There has been a great response to my recent newsletters offering the idea that sprinters would be better served to be trained like sprinters and not like distance swimmers.

Some have politely offered their counter argument to their take on my points. “How we are ruining our age groupers and chasing them to other sports because we won’t allow everyone to become 50 Freestylers,” or “I just don’t think sprint specific training is the way to go with kids that threaten to quit.” These are a couple of quotes taken from the message board. It’s my fault if I haven’t expressed myself clearly enough. I really appreciate everyone that has posted on our board, there has been a ton of high quality posts that offer a wealth of information for swimming fast. I love the arguments. If you don’t agree with what we are doing or saying we want to hear from you. If you agree with what we are saying or doing we want to hear from you.

I can’t name a swimmer that hasn’t had to go through the age group distance aerobic base training. On one side this could be an argument for this type of base training. All swimmers have gone through this one specific type of program, which means all great swimmers have gone through this one specific type of program. On the other hand, we shouldn’t bash an idea that no age group program to my knowledge has tried, coaching younger swimmers this newly proposed way. This new way has gotten better results with older swimmers. “Why wouldn’t it work with younger swimmers?” is the question I would like to ask. The current system isn’t bad, I just think it could be better. But in order to find out we have to try.

“If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” doesn’t work in sports. In sports we need to challenge ourselves every day to get faster. Just because the old aerobic base training for every young swimmer has taken us to where we are today in the sport doesn’t make it the only or best way.

All experience that I have signals that at a young age focusing on quality over quantity in the pool, while aerobic work is done on a stationary bike, running, dry land training, etc. will create happier, healthier and faster swimmers. I could be wrong. But what is the alternative? Continue to lose a very high percentage of kids (usually happens in high school) from the sport forever after a self deflating, frustrating burnout and the demise of their shoulders and ultimately their swimming career? Yeah, I know there are going to be kids that just want to do less. This argument isn’t for them.

If a kid on the swim team approached coach and said, “I think I’m a 200 IMer,” or a 500 free swimmer, 200 back, or any other event other than a sprinter most coaches would be happy that their swimmers were narrowing their focus, being more selective with their goals, etc. But if the kid says, “Coach, I want to be a sprinter!” most coaches raise an eyebrow and think, “The kid is lazy, he doesn’t want to do the yardage.”

I don’t want everyone to be 50 freestylers! My argument works both ways. If you are a born distance guy you’ll never be a great sprinter. If I wanted everyone to swim the 50 I would be putting everyone else in the shoes (or fins) that the sprinter has been wearing all this time. It’s not fair to do.

Let’s try to figure out how to retain some of the kids that quit. I for one believe that it’s better to have a happy kid that stays in the sport as (even average) sprinters than have them quit the team and carry a chip on their shoulder (literally from shoulder surgery) for the rest of their lives.

We are asked, “At what age do we make the attempt to try to find the right event for our swimmers?” I think that after a year or two of high school swimming a coach and swimmer should know and start to choose and narrow the focus in on those choices. It’s great if you can figure it out sooner but don’t try too soon.

I think that a younger swimmer should keep their options open. As a swimmer you have to try all the events to know what you’re good at, what you like and what you don’t like. I am going to roll my eyes very sarcastically when I hear an 8 year old tell me that they are exclusively a 50 free swimmer.

There is nothing wrong with the sets that we are talking about in the Race Club message board forum, especially if the kids are good at that kind of stuff- it will build their confidence, which is great. But is it the best thing in training their bodies to race fast? The big picture objective should be how we get the swimmers to swim fast at the end of the season, not just train them at what they can do well.

There is practice fast and there is meet fast. I have known so many hard workers that go the same time in the meet that they go in those sets you described. Why? Because that’s what they’ve been trained to do.

How similar is the main set you did today and the meet? What is their heart rate before they step up on the blocks? What is their heart rate after the race? How long does the race last? How many races are they swimming? How much time in between? What are the lactic acid levels before and after? Did they do stretching? What did they do to warm up or warm down?

When you start to answer these questions you will find that there really isn’t much in common between the set that they are doing and the big meet swim other than the fact that both are exercise. Not enough coaches are training their swimmers for the meet, the race, the fast swimming.

This is what I mean when I say train specific to the event you compete in. Train smart. You’ve got enough time that you can do plenty of both types of training. I have to believe through my own eye witness accounts and experience that the balance is off a lot between the two types of training. Not enough coaches are training their swimmers for the meet, the race, the fast swimming.

What works is different for different people. I can tell you this. I can personally beat anyone out of Bill Sweetenham’s (crazy National Dictator, I mean Director of British Swimming) 45 km per week sprinter program. I can train a sprinter to beat anyone out of Bill’s crazy program. What sprinter has Bill Sweetenham ever coached to back up his arguments for 45 km per week? He can argue that some sprinter (that works differently from every other sprinter) needs that type of yardage, but until he gets any results AT ALL he should keep his mouth firmly shut.

An 11 year old doing 60 km a week for 50 weeks straight… This is the pride of British Swimming at the moment. Child abuse!

I am rolling my eyes sarcastically but I feel really, really bad for that girl. I’ll bet one of my medals she explodes before she ever has a chance to be a great swimmer.

What if she gets sick? What if her elbow starts to swell? Here is a perfect example of how the yardage is more important than swimming fast, quality, or even the girl herself! Let alone her happiness! You think that’s her goal? How many 11 year olds do you know of that are saying I want to swim 60 km a week? When I was 11 I wanted to be a spaceman.

It’s all about some selfish coach that wants bragging rights over his Bill Sweetenham cronies. It’s incredible that she is able to do 60 km for one week, but she will be destroyed. No doubt about it. And how many others trying to keep up with her will fall, too? If she gets sick they’ll have her do the 60 km that week, even if it kills her.

What about college? Are college coaches looking for that right of passage mega yardage background? It can be argued that college coaches are looking at a lot of things when they recruit swimmers. Here are some of the questions a college coach might ask themselves.

How passionate are they about swimming?

Will they stay committed?

Are they goal oriented?

How do they race?

Will they continue to improve?

Are they physically matured or will t
hey continue to grow?

How is their technique?

If given a scholarship will they score at the big meet?

Can they RACE?

Coaches will ask many questions when they look at swimmers coming out of high school. Mostly they are going to look at the times. I can’t imagine that a coach will turn away a top 5 ranked high school swimmer if they don’t have the traditional club program that put them through sets of 5 x 800′s followed by 8 x 500′s (or something like that) in favor of a much slower swimmer that does have that background. If a swimmer is fast, college coaches want them.

Not everyone swims for a scholarship, but I don’t know any scholarship given to the hard worker. Scholarships go to the fast swimmers that race well at the meets. Fast swimmers work hard too, don’t get me wrong. If you can work hard and swim and train smart you’ll go fast at the end of the season. I don’t care who you are or what event you swim, we all like to go fast at the end of the season.

It doesn’t matter if you swim the mile or the 50 or anything in between, a college coach in the process of recruiting is looking for someone that will RACE. What are our club programs doing to teach this quality? Our club programs are more focused on the number of yards swum than that fire in the belly spirit that makes us compete. Why? I don’t understand it. Let’s teach these kids to race. That’s what it’s all about, that competitive spirit. That competitive spirit will stay with them in anything they take on, in the pool (during a long tough set) or out (in school, the workplace, etc.).

No one should suggest that we all become sprinters. I will argue that the sprinter embodies that competitive spirit more than any other athlete in the pool. To be a sprinter you have to know how to race. Sprinting either teaches or attracts that fire in the belly RACE CLUB competitor.

Not everyone is cut out for it. Some people swim for social reasons, or for a high school varsity letter, or (like a few guys I knew) to hang out around pretty girls in bathing suits, or to be in great shape. There is nothing wrong with swimming for any of these reasons. Having a uniform goal for all of our club programs eliminates any of these swimmers from the teams, too.

I have listed a few reasons to swim, developing a great work ethic was one that I did not include but you and I can easily argue that it should be at the top of the list.

To sum some things up I am arguing that:

• the current system works but can be improved upon
• a sprinter that is trained like a sprinter will swim faster than a sprinter that trained like a distance swimmer every time (at any age)
• it doesn’t take any less commitment, time, passion, or hard work to train like a sprinter, only less yardage in the pool
• there are a lot of reasons to swim, none of them are bad reasons
• a happy swimmer is a fast swimmer
• an unhappy swimmer ends up not swimming at all
• the ability to race is more important than having the big aerobic background
• the ability to race will help you excel in anything you set out to do

This is what the Race Club is all about. Visit us at our camps. We’ll teach you how to swim faster than you’ve ever imagined. We have the newly priced $995 camp available. Be warned! We work hard. We’ll train you hard. We’ll kick your butt so that you may kick others.

Join us!
Gary “Pops” Hall Jr.