The Endurance Base How to be successful in – the WAVES plan

By Charles Yourd, WAVES team newsletter, October 2000, (updated June 2012)

Education for: be at a permanent disadvantage, and will never achieve what might have been possible for them as a swimmer. • Parents of young children – to help you make better informed choices regarding… Get an early start… o Best age to start year‐round swimming. Although the key years are those of growth o Frequency/Consistency of attendance. spurt and puberty, young swimmers have many building • Parents of older children, adolescents, teens – blocks to put in place prior to that. to help you understand the developmental process in this sport. Technique • Everyone – become familiar with the Head Coach’s plan for swimmer development. Young children have a plasticity which enables learning good technique to a degree that is impossible With a long term view over many decades, this to achieve with teenagers. coach has observed one never‐changing, reliably constant aspect…those who succeed in the sport, Other teams either do not teach correct developing their full potential and rising to the highest technique, or they are not effective in their teaching of level their ability will allow, do so by starting in the sport technique. Every swimmer who has come to us from at a young age, being consistent in practice attendance, other teams has arrived with serious flaws in stroke and swimming a lot during the years of puberty and technique. We do what we can to re‐teach correct growth spurts. technique, but once incorrect learning has occurred we are limited in the amount of correction we can It can be helpful from time to time to remind accomplish. ourselves of one fundamental key to success in the sport of competitive swimming…Those who get full Initial years in the sport are for learning to swim cardiovascular development from large amounts of with proper stroke technique and rhythm, and then swimming in the years when going through growth gradually developing the ability to train with this proper spurts and puberty will create permanent life‐long stroke technique and rhythm. Additional tasks are structural changes to their cardiovascular system making friends, getting in the habit of regular daily which benefit their swimming performance. exercise, acquiring habits of good nutrition, and understanding the relationship between practice and The enhanced oxygen exchange from these improvement. changes supercharges the working muscles and gives an enormous advantage over those who miss this multi‐ Initial Foundation of Training year window. With the above items accomplished, the The people who miss this window due to a late swimmer is ready to begin developing an initial training start in the sport or inconsistent practice attendance will background which will provide a foundation from which

1 to step up. During this period the swimmer develops a Due to a late start in the sport, or developing work ethic for endurance training, gets the knowledge major flaws in stroke technique when young, or required for training, and learns how to be a good inconsistent practice attendance, or not learning to training partner and how to respect the training group. enjoy the process of challenging oneself in training, or a peer group that supported negative attitudes about the Both these steps – technique and initial training athletic process, or a combination of these items…The foundation with understanding, respect, and enjoyment swimmer did not put in place the required foundational of the process – must be in place before the swimmer steps. These swimmers did not have the background to enters the years of puberty and growth spurts. handle the training load of full cardiovascular From what we see, other teams do not develop development during the years of puberty and growth these steps adequately. Therefore, if you want to give spurt, or they simply weren’t around and missed it. your child his or her best chance for future success in Because of their lack of background, these the sport, it is crucial that you get to the WAVES when swimmers can’t handle the type and amount of training young. easily handled by those who started early and Consistency developed properly.

Frequent and consistent practice is essential in Because these swimmers didn’t get the this sport. This is a year‐round sport, anything less is at background, they struggle with training, and they a recreational level. struggle with races longer than 50s or 100s. Not knowing the real reasons for this, they self identify as How many times per week? If four 60 minute “sprinters.” This is not correct. They are not sprinters; practices are offered per week for 8 year olds, then be they are swimmers who don’t have the background to consistent at all four. If five 120 minute practices are handle full workloads. offered for 10 year olds, then be consistent at all five. If six 120 minute practices are offered for 11 year olds, Here’s what a real sprinter is capable of… then be consistent at all six. How the Olympic Gold Medalist in the Then step up the training… 50 Freestyle Trains Some swimmers have the mistaken idea that workouts for If the swimmer starts early and attends sprinters ought to be easy. I’ve spoken to my squad about consistently, by the time of growth spurt and around the the tough dryland training performed every day by Inge de years of puberty he or she can be ready to make the Bruijn, Olympic gold medalist and World record holder at most of the opportunity presented by the process of 50‐100 freestyle and 100 fly. swim training for full cardiovascular development. I’ve learned from Paul Bergen, her coach at Tualatin Hills Swim Club in Oregon, her swim training included sets of

This article gives many examples of young 10x400 fly on 5 minutes! swimmers who became great. It will start to fill in gaps in your knowledge about why some swimmers are Anyone wishing to become a sprinter please let me know, so we can get started on your progression toward capable and successful over a wide range of race 10x400 butterfly. distances, and why some swimmers and teams rise to higher levels, making the most of their innate talents. …Just consider what kind of training background, good But what about Sprinters? technique, flexibility and strength, and positive attitude Why do so many teenage swimmers struggle toward the athletic process is needed to do this? with races longer than 50s and 100s? 2

Those who did the most…Still in the sport Nationals as a teen in the 1650…, national high school record holder at 100 BF and 100 BK, trained Following with minor updates, is the article as a 1650‐400 IM swimmer through his junior year of originally published in the WAVES team newsletter of high school, only dropping down his senior October, 2000. It was subsequently reprinted in season…Kristina Egerzegy, world record holder and American Swimming magazine, a publication of the three time Olympic champion at 200m BK, began daily American Swimming Coaches Association. double practices (two a day) at age 12, going 14,000 This article had significant impact on the WAVES meters a day (about 4 ½ hours per day year round). swimmers who competed in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Trials. These are the swimmers who did the most played other sports when young. training when young, and they are still competing, now And he never missed swim practice. at high levels. Those currently in college were 10‐unders By the time Michael was 13 years old, he had developed in October 2000. National team member and NCAA All‐ the cardiovascular endurance to hold minute pace for a American Emily Hanson was 12 years old and swimming timed 3000 yard freestyle swim (60 seconds per 100 year round since age 5. yards). His developmental training in teenage years included items such as 10x800 and a timed 8000. You don’t need to be as old as me to know who the swimmers mentioned in this article are. Nearly all Currently Phelps holds world records at 100 BF, 200 BF, can be found using Google images, reading Wikipedia and 400 IM; and the American record at 200 FS. and profiles in ISHOF (most are in the International Swimming Hall of Fame), or watching YouTube videos of The point is…All race distances benefit at maturity their races. from a big endurance base when young.

The Endurance Base…How to Get Fast No one knows who will develop into a very high‐caliber athlete, but if a swimmer doesn’t develop The list keeps growing and growing of his or her cardiovascular system at an early age; they swimmers who have big endurance training will be severely limited in what they can achieve as they backgrounds. To name just a few… World record holder mature. For young girls this is extremely important. and winner of 3 Olympic gold medals in the 50‐100 FS Boys are better advised to begin double practices at a and 100 BF, Inge de Bruijn and her 10x400 fly slightly older age. sets…Olympic gold medalist in the 100m BS at age 16, Megan Quann with her hour‐plus main sets and 120,000 yard weeks… at ages 15‐17 trained Becca Mann, at age 14, 2012 Olympic Trials for the 5000 meter open water race, then at 18 finalist in the 400 IM (5th), 400 FS (6th), 800 FS (5th); three dropped down to the 400m FS to set the American years earlier at age 11 swam 4:46.48 400m FS at the 2009 record…17 year old who we saw swim a Illinois Age Group Championships. great 1650 last November in Cleveland, and then 9 The following season she began training with months later got her Olympic medals at 200‐400 Clearwater Aquatics in Florida. Soon she was going 11 distances. practices a week year‐round starting at age 12. She also ran and biked, as her first love is triathlons, for which she Add these names to the list of old‐timers like began training at a young age. , winner of 7 Olympic gold medals at 100‐200 distances in 1972; five years earlier he nearly broke the In three years of full training, Becca dropped her World record in the 1500m as a teenager…, 400 FS from 4:46 at age 11, to 4:23 at age 12, 4:16 at age American record holder in the 50 yd FS (19.05) and first 13, and 4:08 at age 14. man under 20 seconds, first qualified for Junior 3

practices. (He went by commonly accepted wisdom and Do the good swimmers practice more thought she was too young.) After continued pleading

often, or do the swimmers who by the determined young swimmer, he finally gave in. Her weekly training yardage sometimes gets as high as practice more often become good? 120,000 yards a week in 14 practices – she does triples three days a week. This despite the fact that the club has no pool in their town and all 80 team members Dreams, Desire, Determination ‐ Lots of Training and must drive 20 miles to workouts! Her main set nearly Hard Work always takes an hour to complete. Although the The following are stories of very average swimmers who American record holder and Olympic gold medalist at became World record holders or Olympic champions. 100m BS, she trains very little of the stroke. Butterfly is her main training stroke. Sippy Woodhead, World Record Holder at Age 14 Kieren Perkins, Average 13 Year Old, World Record at Age 19 Sippy Woodhead trained 20,000 yards a day at age 12 (about 4 ½ hours a day year round), then Kieren Perkins came to Coach John Carew’s dropped down to 14,000 a day at higher intensity at age swim school at age 8 for physical therapy for injuries 13 with her club in Riverside, California. Her times of from running through a glass door. He was a slow 1:58.53 200m FS and 4:07.15 400m FS swum at age 14 learner who, as he swam, Coach Carew would walk in 1978 would have won bronze medals at the 2000 along the deck with a pole, poking Kieren’s head to get Sydney Olympics. She held World records in the 200m him to put it down. By age 13, when his coach decided FS and 400m FS. to place him on a distance program, Perkins hadn’t yet broken 30 seconds for 50m FS long course, a time that 34 years later, in 2012, Woodhead still holds today (2012) would barely be a USAS “A” time, and is the 13‐14 National Age Group records for 200m FS and nearly 2 seconds away from a 2012 Age Group Champs 400m FS. At the 2012 USA Olympic Trials the fastest 14 cut. year old on the psych sheet in the 200 FS is 2:01.60, over 3 seconds behind the 1978 Sippy Woodhead. By age 13 Perkins began training 11 practices a week. At age 13 these were 5000 meter practices. By age 18 he was going 8000 meters a practice, 11 times a "I'm not the most talented swimmer. week. Converting meters to yards, this is 8800 yards a

So I try to outwork everyone else." practice for a total of 97,000 yards each week. His additional daily dryland included 20 minutes of bands, 20‐30 minutes on the stationery bike, and a bodyweight dryland program similar to ours. He also rode his bicycle to all practices for further cardio development Megan Quann, and building endurance in his leg muscles. Started Swimming at 9, Olympic Champion and American record holder at Age 16 By age 19, Perkins shattered the long‐standing World record in the 1500m FS by over 14 seconds. At Starting in the sport at age 9, Megan Quann one point he held freestyle world records at 400, 800, was at first an awkward swimmer. It took her a while to and 1500 meters. (Perkins best time of 14:41.66, swum get her stroke technique fixed. At age 12 she started in 1994 is faster than the current American record as of bothering her coach, Rich Benner, at Puyallup Aquatics June 2012.) in the state of Washington, to allow her to swim double

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More American Swimmers Could Reach Their just for the “very high caliber athlete.” This is simply Potential… wrong thinking.

Whatever level of success a swimmer aspires to, In America, most people – like the doctor most finish the sport never knowing how good they are, writing in the swim magazine – think the amount of simply because they didn’t practice enough to fully training that provides full cardiovascular development develop their endurance and get great stroke at a young age is only for the “very high caliber athlete.” technique. All great swimmers were average swimmers So the swimmers with early success tend to do more before they developed. And they developed by training training, while those who might improve later never do, 10 or more times a week for a few years. because commonly‐accepted wisdom believes they ought to miss out on the opportunity to supercharge

Talent helps, but it won’t take you their aerobic system.

as far as ambition. It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be, and Your Willingness to Prepare. Do the “Good” Swimmers Come to Practice More Often? …Or are they good because they come to There is biological development at young ages practice more often? I was asking myself this question enhancing the effect of endurance training. If when a copy of a swim magazine arrived in the mail. Its swimmers are not exposed to this “window of table of contents touted an article “Is Your Kid opportunity” because they did not start the sport early Overtraining?” The article was written by a pediatrician enough to get ready for the “window” or because they in response to a letter from a reader inquiring whether are not practicing enough times a week throughout the his 10 and 13 year olds are training too much (they’re year, or because they are in a low yardage program, the swimming 1 or 2 hours a day on weekdays, and 4 hours window closes forever. These swimmers will be limited on Saturday). In his reply, the doctor passes along in what is possible for them to achieve at whatever level misinformation that most people believe as common they compete at. They will feel like the driver of a 1963 wisdom. Discussing double practices, he says they are VW bug trying to qualify for the Indy 500.

Some swimmers have the talent of feel for the water. This is of great benefit – helping good stroke technique come more easily.

The other 99% of us need to learn better feel for the water. What’s the best way to learn or improve feel for the water?... Spend a lot of time swimming.

What weekly yardage does it take to “be in shape ”?

If the swimmer puts effort into training sets as requested by the coach (not all do), and attends practice consistently (many don’t), then

• 35,000 yds/wk is the minimum to be “in shape” for scy racing. • 50,000 yds/wk is the minimum to be “in shape” for lcm racing and training. • Achievement at the level of the swimmers in this article requires doing more, consistently, over a period of years, after establishing proper background as described at the beginning of this article. 5