This post makes a point that too often gets overlooked in the "do more swings" paradigm. This Keep Lifting athlete has a strength base.
Yes Bill but for some S&S gets them their strength base.
If you start S&S able to do 500lb deadlifts then getting to simple will be a breeze.....kind of what you are implying. That the greater your strength base the better you will be at everything, sport wise, health and into a long life. Couldn't agree more. And thus being strong will make S&S a whole lot easier. And by easier, you imply, quicker to attain the goal(s) and then continue forging ahead getting stronger.
You could argue therefore that doing S&S less and a pure strength plan may be better, in terms of addressing strength rather than aerobic kettlebell swings. Maybe so, Pavel gives that approach the thumbs up doesn't he? And that being said, the S&S goals may be attained quicker than 'just' S&S, maybe? For some, perhaps. We've also seen of late some posting of strength successes doing Al C's A&A swings testing protocols. Some pretty good results....strength results training alactic and aerobic kettlebell swings.
In the words of The Floyd:
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.
And of equal importance to us older types is health.....if there is one thing we can agree on is that you can get away with a whole lot more when younger!! So strength and health. So we should therefore not focus on one to the detriment of the other, or not? If being strong makes you more healthy, then we are heading in the right direction but as soon as that balance shifts, the very practice we undertake to improve our health actually harms it. And sitting in this state of awkward, precarious balance is each and every one of us, with a lifetime of knocks, ailments, idiosyncratic movement oddities, messed up livers, botched surgeries, periods of inactivity, obesity, crap jobs and misspent youths. If you have been fortunate in your life, remained active, healthy and have had no major problems or upheavals and you are strong now, have been strong most of your life, getting stronger and remaining so isn't going to be as hard as someone starting out at square 1. Or even going along nicely and has to take a step back from the usual activities because of tweaks that appear to take a whole lot longer to recover from than they used to......age, maybe.....as in the original poster, who is doing S&S, btw.
So ditch S&S? Or do it differently? Heavier or lighter? More intensity or less? I'm not sure you refer to me, as it took me a year to do the simple. This with a break doing Dan John's 10,000 swing challenge. I could have done it in 6 months, actually probably less and moved on a long time ago. Maybe. I was pretty close to the goal before switching it up, or down as the case maybe, to more of a focus on breathing and heart rate. I can see your arguments.....no really I can, I'm not just saying that, more to the point I agree with them in general.....but you are not me, and I am not you. We are all different and that is the beauty of S&S. It is what it is and the structure of it allows for all our individual quirks. It isn't structured by time. There are no cop outs due to age.
In the words of, ahem, Oleta Adams:
I don't care how you get here
Just Get here if you can
If I'm honest with you, I got to a point with S&S where I just wanted to thrash it out. I had the conditioning to do it, really I am a tabata king but i would have done so at the expense of my form. And my grip was dodgy. Yet changing it all up was the best thing I've ever done. You know, 100 solid powerful swings. 10 smooth solid get ups. I would have made the goal probably with 75 solid reps and 25 piss poor lumbar spine wrecking glycolytic thrustings. And 6/7 good get ups with 3/4 skull crushing accidents waiting to happen in an omni-shambles of a movement train wreck. So I think I did well spreading it all out for a bit longer. Could have cheated but didn't. And, I hope I did the programme justice and did it as it was set out to be done. Eventually. Rightly or wrongly, you know.....but yeah, age, what a scam. I now have a strength base where I didn't have one before, so there.........I'll be quicker the next time!