With the 25m pool, technical aspects such as the turn, push, glide, and sprint naturally become more important – how do you work on these aspects in your preparation for a short course meet?
Pre-meet preparation for short course should essentially be the same as for the 50m pool, and there shouldn’t be particular focus on the improvement of a specific technical aspect. While it is natural to expect better times in the 25m pool, short course races should be a sounding board of the swimmer’s performance in the water with a view to the summer long course championships, which is where champions are made. For this reason they are scheduled in the first two months of the swimming season’s racing cycle.
How else does training for short course competition differ from long course?
There is no doubt that for short course there is, for example, more emphasis on turns and underwater, which can help the athlete to accelerate using the push and glide. However, training plans should not be dictated by using the length of the pool as a performance parameter. What counts is that the athlete automates his technique to become more fluid, develops a panoramic vision, and reacts quickly.
What specific characteristics/qualities (both physical and technical) should…
