How bad at swimming am I?

twhat · Joined: 28 Oct 2011 Posts: 1271 Location: London

i remember being told by a swim coach to swim a 1500m tt, and then to go back and swim a more leisurely 1500m a few days later where i could really think about form and technique. He told me to expect to be surprised by the results and indeed the second one was quicker, as well as more comfortable.
I guess proper pacing has the same effect across any endurance sport but the difference seems to be that 'correct' pacing in the swim seems to result in similar/slightly better performance outcomes but for less effort/energy expenditure.
Or something. Confused

EDIt : Actually, to put it another way... I think you can try to take it really easy but its actually very hard to swim 'too slowly' whilst doing front crawl.

hammerer · Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2018 11:11 am Post subject:

With the High Performance juniros I coahc i deliberatly practice hard starts and settling. Every race is like this at that level so rather than consciously going easier, we practice recovering at "threshold" after that 200m flat out start. Another thing is within each rep throw in a really hard length, this simulates the sprint out of turns etc or bridging a gap.

good set for this is say 8*200 off 3mins, holding 2:30's (adjust to your times!) All at ~8/10 or 20BBM or threshold pace ...... except 1) 100 hard 2) first 25 hard , 3) 3rd 25 hard 4) 5th 25 hard 5) 7th 25 hard 6) 5th 25 hard 7) 3rd 25 hard Cool

1st 25 hard
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twhat · Joined: 28 Oct 2011 Posts: 1271 Location: London

hammerer · Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2018 11:50 am Post subject:

tin pot · Joined: 08 Jul 2013 Posts: 2592 Location: Bromley

Not really had swimming injuries before so this might be common - discomfort centrally high up on the back. Not quite as high as the shoulder blades. Feels like tendons rather than muscle, if that makes sense.

Remedy? Swim easy? Reduce volume?
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Iron ‘17 16h11, '16 14h30
Half Iron ‘18 DNF, '17 7h39, 6h28 '16 5h53
Olympic '16 3h18 '15 3h33, '13 3h36
Sprint '16 1h17, '14 1h40, '13 2h01
Half Mara '16 2h04, '14 2h07
10K ‘18 50:31 '16 54:01 '13 54:46

PCP · Joined: 13 Oct 2012 Posts: 2005 Location: Manchester

Here we go again Laughing

I'm back in the pool. Only doing very short sessions at the moment to get used to the water and dodge the allergies.

Been 3 times in 10 days and each time started with an easy 400 wu, all coming in on 7:00, today was pleasing as the lengths were pretty even splits rather than my usual boom and bust swims.

Problem - I have a fairly long glide with a dead-spot at the end so I'm trying to eliminate it and speed up the stroke a little. My problem is that when I turn my arms over faster I lose around 4 sec/100m for the same effort than when I overglide.

What drills will help me eliminate the deadspot and actually speed up?

mattsurf · Joined: 28 Sep 2016 Posts: 852 Location: Zug, Switzerland

tin pot · Joined: 08 Jul 2013 Posts: 2592 Location: Bromley

hammerer · Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 11:13 am Post subject:

Dont glide. The arms should be continuously moving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvinmJg0ykQ

You should drop stroke rate for a bit though. Use the tempo trainer and do slow stroke rate (no glide jsut move arms slower), 45SPM. Really feel the catch. Use a pull buoy and count SPL and times over 100's. This will build strngth and you ability to knwo what is happenening. Also as you get faster you'll know its because of technical improvements. This is part of a program to develop though.

The minimum Stroke Rate I believe most should be aiming for is 70SPM. Look at any decent swimmer and the higher they are generally the faster they go. Do not do it at the cost of your stroke which is what happens. people up stroke rate, dont catch the water properly and end up slower and more tired so maybe spend next 8 weeks on low SR slowly building it up. Do 45SPM get your counts.....then 50 until you are doing same SPL then 55 etc until the 17 strokes per length at 45 SPM turns into 17 SPL at 70 SPM. Hit that and you'll be sub 5:30 for 400!
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Pedro Peru · Joined: 19 Apr 2010 Posts: 1064 Location: Leeds

Back to swimming regularly. For me that means 2 evening sessions that are an hour long and a masters session. Although I am mixing it up, it is generally 1 aerobic session based on the swim smooth red mist sets. The other is faster paced usually 50m or 100m based sets. The masters session is a mixed bag of chasing feet for an hour. There are some fast triathletes in my lane and I might even learn to do strokes other than freestyle.

PCP · Joined: 13 Oct 2012 Posts: 2005 Location: Manchester

Something clicked yesterday. I started my my catch a fraction earlier and had more of a constant motion in my stroke. Better timing, I suppose.

Anyway, I was doing my easy/steady 100's off 2 mins still but coming in on 1:35/36 instead or 1:40/42.

Stroke rate on my watch saying 26 spm but I'm assuming this doesn't factor in kicking off wall 4 times. Also was 17/18 spl with the new stroke. I hadn't really counted before.

Jgav · Joined: 06 Dec 2016 Posts: 281

Back to swimming regularly, 400m in 8.20 and 200m in 2.15 (fatiguing) spotted my post from June where I was swimming 200s in 3.40 what a decline.

I know I need regular sessions to make any kind of progress. Wish I could make a masters session work but the timings of the clubs near me are tricky to get to.

PCP · Joined: 13 Oct 2012 Posts: 2005 Location: Manchester

stenard · Joined: 04 Sep 2013 Posts: 2063