The Intensity of Swimming

Swimming is difficult. Plain and simple. In my last post (click to read it) I put a picture that pretty much says “if swimming were easy it would be called football.” I can’t agree more. But let me explain the reasons that make swimming one of the hardest sports in the world.

Time. Michael Phelps once said in an interview with 60 minutes that he was in the pool working out every day of the week since he was 11 (here's a link to a short summary). He was 23 when he won 8 gold medals in one Olympic Games in 2008. That is nearly 12 years of his life swimming every single day. Each practice for him was easily 3 hours long. That’s twenty-one hours per week just in the water.Wait. I forgot to mention he was probably doing doubles at least four times per week as well as dry-land and weights another 2-3 times per week. Swimming is a full time job. My swimmers of course are not doing this much, but they are in the water six days a week for a little less than two hours. Can you imagine working out for two hours every day? Yea, my swimmers are about eleven.

Workouts. I already mentioned last blog what dry-land is. What I do with my swimmers is much less than what the top swimmers on our team do, but it still plays a part in developing strength. Naturally though, the majority of our exercise is done in the pool. Practices vary immensely, especially when considering sets can be swum with different strokes or even all of them. Each individual work out is designed to make each swimmer stronger in at least one particular aspect. This is one workout that I gave my swimmers, which was about 5200 yards or a little over three miles:

400 warm up

8 X 100 im kick on 2:00

12 X 50 im order drill on 1:05 (drills help swimmers with their technique)

3 X      {1 X 75 fly/back/breast on 1:25

            {1 X 75 back/breast/free

            {1 X 75 breast/free/fly

            {1 X 75 free/fly/back

3 X 200 im on 3:20 descend 1-3

8 X 25 variable sprints 4 free 4 choice on :40

4 X 50 for time, one each stroke

10 X 50 on :50 odds-free evens-back

20 X 25 all out free (with fins) on :30

500 free (with snorkel) warm down

In high school I was friends with many football and volleyball players. One day we all went to the pool. They couldn’t even do an eighth of my warm up (two laps) without having to stop. If you don’t believe me, get in the pool and see how many you can do. Remember, my swimmers do over two hundred in an hour and forty-five minutes.

This is for you, Kevin

Dedication. If you’re weak willed swimming isn’t for you. As you can see from the above two reasons, swimming takes time and a great work ethic. Both of which are capable of bringing down even the most mentally tough. People often forget how mentally taxing exercising can be, and when you’re doing it every day for thirteen years it can be sort of repetitive. That’s why it’s important for swimmers to be self-motivated and know why they’re putting in the work. This is a difficult feat all on its own.

Though swimming is debatably the hardest sport, that’s one of the reasons I love it so much. Swimming takes work in order to be really good at it, which means even those kids with natural talent have to develop a strong work ethic in order to be great competitive swimmers. This makes swimming a sport of truly disciplined and dedicated individuals where anyone can get where they want (in the sport) if they put in the effort. It isn’t easy, but it’s possible. This is something I teach my swimmers, something they can take with them once they stop swimming. Success is based on their habits, their mind. Just like life, it’s up to them to make of it what they will.