Coach - Do you sacrifice training distance for time to work on technique?
Swimming Blog
Quantity vs. Quality?
Does this sound like a familiar training question? It does to me - - and it is one of the most frequent questions I get from swimmers and parents. Unfortunately, the question is usually prompted by either an injury or a performance plateau.
My answer to that question often begins with an analogy: If you practiced your regular, less-than-perfect golf swing a thousand times, will it be more effective? Probably not. In fact, if you do anything with an ineffective technique, repeating it will improve your endurance, but not your technique. Unless you also work on improving your technique, you’ll never swim your fastest.
A related, critical point is that an ineffective arm motion not only makes you swim slower, but can also stress your shoulder joint. Countless repetitions of such a motion can seriously injure a swimmer, in some cases ending a promising career. Over the years, many fast swimmers came to me in pain, disappointed, and on the verge of quitting.
Hopefully, you begin each training session focused on technique. In your next workout, check how far you swim before your stroke seems “automatic” and you are not “intentionally” controlling your technique. How far did you get?