Summer 1, Week 7 Technical and Conditioning Focus: 200 Freestyle: Conservation/Distribution of Energy

Summer 1, Week 7 Technical and Conditioning Focus: 200 Freestyle: Conservation/Distribution of Energy

• Macrocycle: Summer 1: March 24 – June 1
• Mesocycle: Aerobic Power/Mid-Sprint
• Microcycle: May 5 – May 11
  • 200 Freestyle: Conservation/Distribution of Energy

Hello Swim Families!

Welcome to week 7 of Summer 2025 Macrocycle 1!

This week, we will focus our training around the 200 freestyle, specifically, how to establish aerobic power and endurance.

The 200 freestyle is arguably one of the most difficult races in swimming. Depending on who you ask, it might be a “mid-sprint” race, or it might be a “short-sprint” race.

So… what’s all that mean?

North Carolina State University (NC State) is one of the premier swimming institutions in the United States, and they are famous for emphasizing three styles of training: short-sprint, mid-sprint, and long-sprint.

More traditional programs might classify these groups as sprint, middle-distance, and distance, though I prefer NC State’s vernacular. Why?

Think about it this way: If a swimmer is racing, they must also be sprinting, assuming they are putting forth their maximum effort. Therefore, the distance of the race does not matter; a swimmer is sprinting the entire duration of the effort, no matter how long that is—50 meters or 1500 meters. The strategy and training styles differ depending on the race.

Roughly speaking, we may break these three groups into the following:

• Short-sprint: 50-, 100-, 200-yard/meter events
• Mid-sprint: 400/500-yard/meter events; arguments can be made for 200 long course meters races.
• Long-sprint: 800/1000-meter/yard events, 1500/1650-meter/yard events, and open water.

In short course, the 25 yards/25 meters format, a 200 freestyle is more appropriately considered short-sprint, though in the long course 50-meter format a 200 freestyle is perhaps more akin to a mid-sprint race, though in my opinion, high-level swimmers would pursue it as short-sprint. The progression of a swimmer taking the 200 LCM freestyle from mid-sprint to short-sprint is developmental--the longer a swimmer has been in the game, the more equipped they'll be to take it out fast in long course.

In either case, a swimmer needs to have back-half speed, and especially in long course, something I call open water speed, a high aerobic capacity, and very strong capillary beds for flutter kick (refer to Summer 1, Week 1: Technical and Conditioning Focus: March 23 – March 29: Email 3 of 3: Capillary Beds for further details).

To swim a “perfect” 200 freestyle, a swimmer must be fast on the first 50 without using their legs. Unless a swimmer is an absolute natural at underwater dolphin kicking, they had best not push the underwater kicking beyond 3-6 kicks on the first 50. This generally applicable throughout the race, and remember, there are 8 opportunities to kick underwater in a short course race whereas there are only 4 in a long course race. We will return to underwater dolphin kick later.

The second and third 50s of the race must be pushed hard. That is where a strong flutter kick needs to come into play. The middle 100 of any 200-yard or meter race is generally regarded as the most difficult.

The final 50 is emptying the tank. Whatever you have left, that is what you must leave in the pool! Adrenaline is key to carrying swimmers through the race. This is one of many examples where coaches want swimmers to turn their brains off and just race. Despite all the strategy I’ve been yammering on about, don’t think about it during your race—focus on it in practice.

Another point of consideration is the 15-meter rule. Whether in long course or short course, yards and meters, a swimmer may utilize underwaters for up to 15 meters. As meters are longer than yards, this breaks down to the following conversions for each course, based on 100-yard-or-meter efforts:

• 4 x 15m @ 100 short course yards = …some conversions are in order.
  • 15m = 16.4024 yards
  • 16.4042 yards x 4 = 65.6168 yards / 100 yards
  • This equals a maximum of 65.6168% of the race being allowed to be swum underwater, whereas in a meters pool a swimmer could only go up to 60 percent in SCM or 30 percent in LCM.
• 4 x 15m @ 100 short course meters = 60m/100m could be swum underwater.
• 2 x 15m @ 100 long course meters = 30m/100m could be swum underwater.

There is no 15-meter rule in breaststroke; however, a swimmer is only allowed one dolphin kick, one pull (past the hips) and one breaststroke kick per dive/turn in breaststroke. If that takes them past 15 meters, no worries! Multiple dolphin kicks, pulls past the hips, or breaststroke kicks underwater—DQ!

So, what does this mean for our training for the week?

It means we are going to hammer the aerobic endurance while also working in sprint endurance with an emphasis on kicking. Specifically, regarding kicking, learning how to use the kick in a specific and strategic way. As stated above, the first 50 of a 200 freestyle must conserve the legs, while the remainder of the race hammers them.

To achieve what we need to this week, we will focus on short-effort kick sets on fast intervals, broken swims, and breathing patterns. Technique, as always, is central to our training. Distance per stroke is vital to any race, and specifically in freestyle, swimmers getting their faces back in the water before they pull with whichever arm is outstretched is vital to an efficient technique.

Please let me know if you have any questions, and I’ll see you at the pool!

-Coach Reid