As our season draws to a
close, I wanted to share some thoughts I have
about the 3S training program and how it has
affected me as a coach and our team in the
2002-2003 collegiate swimming season. Regardless
of our final results, which I expect to be
outstanding, I feel that this program has taught
me a tremendous amount about training, and has
given me an level of understanding and control
over our training and performances that is
unprecedented in my career.
As a little
bit of background: we divided our season into
two macrocycles, each lasting about 13 weeks. We
have followed the 3S training program workouts
very closely in terms of volume and percentages
of work in various zones, and we have stayed
pretty true to the repeat distances for Zone II
and above sets. Much of our zone Ib work has
been in the form of drills and other exercises
that diverge from the suggested interval
distances in the program, but we have stayed
true to the suggested total volumes and time of
work in this zone.
The biggest
difference that I see in what we are doing this
year vs. last year is that our periodization is
more pronounced and defined. This has been an
exciting and sometimes difficult process for me
as a coach to take my team through. It required
great patience for us to swim 80-90% of our work
in Zones Ia and Ib in the beginning of the
season, and great determination to do as much
faster (Zone II and higher) swimming as we have
done in the 4 weeks of the highest volume and
intensity. The results, though have been really
exciting. In the first macrocycle, our kids had
a tough time with all of the faster swimming in
weeks 7-10. They rarely hit the suggested times
with the required heart rates, but we did our
best to stay in the correct zone, and when we
competed at the end of the macrocycle everyone
swam good times and very good races.
This last point is important - I felt
like our races were complete: we had good speed,
we were able to change speeds well, and we
finished our races very well, across all
distances and all swimmers. In this second
macrocycle, our athletes have been consistently
better. We are swimming much closer to the
suggested times and staying in the correct
energy zones. In fact, my instructions to them
are very often "swim these times with the lowest
possible heart rate", and the efficiency that
they learn through this exercise is obvious,
immediate, and lasting. I think that what has
impressed me most is that our performances in
practice are consistently high. We have had a
lot of practices in January where everybody
swims well. I am not sure I can think of more
than one or two last year where everybody
performed well on a set that required near
maximal effort.
Another thing that I
have enjoyed about this season is that when
someone does not perform near the expected
level, I can immediately hone in on possible
problems - emerging sickness, lack of sleep,
external stress, etc. I told another coach not
long ago that I have never felt as much
understanding of each swimmer as I do now - they
whys and why nots of their performances. We have
not had a meet where someone swims a race that I
either did not expect or do not understand. Do
our athletes swim perfect races? Absolutely not,
but when they do make mistakes I am not left to
wonder "why does she not have speed, why is she
not finishing, or why is the time so slow?" I
don't ask these questions because I have gotten
such a clear idea of their physiological profile
in practice that I know exactly where each swim
is coming from. If a swimmer appears to not have
speed, I know from practice in the week before
exactly how "speedy" she has been, and if it
doesn't match up then I either look to identify
a technical, health, or motivational reason. If
she does not finish well, I know how she has
done in sets that deal with elevated heart rates
or lactate levels and again, I know if the
practice and performance match up. Now, I have
just described a process of thinking that every
coach goes through anyway, and one might say, "I
don't need a program to tell me if my swimmer is
doing well in practice or not." You are right,
but in my opinion you cannot be as accurate in
your daily assessment of your athletes
performances if you are relying on memory and
"feel" as if you supplement your "feel" with a
set of specific and quantifiable goals. This
program has given me the ability to have those
goals with a couple of clicks of a mouse.
I hope that everyone is enjoying this
last great part of our season, where taper
starts to kick in and athletes get a little bit
crazy. Enjoy them and enjoy the incredible
energy of this time of year.
Matt Kredich
Head Coach
University of Richmond
Women's Swimming
Robins Center
Richmond, VA 23173
804-289-8750
www.richmondspiders.com
|
