LEVELS THREE A, B & FOURAt the beginning of Level 3A swimmers should becompleting 24,000m - 32,000m/week. Therefore if aLevel 3A swimmer is attending the recommended 6sessions per week they should be completing a minimumof 4000m per session. Swimmers will need sessions ofup to 2 hours to complete these volumes. This should beoccurring over approximately 48 weeks of the year.By the end of Level 3B the swimmers should be aimingat 44,000km – 52,000m/week. Therefore if a Level 3Bswimmer is attending the recommended 8 sessionsper week they should be completing a minimum of5,500m per session. Swimmers will need sessions of upto 2 hours to complete these volumes. This should beoccurring over 48 weeks of the year.Level 4 swimmers should be doing similar or slightly highervolumes to Level 3B swimmers each session, but should beaiming to train over ten sessions per week. Swimmers willneed sessions of up to 2 hours to complete these volumes.This should be occurring over 48 weeks of the year.WHY DO SWIMMERS NEED TO TRAIN SO MUCH?It’s common knowledge that participants of manyteam sports can often perform at the national level onjust two or three training sessions per week. This iscertainly not the case for swimmers – the norm for highschool-aged swimmers in Australia and the U.S.A. is10 two hour pool sessions per week plus additionalland training activities. So why do swimmers train somuch?Adaptation to the Medium of Water and <strong>Swimming</strong>Activity – The more often a human swims the morequickly and effectively their body and senses adapt towater, and the activity of swimming. An example of anadaptation to water is the increased “feel” swimmersoften develop for reducing drag and for manipulatingthe water for maximum propulsion. An example of anadaptation to swimming specific activity is an increasein general size and strength of the upper body while thelegs of swimmers remain generally quite underdevelopedin comparison. As land-based animals, water is notthe natural environment of humans. Therefore, tofacilitate greater adaptation to the water for increasedperformance, young humans should swim often whilegrowing and developing. This is why it is so important foryoung swimmers to be in the water frequently, rather thanless often but for longer periods. For example, four 1.5hour training sessions per week are more beneficial thantwo 3 hour sessions per week.Development of Feel, Depth Perception & SpatialAwareness – Swimmers who train more often tendto develop a greater “feel for the water”, an increasedperception of the depth of their body after starts andturns, and improved spatial awareness in the water...which, for example, is useful for a swimmer in knowinghow far from the wall they should prepare for a turn orfinish. These intuitive qualities, which collectively couldbe referred to as the “art of swimming”, are developedto a greater degree the more frequently swimmers train,particularly while still growing and developing.Establishing Automatic Movement Patterns ThroughRepetition – As for all sports, repetition ofmovement establishes habitual movementpatterns. Once the neuromuscularsystem has been exposedto sufficient repetition of aparticular movement pattern,desirable techniques andskills can be performedmore easily andautomatically.Creating a Foundation– Within both an entireswimming career anda single preparation/season, swimmers mustestablish an aerobic andtechnical foundation, throughcompleting significant trainingvolumes, on which to developall components of fitness morecomprehensively.Recovery – Active recovery from significant workloads isgenerally accepted as being more effective than passiverecovery (i.e. remaining idle). The need for active recoverysubsequently leads to a requirement for additionaltraining sessions.Windows of Opportunity – There are critical periods,during a human’s development, of optimal trainability forvarious components of fitness. These critical periods areoften referred to as windows of opportunity. It is generallyaccepted by sports scientists and coaches that if thedevelopment of a component of fitness is neglectedduring its window of opportunity, the athlete will neverdevelop that component to its optimum, no matter howmuch time and effort is spent on trying to develop it later.It is essential that enough time is spent training relevantcomponents of fitness during critical periods.
Pathway – By training adequately when young, <strong>Borders</strong>swimmers can be developed within the clubs along apathway focused on providing them with the skills andabilities to eventually move into the BEST PerformanceSquad and beyond. Learn to Swim4Club Training4ClubTraining + BEST Performance Squad + Athlete SupportProgramme4Club Training + BEST Performance Squad+ Scottish Institute of SportBecause they Can – <strong>Swimming</strong> is a weight-supported,low impact sport which allows the body to absorb ahigher frequency and volume of training comparedto other sports. Over time, this has led competitiveswimmers to progressively increase the amount oftraining they complete in order to gain an edge over theirrivals.RECOMMENDED ACTIVITIES &WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITYThere are periods during an athlete’s growth anddevelopment where certain skills and abilities can betrained more easily and to a greater degree than duringother periods. Sports scientists and coaches agree thatif these windows of opportunity are neglected during aswimmer’s development, the swimmer will never developthe corresponding components of fitness totheir maximum potential... no matter howhard they work at it in the future. Forexample, if an athlete completesa large proportion of aerobic/distance training after thewindow of optimal trainabilityfor aerobic capacity, they willimprove their endurance, butnever to the extent that couldhave been possible.Swimmers performing lessthan the recommended volumeof training as outlined in the British <strong>Swimming</strong> <strong>LTAD</strong>Framework risk not only under-training, but are also likelyto neglect performing activities that develop the targetedelements of the various windows of opportunity duringtheir optimal stage of development.Conversely, swimmers performing over-advancedand inappropriate activities for their developmentalage, or completing greater volumes of training thanrecommended in the <strong>LTAD</strong> Framework, risk not onlyover-training, but also risk performing activities that donot correspond with critical periods.COMPETITION“Overemphasising competition in the early phases oftraining will always cause shortcomings in athletic abilitieslater in an athlete’s career” I Balyi and A Hamilton.Dr Istvan Balyi, quoted above, is considered by many tobe the world’s leading expert on <strong>LTAD</strong> and all/most ofthe content in the British <strong>Swimming</strong> <strong>LTAD</strong> Framework issupported by his work. Dr Balyi warns that the biggestnegative impact on performance is over competing.British <strong>Swimming</strong>’s former Performance Director, BillSweetenham, stated that he believed Britishswimmers raced too much and trained toolittle. We must ensure this does notoccur here in the <strong>Borders</strong>. Whilethe situation in Britain may haveimproved since Sweetenham’stenure, some are of the opinionthat it can still do with muchimprovement.“Competition is a goodservant but a poor master!”
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