Dayton Raiders Swim Club
Vol. 8, No. 7

Age Group Swimmers Take a Break!
Posted: March 2008
By Brent Peaden, Head Age Group Coach

Welcome to your swimming break

I hope you are enjoying your break.  A “break” means a lot of things to different people.  Athletes and coaches have used different approaches to how and when to apply a swimming break.  Sometimes, it is based on convenience, pool schedules, and the timing of the season.  But let’s look a little deeper at how the body might benefit from a break. First, let’s cover some swimming history which might provide us a nice backdrop to our topic. One thing many people agree on, a swimming break takes on a whole different meaning than it did back in the “Golden Age” of swimming – the 1960’s and 1970’s. 

History, yada, yada

Many coaches and swimming enthusiasts regard the “Golden Age” of swimming the era that saw swimming evolve from the dinosaur ages into something that resembles today’s sport.  In the late 1950’s, a few coaches figured out that “interval” training (e.g. 10x100 on 1:30) would prepare an athlete better than any other techniques used to date.  In the 1950’s, practices went from swimmers showing up and doing dive-in swims to conducting full-fledged interval sets.  What many people don’t know is that goggles, lanes lines, pace clocks, and the concept of shave & taper didn’t show up as mainstream tools until the 1960’s – and the 1960’s aren’t that long ago.

So now let’s fast forward to the 1970’s and 1980’s.  Swimming practice went from 1,000 yards per day in the 1950's to 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 or more per day in the 1970’s depending on athlete age and experience.  There was no doubt that endurance and volume were the key ingredients to the sport’s evolution during that period.  Forget technique – there was very little of it beyond the basic “How-To’s”.  Typical practices included 8x400 IM, 20x200’s, 8x500 Free, etc.  Athlete times dropped like pancakes.  Nearly every world record was broken every few years. Some records were surpassed multiple times during a single season.  Think about this: in the first 30 years of modern swimming (1950-1980) the World Record in the Women’s 400-meter IM went from 5:50 to 4:40, a full 1 minute, 10 second drop.  In the last 30 years (1980-present), the World Record went from 4:40 to 4:31, a mere 9-second drop.  (see the related article below).

Although the 1960’s is when the “Golden Age” began for those inside the sport, the 1970’s is when the rest of the world was exposed to swimming in the news and on TV. By the 1970’s, swimming had become a headliner sport at the Olympics. Even the “USA Nationals” and “World Championships” during the non-Olympic years began to pick up steam.  Early American’s such as Don Schollander and Donna DeVarona were known to “have never lost a race” during their prime in the 1960’s. The next wave of talent included the likes of Mark Spitz and Shirley Babashoff. The US dominated the swimming world, and we helped accelerate the sport forward in training techniques, primarily in the distance events.  Pools were sprouting up all over the country, swimming memberships at the grass roots level increased, and coaches were – aghast! – actually getting paid! It didn’t take long for the rest of the world to adopt their own training methods and build on what we discovered in the 1960’s. The Germans caught on in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  Then, the Chinese in the 1980’s and 1990’s.  Both of those countries were known for having their elite athletes boasting of training “364 days a year”, with the only break being on Christmas Day.  Did you say break?  There was no break – it was all about distance, volume, and how many laps you could cram in before the pool opened to the public and coaches were kicked off the deck. Everyone felt the need to “train farther and longer” than their counterparts and the dropping of times was the proof in the pudding.  Of course, both the Germans and Chinese were later found to have been tainted by doping scandals, but the year-round training regimen of the world had already been established. Many distance world records from that era stood until well into the 1990’s – showing how impressive the “Golden Age” was.  Closer to home, many Cincinnati Marlins from the 1970’s and 1980’s still hold records in Ohio from that era – with the likes of former USA stars Mary T Meagher (Madame Butterfly), Betsy Mitchell, Kim Rhodenbaugh, and Glenn Mills still holding Ohio records and many of the country’s “All Time” rankings today as a results of those long training sessions and sets from the 70’s.

Today’s era, which will only be defined by historians and swimming enthusiasts in later years, will likely include areas of advancement such as: vast improvements in technique, core strength, psychology, technology, underwater swimming, diet, “swimmer-centered adaptive” training, and overall efficiency in the water. “Do more with less” seems to be a common phrase peeking through in recent years. Many advances has meant many athletes can accomplish in 1 hour what used to take 2 hours.  Couple all of that with the era of Game Boys, 400-channel cable TV, the internet, and dual-worker parents, the sport will continue to evolve to account for everything around us and who knows what the era we are in today will be called.

So what about a swimming break?

OK, back to “break”.  What, exactly, does that mean?  It seems easy to understand that there are two breaks: (1) mental and (2) physical.  The mental side is left for another discussion and another time.  Let’s look at the physical attributes of a “break”. As we continue to evolve in the sport, I am sure we will offer many ideas and opinions about a swimming break.  As an age group coach of almost 20 years, I have noticed interesting phenomena of young swimmers – particularly those in early stages of physical development and with good endurance (mostly ages 10-13 for girls and 11-14 for boys).  I am sure there are other noticeable traits of physical changes for the other ages, but much of my time has been spent with those ages in the last several years. I’m no doctor, so I cannot provide any substantial medical rationale for the phenomena, but there is no doubt in my mind some type of physical change occurs during a break.  The physical change includes accelerated growth during the time out of the water.  I notice this more with the “big” 4-5 week break in August more so than a 2-3 week break in spring, but the phenomena does occur somewhat during the shorter spring break.  It’s almost as if the body is saying during the season “OK, I’ll hold off on expanding my limbs, muscles, and bones until we are done with the season”.  Then, during the break, the body responds with “Whew, OK, that feels great, now let me be for awhile so I can stretch these body parts out”. Some could say “Coach, the reason is because you see the athletes daily during the season and therefore you do not notice the small, incremental changes during the season.  Then, when the athletes leave your field of vision for several weeks and returns, the more substantial growth that has occurred is much more noticeable”.  I have already accounted for that in my own mind and I’m not quite sure that is the explanation, at least not completely. 

So, how about that break?

Here are questions that coaches, parents and athletes may ask:

  1. Is a break good or not?  If good, for how long? 

  2. How many times should a swimmer break during the year? 

  3. What’s better – little “mini” breaks throughout the year or one, big break strategically applied at some point during the season? 

  4. How about little breaks every week or month during the season?

The answers likely differ in 2008 than they did 30 years ago, which were simply: no, never, none, and no.  But with the fantastic strides in swimmer performance all over the world (age group and senior) since 2000, and many predicting 2008 to be a spectacular year in swimming, I think the answers should be obvious to the four questions above: depends, depends, depends, and depends.  Every athlete is different and every program is different. 

For our age group program, I have found (with varying adjustments based on unique athlete traits) the month long break in August is fantastic for physical growth and development.  The spring break in April (usually 2-weeks) is excellent more for mental rest so we can begin the very short long course season fresh (which is only about 12-16 weeks).  If we were to take too long of a break in April, then it will be a challenge to regain our speed and form in time for fast swimming in July, particularly for full meets and events over 100 yards or meters. Don’t believe me? Think about your times December, and how much faster you went in March – which is a full 6 months following the month-long August break.  For meets in July – which is a mere 3 months after the April break, we want to try and avoid the feeling of “starting over”. Therefore, the April break is a mental break, then we quickly return to the where we left off physically prior to the April break.  Also, the August break aligns nicely with school and the end of summer and therefore makes a logical time to essentially “start over” for the next season.

One more note about the April break - most endurance is lost during break of 2-weeks, 4-weeks, or longer. Regaining the “feel” for the water will take another week or longer upon returning. Those are not good things in regards to meet times right off the bat (Just ask any swimmer – “how do you feel in the water the first day after a break?” Most every swimmer will answer the same – “awful” and “weird”). But these are good things for the overall mental development of our athletes; specifically for the age group swimmers as they progress into the senior phases of development. An age group swimmer will look pretty good in the water following 10 hours of swimming (5-7 practices) following the April break, and it might take up to 30 hours (15-20 practices) to look good in the water following the longer August break. Coaches can’t avoid that – but we can use that timely wisely to accomplish some “peripheral” skills such as balance, kicking, and technique.

What about weekly and monthly breaks?

In case you noticed questions #4 above that asks “How about little breaks every week or month during the season?”  This falls more on the topic of “practice attendance” rather than breaks. Many of our best swimmers aren’t at their best when they attend “20 straight days of practice”, or “one month without break”.  Yet, other swimmers I can’t recall counting on one hand how many times they have missed practice.  There are others than attended 3 times per week and still made finals and did all best times at their championship level. Practice attendance is a topic swimmers, coaches, and parents should be having several times throughout the season. So, if you haven’t had the topic come up with your coach in awhile, bring it up so everyone knows the plan for the season, or the athlete may suffer. Since we are on the subject, now is a good time to offer a few comments.  I believe with age group swimmers, applying weekly and monthly breaks to a regular practice schedule should lie mostly with the guidance of the coach. If a swimmer has 4 consecutive practices with marked achievements, I’m fairly sure that day 5 may see yet another achievement. The parents (and often times the swimmer) may not see those consecutive achievements. If the swimmer pulls out of the cycle on day 5, that could be a step backward or an opportunity lost.  On the other hand, if stress from school and fatigue set in and a swimmer is fairly flat for 3 consecutive practices, that swimmer may benefit from taking day 4 off and come back fresh on another day.  The point is, it’s too complicated to account for every scenario of human behavior. So in a nutshell, the best breaks that deviate from normal attendance are those discussed with the coach.

I have found this to work fairly well for many age group swimmers, but keep in mind this is very, very general and it is different for each athlete based on their goals, desires and enthusiasm:

(distance and IM age groupers on the higher side)

Now for some excellent references

Here is a link to some history about swimming in the USA that includes amusing information, such as swimmers training without goggles back in the “old days”.
http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/ViewMiscArticle.aspx?TabId=507&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&mid=864&ItemId=1501

This article was posted in March 2008 following Australia’s World Record in the women’s 400 IM by Stephanie Rice, and that event’s progression since the 1950’s, note the progression of times from 1950 to 1980.
http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/17566.asp

...watch the dramatic women's 400-meter IM World Record (4:31.46) by Stephanie Rice on 3-24-08
http://www.flocasts.org/floswimming/floswimmr/videos.php?a=video_show&show=&vid=39953

Here is an article that Raider Head Coach Kevin sent out earlier this season about “Short Term” and “Long Term” Rest and Recovery.  Most of this is geared for a senior or adult athlete, but the benefits to an age group swimmer should be clear:
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/sampleworkouts/a/RestandRecovery.htm