Speed Reserve for Middle and Long Distance Swimmers

The Importance of Speed for Middle  and Long Distance Swimmers

The eternal coaching question – how much speed is necessary for endurance athletes?

At the present time in world swimming there are many opportunities for swimmers who are capable of sustaining fast speeds over middle and long distance races. Particularly in woman’s swimming where World and Australian Records have stood for many years, the ability to be fast over 400, 800 and 1500 metres presents a great opportunity for the female swimmer prepared to do a little work and focus on these events.

There is no doubt that endurance is a key factor in these events. However, there is no question that competitive endurance athletes need some speed.

1. In close competitions the ability to sprint fast away from the opposition or to a point in the race is important. In open water swimming for example, a burst of speed might be important to break away from a pack of swimmers, to sprint to a turning buoy first or to sprint from one pack up to another.
2. The ability to explode off the start, in and out of turns and over the final five metres in a tight finish is also important.
3. Developing the ability to swim faster training repeat times over one season or many seasons is dependent on having improved endurance and being faster over a single effort.

In the preparation of middle and long distance swimmers it is important to balance the amount of speed with the amount of endurance in the training program.

For example:

Training goal = 24 x 100 metres on 1:45 Holding 1:10 (best 100 time in competition = 1:09)
In this training set, the swimmer is aiming to hold one minute ten seconds for each 100 metre effort. However, as the swimmer’s best time for a single 100 metre effort in competition is 1:09 it is unlikely that holding 1:10 for twenty four 100’s is possible to achieve.

The principles of Energy system specificity suggest that maintaining 100% maximum for longer than 6-10 seconds is not possible. Therefore, it is logical to say that in most sporting events athletes spend the majority of training and competition working at sub maximal intensities.

In reality most athletes have difficulty maintaining more than 90% of maximum for very long.

Should the swimmer’s best time for a single 100 metre swim be 1:02 – 1:03 and importantly they have done adequate endurance training to resist the fatigue of swimming many 100’s, then holding 1:10 is far more realistic.

This, then, is the challenge. To enable the swimmer to swim faster than 1:09 they need do have done some speed training to develop that speed. Yet, to maintain 1:10 over 24 x 100 metres also requires great endurance.

Speedand endurance are in fact two sides of the same coin. Both are needed if the swimmer is to achieve maximum potential.

For example:

If a swimmer’s 100 metre best time is 60 seconds, it is likely and logical that their best 50 metre time is around 27.5-28 seconds. To swim a 27.5-28.0 second 50 metre swim, it is likely that the swimmer can swim around 12.5-13.5 seconds for 25 metres. And to swim 25 metres in 12.5 seconds requires the development of genuine speed.

Three of Australia’s leading male middle and long distance swimmers in recent years are Olympic Gold Medallists Kieren Perkins, Grant Hackett and Ian Thorpe. At a distance of 400 metres these three swimmers are able to swim around 3 minutes 45 seconds or an average time per 100 metres of around 56 seconds. In competition Perkins, Hackett and Thorpe have gone much faster over the first 100 metres (approximately 53-54 seconds) in middle and long distance races.

In order to go out at that speed they must not be at 100% or maximum speed or they would “blow up”. They must have a “speed reserve” and be at a relatively comfortable pace over the first 100 metres or their last 300 metres would be very slow owing to the level of fatigue, lactic acid etc.

When you consider that the 100 metres best time for the three swimmers is around 50 seconds it can be argued that they have a speed reserve i.e. traveling at 56 seconds per 100 metres is reasonably comfortable as it is approximately 6 seconds outside their best time.

In female distance swimming the benchmark is US swimmer Janet Evans whose world records set in the 1980’s still stand. Her world record marks in the 400 and 800 metres freestyle were seconds faster than the winning times for both events at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. Her 400 metres freestyle world record of 4:03 is outstanding. Her 8:16 remarkable. Her endurance capacities are unmatched, yet, if her best 100 metre time was only 1:02, these fast times over longer distances would be impossible. Obviously she had the ability to swim fast and to sustain speed over 400, 800 and 1500 metres.

The Concept of Speed Reserve

The concept of Speed Reserve suggests that the limiting factor in Eliteendurance performance will be speed. This is not to say that speed alone is the key to endurance success.

Endurance training, long aerobic work and steady rhythmic sets are the core elements of the distance swimming program. However, in the end it is not so much the swimmer’s ability to swim long distances but to sustain high speeds for long periods that will win races over 400, 800 and 1500 metres.

A swimmer who struggles to break 1 minute for 100 freestyle, is unlikely to break 2 minutes for 200 freestyle or even come close to 4 minutes for 400 and so on.
However, a swimmer with a 55 second 100 and a solid endurance background has every possibility of swimming sub 2:00 and sub 4:00 because of the speed reserve factor.

Periodisation and Speed Reserve.

Over time, swimmers aim to swim their training sets at faster times.

For example:
Season one: Training Goal = 10 x 200 freestyle holding 3:30
Season two: Training Goal = 10 X 200 freestyle holding 3:20
Season three: Training Goal = 10 x 200 freestyle holding 3:10
In each season the swimmer is getting fitter, stronger, maturing, perhaps growing and improving.

However, swimming faster times in training sets is dependent on two key factors:

• The swimmer’s endurance ability is improving
• The swimmer’s best time is improving.

The trick is to combine the development of SPEED with the much needed ENDURANCE so that over time both improve allowing the swimmer to:

• Do more work
• Do more work faster
• Do more work faster with less rest
• Swim faster in single efforts

Coaching Implications:

Develop real speed in endurance athletes in addition to developing endurance. In the end, the limiting factor to endurance performance will be a combination of speed, enduranceand technical ability (swimming technique and skill).

The optimal conditions for speed development are:

• Glycogen repleted
• Hydrated
• Motivated
• Interested – focused
• Un-fatigued
• Low levels of lactic acid

Within these conditions, swimmers have the ideal physiological and psychological conditions to develop real speed.
These conditions are generally found at the beginning of sessions. However, there is a strong argument to do speed sessions at the end of workouts when race conditions are more closely simulated. That said, it is unrealistic to expect that speed improvements can occur in those conditions experienced at the end of workouts. The emphasis should be on technical proficiency and stroke control at speed when tired rather than on speed alone.

Speed development Workout Structure (Optimal Conditions)

• Warm up
• Stretch

Speed development

• Easy Swim
• Stretch
• Easy, relaxed swim session
• Swim Down

Speed Training at the End of Sesions(see T.U.F. Training)

• Warm up
• Stretch
• Skills / Technique
• Fitness / Main set

Speed training – emphasis on technique and distance per stroke

• Swim Down
• Stretch

The development of real speed is very much neuromuscular (nervous system and muscles working together). What type of training activities stimulate neuro muscular development?

• Short distances
• Long rests
• Limited reps
• Stimulating environment

Develop speedand relaxation at the same time. Young swimmers in particular tend to “tighten up” and tense their muscles when asked to go fast. “The faster you want to go, the more relaxed you have to be”.

The latest thinking on overspeed work, i.e. pulling or pushing swimmers at faster speeds than they can go under their own power to try and force an improvement in speed, suggests that technique should not be compromised for overspeed training. The old “spinning arms” drills for freestyle and backstroke should be abandoned!!!!!Overspeed training should not be more than 1% – 2% faster than the swimmer can travel under their own power as at faster speeds, technique breakdown is significant. In a race, swimmers win by maintaining excellent technique and stroke control at maximum speed.

When developing speed in age group swimmers, often the trick is to keep their attention and maintain some order and discipline during the sets. Speed development sets are by their nature (long rests, short distances, stimulating environment) an open invitation for age groupers to lose focus and misbehave. It is important to have a range of sprint games on hand to maintain control of the workout.

Active recovery is the practice of doing a slow controlled swim between fast efforts. For example:

10 x 50 as Explode the first 15 metres, easy recovery swim 35 metres on 1:30 is an example of a speed development set with a fast explosive effort (15 metres) followed by an active recovery (35 metres).

The active recovery allows the swimmer to break down lactic acid and blow off carbon dioxide and provides the opportunity for the swimmer’s nervous system to recover. Active recovery is essential when doing repeated explosive speed intervals to ensure that the swimmer is capable of producing maximum speed each time.

Mark short distances on the side of the pool (5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, 15, 20 metres). These are important short distances for speed development work. By having them marked on the side of the pool (or even better marked with colored tiles on the bottom of the pool if you have an understanding pool owner) the coach can standardise the distances of speed intervals so they can be accurately recorded and tracked over time.

Speed development training can start with relatively young athletes. We know that the physiology of the young swimmer is capable of learning to swim fast. At around age 10, most athletes will possess:

• An almost fully developed aerobic potential (i.e. the potential to handle aerobic training loads and easy, low intensity training)
• The ability to learn new skills and learn complex co-ordinated movements
• The ability to produce fast movements through the co-ordination of the nervous system and muscular system.

However at the same time, we know that children do produce lactic acid but have difficulty dealing with it!

In coaching practice this means:

• Kids can do easy aerobic work.
• Kids can do stroke development work, technique work and skills work.
• Kids can do short sprints.

Kids will struggle with long, sustained sprints and in practice training sets such as 6 x 100 at Maximum speed with long rests / 8 x 50 at maximum speed with long rests etc should be avoided in young swimmers.

Like all swimming training activities, speed development is multi disciplinary. Maximum racing potential is achieved when the swimmer:

• Has a great technique
• Has excellent skills
• Has an excellent distance per stroke
• Has a strong desire to succeed and the motivation to go fast
• Has done the necessary strength, fitness and flexibility work
• Has maintained a high performance diet.

Having the physiological capacity to produce speed without the skills, attitude, technique etc to support that capacity will not produce optimum results.

Ten Speed Development Sets for Age Group Swimmers

1. 10 x 10 x 10. (Ten times 10 metres in ten minutes). Swimmers have ten minutes to produce 10 maximum speed swims over 10 metres. These can be from a wall outward or swimming in towards a wall. (TIP: When doing explosive starts that end mid pool i.e. not on the wall, have the swimmer finish with a race type finish and pretend (visualise) finishing on a wall. Having no wall is not an excuse for practicing sloppy finishes.
2. 15 x 15 x 15 (Fifteen times 15 metres in fifteen minutes)
3. 10 x 50 metres as 15 metres explode start, easy 35m with excellent technique
4. 10 x 50 metres as easy 35 with excellent technique – 15 metres explode finish.
5. Odds and evens of above (i.e. on the odds 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th repeats first 15 metres are Explodes on the even repeats 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th Explode the final 15 metres).
6. Half way Hots – (short course) Explode to half way. Rest 45 seconds. Explode to the other end. Repeat x 12.
7. Jump starts – Stand at half way (short course). Sink to the bottom, then spring quickly and powerfully up and forward. Use the momentum from the jump to help pick up speed. Explode to the wall.
8. Nine stroke power swims. Swim nine strokes at maximum speed in free and back. Note where you finish at the ninth stroke. Easy swim back to the start then try again. Goal is to see how far you can go on nine strokes at maximum speed. (Teaches distance per stroke at speed). For fly and breast try six strokes.
9. Super speed with a friend. Have a teammate put on fins and grab a kick board. Side by side race to the 15 metre mark. Change over. On the way back to the wall, you use the fins and board and your team mate swims. Motivating. Develops team spirit. Develops fast swimming and fast kicking.
10. Dive explodes. Just as it sounds – dive in and explode for 10-15 metres. Swim slowly to the other end of the pool. Repeat x 8-12.

Speed Reserve Summary

Distance swimmers need to have a program that is based on endurance training and aerobic development. This type of training helps develop the physiological and biomechanical factors that lead to efficient movement. It also helps develop rhythm and relaxation – two crucial factors in swimming successfully over the longer distances.

However, the emphasis needs to be on endurance and speed. Being able to swim 100 x 100 metres at a speed 5 seconds off your best time does not in itself guarantee being able to swim well over longer distances IF your best time is not very fast.

The aim at elite level is to be able to swim as close as possible to maximum speed for an extended period of time. If maximum speed is not very fast, then all the swimmer can do is sustain mediocrity. A swimmer not capable of breaking one minute for 100 freestyle is unlikely to come close to two minutes for 200 freestyle or four minutes for 400 freestyle, etc etc.

Whilst it is difficult to develop enduranceand speedsimultaneously, all programs should include a logical mix of both.

My thanks to Track and Field Sprint Coach and Sports Scientist Adrian Faccioni and leading Australian Distance Running Coach, Sports Scientist and author Dr Dick Telford for their inspiration for this article.

Wayne Goldsmith