indiscriminately and in a very short time, the swimmer is in deep trouble.

 

So, when do we know when to stop pouring on the workload and when to stop? Again we come back to that word, OBSERVATION.

I could give you a balanced program that I am now doing but it may not suit your squad, in fact I’m sure it won’t. So I am going to suggest you experiment and try going fairly hard early in the week when the body is rested from the weekend and topped up with glycogen supplies, to do your first hard set on Monday maybe PM – but that is not definite. Follow it up with a medium set of less intensity in the next session.

 

The next session, there will be some soreness and maybe some residual fatigue so either rest or do a slow recovery session. Don’t get carried away because you just had two good sessions in a row and the kids are still looking good. Also, do not get too involved with the overload principle and hit them with another hard set because everybody is handling it well. Watch very carefully for the vital signs of fatigue. You may decide a second hard set following the first hard set is okay if you work on legs instead of arms and that can be successful also, but just remember no matter what part of the body you are working those hard sets are stressful to the entire body.

 

It is generally accepted today there are two mainstreams of thought on training. The old school pursues the speed through endurance concept, one that still has many adherents and is a well-proven means of conditioning your swimmer whether he be sprint or endurance. The other method is the so-called "smart" way of training. It is the shorter way to fast times via the induced intensive method. This drops much of the aerobic work and concentrates more on working in the lactate producing range than the endurance concept. It is fraught with danger – but handled with care can have spectacular benefits.

 

I have another little story. At the Age titles in Sydney one of my boys came second in the 18 and under 1500 metres. Which led to a leading NSW coach to inquire if my next article would be on the brilliant new concept … ENDURANCE THROUGH SPEED. Just joking. Although I have to sometimes wonder if there is more of an endurance factor involved with short distance sprinting than we believe.

 

I do not believe there is a right method or a wrong method. I believe there are swimmers who will always need distance training and there are others who will thrive on the shorter and faster workloads. I believe both methods are successful and have been going long enough to prove to the most doubtful of all Thomas’ that champions can spring from either type of training.

 

I also believe that when we are able to cycle our programs over a nine or ten day cycle and be able to work at times of the day which are more suitable and not just convenient, then we will improve our training standards OUT OF SIGHT!

 

Well, so far I have only touched on programming and already I am getting in too deep. Back to the overload principle. It is a sound law that a progressively planned workload will result in an adaptation of the body. The biggest problem we have is monitoring that law to an individual basis. Everybody is different and everybody in the squad has different levels of fitness. Illness, school commitments and so on, but we cannot plan different programs for a squad of 30 or more so it has to be fairly general, bearing in mind the liners, the Sprinters of all strokes and the mid and distance people all need some specialised work.

 

However, you would be up all night if you planned for each individual. Not to mention the horrific problem of getting enough lane space to carry out those programs. So we have to compromise and adjust on the day, what everybody in the squad can get the most benefit out of the programs you have already planned in some detail and now has to be modified so every individual will gain maximum benefits. Like I said, a simple program but certainly not an easy one.

 

Now you are well into the season and most everybody has survived so far. It’s time to up the hard sessions to perhaps four per week. And of course, now the sets are becoming much harder. The spectre of overstress is now becoming real ... OBSERVE. Look for the signs of irritability, black rings around the eyes, poor appetite, weight losses, sore throats and a whole host of other symptoms. Learn them and learn to recognise them and do not hesitate to get the swimmer out of the water and rested – even if you only suspect. So much better to be safe than sorry. And what is a few lost sessions any way? Generally they relish the extra rest and come back fresh and raring to go.

 

When in Doubt REST!

 

I have written on scores of occasions on the horrors of overworked swimmers. A slightly overworked swimmer goes into a situation called OVERREACHING and this can be cured by a few days rest completely out of the water. The next stage is overtraining and that is a severe condition where the swimmer is chronically fatigued, falls ill every second week, picks up infections quickly, loses complete interest in training and so on. This is a serious condition and can lead to complications like Glandular Fever and even Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and believe me, many doctors may not accept that situation as a valid prognosis but I have seen it in all its colours. It is not pretty and almost incurable as it expands to a mental as well as physical condition.

Junior Programs

Let’s begin with the very junior. We will assume that this is a training squad not a stroke development or learn to swim class so everybody in the group has the rudiments of all strokes. Age – maybe 6 to 8 approximately. The work consists of stroke technique production so a lot of it will be slow swimming being aware of different parts of the stroke. My experience shows that this age group has a very low attention span and it can be traumatic getting them to think of more than one thing at a time. So something like – so many laps thinking only of one awareness drill. There are plenty of these types of awareness exercises that don’t require great communication skills to get your message across. Keep it simple. Drills are good with the little ones but stick to the uncomplicated ones that do not require too much concentration for long periods.

 

I base many of the programs of these juniors, on the senior’s schedules but with modifications. As they get older and more experienced then it is no problem for them to change lanes and squads because the work is familiar. I like to put some fun elements into their programs because we have to deal with the old enemy, football and netball! And all their attractions.

 

Short relays in many forms, catch-ups, handicap swims and many more have a place in junior programs. Many games can be played with kickboards to keep them from becoming bored. I intended to include in the handouts a copy of various fun sets that will keep their attention and have a definite training effect.

 

Keep demonstration swims by others to a minimum. These become boring and turn the kids off very quickly if they are not participating themselves. Still, it is a good concept, as a viewed perception is far better that an imagined one.

 

This group takes up a lot of the coach’s time and there was a period when I did all of them but now have assistant coaches to handle them. But it is great experience – and a lot of fun. The usual names for these three squads are Junior, Intermediate and Senior but others try to be a bit more clever and use terms like A, AA and AAA squads. The philosophy of junior squad teaching is – learning a good stroke and become reasonably efficient at swimming it for some distance-learning the skills of turning, finishing and starts and – enjoying the experience. Speed and endurance is limited in this class but as they progress both systems can be exercised.

 

I did not want to go into detail on the physiology of training but it still needs an explanation of the terminology used so I can explain just how a program should be balanced.

Fitness

First of all we will assume the swimmer requires conditioning. Now that means cardio vascular fitness and some strengthening of the muscles needed to propel the body. That is obtained by doing a variety of mostly aerobic work in the beginning. At first, at least for the first week it will be almost a total cycle of aerobic work but as the condition increases, then other work is introduced such as anaerobic threshold work and then lactate developing work which is also composed of many hues and colours. And of course not forgetting the speed work. We are all looking for speed in our swimmers no matter if they are swimming a 1500 or a 50-metre dash.

Energy Systems

It may be necessary at this point to briefly describe the energy systems involved and the training systems in use today. Without going into too much detail but bear in mind that a thorough knowledge of these is essential to sound coaching.

During the initial training there comes a time when aerobics are sufficient to raise the body’s fitness levels to begin a new phase, anaerobic. This system tunes in when the work the swimmer is doing is insufficient for pure aerobic capacity so the body turns on its various energy systems. One that supplies the body with most fuel is glycogen or the carbohydrate system. This is manufactured in the liver, then as glucose, it passes into the blood stream where it is processed into glycogen it enters the muscle fibres. This is called glycolysis. As this is the largest amount of fuel supplied to keep the activity constant it is necessary for the swimmer to maintain those glycogen levels by means of a sound carbohydrate diet and consumption of sports drinks during training.

ATP-CP is the phosphate system and this fuel kick-starts all muscle movement. It is used up very quickly in fast starts and short-sprints … 10-15 seconds … but it is replaced very fast by metabolic processes within the body.

Fats

This is a good source of fuel and contains twice the energy content as carbohydrates but it is very slow to burn. Comes from stored fat or free fatty acids in the blood.

Protein is another energy source but it only taps in significant amounts when other stored fats are exhausted. And we all know what protein means – it’s MUSCLE – and that means the body’s fuel sources are so low it is cannibalising itself.

Another source is lactate but it is also absorbed in tiny amounts and must go through many processes of metabolisation in the factory of the body to be able to be used as a fuel source.

Now that has been quickly explained I can go on to the various training methods that utilise these fuels and when and where.

I could give you an idea of how much of these training systems are in use on a weekly cycle based on a percentage but it does vary so much, dependant on the time of the macro cycle, the age and standard of the swimmers and how fit they are, so it might confuse you at this time.

We will assume that several weeks have passed and the swimmers are now ready for some heavier workloads. We now progress to anaerobic training and begin working in the area of lactate development. Many scientists believe that a large percentage of training should be done at just under the lactic threshold and that is when the lactate being produced is now rising to a level around 4mm per litre of blood and beginning to spill into the blood stream and causing some discomfort. Others believe it should be a little higher for a better value in fitness and possibly power.

Not a lot is known about this no man’s land except that it is a tentative and contentious area and exceptional care should be taken if you do work extensively in this region.

It is certain that the nearer you can work to Race Pace the better results you will get but there is a big IF connected to this kind of training and that is overstress or overtraining. If I get time I will dwell a little longer on those issues later.

All these varieties of lactate producing work are carried out in what is now called Heart Rate Sets although it is my belief we used similar sets in the past and called them stress sets.

The first set is called OBLA (Onset of Blood Lactate) or Anaerobic Threshold Sets. The requirement here is to hold the swimmer just under the threshold for the entire set. The second set is used by many coaches who call for their swimmer to either increase the HR to max very early in the set and then in the last few to not only keep the heart to max but also call for the times to get close to the racing pace required. This satisfies two needs…

  1. To get the swimmer fit to train at race pace and…

  2. To allow the swimmer to improve his/her race pace.

In this conundrum, what comes first … speed or endurance? Or can a subtle blend of both bring optimum results? It is suggested that these distances be increased to a set number and held and then work on increasing the race speed. At this stage it may be necessary to give the swimmer more rest time to enable this increase in speed to take place.

These sets vary in size and distance dependant on form of stroke or type of swimmer. They can be mixed distances – 50s, 100s or 200s but let’s work in 100s for easy explanation. A set of 30x100 would be a good set for endurance people like KP. But a group of age groupers around 12 years could handle 20 without any problem. The Go times would be 1.40 for him and most squads would stay on that figure. Form strokers could work off 2 metres. The idea is to produce some lactate and then carry it throughout the set to assist the body to accept that level or to tolerate increases week by week. A shorter go period like 1.30 may result in too much lactate being carried and invite an overreaching problem in the short term and an overtraining problem in the long term. A properly conditioned swimmer will recover within 24 hours or less from a heavy heart rate set.

How many lactate sets a week? Most coaches recommend two weekly and I have seen some coaches use as many as three successfully. I remain at one but there are other sets in my program which some may say are close to HR in their application.

So now let’s start with a week being a micro cycle and assume we are halfway through a season. I will use a 10-session week but obviously you will have to cut your cloth to suit your own requirements. Many of my swimmers are school swimmers and are satisfied with five to seven sessions weekly. A few sprinters or younger swimmers may elect for seven sessions. Only the distance and mid distance people aim for the 10 on offer. However I will go through the entire ten without going into fine detail and just explain the main sets or the type of sets and why we use them.

Monday AM consists of mild aerobic work of around 6k but 4k will be okay for intermediate swimmers. Use of pull buoys or paddle for strengthening is a good option for this session. Include a short session of very short sprints of around 100 to 200 metres total.

Monday PM could include a heart rate set and I would recommend a 2k set for the top group. Distance people can go up to 3k so a set of 20x100 can be done straight or broken into 2x(10x100) or 4x(5x100). The Go time is 1.40 but that can be extended out to 1.50 or even 2mm for the form swimmers. Some coaches elect to go on 1.30 but I feel they may carry too much lactate through the set and be unable to produce good times as well. My advice is to increase the rest period to increase the time and that may also have the effect of lowering the HR.

A recovery set of around 1k to follow and it is possible to fit a small skill-set of 1k+ without hurting the swimmers.

Usually the next session after a HR I would program a recovery session of some 4k possibly in another stroke or strokes to rest those muscles we used in the HR set. A mixed set of kick and swim would be a good set without putting in too much intensity. An example is 500 kick on 10mm + 200 Freestyle ez for stroke + 4x100 Kick on 2.15 + 200 Form drill on 3.30 + 6x50 Kick as exp. 25s on 1.15+100 Freestyle for stroke + 4x25 Underwater kick on 40+ 100 Form for stroke.

The next session I would again set a HR program but this time the emphasis would be on the legs. This takes the pressure off the arms and utilises the legs for training. One would think the legs need this type of work as the muscles of the legs are proportionately larger than arms or shoulders and certainly require HR loading. I find some swimmers can elevate their Hrs on kick sets some cannot. Another item that science can give us some answers on. You will find that most coaches will program their intensive loads in the PM and the recovery in the AM sets but nearing competition time they will program a number of intensive sets in the AM to become used to swimming a hard morning heat fast.

The next session following these two HR sessions is usually a rest session – either off or recovery. Sprinters have the session off, distance and 200 form people use it as an aerobic and skill session but it is a good time to rest completely and let some adaptation take place.

As the season progresses the next session after the rest (or recovery) can be an effort or a quality one at least. Mid season I like doing sets like this 10x100 on 2.30 at 90-95% of PB. Or 20x50 on 1.30 as fast sprints around 95%. These are dive starts and a good guide to where they are. Most can hold 90% for the 100s but the fitter ones should be able to nudge the 95.

Another is a 6x150 with a difference. These are on 6-8mm and include 150 swim down each swim. They are to be considered as 100m efforts during those first two laps, but at the 100 they turn and keep going to the next 50 in the SAME PACE – if they can. This is one murderously hard set in the peak lactate production range and I do not do it every week – maybe only 3 or 4 times a season. If it is done correctly there can be massive improvements but most swimmers will pace it at the same speed over the 150, which is hardly beneficial at all. They need plenty of geeing up to do this set properly.

Here is a mixed set of different values that can be done in this session. (400+50+50) or (200+50+50). The 400 is done firm at around 85% of PB on mm or 6.30. The next 50 on 60 is a jump out, dive and sprint to max in best stroke. The next 50 is easy on 60. Repeat up to four times. If I have to work sprinters and distance people together for this set, I will let the distance swimmer do the 200 (or 400) hard and the rest as easy so it becomes a 400 effort plus 100 swim down.

It would be wise to place a recovery session on next and I like to get a little mileage without hurting them so I would keep it aerobic include much drills and some kicks and the total session between 4 and 6k. Again, include a short distance high velocity sprint set. Something like (6x25+50 ez) x 4 on a 30 base. The afternoon session set could be a maximum aerobic set incorporating much short rest interval work. And utilise those strengthening devises such as paddles or tows. Mileage can increase to 6k or more. The next day the sprinters may be off again in the morning session and a mixed session of skill work, stroke work and perhaps some more strengthening work for the others is advisable – 4k maybe.

In the PM another intensive session is planned. This is the Race Pace session I devised for O’Neill for her 200 Butterfly in Barcelona, Canada and Rome ... and other big meets. I used the formula of 32x50 but that could rise to 40 for the Distance people. Dive the first one in each set of four and push the other three and add all times for a future PB. I like the Freestylers and Backstrokers to foot touch. All these 50s we do on the 60, with the 4th on 1.30 – in their best strokes and I like going in waves of whatever lanes I have at the time so they can swim against each other. This is a hard set also and good for any distance and form. It is close to Heart Rate work in this regard.

Nearing the taper period sprinters do these sets as 100s rather than 200s. Jason Cooper, who was very much a drop-dead sprinter, did most of his as broken 100s in 25s.

The next day being Saturday I never divulge what we are doing until I get there. Sometimes it is simply skill work and sometimes stroke work but every now and again we may do an over-distance swim of 3000 or less, timed or a step set of 5x200 or similar. During the week I may drop a rehearsal swim over full race distance on them when they least expect it.

We also do two sessions of gym work of one hour’s duration weekly for sprinters in the morning session, which cuts mileage down

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