We worked on more sculling, hip rotation and how i enter the arms into the water.
I am rotating the shoulders more than the hips. So i need to work on that.
And I am crossing my arms when entering the water. It now feel weird. It feels like I am entering the water super wide, Like I am doing butterflies. But apparently I was doing much better when I was doing this,
It will take some time to get use to this.
She said than my water position in the water was very good. I am not popping my head out. I am not dragging my legs. This is after I started correcting the flaws she saw.
She also said that she saw more water pulling today… so thats a positive.
I had that exact same experience after my first video session. Over time that sensation that you’re doing it wrong (even though you’re doing it right) will fade.
Stretch your ankles. It affects what direction your foot is pushing water. Pushing water downward isn’t moving you forward. If your foot doesn’t plantar flex past parallel it’s not going to be displacing water behind you very effectively. Zoomers (short stubby fins) help with this; they allow for a small stretch with each kick. Also it’s more enjoyable because you’re not going as slowly.
In 2019 i did one… Times were 8.17 for the 400 and 3.55 for the 200. I remember the effort to be super hard and i was winded by the end…
Today i did 400 in 8.15 and 200 in 4.00
It felt totally different… At the end i was not gasping for air. The exhaustion was totally different. Today i was feeling everything but the cardio failing.
Although this was slower that last time… I feel encouraged in the way i was feeling in the water.
I call those both wins. I think in tri we underestimate the degree to which swim competency doesn’t just earn a few minutes on that leg, but lets those swimmers hit the next two legs much fresher. (Or at least I hope that’s the case, because I’ve put everything on the back burner the last six months and completely prioritized the swim).
I’m new to triathlon but I totally agree. If you’re a great swimmer but bad cyclist and/or runner, the swim probably won’t win you that race. But if you’re aiming to be as competitive as possible, I think becoming more comfortable and efficient with the swim is necessary, especially if you’re looking to out perform others.
I don’t know, I feel like the swim is disrespected. I used to despise all my swims, and ultimately that mindset made me skip swims and not become receptive for growth. Nowadays, I love the swim. I’m still slow relatively, but I feel a bit more comfortable and feel a bit more efficient and believe working on my swim will let me come out the water feeling fresher.
The thing to remember with swimming is that it takes time to see change. Keep consistent with your swim training (In my experience I was probably 3 times a week).
I went from somewhere around 2:00/100m over the club sessions to somewhere around 1:35/100m per session. For context the club sessions vary every week but include a mix of intervals.
That happened over probably 9 months to a year.
I took part in a local sprint tri yesterday. The swim was a pool swim… 26 lengths of a 17m pool. I clocked in on my watch at 6:13.
I’d also say that as a kid I was always around water but never swim club… just lessons with school and days at the pool in the summer holidays. It’s just a shame about my bike and run
I’m swimming twice a week, for months and set a one minute PB for short course pool a few weeks ago, 33mins for 1900m. Want to work that down to 30mins over winter but struggle to get a third swim in.
I’m following a swim plan but lunchtime swimming often means I can only to the main set. I tend to do one with paddle and pull, the other with just pull, as I commute cycle 2.5hrs those days too.
I’m putting myself in for a pool swim marathon (attempt), never tried it and not seen much advice on it, but I like swimming and feel like I hit my stride around 1hr/3km. So far just thinking of taking some energy drink every km, maybe having some spare goggles, and hoping the shoulders hold out for the 10km.
Yeah, it was called SOS for a reason. Relatively few people on the team actually finished it (iirc I got to 60-70 or so before I couldn’t make the intervals and dropped to 75’s). To some extent the short rests made it harder than swimming continuously.
ooohhhh…theres an idea!! I started coaching my both my daughter’s swim team this season (sucumbed after the head coach kept asking all last year). This is a great motivator to keep the kids from going under water when I am trying to give them their set an pointers
Good luck on that! The mere thought of swimming that long gives me a headache! When I swam i was a sprinter. Anything close to 100 or more was too far haha!
I started swimming in the summer, and I could not swim longer than about 10 minutes. I was at 2:30 or 2:40 per 100m in 400 meter intervals. Now I can swim for 30-60 minutes, and my times improved to about 2:00 per 100 meters in a 400 meter interval. I still have a lot of work to do, but it seems to me that weight training did wonders for me.
Does the breathing get better with just lots of time in the swimmingpool or are there specific drills? I believe my main limiter right now is the breathing. My heart rate does not go over 130 bpm, and I don’t get an “arm burn” feeling. I seem to get tired because I feel breathless and with too little air, which eventually makes me just want to stop.
If it’s just conditioning-yes but consider this: Are you exhaling while your face is in the water? That is important because if you don’t it’s very hard if not impossible to get a full breath exhaling and then inhaling during the short time your head is turned. That’s a common issue with newbies. You got to get the old air out before you can get the new air in!
First off, congratulations on the improvement and especially on identifying the link between strength and swim speed. There’s historically been a lot of discussion that swimming is all technique based, which in IMO, does a lot of disservice to the fact that swimming fast takes power and “UMPH”. It’s not one or the other, but both at the same time.
Now to breathing. Some video could help, but here’s some ideas:
Breath more often. Swimming to 1 side (every stroke cycle or every 2 strokes) will get you more oxygen which will let you go faster. Learn to breath on both sides, but 1 breathing every 3 (or more) strokes will limit you.
Keep your head to the side when you breath and don’t look forward while you breath. You’ll sometimes here people say “chin in the armpit”, but that is a bit extreme. If you are looking forward currently, it might FEEL that why when you correct it though.
Learn to rotate your head less. Once you get to a certain speed, you’ll be able to “breath in the wake” without lifting your head high out of the water. This will also help you maintain flatness in the water. A couple of things to help with this are the “1 lens” focus where you think about keeping the downside lens of your goggle in the water while you breath. The other is to imagine looking at someone’s feet on the pool deck (but not their legs or certainly not their face). Better yet if you can rope a friend in to walk along side you to have real feet to look at. Do both of these with a pull buoy so you can focus on your head position.
One thing to keep in mind when working on swimming technique: what you think you’re doing in the water often isn’t what you’re really doing in the water. Correcting these things may require you to feel like you’re “overcorrecting”, so don’t be afraid of exaggerate your corrections. Video will help with this and someone on deck who knows their stuff will REALLY help you.
