Swim fitness or technique?

Since I can't pick "both", I'm going with technique.

I'm not sure I understand the question...  

What if I'm a 1:20/100 swimmer?  I can hold that pace for a fairly long time but I would have to deliberately sabotage my stroke to drop to 1:40/100.  I don't see why this wouldn't hold true from 1:50 to 2:10.

So yes, I think you can swim too slow.

Originally posted by nc452010For example........If you are a 1:50/100 swimmer........does your technique suffer if you swim at 2:10/100?I know those are worlds apart, but I did it that way on purpose. If you're a 1:30/100 swimmer, I'm not sure you'd understand my plight.

A 1:20 / 100 swimmer going to 2:00 / 100 swim would probably suffer technique wise but a 1:50 swimmer going to 2:00 probably not.  In fact the latter may be able to hold better form longer. 

You're putting arbitrary limitations on the responses that are going to limit what you can learn from this discussion.  It's rarely an either/or technique or fitness proposition regarding swimming limiters.  It's almost always some combination of the two.

At 2:00 / 100, it's likely technique is a greater limiter than fitness, but both will still be factors.

As far as intentionally swimming slowly, that's an excellent drill to check balance and streamlining.  When you slow down, the amount of lift generated by your forward movement decreases, so issues that were masked by lift are revealed.  But, like all drills, it has it's place, and shouldn't be done without purpose.

It's technique (efficient at pulling\catching the most water) and holding that technique when you increase your cadence.  When you increase the cadence, fitness and strength will come into play.  If you are gliding, you aren't propelling.

I don't think the OP understands the question to ask. As Don started explaining, don't try to separate the two things.

I'll go back to the "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast" scenario.

If you swim slow enough to maintain good technique, then the improved technique will eventually make you faster.

The nice thing about improving your technique is that you can pick up "free speed":  You can swim faster at a given tempo with the same, or less effort.  Your "easy" 100 then drops from 2:00 to 1:40 or whatever.  

You need to establish a good technique foundation and then imprint that muscle memory through repetition.  Don't swim intervals any longer than where you can maintain good form the entire way. 

At my masters workouts we seldom do any intervals over 400 yds., but we do a lot of 25 yd and 50 yd, all-out sprints.   (We did a sprint set of 16 x 25 yd on 0:30 sec this morning).

While some long swims have their place in race prep, you get faster by developing good technique through frequency and repetition.  

Mark

Me personally?  Probably not.  Could someone else?  Maybe.  That's the whole point of the drill.  It reveals technique flaws, so if you take a swimmer who's T-pace is 1:10, they probably can slow to a 2:00 pace without many noticeable technique issues.  Ask a swimmer with a 1:40 T-pace to do the same, and they'll struggle a lot more.

Don, I'm not so sure that's true.  I honestly don't know what I would have to do to slow down to 2:00 short of massive pauses between each stroke.  Of course that might just mean I have a bunch of technique flaws.    Maybe I will try it next time I am in the pool to see what happens.

It could be either.  Or both.

It sounds like you're trying to identify your biggest limiter, so you can focus your training almost exclusively on that?

Stop thinking of it as a binary choice between training technique or fitness.  Instead, recognize that they're both relevant.  Every swimming session you do should look more or less like this:

1. Warm up
2. Technique/drills
3. Main set(s)
4. Cool down

Notice that that structure includes time for both technique and fitness.  The exact prescription of how much time is spent on each, and what you do during that time will vary based on your skill level and current training focus.  For example, a complete beginner might spend 75%+ of the session working on technique, while someone with well developed skills will spend 90%+ of it doing hard sets.  In between these two examples, there could be any combination of time spent on technique and fitness.

edited to fix fat finger typos. 

You should swim at a pace that lets you maintain your form for the workout.

Are you doing those 50s on a set repeat time?  ie. 10 x 50 on 1:10, finishing in :55 (so 15s rest) or just swimming the 50 and starting the next when you are ready?