Borough of Southend Swimming Club

Sarah's Hell Session

"Sarah was taught by my wife from 6 years old and was doing 70,000m per week with me at 11 years old!" (Coach Mike Higgs)

(As a result of being unable to contact Sarah who has emigrated, the following are the words of her coach, Mike Higgs).  "Sarah had been at our swimming club with my wife teaching her since she was 6 years old.  She trained exceptionally hard.  She made her first Commonwealth Games at 13 in 1982 in Australia.  She was 5'6" and 6st 13lb!  She'd been swimming 70,000m per week since she was 11 years old so she was already training like a senior international.  I remember she swam 17.54 for 1500m freestyle at 11 years old.  She was an exceptional swimmer and we did some exceptional training.

I remember when Sarah went out to the 1984 LA Olympics, I had written her six weeks worth of sessions to take with her, but the GB National team coach there with her told her she would be doing his sessions.  By the time I got out to LA she was feeling really down and was completely unfit, swimming 36 seconds for 50m's freestyle!  She needed more work than she'd been given out there.  Within two weeks I got her back to where she should have been but it was a close thing.  She swam 104,000m the week before she raced.  She took a bronze in the 800m, swimming 8.32.60 and a silver in the 400m going 4.10.27.  At that time she was 5'10" and weighed 9st 4lb.

Sarah would average 90-100,000m per week as 7 mornings and 5 evenings.  Sarah liked to get there 10 mins early and she'd generally be in from 5.30 until 8.00am.  On Saturdays she had two sessions; one at 12 until 2pm, then the second at 5.30 until 7.30pm.  that was hard... very hard.  I generally worked on cycles of 2 to 3 hard sessions in a row followed by 1 easy, and then repeat.  On Monday night we had just one hour and on Friday night we had just half an hour so we'd mostly practice starts and turns and such like.  She would often swim with a long-sleeve t-shirt on.  We'd warm up with 5 x 800 @ 10mins, with long-sleeve t-shirt.   Not everybody could tolerate the levels of training Sarah could.  I've given some examples of some of the sets we used to do here.

We never used to do swim-downs in those days.  In fact, the swimmers didn't have drinks bottles or anything like that.  We didn't used to pay attention to those things at that time.

Sarah's Hell Session - The Gory Details

"Most of these sessions were swum in a 33.3yd pool or a 25m pool"

WARM UP:

5 X 800m Free @ 10 minutes wearing a long-sleeve t-shirt
Or
10 x 400 Free @ 5 minutes wearing a long-sleeve t-shirt

MAIN SETS:
30 X 200m (short-course)                                              (6000m)
6 off 2.35 (first and last 200m @ IM @ 2.35)
6 off 2.30 (first and last 200m @ IM @ 2.35)
6 off 2.25 (first and last 200m @ IM @ 2.35)
6 off 2.20 (first and last 200m @ IM @ 2.35)
6 off 2.15 (first and last 200m @ IM @ 2.35)

5 x 800m Free with the last 400m as IM                     (4000m)

@ 10.30. 10.25. 10.20. 10.15
100 x 100 @ 1.15 HOLDING 1.05                                   (10,000m)

'These one-hundred 100m's started as 30 x 100m off 1.15, however she was swimming well so I said "How about another ten 100's?" Then after those Sarah said "Another ten?" I thought about it and replied "Yeah, sure!"  When we'd reached forty-nine 100's she said "I might as well do 100!!"  She was hurting the next day; she couldn't swim 70-base for 100's free.'

Sarah's Diamond Workout

"The mini-gym was a feature of Sarah's training..."

We had 6 mini-gyms at the end of the lanes at Borough of Southend.  They were basically like small swim-benches - isokinetic work mostly working on the lats.  We'd do a set like 22 x 100m's at a good, hard pace, jumping out of the pool and doing 50 pulls of the mini-gym at the end of each 100m.  We'd incorporate press-ups into the workouts too.

I remember a very good swimmer I had called Jackie Wilmot who hated press-ups but she did 63 in a minute at 12 years old.  I had Mark Foster in my group at that time as well, so don't let anyone tell you Mark didn't train hard!  I've given Sarah's race-warm-up here, that she would do before competitions.  She would firstly swim 5 x 400m off 5.20.  Then this was followed by: 12 x 100 @ Pace+2secs.  Then finally she did 8 x 50m through the four strokes giving a 3600m warm-up.  Thios was done in the morning before heats.  Before finals sessions she did less than this.

At the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986 she did this warm-up and went the following times for the 400m's: (1) 4.37 (2) 4.31 (3) 4.28 (4) 4.25 (5) 4.21.  A young Australian bloke called Bob Treffene was with me while Sarah was warming-up and said "In these twelve 100m's just keep her pulse at no higher than 160beats-per-minute, now."  Bob was - and still is - one of the world's best swimming physiologists.  We did that and she won double-gold in the 400m (4.08) and 800m (8.25) freestyle and bronze in the 400m IM (4.51).  I've always been open to learn from people I respect along the way.

I remember a short-course meet at Ipswich just before she went 4.04.97.  In the warm-up she did 8 x 100m Free @ 1.30.  Her times were as follows: 1.01, 1.01, 1.01, 1.01, 1.00, 1.00 and then she finished with 59.7!  She went 8.29 untapered!  I think she got overexcited during her warm-up, too!  She was training through the meet for an international meet (I think it was the Europa cup in 1985).  In the details here, I've also added a set we used to do called the Olympic set.

Sarah's Diamond Workout - The Priceless Details

COMPETITION WARM UP:

5 x 400m Free @ 5.20
12 x 200m Free @ 1.30 aiming Pace + 2 secs.  Keep the pulse at 160bpm.
8 x 50m though the four strokes. (3600m. a.m. competition warm-up)

THE MINI-GYM SET:

22 x 100m's
'Hard' with 50 pulls on an isokinetic mini-gym/swim-bench after each 100m

THE OLYMPIC SET:

This set is one done within one hour and is swum short-course

1 x 1500m    Free          15secs rest       Aim 18.00
1 x 800m      Free          15secs rest       Aim 9.40
1 x 400m      Free          10secs rest       Aim 4.45
1 x 400m      IM              10secs rest       Aim 5.10
1 x 200m      IM              10 secs rest      Aim 2.35
1 x 200m      Fly             10 secs rest      Aim 2.30
1 x 200m      Back          10 secs rest      Aim 2.35
1 x 200m      Breast       10 secs rest      Aim 2.50
1 x 200m      Free           10 secs rest      Aim 2.20
1 x 100m      Fly              5 secs rest        Aim 1.15
1 x 100m      Back           5 secs rest        Aim 1.18
1 x 100m      Breast        5 secs rest        Aim 1.25
1 x 100m      Free            5 secs rest        Aim 1.03.5          (4500 set)

Reproduced courtesy of Total Swimming Visit Total Swimming website http://www.totalswimming.co.uk/

Hell Session

"The 60 x 100 Nightmare! Excluding the press-ups, this session was swum all as frontcrawl - it's a flippin' good job I had no muscle mass back then!"

"A lot of people think that as a sprinter I never do a lot of work, well this perception is quite simply wrong.  In my teens, when I first started out in my career, I did a huge amount of swimming which gave me the great background I have now and indeed the technique.  I used to do 50,000 - 70,000m a week at the age of 10 and my coach at that time, Mike Higgs at Southend-on-Sea, also used to coach Sarah Hardcastle and Jackie Wilmott, both Olympic Medalists at 400 and 800m freestyle.  As you can imagine, I had lots of Hell work-outs (I still have nightmares about them now!!).

Not many people know that I was actually British Age-Group champion at 400m freestyle when I was 14.  Around that time I remember every Christmas we would have the "Xmas-1500s", which were a series of maximum effort 1500m's! These were always a couple of days before the festive celebrations (ah what a lovely Christmas present!).  To this day I look back and wonder how I ever used to do all those sessions at that period of my life.  How I could complete the semmingly endless sessions of 7000-8000m, especially when the majority of the work was done at 5.30am, before school and before the rest of my school-mates had even got out of bed!! I think I made it through the sessions because I had a great group of people to train with and it was always an achievement to make it to the end and get in a warm shower.

There are many sessions that I can recall - as hard as I try to repress them! - but it's that work I did that has helped me become what I am today.  I remember doing "Timed-5000 metres" trying to break 1 hour, and 8 x 800m's, and 5 x 400m IM's and so on.  Of these Hell-Sessions that I can recall, I've Decided to share this one with you as it really 'forces itself into the mind'. I always swam through these long sessions singing songs in my head or trying to think of chocolate eclairs or Sunday lunch!  (there are always some little rewards you can give yourself for making hard sets!)."

Mark's Hell Session - The Gory Details
WARM UP:
1000m mixed warm up

MAIN SET 60 x 100m. all front crawl as:
10 x 100m @ 1.45 with 10 press ups each 100m
10 x 100m @ 1.20
10 x 100m @ 1.45 with 10 sit ups each 100m
10 x 100m @ 1.15
10 x 100m @ 1.45 with 10 pull-downs on weights-machine each 100m
10 x 100m @ 1.20

SWIM DOWN:
400m loosener, warm shower

Diamond workout

"The love Session! For 21 -23 seconds of swimming, my training has to be specific"

"Now aged 35 and having been British Record Holder for the 50m free since 1990 and World Record Holder since 1993 (and I actually represented Great Britain at the 50m Free at the world Champs in Madrid in 1986, the first time the event was put into international competition) I now train my body more specifically, with all my training geared around those 21 - 23 seconds, whether I am in the pool, on the running-track or in the gym.  I train more like a track-athlete than a swimmer; well actually I think swimming as a sport in general is starting to train a lot more like athletes (just look at the physiques of the people at the top of these sports now).  Gone are the days when a swimmer is just a swimmer, you have to be an athlete now, spending time in the gym to get stronger and working on core-stability.  To compete at the top you have to have the whole package.  If you are not conditioned properly you also pick up injuries easily.

I spend the winter periods - January until March - doing a lot of muscular- conditioning work.  This is what I call the endurance phase.  I do a lot of circuit training in the gym and hill runs on sand.  Doing these different forms of training also keeps the mind fresh, as you're not doing the same things, every day, for months.

The easy way to look at my event is to break it down into sections.  The start-reaction off the block and the first 15m takes about 5 seconds - it's also the most important part of the race - if you get it right it sets you up for a good race, get it wrong at the highest level and you can't get that time back, your race is pretty much over.  This is why I spend a lot of time perfecting the start.  You need strong legs for a good jump, but it is also crucial to be streamlined when you enter the water.  Work out which type of start is better for you, the "Track-Start" (with one foot in front of the other) or the traditional "Grab-Start" (with both feet together at the front of the block). I use the "Grab-Start", but I must say I think it's a shame I hadn't learnt the track start 25 years ago - I think the Track-Start makes you a lot more stable on the block, meaning you should never false start!!

As the start is so important, I like to practice it a lot, to make it explosive and maximise this, the fastest part of the race.  I not only want to maximise the speed I generate but also maintain it for the first 15m of swimming.  You have to be so focused for a fast start, reacting as fast as you can but not losing control in the air.  These first 15m sections only take 5 seconds, but they are vital to get it right.  If you pracvtice them enough they become sub-conscious, automatic, and this is when you are in the zone.  This is why I have chosen the following session as my favourite "Diamond Workout".

The faster you swim the happier you are, and getting the start right is the easiest way to improve your times.  Enjoy the session and I hope one day you will become one of the fastest swimmers (and starters!) in the world"

Mark's Diamond Workout - The Priceless Details
WARM UP 1000m as:
To include 10 x 25m underwater fly-kick with "zoomers" (short firm fins) @ 1 min.
"I use 3 fly kicks on my start so it's important thay are as powerful as possible.  The rest of the 1000m I work on freestyle 'Timing' and "smooth-stroke' drills."

MAIN SET
12 x 15m @ 6 min.
"You need this much rest to get your power back up - remember, this is a sprint -set, not endurance."
Each start is done from a signal - be it the coach, whistle, gun or beeper.  " I especially like to do this set in an outdoor pool in a hot country, whilst your resting it's essential to keep warm."

SWIM DOWN
800m loosener

"I concentrate all the time on holding good technique and a "feel" for the water.  This whole set is only about 2500-3000m but it takes about 2 hours!  Remember what I said that the start is the most important part of the race so make sure you do the set properly and CONCENTRATE on each start."

Thank you to Mark Foster from all at BOSS, visit Mark's Website http://www.markfoster.co.uk/

Reproduced courtesy of Total Swimming Visit Total Swimming website http://www.totalswimming.co.uk/