When I started this project, I did so to help the swimmers that I see everyday. I watched day after day the master swimmers, former swimmers, triathletes, college, high school, club, and youth train… well… wrong, or at least ineffective.
I don't claim to have the perfect coaching ideology, nor do I think one exists. Every athlete is an individual and has specific needs, but I watch swimmers and coaches (including myself) misinterpret the complexities of the sport of swimming and how to manage the fragile energy zones one can go through.
Most swimmers I have seen, swim way to fast and take too little rest, or they swim way too slow and take too much rest. Example, If you are new to swimming, perhaps getting in shape for the triathlon or stepping up to an Ironman, odds are when you go to swim, you get out of breath after five to ten minutes in the water, or maybe even sooner. Guess what…too fast. Would a cyclist or runner tolerate needing a break just after getting down the street? Or a personal example, a former college swimmer wanting to get back into the water after years and attempting to swim at the speeds of their youth because that is what is so familiar. Guess what…too fast.
Then there is the opposite, you come in everyday and do the exact same thing over and over and never get any better. Or perhaps you are an athlete that does the yardage day after day, but you don't get the gains all those around you are getting when it is time to race. Odds are, you are going too slow when it is time to go fast and you have not developed your racing capabilities.
Yes, you MUST have proper form, there is no substitute for proper technique and the reduction of resistance, but you also have to go the right speeds and take appropriate rest when training. That is where SwiftDuck comes in. What it does, is it takes training theory and methodology and makes it personal to you. SwiftDuck does not write your workout for you, it just gives you the tools so that you can write the workout. As long as you have an outline of what you are wanting to work on that day or maybe a seasonal plan from a book or if you are experienced, one you have created, then it is hard to write a set wrong.
How about an example or two: Lets say you are doing a typical set of 10 x 100 descend to fast. Okay, what speed should you start with? How fast is really fast for you? Inputting a set into the SwiftDuck program and looking at, lets say level 5 would give you a good indicator of what the fast would be, and looking at level 1 could show where you should start out. Most swimmers will start out on a set like this too slow or too fast and will either not really change speed much at all, or will never really reach their true fast speed.
Another example: You want to do an aerobic set that encourages improvement, what over the years has changed names from critical speed, EN2, AT training, etc… I try to keep things simple and within a range, so I just call it Level 3 for now because it is third in line. You decide to do a set of 10 x 200. Okay, what is your target time and cycle? Come on, you just read a triathlon book about all of this, you should have this figured out right. Well, probably not. SwiftDuck tells you a range of cycles and goal times that keep you in that general range.
Think this is just for newbies…think again. That same set of 10 x 200 written for a strong high school boy that had a baseline speed of :48 seconds would read like this, 10 x 200 on anywhere from 2:20-2:30, attempting to maintain a speed of 2:05-2:08. The same set for another boy that swims practices in the same lane, with a baseline speed of :51 seconds, only :03 seconds slower would read like this, 10 x 200 with a cycle of 2:30-2:40 hoping to maintain a speed of 2:12-2:16. Many coaches do not take these small difference into consideration, but what are the chances that the second swimmer would be successful if asked to do the same set as the first boy? I will answer, pretty unlikely. The second boy would possibly make the cycle, but would most likely not be performing at the correct speed and possibly sacrificing technique to get through. That scenario is also easily reversed, resulting in the first swimmer not being pushed sufficiently if cycles are always geared towards the slower swimmer.
…a quick aside. In the example above, I have seen this many times, where the slower swimmer will be able to make the cycles and they are really pushing their aerobic abilities well. They do see improvement and are getting into better shape as their aerobic system grows. This is great if fitness is the goal, but speed is the goal for many. They never seem to be able to get up and hit the faster speed work needed and become stagnant in their race results. I attribute this to always being a step behind and not getting the rest needed to teach their body to swim at the needed faster speeds and how to handle the load, they are just aerobic studs. Also as I mentioned, the technique is always, just a step behind where it is needed and just doesn't have the chance to recover and repeat for proper physiological change.
I wanted started down the road then, trying to figure out how to get all the data from all the methodologies into a workout writing tool I could use when coaching. I hated the guessing game and trial and error. I had seen workout logging software, where a coach would write workouts and write sets of 10 x 400 on some cycle and then declare it to be VO2 max work. If you understand physiology, you would know this is not possible, but coach wrote it in the workout manager, therefore it is.
The more I got into the program, the more that I wanted to do with it. (There are tons of things I still plan to do when I am able to…this is just the start). I started to see where we were in technology, books are fading away and phones and apps are the big thing. How could I capture the convenience of electronics and networks in a program that does more than just sharing data. I wanted fluid data, information that matters to the individual using it, not just to the writer. Swimming is so individualized, with so many variables that can affect a person, that I had to develop it to always consider the individual first.
I worked on it for months after everyone was down for the night and I was at my most efficient. I had broken down the paces and rests using the accepted knowledge of the different energy zones and used for decades. I began to test it with my own swimmers to see if it worked, and guess what, it was right on.
I was pretty pumped, thinking I had a cool new idea, but I had hit a brick wall. To go further, where I am getting to now would require … Professionals. I have several kids and am a swim coach, you do the math on that. If you appreciate swim coaches, you would understand that it is easy math, with little numbers. I eventually was too busy to continue spending my time on this so it faded away for about a year.
Prodding from my wife as I started a new season, and wanted to use my old tool to help with workouts got me going again. I used that season as a new test ground to find better capabilities for a coach, so that it could adapt to most methodologies. Months later, with some exciting lessons learned, and excellent athlete results it was decided… we had to take jump and plunk some money down to see if it would work online. several months later and a ding in the wallet, It did.
Well, it works, now do we invest a bit more to give it some core functions so that somebody can actually use this regularly? Sure, why not. This has potential. We picked some of the most basic functions to incorporate based on our budget and set out again. Boy, trying to narrow down that list was not easy. If you knew me, you would know that I have ideas coming out of my pores, not all great, but they saturate me, that is for sure.
So, what do you get out of this… A workout platform that knows your abilities and shares with everyone, and knows their abilities as well. It creates the opportunity for those who are in the dark as to how to train swimming, to come into the light. It brings swimmers of all abilities the opportunity to train together but still be an individual. It gives me the chance to look out over the pool hopefully some day soon, and see people actually doing things well, and not just doing them.
Perhaps this whole thing has been about me? Easier understanding of my own athletes' potentials, and less frustration watching those around me doing things wrong.
Regardless, I plan to keep moving forward with the project, it is by no means completed, on the contrary, it has just begun. It works well and yes, there are several formula bugs online that need tweaking from my original setup that does impact performance…and don't think that I don't notice every time I use this. But I have a mind full of ideas to make this better, and then better after that, and again. Things that are new to the swimming world, exciting, and beyond my current financial investment capabilities as a swim coach that is for sure, but it takes time to build something like this and we are rolling forward.
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