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Run like a kid again!
I would like to get better at swimming and know I need to do some drills. Now that I am comfortable with doing freestyle up to 45 minutes, albeit slow, I think I need to learn how to be more efficient with my stroke. Does anyone have any simple drills they use? Most of my swimming will be in a lap pool.
I tried using the feet fin things on Saturday and they make me go a lot faster and I noticed I was breathing heavier. Not sure if this is a good thing or not. I think my kick sticks as when I use a paddle board I go know where. I am trying to do small kicks but I think it has to do with my ankles so that is why I was using the fins.
I tend to stop using my legs when breathing and need to learn how to keep kicking I think but I also want to rest them as much as possible for running.
Any suggestions or comments?
Drills are the best way to become more efficent at swimming. You should try to mix in drills with interval training. For your interval training try doing 50's (down and back) and 100's (down and back twice). Set a goal for yourself. A starting point might be 10 x 50's on the 1:15. or 5 x 100's on the 2:30 and over time give yourself faster intervals.
As for some drills you might want to start simple. Swimmin is all about being stream line and hydro-dynamic. A good starter drill is to take a stroke, and roll all the way over to your side. Count to three then take another stroke and rotate to the other side. Do this all the way down the pool. This will help you learn to rotate more and make your more streamline in the water.
Another drill is called "Catch Up." On this one you will look straight forward at your hand in the water. One hand is out in front and the other is to be moving, because you are taking a stroke. Once your stroking hand hits the hand that is out in front of you. Move the currently still hand for a stroke and leave the other hand in place. For example your right hand is out in front of you. Your left hand is taking a stroke. Hit your right hand with your left hand while looking straight ahead in the water. Once they touch, keep your left hand in place in front of you and stroke with your right hand till the meet again in front of you. What this drill teachs you is to keep your head straight. The more you move your head, the worse off you are. Moving your head around in the water actually causes you to fight the water, not move easily and causes you to expend more energy.
When you breath really concentrate on only getting one eye out of the water. This goes back to the idea of not doing to much head movement. A lot of first time swimmers will move their head all the way out of the water. This will get your body out of position and cause you to almost stop in the water.
As for your kicking, use the fins with a kick board. Again you are going to want to do interval training with 50's and 100's with this. You can do intervals with the same pace as you would when you do regular swimming if you are working with fins. This is a great core work out and will actually help you with your running. It will help tone your leg muscles you don't normally use when you run. Doing this will help your kick come along when you are swimming. Keeping your kick going durring normal swimming is really all mental. Just keep telling yourself to keep kicking. It will all get easier over time. Just keep working hard!
I hope this helped.
My first recommendation.....If your really serious about getting better then take lessons.
Fins work great for strengthing your kick and working your ankles.....they can also give you one helluavan ab work out too.....oh, and glutes....but they are not really much for working on technique.
Most of your effiency comes from what is happening from your waste up......speaking strictly on distance swimming.....not competeing in a 100 yard freestyle.
There are tons of drills but first you need to identify where your weakness is.......Is it in your body position, your arm extension, where and how your hand enters the water, how's your body rotation, are you lifting your head, maybe it's your catch, or it could be your pull.....etc. There are drills for all of these things and I incorporate them in every trip i make to the pool.
Even the best in the world follow this formula for a work out. Warm Up, Drills, Main Set, Cool Down.
Total Immersion has a book and video that does an excellent job of describing and demonstrating several drills to help you become more effiencent. Still, there is no replacement for the trained eyes of a decent instructor.
Re: your kick and stopping while taking breathes......there are olympic swimmers that do this.
I'm at work...shhhhhh....else I would give you some links that has videos demonstrating some drills.
Here's a group that's full of info and links:
swimmers
Speed my steps along your path, according to your will.
I tried looking for a masters teacher but that is more difficult than you would think. My problem is that running is still my main focus so if I swim it most likely will have to be really early in the morning. Right now that is 5 AM Not many masters teachers are going to be available at that time. So in the end I am going to have to teach myself how to get better at this.
Okay so one eye out of the pool when breathing. I will work on this as I know I pull my whole face out.
I noticed that almost all tri-athletes breathe to one side doing two strokes instead of the more efficient three stroke. I can do the three strokes but it is just a lot harder. Should I practice with that but just plan to swim with the two stroke?
When you say intervals you are saying swim hard for a lap or two in the pool. How long to rest between intervals?
Kicking with the fins and the kick board is better than using the fins and swiming with my arms as normal?
I plan to swim twice a week. One time being just a distance swim of between 1000 meters and 1600 meters.
The other time being some sort of drills to become more efficient. I was working on rolling the other day but was wondering if I was rolling to much. How far do you roll to the non-breathing side? Do you rotate your whole body or just your upper body?
So would this be a good idea to do during my drills day. maybe even both days
1.) 200 meter freestyle warmup
2.) 200 meters freestyle with fins
3.) 50 meter intervals as fast as I can go (4 sets) 1 minute between sets
4.) 400 meter freestyle relaxed
This is all great stuff and very helpful. I read a lot of stuff about swimming but I still don't feel like I am understanding it yet.
How do you people count your laps? It is such a pain to try and swim and also try to remember what lap you are on. Plus I have no idea how fast the lap was so I have no idea if I am getting any faster or slower. Kind of frustrating from that point.
To count laps, all you need is a watch. Count a set of laps (something like 200 meters worth), and then look at the watch. This is your baseline time: most of your other sets should be within a few seconds of this time. If you lose count, take a guess of where you're at, keep swimming, and look at the watch at the end of the set; you'll easily know by the time whether you were over, under, or right on. At this point, you can hit my watch's lap button and start another set. (If I was off on the last set, I make the next set a lap longer or shorter to even it all out.)
Swimming two-strokes would probably help with sighting a buoy in a race. However, I like to swim with three strokes mostly because it helps me feel like I'm balanced and using both set of muscles the same. However, I'm borderline ambidextrous so it might be easier for me.
There are about a million different drills and combinations; I vote that you start with the plan you've developed and adjust from there based on how it's going.
Have fun!
I tried looking for a masters teacher but that is more difficult than you would think. My problem is that running is still my main focus so if I swim it most likely will have to be really early in the morning. Right now that is 5 AM Not many masters teachers are going to be available at that time. So in the end I am going to have to teach myself how to get better at this. You can always ask the person next to you. Swimmers really like to share thier sport......watch it though, swimming is like golf. It is very technique orienented and when it comes to opinions......well, someone is bound to point out what your doing wrong. Okay so one eye out of the pool when breathing. I will work on this as I know I pull my whole face out. I noticed that almost all tri-athletes breathe to one side doing two strokes instead of the more efficient three stroke. I can do the three strokes but it is just a lot harder. Should I practice with that but just plan to swim with the two stroke? Probably splitting hairs on this. When you say intervals you are saying swim hard for a lap or two in the pool. How long to rest between intervals? Rest period really depends on how long the interval is....generally the longer the interval the longer the rest....it also depends on what you are trying to accomplish. There is no set rule. An example would be 50m intervals on 10 sec rest....or 50 m intervals on 1 min. E.G. you would leave the wall every 60 secs. the faster you swim the 50m the longer your rest would be. Kicking with the fins and the kick board is better than using the fins and swiming with my arms as normal? Not one better than the other....two different reasons for doing such. When I swim with the fins (no kick board) it is to get a feel for the catch when I'm swimming fast. It allows me to swim fast for a longer period giving me more time to work on my catch. When using the kick board I'm conditioning my legs. I plan to swim twice a week. One time being just a distance swim of between 1000 meters and 1600 meters. Swimming twice a week isn't going to make you a better swimmer. Swimming is like running in that regard. You have to swim lots. The other time being some sort of drills to become more efficient. I was working on rolling the other day but was wondering if I was rolling to much. How far do you roll to the non-breathing side? Do you rotate your whole body or just your upper body? I see people do both. If i'm stricklty swimming for distance I roll more. If I'm swimming for speed I roll less. Your kick is better when your body is flat. Your kick is less important when your swimming 1000 meter vs 100 meters. So would this be a good idea to do during my drills day. maybe even both days 1.) 200 meter freestyle warmup 2.) 200 meters freestyle with fins 3.) 50 meter intervals as fast as I can go (4 sets) 1 minute between sets 4.) 400 meter freestyle relaxed Good This is all great stuff and very helpful. I read a lot of stuff about swimming but I still don't feel like I am understanding it yet. How do you people count your laps? It is such a pain to try and swim and also try to remember what lap you are on. Plus I have no idea how fast the lap was so I have no idea if I am getting any faster or slower. Kind of frustrating from that point. I have a sportscount lap counter. I wear it on my finger.....it gives me total time, avg lap time, and individual lap time. It is suprisingly hard to count past 10.
You can always ask the person next to you. Swimmers really like to share thier sport......watch it though, swimming is like golf. It is very technique orienented and when it comes to opinions......well, someone is bound to point out what your doing wrong.
Probably splitting hairs on this.
Rest period really depends on how long the interval is....generally the longer the interval the longer the rest....it also depends on what you are trying to accomplish. There is no set rule. An example would be 50m intervals on 10 sec rest....or 50 m intervals on 1 min. E.G. you would leave the wall every 60 secs. the faster you swim the 50m the longer your rest would be.
Not one better than the other....two different reasons for doing such. When I swim with the fins (no kick board) it is to get a feel for the catch when I'm swimming fast. It allows me to swim fast for a longer period giving me more time to work on my catch. When using the kick board I'm conditioning my legs.
Swimming twice a week isn't going to make you a better swimmer. Swimming is like running in that regard. You have to swim lots.
I see people do both. If i'm stricklty swimming for distance I roll more. If I'm swimming for speed I roll less. Your kick is better when your body is flat. Your kick is less important when your swimming 1000 meter vs 100 meters.
Good
I have a sportscount lap counter. I wear it on my finger.....it gives me total time, avg lap time, and individual lap time. It is suprisingly hard to count past 10.
It takes years to become a good swimmer. Patience is the biggest key.
Well this is exactly why I am starting now. At some point I want to do a half Iron Man so I am trying to work on my swimming some. I plan to do an OLY distance this year in a lake. I have plenty of time before this. I also think it is an excellent exercise that is less stress on my body. I have to focus on my running to get that where I want it before I can focus too much on swimming. So that leaves us with two or three days a week. I just want to make the most out of the swimming that I do.
Do you like the sportscount lap counter?
I love it. Well worth the price of admission.
There are at least two different styles. One only counts laps and then mine....Where it will give you the splits, the avg and the overall time and total laps. I use it for my track work outs too. It's easier to hit the button with my thump vs using two hands across the front of your body trying to hit a lap button on your watch.
It is woefully simple though. Once you stop the counting you have to re-zero it to begin again so if you were timing a set and wanted to look back while you were resting you will lose your total laps. No Biggie....counting 6 sets of 100 is easier to keep track of than.....ok, was that 11 laps or 12?
Ebay is where I got mine.
I like Swimoutlet.com for everything else. Fast shipping, huge selection
Went to that website and found this. Just want I need to do is drop another $100 on keeping fit but this is very tempting.
http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/18030.htm