Pushing Yourself at Workouts

小臭贝

This week’s Speedo Tip of the Week was submitted by Devon Ames, USA Swimming’s 2001 Developmental Coach of the Year. Ames offers some advice on pushing yourself every day at workouts.

Ames' tip:
Pushing yourself hard in practice should be encouraged and done on a daily basis. Doing your best on every set is the best way to improve throughout the season. Workouts should contain a balance of slow, medium, hard and super hard swimming, and your effort at accomplishing the goals of each set within the workout should always be 100 percent.

However, going “all-out” should not be confused with the actual speed of your swimming. If two identical swimmers are given the same workout set, and Swimmer A has taken a day off and rested while Swimmer B is tired from previous workouts, it may be that Swimmer A will be able to swim the set faster than Swimmer B on that given day, but both swimmers should still be pushing themselves hard at 100 percent.

With that said, I do not believe that resting should be used to increase performance at a future workout on a regular basis. The point of workout is to work the body. Generally, the harder the body is worked, the faster you will swim in the long run.

However, there are certainly individual circumstances in which one should rest based on an individual’s needs. I occasionally will suggest time off to prevent injury or sometimes to give a swimmer a mental break from the stress of workouts. If you feel you need physical rest on a regular basis, I suggest that maybe your body is not quite able to handle your current workload. Talk to your coach, he/she will best be able to work with you on this. Otherwise, do your best on a daily basis, and you will benefit from your hard work at the end of the season.