Training for a strange sport.

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synchroGENized

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Hello, I am looking to get some fresh perspectives on an old problem:

Synchronized swimming routines last between 2:00 and 4:30 minutes, which puts us into the "short aerobic" type of exertion, except that 40 - 70% of the routine is done underwater, which tends to lead to a more anaerobic type response. Its kind of like bursts of sprints couched into rest periods that are too short and at too high an aerobic intensity.

Based on experience and observation I know that phasing out aerobic training completely leads to a diminish in athletic performance towards the end of the routine. Neglecting anaerobic training leads to an inability to execute the tough spots dispersed throughout the routine. So we need to do both....BUT to make everything a little more complicated, time is quite limited.

The athletes typically train 4 hours a day, 6 days a week, but in that time we must also train flexibility, strength, acrobatics and techniques as well as choreograph and polish routines. At most we should be spending 120 minutes each day between running, speed swimming, flexibility and strength.

So how would you all train for an sport like that?

Thanks for any ideas you can give :)
 
Hmmm... very interesting. I hope someone out there has some experience or resources that can help you! What does your coach have you currently doing?
 
I am the coach :·/ (and a BScKin too)

Its an age old debate and we are always looking for better ways to balance things.

I like interval training, but am sitting on the fence between doing intervals that accurately represent the physiological loads that they face in the routine and doing more textbook style intervals. In comparrason my colleague (with whom I am co--coaching until December) doesn't believe that the day is complete unless the athletes do 20 minutes steady state jogging and 20 minutes classic swimming training every day. (try wrapping a microcycle around that)

I stepped into this forum thinking that it would be interesting to get ideas from a running/cycling group of people instead of the open water/speed swimming group or the gymnastics/dance group that usually puts their 2 cents in for our training plan.

Please - any ideas or feedback is fuel for the idea mill :)
 
Ah I thought that might be the case (that you were the coach) :)

I wish I had more to give to you, but I have absolutely no experience with synchro training (and I would fall into the gymnastics group based on my background) :). In regard to interval training, I'm normally of the 'specificity of training' mindset. If I'm training someone who needs to do intervals that are longer (or more varied) than 'textbook' style intervals in their competition, then that's what I would train for. But that's just my opinion. As for the steady state jogging and swimming, well, I don't think that there is anything wrong with it in terms of overall health, possibly endurance, and recovery from training. But in terms of the benefit for the actual performance, steady state cardio might be less helpful than interval training. I would think that it would be very important to do interval training in the pool, so that the musculature of the arms is trained, rather than doing all lower body-based interval training?

Any thoughts out there anyone?
 
What about the recuperation portion of the intervals? Do you think it can be effective to reduce/intensify the recuperation phase to make the workout more sport specific? Or have a tri-phase interval? Something like:

(warm-up)
Intense Set: 3x 0:30 Run 0:20 Sprint (2:30 total)
Recovery Set: 2:00 Walk/GrannyJog (2:00 total)
Intense Set: 5x 0:30 Run 0:15 Sprint (3:45 total)
Recovery Set: 3:00 Walk/GrannyJog (3:00 total)
Intense Set: 7x 0:30 Run 0:15 Sprint (5:30 total)
Recovery Set: 3:00 Walk/GrannyJog (3:00 total)
(19:45 altogether)

I would define Walk/GrannyJog as something that you could keep up indefinately, running as something that leaves you breathing "freely" with a somewhat elevated pulse and Sprint as an all-out, heart pounding push.
 
I like what you have above - it looks like that would be more specific to a synchro routine than just 20 sec high intensity, 30 sec recovery, or whatever variation of that.

How many routines would your athletes do in a day for a competition? Just one? Or more than one? You said that their routines are normally between 2:00 and 4:30 minutes... my thought would be to gradually increase (over a period of a few months) the time of your "intense" set so that they are training to do a mixture of high and moderate intensity intervals for at least the same durations as their routines. I would probably make the recovery set a lot longer though, assuming that, in competition, they wouldn't be performing back-to-back routines (I could be wrong though).
 
Well... a typical scenario would be 1 routine every day for a 3 days plus a training session each previous night. For the strongest athletes that do solo and duet it might be 3 routines a day plus double training sessions.

A worst case scenario is 3 routines a day with a malfunctioning sound system and a biased referee who gives no rest between the interrupted run-through and the re-start (resulting in each routine really being 1.5 routines) plus difficulties extending the nighly training sessions.

Thanks for the feedback on the interval set-up. :)
 
My instinct is that you should do a general strength and flexibility program, do all your drills and practice, do some low-moderate intensity long distance cardio for general aerobic fitness, and for the sports-specific conditioning side of things do something like Tabata training, or 5min circuits. But I'm no expert on synchronised swimming - I can teach you the art of drowning, but that's about it.
 
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