Triathlon swimming made easy by Terry Laughlin Read Free Book Online Page A

have pointed out that, at top speed, sprinters usually don't race with both hands in front of their head (though most of the fastest middle-distance and distance swimmers do). And it's true that swimmers who practice FQS too rigidly can find themselves restricted from reaching the stroke rates necessary to swim fast in 50- and 100-meter races. So let's clarify how you can find out if it's really advantageousfor your swimming and, if so, how to apply it properly.
    Because this book is written for triathletes, it's important to point out that freestyle sprinters race at a stroke rate (SR) of up to 100 arm-strokes per minute, while the best SR for most triathletes is just 50 to 60 strokes (25 to 30 stroke cycles) per minute. At that SR, it should be quite easy to maintain FQS (or semi-catch-up) timing with no sense of restricting your ability to swim freely and rhythmically. But even so, we always encourage swimmers to experiment with a range of stroke timing at a variety of speeds and stroke counts to find the timing that feels best to you. Here's how to do that.

    Finding Your Best Stroke Timing
    At TI workshops, we describe FQS as the most "negotiable" of the skills we teach. Practicing the Switch drills that teach FQS timing will allow you to discover for yourself whether you can make FQS feel comfortable and natural. A small percentage (less than 10%) of all the students I've worked with have found that FQS timing inhibited their natural sense of rhythm. We advised them to use the Switch drills to add just a bit more awareness of length to their strokes without disrupting their natural rhythms in whole-stroke swimming.
    For the great majority — and particularly the slower-stroking triathletes — who can adopt FQS with a rhythm that feels comfortable, I explain that this is nonetheless still a practice strategy for imprinting timing that is not natural or instinctive. Do a good job of that by purposefully and consciously working on FQS at lower speeds in training, and when you start chasing the pack on race day, the nervous system will just know how to maintain the greatest efficiency at what feels like an appropriate and sustainable SR. You'll be able to swim freely at the stroke rates and rhythms that move you fastest.
    What about those of you who might like to swim a short freestyle event in a Masters meet? Is it true that FQS doesn't work if you need to swim really fast? I can only say that I personally watched Alexander Popov for a cumulative total of several hours, both in meet warmup/warmdowns and in practice, while he was in New York for the 1998 Goodwill Games. Other coaches I know have also observed Popov's practices during his visits to the USA, for anywhere from a couple of hours to three weeks. And we all observed the same thing: He swam most of his practice laps relatively slowly with impeccable form, and every stroke on those slower laps was done with FQS timing.
    The payoff comes on race day when, as a result of this rigorous nervous-system training in practice, Popov maintains greater stroke length at his highest stroke rate than do swimmers who fail to practice FQS. That's also why he held his form better in the closing stages of races, and won so many races over the final 10 to 15 meters.
    I wanted the sprinters I coached at West Point to be able to do that too, so here's how we got the best out of FQS while ensuring they had the necessary SR for short races. At super-slow practice paces, we consciously practiced the greatest degree of overlap or FQS timing. As the pace increased, we gave up overlap bit by bit, trying to hold on to as much as possible without feeling restricted. I instructed them, as they approached race pace and race tempo, to just do what feels most natural.
    The results, over the course of each six-month season during my three years coaching at West Point, were undeniable: a significant improvement in the SL my swimmers were able to maintain at their highest speeds. And by season's