For years we have been engaged in well-known debates of how to swim faster: the bend vs straight arm freestyle recovery, breathing every other stroke vs every stroke on fly, SR vs DPS and many more.
The truth is that what works for one swimmer does not necessarily work for another. So how can you help your swimmers unleash their speed in the pool? Tracking your swimmers’ metrics and understanding their unique swimming profiles will help you answer this yourself. The hardest part is knowing how to use their metrics to help them swim faster.
At TritonWear, we developed Focused Iterative Training, FIT, to break this down into three easy steps:
The first step is observing the team’s Triton Score and understanding how each member’s metrics influence their score. The second step is finding focus and discovering the pattern in metrics they excel in and others they need to improve on. The last step is using insights to adjust their training and master progress.
We recommend tracking four weeks of training before setting goals with your swimmers on what metrics to improve first. Before adjusting training, you’ll need to know how the Triton Score fluctuates and what impacts each of your swimmer’s Readiness, Focus and Intensity Scores.
Once you have taken the time to know your athletes swimming analytics, it’s time to learn how to prime them for peak performance.
First, review your seasonal plan and observe the peaks and valleys in training volume and intensity. Then check your swimmers’ Training Load Over Time. How closely have they followed the training plan?
Gaining a clear picture of the ebbs and flow of your training plan will show you how they influence your swimmers’ ability to perform, and you’ll be able to adjust how much and what type of work is put in each day. Use Training Status and Training Load Over Time to get them race-ready and adjust taper where needed to maximize their performance.
We are conditioned to believe that swimming faster equals training harder. The truth is that to swim faster; you ought to learn to train your athletes smarter. Training smarter doesn’t mean easy training; it means doing the correct type of work at the right time, amount and Intensity.
First, think of their ultimate goal; what stroke and distance are they aiming to improve? Then break down the stroke and distance and dig deeper into their stroke and phase metrics. What phase of swimming (transitions, underwater, overwater) is costing them their performance? Knowing your swimmers’ metric baseline ( the average for each metric) and how each phase of their swimming impacts their performance will help you identify their weaknesses.
The TritonWear Focus comparison feature is an invaluable feature for performance growth. It directs you precisely to where you need to focus your attention first. The “My Average” section will show how your athletes’ swimming skills are progressing, while the “Like Me” will show where they stand in each skill against their competition (swimmers of the same speed, height and gender).
Learn more about: How To Prioritize Your Goals Based on Your Focus Patterns.
Use Intensity to recognize what elements of set design you need to adjust to keep athletes in the correct training zone. Check % of volume per stroke to see if they get enough volume of different stroke types over time to develop all muscle groups equally.
Are they spending enough time in various zones to deliver the right combination of aerobic vs anaerobic work? Dive into the workout summary and explore which sets didn’t go as planned to adjust paces, distance, rest, or reps, so they hit the target next time.
Our swimming analytics platform answers this question by enabling you to leverage real-time data during practice. Connecting your Triton units with any mobile device on deck lets you see your swimmers’ technical skills, training zones and heart rates in real-time.
With the most powerful algorithm by your side, you’ll watch your swimmer’s data profile evolve with them, and their personalized recommendations adapt to their changing skills, helping them focus on the right areas for faster swimming.
Once practice is over, you can view your athletes’ metrics and discover how they performed in all critical training areas. Triton Scores will highlight how small incremental changes in load, skills, and intensity impact overall performance.
Improving individual metrics sets your swimmer on the path to unleashing speed. However, specific metrics influence each other, and improving one may lead to a decline in another. This decline can start to affect an athlete’s performance negatively. The secret to maximizing performance is optimizing the metric tradeoffs. Elite athletes rarely have the highest score in an individual metric; they are, however, the masters of metric tradeoffs.
Learn more about: The Secrets of Metric Tradeoffs for Better Overall Performance.