So, in my experience with the Garmin 935. You need to push hard on the wall, otherwise it will not catch the turn…
Yeah, my push off the wall is hard enough. In club swims I would collide with anyone in front of me if I didn’t pause at the wall.
These were single lengths so hard push, and a hard stop. I held the wall with my watch hand for five seconds before shifting around for the next length too.
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Not sure how much this will help you, but… I did my first three tri’s in 2015 (sprint, intermediate, then Olympic). Had never really swam before that. Had a coach that got me in 1:50/100yd range on splits that year. Continued for two more years increasing distance (some 4000 yd sessions) and speed with her while training for 70.3s, but injured my shoulder (not swimming). Took 10 months off and came back doing short intervals and technique. Then began work with a true swim coach - sets were often of 75’s / 100’s per set. Got down in 1:20’s/100 after that. Form/technique, speed work resulted in significant improvement for me. And trust me, not a true swimmer here - 5’8’', 160 lbs… If I can get there, anyone can.
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‘Twas my fourth swim in almost 2 years. My goal is to get to 1:30, which i know will get me in the top 3 out of the water based on past years’ results. (Secretly i would love to get down to 1:00/100m or under from my younger days, but will not happen).
First post in this thread…
Swimming sucks.
That is all.
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I just don’t know how to improve. Running and cycling are “easy.” Build yourself cardio and muscular endurance and you get faster. Biking has another element of learning to be more aerodynamic.
With swimming you can get faster just by building cardio and muscular endurance, but that will only take you so far. You reach your limit and really need to learn better technique and mechanics. I have no swim background, so nothing to draw from. I have no idea if I rotate too much, or not enough. If my hand entry is good. If my timing is messed (I pretty much guarantee it is, but where?). My best 70.3 swim was 2018 Galveston at about 38 min (wetsuit, brackish water). I swam 28 and 29 min at Chattanooga and Augusta, but both current assisted. In may I swam gulf coast 70.3 in 39min. In a pool, I can sprint 50yd in the 1:20’s pace. But lots of people do that pace for an entire 70.3 swim, and I have no clue how to get there.
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So, i feel you man. I have the same problem, although I am much slower than you. I would kill to swim 1.2 miles in less than 45 minutes. My 50 sprints are maybe 1.40 on a good day…
Sadly, from what I have learned, unlike running and cycling is almost impossible to muscles you way into swimming…
Skills based activities benefit the most from an external eye - I signed up to two masters swims for this reason, and swim coaches can spot the basics fairly easily.
If you can only do self coaching, and have an Apple Watch you might want to trial the SwimSmooth app.
Looking at the app now, really interesting. Looks to be much like how TR does bike workouts. The workouts look to be very detailed…how do you keep track of the sets while in the water? It doesn’t import to your watch does it?
Old standby is to print/write it out and stick it to the end of the pool, or I think most watches allow you to program them in manually.
Also, that old SwimSmooth swim type quiz is eerily accurate. Got my personality down and everything. Dude should write horoscopes…
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Does it actually help with form/technique? Im worried about my compliance. My swims are pretty sporadic. I’ll carry my swim bag in my car and go to the pool when I can. If I have to print out workouts in advance and put them in a ziplock bag (done that before), I’m afraid it just wouldn’t happen. I have plenty of old swim workouts I can pull from TrainingPeaks when I had a coach. I think I really need a watchful eye on me to help point out mechanical errors. I did masters swimming years ago but it was a joke. My class, anyway. Just a lot of farting around and an overall subpar workout. But that catered to the majority of swimmers who were in the group. I’d be lucky to get 2000yds in a 1hr class.
I’m going to reach out to someone I know who coaches and see what a 1x per week session would look like.
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IMO if you have access to a coach or even a couple of one-on-one stroke correction sessions, that’s your best option.
I think one of the problems with adult onset swimmers is that there’s so many things we can improve upon it’s hard to know where to start, especially as I think there’s kind of a ‘cascade’ effect where one problem can cause another. And while it’s pretty easy for anyone on the internet to point out a couple of things that need work, I’ve found that a good coach can identify the root issues, which means you can work on fixing one thing at a time rather than trying to focus on everything at once. (a big one for me was too little rotation, which made everything from breathing to getting a good catch way more difficult. Once I got that under control approaching the other issues was a lot more productive.)
I agree master’s is kind of dependent on the club/other swimmer. I’d kill to have a good swimming community near me, but…small towns 
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It’s just hard to make corrections on the fly. I’ll do a 100, then do another while focusing on something that I think needs improvement. It will feel faster and more efficient…and then I will look at my watch and it was slower 
I think 1x a week would be good to get a good foundation of what to work on, then I can do some solo workouts focusing on that specific thing. Then regroup a week later and see 1) how I’m doing correcting it, and 2) what the next disaster is I need to work on 
@Tim_P I couldn’t agree more having someone on the side of the pool to give real time analysis should help. Also, taking a video of yourself from the side and front and have someone look at it with you to show is huge…Another thing you noted is you get to the pool sporadically, unless you have been swimming from a young age, you need to get in the water… ALOT! It makes a huge difference.
Example on video, a friend of mine is a late onset swimmer and just completed his first 70.3 in Finland this weekend. He just posted some videos from the race and from the few seconds of the start of the swim I could tell he is very mechanical in his stroke - its as if his mind is saying pick arm, move arm around, get in water, now pick arm left, etc… whereas is he can smooth it out, he will get much more effiicency. Also noticed he has very little rotation.
I’ve done some video before. Garmin VIRB. It’s helpful…sort of. Swimming, then going home, uploading, and viewing allows you to see mistakes. But I would like to work on them real-time. So if someone sees “you’re not rotating enough”, I can work on it immediately until I get the feel of how I’m supposed to do it. Rather than trying to incorporate it 24-48 hours later.
I’m trying to swim 3-4x a week. That’s on top of bike, run workouts, job, family, etc. I have a hard time trying to do more than that.
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I think you are doing the right things - the in person coach seems to me the biggest help you could get right now. I feel the same as running - just cant get my run down to go fast, but one of the things I realize is lack of volume there and less technique too 
. Hope things improve.
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Here’s an example of how swimming is so confusing to me. I just got back from the pool. In the SwimSmooth app there is a drill, “broken arrow” in which you point your recovery arm straight up to the sky, pause, then bend 90 degrees at the elbow before driving your hand into the water and extending. That was a big change for me. It looks more like a “swimmer” stroke where their arms and elbows come out high and straight, it helped me with rotation on my left side. Felt more like a swimmer stroke. Not really faster though.
Contrast that with another drill I’ve been taught over the years: fingertip drag. Where you recover with a high elbow but keep your fingers close to the water. Seemingly the complete opposite of broken arrow. This is more of my “normal” stroke.
So which drill teaches you the “correct” form? High straight recovery arm that bends and pierces the water hand first at a sharp angle? Or low hands and high elbow and driving into the water leading with fingertips and extending forward?
I don’t see how you can do both.
Every time i swim i do 3 drills…
One arm drill (L/R), and catch-up drill…
Those to me make you really focus on one arm catch…
But don’t listen to me… My swimming sucks
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