Sprinter = Slacker?

Every team has that one huge guy. He's the guy who's 6'4" and jacked out of his mind. He's normally the guy leading the lane at the start of the aerobic test set of 21x100s @ 1:10. By number 15 he's the guy who has fallen to the back. By number 20 he's the guy sitting out, but on the last 100 he decides to swim. With that extra rest from skipping a few repeats, he goes a 49 for the last 100 while the rest of your lane barely breaks 53. He's a sprinter and, by many standards, a slacker.

This generalization isn't entirely fair, though. Yes, someone who specializes in the 50 and the 100 will overall swim less yardage than a miler or a 400IMer, but does that make him a slacker?

One of my buddies on the team at school is a sprinter. Stick him in anything 100 or under and he'll be great, but the guy won't go near the 2free. His sets are normally in our 20-yard diving well and are normally comprised of a few rounds of moderate to fast swimming followed by recovery. The emphasis of his practices is on intensity, stroke rate, explosiveness, and stroke technique.

I have another friend who's a miler. She's always one of the last people in the pool, either because her set isn't finished or because she's still warming down. Her workouts are normally 7000+ yards. The emphasis of her practices is on pacing, stroke rate, aerobic fitness, and stroke technique.

Notice anything? Both ends of the spectrum focus on stroke rate, stroke technique, and speed work. The only difference is in the athletes and how they're conditioned. It's true that if you threw a sprinter into a distance set, they'd die. But the reverse is also true. Have a distance swimmer train sprint for a week, and they'll probably feel like it's easy at first. Have them then swim the 50 free after that week against other sprinters and see how they place. While they won't be terrible because of their overall ability as a swimmer, they'll most likely be out-placed by the sprinters.

Sprinters also spend considerably more time in the weight room than other swimmers. After a certain point, there's only so much that high-intensity-low-yardage sets can do for a swimmer. The difference will then come from the weight work put in. At 6:00 in the morning, our distance guys are in the water for their first big workout of the day. Our sprinters, however, are either doing power rack in the diving well or lifting in the weight room. Our distance guys rarely lift as much as the sprinters. Ask any swimmer what it feels like in the middle of the season to swim after a big weight workout and we'll tell you that it sucks. Lifting breaks you down and works your muscles in a way different from how swimming does. Add onto that a 4000-5000 yard sprint set, and you'll start to see sprinters in a different light.

So, sprinter = slacker? I don't think so.

Until next time, keep swimming.