What is more likely to occur is that the swimmer will become desensitized to any particular feelings for minor but extremely important technique factors. That will likely be a limiting factor of how far that swimmer would go in the sport. It is now known that such a fear is unfounded. To the contrary, brief respites from swimming training are often beneficial to athletes, particularly if they have any degree of accumulated fatigue. The following are guidelines that should influence the programming of training stimuli.
Physiological capacities achieve ceiling levels in a relatively short period of time.
Once they are attained, speed and power can be developed. Once ceiling levels have been attained a continued emphasis on hard training can only threaten the welfare and performances of the athlete. Instead of continued hard training, coaches should consider emphasizing more specific training with an exaggerated emphasis on technique refinement. Basic trained physiological capacities can be retained through maintenance training. The belief that continued hard training for most of the swimming year is beneficial is unfounded.