{"id":67770,"date":"2016-03-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.arenaswim.com\/uncategorized\/medley-in-training-when-where-how-and-why\/"},"modified":"2016-03-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-18T00:00:00","slug":"medley-in-training-when-where-how-and-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.arenaswim.com\/en\/training-technique\/medley-in-training-when-where-how-and-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Medley in training: when, where, how and why"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The main purpose of medley training is a matter of debate both among swimmers and their coaches.<\/p>\n<p>In actual fact the medley should not be seen as four separate strokes but as one single swim style involving a wide variety of movements. That is why there are so many different training philosophies. Generally speaking, freestyle is the main stroke used in training sessions to improve swim skills. The second most popular stroke &#8211; particularly for quality sessions or when practising swimming at race pace &#8211; is the so-called \u201cyour own favourite stroke\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This does not apply to swimmers who choose to focus on the medley.<\/p>\n<p>In this case the specificity of swim skills involved is more complex than that required of swimmers focusing on just one or two strokes and this inevitably means training sessions are structured differently.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s see how you can organise your training in 3 sessions-a-week lasting approximately\u00a0 1 hour:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Each stroke will have a particular day devoted to it, except for freestyle that will be incorporated in every session<\/li>\n<li>After warming up and before the main training session, always perform a short specific medley drill<\/li>\n<li>This is followed by a specific work-out for the \u201cday\u2019s stroke\u201d (both the complete stroke and just legs) and a work-out for just freestyle arms<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The distance set for each day should be divided up into shorter sections to recover energy so that you can repeat the drill with more fuel in the tank.<br \/>\n600 warm-up (ex lo ao)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Session 1 (butterfly)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>600 warm-up (ex lo ao)<\/li>\n<li>300 m medley (e.g. 6 x 50)400 m butterfly (e.g. 2 x 8 x 25 with 20 \u201c rec)<\/li>\n<li>300 butterfly lo (e.g. 3 x 100 with 15\u201d rec)<\/li>\n<li>600 m FS ao (possibly intervals)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tot. 2200 m (88 laps)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Session 2 (backstroke)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>600 warm-up (ex lo ao)<\/li>\n<li>400 m medley (e.g. 4 x 100 with 20\u201d rec)1000 m backstroke (lo) intervals (e.g. 6 x 100 with 20\u201d rec + 8 x 50 with 15\u201d rec)<\/li>\n<li>400 m\u00a0 FS lo intervals (e.g. 200 with 25\u201d rec + 100 with 15\u201d rec + 2 x 50 with 10\u201d rec)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tot. 2400 m (96 laps)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Session 3 (breaststroke)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>700 warm-up (ex lo ao)<\/li>\n<li>300 m medley (e.g. 4 x 75 with 15\u201d rec)<\/li>\n<li>400 m breaststroke (e.g. 16 x 25 with 7 \u201c rec)<\/li>\n<li>400 m breaststroke lo (e.g. 8 x 50 with 10\u201d rec)<\/li>\n<li>400 m FS ao without stopping<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tot. 2200 m (88 laps)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>From a physical training viewpoint there is also a big difference. The number of muscles involved in a medley race is higher than in a race involving just one swim stroke and your joints will come under greater stress.lo = legs only\u00a0\u00a0 ao = arm only\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ex: technical drills<\/p>\n<p>That is why gym workouts tend to be longer, focusing on exercises for various muscle groups and circuit training including exercises working on different muscle groups at different intensities (or speeds).<\/p>\n<p>In my opinion and from an organic \u00a0viewpoint, this is the most complex, tricky and interesting swim stroke that requires most dedication but is also the most fun to practice.<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy your training!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arenawaterinstinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/SET_Medley_training_1week.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Download the training set (PDF)<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arenawaterinstinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/SET_Medley-in-training_1Week-BW.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Printable version<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Are you looking for the ideal training swimsuit for your own specific needs? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arenawaterinstinct.com\/en_uk\/women\/training-swimwear.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Take a look here!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The main purpose of medley training is a matter of debate both among swimmers and their coaches. In actual fact the medley should not be seen as four separate strokes &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1372,"featured_media":17120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10090],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Medley in training: when, where, how and why<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Medley: let\u2019s see how you can organise your training in 3 sessions-a-week lasting approximately 1 hour\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.arenaswim.com\/en\/training-technique\/medley-in-training-when-where-how-and-why\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Medley in training: when, where, how and why\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Medley: let\u2019s see how you can organise your training in 3 sessions-a-week lasting approximately 1 hour\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.arenaswim.com\/en\/training-technique\/medley-in-training-when-where-how-and-why\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The arena swimming blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arenawaterinstinct\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-18T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.arenaswim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/244C5735.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"534\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"arena coaches\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@arenapeople\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@arenapeople\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"arena coaches\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.arenaswim.com\/en\/training-technique\/medley-in-training-when-where-how-and-why\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.arenaswim.com\/en\/training-technique\/medley-in-training-when-where-how-and-why\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"arena coaches\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.arenaswim.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/91c21c5610edd50a7a1df7dd9794cc76\"},\"headline\":\"Medley in training: when, where, how and why\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-18T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-18T00:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.arenaswim.com\/en\/training-technique\/medley-in-training-when-where-how-and-why\/\"},\"wordCount\":505,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.arenaswim.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Training &amp; 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