The main purpose of medley training is a matter of debate both among swimmers and their coaches.
In actual fact the medley should not be seen as four separate strokes but as one single swim style involving a wide variety of movements. That is why there are so many different training philosophies. Generally speaking, freestyle is the main stroke used in training sessions to improve swim skills. The second most popular stroke – particularly for quality sessions or when practising swimming at race pace – is the so-called “your own favourite stroke”.
This does not apply to swimmers who choose to focus on the medley.
In this case the specificity of swim skills involved is more complex than that required of swimmers focusing on just one or two strokes and this inevitably means training sessions are structured differently.
Let’s see how you can organise your training in 3 sessions-a-week lasting approximately 1 hour:
- Each stroke will have a particular day devoted to it, except for freestyle that will be incorporated in every session
- After warming up and before the main training session, always perform a short specific medley drill
- This is followed by a specific work-out for the “day’s stroke” (both the complete stroke and just legs) and a work-out for just freestyle…
