scofflaw wrote:
tigerpaws wrote:
ericmulk wrote:
BorrachoMatador wrote:
Quote:
I also have had essentially zero improvement from analyzing my stroke and making small changes once I was past 1:50/100, and all my improvements from the hard stuff. Doesn't mean I'm neglecting mechanics, but I'm not spending the bulk of my time avoiding swimming hard just to swim 'right' anymore.This is EXACTLY me. This is only my 3rd season and I have been stuck on 1:50 p/100 in races with minimal improvement from stroke mechanic changes. It's been frustrating as I am seeing significant gains on the bike, and then maintaining my run fitness (originally started out as a runner). I have thought for a long time it's been my mechanics... I am going to try swimming faster, and quit worrying about the exact way my hand enters the water and if my elbow is perfectly in position, etc.
So, just out of sheer curiosity, where do so many people get the idea that the exact hand angle, etc, are so important??? Is this part of the Total Immersion influence??? I had never heard such discussions until I got on ST about 2.5 yrs ago and, if you spend any time watching fast swimmers swim fast, not just warming up but swimming hard, it's pretty clear that almost all of them are throwing their arms over the water and pulling as hard and fast as they can, with very little regard for their "exact hand angle":)
I know you were not directing towards me, but I see SO much of this specifically in the triathlon ranks. I'm a huge fan of mastering basic technical issues like balance, kick coordination and breathing skills, but there are a million ways to skin the cat of catch and pull. Technical honing will get some people this far>>>>>>, the next swimmer this far>>>, but at some point everyone has to be willing to do the good old swim sets that just work. There are so many spokes to the wheel that may get any given swimmer to their threshold for substantial gains with technical focus, but fitness has to take over the bulk of the work at some point. My coach took me off the big doses of technique work around 1:25ish scy pace, after that is was go until your eyes pop out. I'm not saying I don't still find little tweakages that make me marginally faster b/c there is always a new feel around the corner simply b/c the faster we go the more different the water feels. But the past 3 years I'd say 95% of my gains came from swimming til my toenails hurt.
I am going to alter my approach to swim wkouts because of good advice on this thread, but just to clarify, aren't you a single-sort athlete? My apologies if I'm misremembering anothe post of yours on another thread . . .
Yup you have the right! I bagged it after 23-24 years of on and off again with horrible knee problems. Not to mention getting rear ended by a drunk driver and lingering back issues post surgery. Injured....to back to cycling....back and forth. Just tired of it being hurt all the time. I swam like a douche bag in my triathlon days really b/c of laziness. I had heard the right things from time to time, but I always made some excuse as to why I didn't have the need or the time to address some basic skills. It wasn't until I went full swim focus that I did it. Took me a solid 6 months to nail those things down so they were on auto pilot. Triathlon wold have been so much more fun had I done that decades ago.
At least in my eyes there really isn't any difference in the need for these skills whether one is a single sport pool swimmer, triathlete only or an open water fiend. If a swimmer will get a reign on their balance, coordinate some kind of kick and get their breathing done in time so as not to disrupt rhythm they can really have a lot of fun in the water. Until then it just sucks. Odd as it may seem once you get to that point and you look at the workout for the day it looks much less daunting that it used to b/c you are not fighting the water so much. Sure, it still hurts, but mentally it's so much more doable.