There was a competitive swimmer, guy called Terry Laughlin, who was obsessed with being a fast swimmer.
he said his eureka moment was after he raced once on the premise that he would kick and stroke in freestyle faster than anyone else. He got out of the pool in bits, his coaches and onlookers said that they had never seen someone move their legs and arms as fast as he had.
But he didn't win. It wasn't even his personal best.
He came to the same conclusion that masters swimming coaches push. That swimming isn't a sport like circuits or spinning, its more like tennis or even golf: an unfit but skilled veteran will walk all over a fit but unskilled newbie.
There are rugby clubs that use golf as a preseason workout - big unskilled (in golf terms) rugby players hacking at the ball and sprinting after it 20 yards at a time and trying to complete the course first. Good fitness but applied in analogous terms to swimming then a pro will finish faster at a walk.
Laughlin came up with a system that is skill based and aerodynamic based on physics, skill combining for efficiency. Its used or at least studied by most top level swimmers. The idea is travelling as fast as possible with the least/ most efficient effort.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFmnJnmahLw
So it depends what you want. If you want to thrash yourself in the hope of swimming 500 m in 10 minutes you might get there or if it doesn't work then at least it might still make you a seriously fit, if still an inefficient/ unskilled/ slow swimmer.
Theres a book by the coach Emmett Hines called Fitness Swimming where he teaches the total immersion drills and gradually builds up the work.
He emphasises the skills all the way but it goes from mainly drills with treading water for fitness to "lactate endurance and lactate tolerance sets (that) improve pain tolerance and the ability to deal with lactic acid accumulation while swimming fast" and then onto on to "the most challenging and stressful practices that you can do, these should only be used for 9 to 12 weeks max".
I'm doing it now and my technique is getting good (used to hate freestyle) and the fitness demands are slowly building whilst my strokes per length and drag in the water are diminishing.
https://www.amazon.com/Fitness-Swimming-...ng+fitness
Up to you and how much time you want to devote to it I guess. Look at it if it interests you. But I hope this helps.
he said his eureka moment was after he raced once on the premise that he would kick and stroke in freestyle faster than anyone else. He got out of the pool in bits, his coaches and onlookers said that they had never seen someone move their legs and arms as fast as he had.
But he didn't win. It wasn't even his personal best.
He came to the same conclusion that masters swimming coaches push. That swimming isn't a sport like circuits or spinning, its more like tennis or even golf: an unfit but skilled veteran will walk all over a fit but unskilled newbie.
There are rugby clubs that use golf as a preseason workout - big unskilled (in golf terms) rugby players hacking at the ball and sprinting after it 20 yards at a time and trying to complete the course first. Good fitness but applied in analogous terms to swimming then a pro will finish faster at a walk.
Laughlin came up with a system that is skill based and aerodynamic based on physics, skill combining for efficiency. Its used or at least studied by most top level swimmers. The idea is travelling as fast as possible with the least/ most efficient effort.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFmnJnmahLw
So it depends what you want. If you want to thrash yourself in the hope of swimming 500 m in 10 minutes you might get there or if it doesn't work then at least it might still make you a seriously fit, if still an inefficient/ unskilled/ slow swimmer.
Theres a book by the coach Emmett Hines called Fitness Swimming where he teaches the total immersion drills and gradually builds up the work.
He emphasises the skills all the way but it goes from mainly drills with treading water for fitness to "lactate endurance and lactate tolerance sets (that) improve pain tolerance and the ability to deal with lactic acid accumulation while swimming fast" and then onto on to "the most challenging and stressful practices that you can do, these should only be used for 9 to 12 weeks max".
I'm doing it now and my technique is getting good (used to hate freestyle) and the fitness demands are slowly building whilst my strokes per length and drag in the water are diminishing.
https://www.amazon.com/Fitness-Swimming-...ng+fitness
Up to you and how much time you want to devote to it I guess. Look at it if it interests you. But I hope this helps.