One of the coaches’ permanent concerns is the efficient combination of different training methods and the
selection of appropriate means capable of ensuring the athletes’ constant progress. The first step to be made in
order to successfully solve this task is to determine accurately the particularities of the sport being dealt with. In
the case of swimming, the most important element to be considered is the athletes’ endurance capacity. Thus,
their training needs to include almost all the training methods, because they require a good level of endurance,
whether they swim short or long distances. Endurance is an essential prerequisite for performance in swimming.
In this case, endurance is mainly an effect of heart hypertrophy. The effect of myocardial enlargement or
“athlete’s heart” is the pumping of a large amount of nutritive blood to the arteries. Aerobic endurance depends
on the heart tone, which determines a higher blood pressure, by allowing the supply capillaries to open at the
level of active muscles. This intense capillarization is the result of a long training process based mainly, in our
view, on the way rest breaks are used between repetitions.