by Brad Burget
The 7 Week Summer League Manual gives you the tools to build a shorter seasonal plan that prepares you or your swimmers for increased physical strength and stability starting with your core.
Brad Burget has been documenting this 7 week season for years and tweaking it as needed based on new ideas and the abilities of his swimmers. The daily yardage amount on the 7 week plan can be tailored to your needs based on the time you want to train. This program can be adapted to swimming 2-3 or up to 6 times a week, with any yardage amount you desire to swim.
Practice Techniques (partial from book intro):
- Racing - The drive to win close races to recover from mistakes and overtake your competition, the desire to win!!!! Some swimmers have that desire and others must be taught. You must add racing sets in your workout. Each swimmer must have the ability to start and stop speed (variable speed) throughout the season, no matter what phase of training you are currently involved. Drafting then passing, stagger starts and racing different abilities of swimmers in practice must be some part of aweekly routine.
- Race Pace - This isn't sprinting to exhaustion but creating the speed that will be needed to achieve goal times for each event. Let's take the 100 free for our example: let's say your goal is to swim a 48.00 in the 100. In order to achieve this swim we must create and instill muscle memory at this speed. You will need to maintain 12.00 while swimming 25's and 24.00 speed while doing 50's. You can eventually work up to 75's and broken 100's (breaking them at different distances) and fi nally a 100 from the block before you actually swim your big race. This will give you the confi dence needed for the big race. Start the season with enough rest at each desired distance to achieve race pace goal speed and as the season continues lessen the rest interval and achieve the same result. If you are tired on a given day that you want to do race pace then you must give yourself enough rest to achieve race pace. This doesn't have to be the main set but just the last 10 minutes of a desired workout. Please remember to do race pace during the aerobic phase of the season and during holiday training. Race pace develops muscle memory and helps create speed and power. Remember that your dryland program is important and must coincide with this type of training. You will do more race pace as the taper progresses. Recovery and overspeed sets are as important and must be incorporated with race pace. Training with speed and power in the water and during dryland will enhance everything you are trying to achieve in your program .
- Overspeed - Creating and enhancing muscle memory with the possible speed of a time not yet achieved in a race. Creating speed in short spurts helps train the fast twitch muscle make-up ofevery swimmer. Cords are a wide spread example usually incorporated during the taper or resting phase of a season and should be used throughout. Overspeed can be achieved off starts and walls and during very short distances or with correct tarzan swimming .
- Tarzan for speed purposes - Swimmers that do water polo use tarzan to see the ball. They are strong, have arm speed, upper body strength and usually are great at kicking. Wow, everything you need for sprinting! Sprinting doesn't always mean short distances. 200's are now in the sprint category. If you have ever seen Diana Munz swim she has great kicking skills that were evident in her swims off each wall and at the end of distance events. She shows variable speed and power in thedistance events with her upper body and legs.
- Recovery and dryland - These two categories make most people nervous. Proper recovery must be part of each workout phase and the dryland program must match. You must constantly change body part emphasis in your workouts to ensure recovery. Hard work should alternate legs, core and upper body. That doesn't mean if you are recovering the legs you can't work the arms. You need to alternate upper and lower body between dryland and swimming. You can alternate within each set, from set to set, from workout to workout or week to week. Add a true recovery workout once during the week and see how you respond the next day. Maybe you even need a day offas in MENTAL RECOVERY.
63 pages. 2010.