Swimming

[BigPiney]

Try the "sailboat drill". Hold a kick board between your thighs. Make sure 1/2 of the board is sticking below your body and then swim a few lengths using your freestyle stroke. Concentrate on using your core muscles to rotate your hips and shoulders together when you take your breaths. The board functions in two ways: 1) it will provide some buoyancy to keep you at the surface of the water and help you find the "glide" you are looking for, and 2) it will try to prevent the rotation which gives immediate feedback to your body to help you determine if you are correctly rotating your hips to take that breath.

Remember... turn with your hips to breathe, not with your neck.

HTH.

cheers.

I am a big fan of the "motorboat drill".

A good thing to concentrate on in stroke development is really rotating the hips. Good tip.

[FMCoug]

I am a big fan of the "motorboat drill."

I hear wuap likes that one too.


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[wuapinmon]

I hear wuap likes that one too.

I'm a diver.

[SteelBlue]

So my flip turns really suck. I asked a coach how to get better at them and he had me swim 6 strokes and then do a sommersault and continue for 6 more strokes then lather, rinse and repeat. I have to say that in just a half hour I went from the world's most embarrassing flip turns to maybe just Redding's most embarrassing flip turns. I figure I'm still a couple of practices away from feeling comfortable with them.

[Commando]

ya'll are crazy. I just started swimming from scratch last week b/c I wanted to get that extra cardio edge and plus knowing from others' experience that running will someday stab me in the back.

I have never officially learned to swim, having grown up in I.F. where it's freezing year-round and there is no indoor water. (other than alternating bi-annual ward outings to Green Canyon and Heise). I could only really doggy paddle and do the side stroke (thanks, Boy Scout Handbook).

Anyway, I got me my first suit (non-board shorts), goggles, and I started out learning the breast stroke and the backstroke, doing laps, getting winded, and getting my shoulders and thighs into beginner's condition. I did this for about 2 sessions and started feeling comfortable taking laps with these 2.

Now, I'm onto the freestyle stroke, just taking laps getting my coordination down and learning to pivot on my axis without taking in water as I breathe. I've been 4 times total now, and I imagine it's just like learning to dance where you feel like an uncoordinated embarrassment at first, but little by little the pieces come together.

I have turned to the miracle of Youtube to instruct me, after getting an initial couple of sessions from a friend. So how long until I'm shredding the pool Phelps style?

[Green Monstah]

ya'll are crazy. I just started swimming from scratch last week b/c I wanted to get that extra cardio edge and plus knowing from others' experience that running will someday stab me in the back.

I have never officially learned to swim, having grown up in I.F. where it's freezing year-round and there is no indoor water. (other than alternating bi-annual ward outings to Green Canyon and Heise). I could only really doggy paddle and do the side stroke (thanks, Boy Scout Handbook).

Anyway, I got me my first suit (non-board shorts), goggles, and I started out learning the breast stroke and the backstroke, doing laps, getting winded, and getting my shoulders and thighs into beginner's condition. I did this for about 2 sessions and started feeling comfortable taking laps with these 2.

Now, I'm onto the freestyle stroke, just taking laps getting my coordination down and learning to pivot on my axis without taking in water as I breathe. I've been 4 times total now, and I imagine it's just like learning to dance where you feel like an uncoordinated embarrassment at first, but little by little the pieces come together.

I have turned to the miracle of Youtube to instruct me, after getting an initial couple of sessions from a friend. So how long until I'm shredding the pool Phelps style?

I've been running on the treadmill then heading to the pool for laps right after. It flushes all the inflammation from my knees and is a great way to cap off a good workout.

As far as shorts go, I actually swim in my Under Armour XL's (near knee lenght). No reason for anyone to have to see more skin than necessary.

Funny Sidenote: When Commando is the last person to comment, the main page says

"Swimming
Commando"

[RC Vikings]

So my flip turns really suck. I asked a coach how to get better at them and he had me swim 6 strokes and then do a sommersault and continue for 6 more strokes then lather, rinse and repeat. I have to say that in just a half hour I went from the world's most embarrassing flip turns to maybe just Redding's most embarrassing flip turns. I figure I'm still a couple of practices away from feeling comfortable with them.

I've worked a little on doing flip turns and I hate them. For me it just means a little longer without air. Good luck with it.

[Borg]

Swimmers extraordinaires - take a look at the vids on youtube -

"Total Immersion Perpetual Motion Freestyle" parts 1-6 and tell me what you think.

For better or for worse, this guy has convinced me that this is the way to go. I am still having issues breathing and becoming oxygen deprived, but, I have made some progress in the last week or so. Can go further, and recovery time is getting shorter as I catch my breath etc.

What do you think about this man's methods?

Also: Another question. For those that do triathlons...do you freestyle swim the entire mile etc...without breaking into another type of stroke for a 'rest'...or do you just hammer through it freestyle?

[Borg]

I watched the first 3 of the 6 videos. I'm no expert, but it seems like a fine method to develop your stroke and should be perfectly suited for triathalon-type open water swimming (which I gather is what you are training for). As I mentioned before, I own one of this guy's DVDs. The production value of the video is really crappy (equivalent in quality to a typical home video), but it goes over a lot of fundamental stuff for beginners. When I was learning to swim competitively in high school, our coach showed us some reel-to-reel projector films... they were very helpful. For 30 bucks you can get their basic "freestyle made easy" DVD. Seems like a decent investment to me.




After sufficient training (like 4-6 months?), you should be able to hammer through it. Make a 1-mile swim your main set (35x50s in a 25yd pool) every so often (like once every 6 weeks?) and see how far you can go before resting or (eventually) how fast you can complete it without resting. If you can hold a 1:40/100yd pace, then you should finish a 1-mile swim in just under 30 minutes... which I think is a reasonable goal to shoot for. I dunno, you may already be that fast(?).

cheers.

No...I suck. Thanks for the input. Not sure how much more I can gain from the DVD they sell, or just study the youtube versions...but, I think I may want to pick up one of their current vids then.

[Borg]

Finally! A breakthrough!

Have been struggling along since January trying to figure out this "swimming" thing. Could do a 50 yard swim, and be gassed, and couldn't figure out why the slow improvements...basically no improvements. Felt stronger in the water, more confident..but was just getting gassed and feeling oxygen deprived after only 50 yards????

Asked a fellow who is a good swimmer if I could tag along, and have him evaluate my swimming technique (and to verify if there actually was one)...

Anyway, he is also familiar with the "Total Immersion" book, and so, into the pool we went for an evaluation.

Anyway, in accordance to the book, I was "pushing my buoy down" into the water (chest) to become more bouyant and to raise my hips/legs....so much so, that I was almost submarining under the water. Head completely under, and rotating almost 90° to take a breath.

My arms were not going straight forward, but coming across my axial line, almost criss crossing out in front.

He told me "I was swimming like a hot chick walks". Ha! So, it turns out that I was submarining, and almost 'tacking' in the water.

Got my head back up to only partially underwater, arms going straight out and 'lengthening' my reach...and the biggest part of it all...."to relax".

In 2 weeks, I've gone from getting gassed at 50 yards...to being able to go 200 yards without stopping! I'm ecstatic about that sudden burst of distance. I'm slow as all get out (50 yard in about 65 seconds) but hey...I don't have to stop at 50!!!

Can't wait til I can knock down some real distances. Maybe one year from now...I'll be able to go a lot further. Only a couple more hundred yards, and I just may enter into a sprint tri!

[ERCougar]

So my flip turns really suck. I asked a coach how to get better at them and he had me swim 6 strokes and then do a sommersault and continue for 6 more strokes then lather, rinse and repeat. I have to say that in just a half hour I went from the world's most embarrassing flip turns to maybe just Redding's most embarrassing flip turns. I figure I'm still a couple of practices away from feeling comfortable with them.

So I have some tri's coming up and decided to get back in the pool. Swimming's by far my weakest discipline and I'm an open turner, too, who feels stupid that he still hasn't learned how to flip turn. I picked up this book last year:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Fitness-Swimming-Second-Emmett-Hines/dp/0736074570"]Amazon.com: Fitness Swimming, Second Edition (9780736074575): Emmett Hines: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51oXLp2QO4L.@@AMEPARAM@@51oXLp2QO4L[/ame]

The author says that triathletes are wasting their time learning to flip turn. He thinks that at best, you'll only shave off a fraction of a second off of a good open turn, and that even so, the extra missed breaths will come back to bite you in an endurance event. I don't know nearly enough about swimming to comment, but it's an interesting take, and made me feel a little less dumb about my turns.

[bluegoose]

So I have some tri's coming up and decided to get back in the pool. Swimming's by far my weakest discipline and I'm an open turner, too, who feels stupid that he still hasn't learned how to flip turn. I picked up this book last year:
Amazon.com: Fitness Swimming, Second Edition (9780736074575): Emmett Hines: Books

The author says that triathletes are wasting their time learning to flip turn. He thinks that at best, you'll only shave off a fraction of a second off of a good open turn, and that even so, the extra missed breaths will come back to bite you in an endurance event. I don't know nearly enough about swimming to comment, but it's an interesting take, and made me feel a little less dumb about my turns.

Sweet! Open turners unite! I can't tell you how many times I've come up sputtering and disoriented while trying to learn how to do a flip turn.

[ERCougar]

SG (or any other swimmers/triathletes), I need some advice--
I'm a very average swimmer. I can swim for distances but not fast (about 35 minutes for an open water mile, a little shorter in the pool). I'd like to get faster, but at the same time, I don't have time to do 5 swim workouts a week, which seems to be what these swim programs recommend to get better. Swim portions are always the shortest portions of triathlons, so it's the least important part of the event. Can I get better on 2 workouts a week?

[ERCougar]

Sweet! Open turners unite! I can't tell you how many times I've come up sputtering and disoriented while trying to learn how to do a flip turn.

Ha...no kidding. My injured ego gives up pretty quickly...and hence, I'm still an open turner.

[SteelBlue]

I'm getting a lot more comfortable with flip turns, now preferring them to open turns. As far as open turns go, I don't think it's an issue of time as much as rest. I'd theorize that as one tires, they spend just a little more time on the wall during each open turn. If one is training for an open water event, the mile you do in the pool with open turns might be much easier than the mile you'll do in the lake. No idea if that's true though. I will say that there isn't a single single triathlete on our club team that does open turns.

My new challenge is what I guess are called stroke cycles. The coaches have brought to my attention that at my height (6' 2") I should be working toward swimming 25 yards in around 7 cycles (a right and left stroke). I currently can do it in 9 for a while then as I tire it turns into 10/11. When I watch the good swimmers (one in particular who swam in college) they do the same number of cycles on every single lap. It amazes me and I think maybe one of the keys to being a good triathlete is improving that efficiency. Think about how much unnecessary work a newbie like me does over those 25 yards. Extrapolate that out to a one mile swim and you can see that working on your cycle could really pay dividends in the long run.