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wetsuit swimming issues
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am i all alone in feeling like my stroke has fallen all to pieces when i put the flippin wetsuit on? i am so buoyant in all the wrong places ... my stroke is so completely trashed in a wetsuit. is it the wrong wetsuit, or is it me? is there hope or am i doa? i guess the thing is to calm down, stop ballyhooing, and relax into the new bodyline, buoyancy, timing, roll (sheesha whatta roll now!), etc. thoughts? st. anthony's in aargh less than a month now ... god knows what salt water's gonna do on top of everything else .... :(
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [dreaming~big] [ In reply to ]
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You are not alone! I wear a full wetsuit and find that I can't feel the water with my forearms as well--so I perceive that my catch and pull completely suck. Also, the first few swims or a long swim leaves my shoulders quite tired. I've taken to a straight arm recovery when swimming in a wetsuit to try and alleviate that problem.
Open water swimming will feel awkward after alot of pool swimming because your hips and legs may be sinking when you are sighting (I'm hopelessly looking for black lines at the bottom of the lake!). Keep plugging away at it--you're stroke will adjust.
Lastly, salt water is gonna make you really buoyant. It's wonderful to swim on top of the water like that. The downside is that it tastes horrible.
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [kitboo] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks, kitboo. I'm hoping for a really calm and warm day in St Pete on April 27. Maybe it'll be too warm for wetsuits. :)
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [dreaming~big] [ In reply to ]
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St anthony's is Oly, right? At least you will have a longish time to get into a rhythm. I feel I am at worse odds with my wetsuit during a sprint.

I don't swim my usual way, but I do swim faster with it on. I have a full sleeve as well. I have had to back off on the kicking quite a bit with the wetsuit on.

Do people practice a different style of 'wetsuit swimming" than they do in the pool? Seems like that might be in order. Oh, as well as some practice swims in OW with it on, if you can.
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [dreaming~big] [ In reply to ]
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A wetsuit will change your stroke somewhat. IIRC correctly, you ended up with a Desoto? So the first thing, are you paying attention to the sleeve seam alignment as they describe? Getting those out of line will definitely do ssome funny things to your arms - you will be fighting the molding of the rubber.

Second thing I find useful is hand entry point. If you are someone whose hand enters at the midline of the body (ie directly in front of the head) you are going to feel like the suit is pulling against you. Try to move your entry out so it is in front of the shoulder. It won't adversely affect your catch and pull, and may reduce some of your rotation issues. PUlling close to the your center line can also feel odd - if you maintain a high elbow you will be working more with the suit than against it.

If you have a chance to do the odd 4-500 in the pool, nice and easy working of form, it helps. I did this for aobut a week after I got my wetsuit. You do feel like a bit of an odd duck, and the pool is often warm enough the suit would be uncfortable for a longer time, however it did allow me to get confortable with the mechanics before the race. I am assuming that you only have pool access right now since you said somewhere else you were up north.

Not sure what else I can offer without knowing more details of what you feel is messed up. The only other thing I do is roll the collar down one turn - helps lose the constricted feeling I have around the neck otherwise.

Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
Creating custom made furnishing to your requirements
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [dreaming~big] [ In reply to ]
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The wetsuit will change your body position by quite a lot.

Those pesky legs that get dragged along behind suddenly want to float, this changes your position straight away.

You gotta practise in the next 4 weeks.

Make sure that you put the wetsuit on correctly. ( Fleck wrote a very good instruction list on how to don a wetsuit )

Make sure that you have a good range of movement in the shoulder area.

The suit should fit well ( like a second skin ) but not be constricting .

Salt water is gonna make you even more bouyant than you are at the moment and never mind what it is gonna do to your hair.

Just get used to wearing it and do some practise swims in it.

And don't forget to wait until the water is above your ankles before you pee in it.;)
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [smiler666] [ In reply to ]
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thanks for the info to all. i landed on a speedvest & t-1 bottoms combination. so it's like 2 mm on top and 5 mm on the bottom. sleeveless, because i have rotator cuff issues. won't be in really cold water any more, so it's ok to go sleeveless. do you think the 2 mm top and 5 mm bottom is a big deal in causing my top -- say from the waist up -- to feel like it's a little lower than normal? maybe that's a good thing? (press your buoy theory). but it makes my head lower, too, so the rotation needs to be wider in order to catch breath. i'm finding my hand entry is lower, also, which affects the catch & pull. basically, my butt wants to fly up. gotta torque myself to go vertical in the water, which is weird. i'm thinking it's not insurmountable, but it is surely different.
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [dreaming~big] [ In reply to ]
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5 mm legs. Would have thought that there was no need to go that thick on the legs.That will seriously alter your body position . Speak to Fleck as he is the wetsuit man.

Just up after night shift , so when the brain cells start to work will post a better answer later
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [dreaming~big] [ In reply to ]
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No, the 5mm/2mm thing won't be the issue. Don't forget, the upper of the bibjohn you have is 3mm - so combined you have a fair amount of 5mm buoyancy on your chest. The big thing with the 2mm is usually the arms (not relevant to you since you have sleeveless) - but the lighter rubber doesn't bind as much.

If you are feeling pressed down in the water, it is probably because, even though you perceive you have good flotation in your legs and hips, you are probably still dragging them in the water a bit. Now they are being forced up into a line level with the surface of the water. I have seen some decent swimmers whose legs are still down about 2-5 degrees - that type of shift upwards is going to feel noticeable. Likewise, if your head is lower, it is more likely you are swimming with your head a bit high when not in the wetsuit, and now are getting into a better position. Not sure why your hand entry is lower, especially since you are sleevless - you should have the same mobility range as before. If it were a one piece, it might have been that the suit was pulling against your shoulders, but a two piece should have enough movement not to be an issue. You may want to try pulling up on the waist and letting a little more movement in at the shoulders.

I may be totally off base, but my guess is the wetsuit is correcting a lot of position issues with your stroke, and it will feel weird. Keep at it, get as much time in it as you can manage and it will become more natural. Try to think about good extension of the arms. Also, try to remember how your body feels in the water, since a wetsuit will, for the most part, optimize our body position compared to swimming without. Then try to replicate that position when you are not using it.

Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
Creating custom made furnishing to your requirements
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [jriosa] [ In reply to ]
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Thank you, Jim. I really appreciate your comments. You're right about the legs ~~ they do feel like they have a life of their own now. I'm not much of a kicker anyway, but with the wetsuit on I'm trying simply to keep them from bobbing all over. Will pay attention and try to at least keep them on the horizontal plane. And the hand entry ... now it's more at a say 25-30 degree angle to the water, before it was shallower. I actually like the "feel" of the sharper entry better ... kinda looks like Laughlin on the cover of his TI "picture book." Now if I could only get the catch & pull. I spend free time looking at Ian Thorpe videos in slow motion and wondering how the hell he does that ...

sigh ... there's so much to learn ... that's what makes it fun and challenging but a bit discouraging all at the same time. i want to be better than i am. need to learn that old lesson ~~ that you can only be exactly where you are. just like running. day by day. no rushing the river. :) thanks again for your thoughts.
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [dreaming~big] [ In reply to ]
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Wetsuits can change your stroke quite a bit. Two things you can do.

1. Swim in open water a lot to get used to this.

2. My apologies in advance for the sales/promotional pitch, but this is the key reason we designed this suit this way - try swimming in a Nineteen Frequency. We designed this suit to impact ones stroke mechanics the least. testing with top swim coaches has proven this to be correct. What did we do: We put less neoprene( 1.5mm in) the arms, shoulders, sides and back of the body where you need maximum flexibility and we put the most neopene, 5mm, in the lower chest, hips and legs to ensure good body position. Now, a side benefit of having all of this 1.5mm neoprene on the side of the body is that it allows swimmers to still have a natural body roll, while wearing a wetsuit. Most wetsuits really flatten out your stroke - the Frequency does not.

Furthermore, Nineteen was the first wetsuit company to have women's specific fit and we continue to be leaders in this area with close to 50% of our total sales to women triathletes! Women really like the way that our women's suits fit them. Ultimately how a wetsuit performs for you is going to come down to fit.

Hope this helps.


Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
Last edited by: Fleck: Apr 9, 08 8:54
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [dreaming~big] [ In reply to ]
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St. Anthony's could go either way with the water temperature, in years past is has sometimes been a no-wetsuit swim.

As for calm, that almost never happens. The swim course is quite tricky, especially since the RD used to toss nearly all the women except 50+ into the last few waves. By then, the wind has really picked up over the water, and the water is really choppy until you get near the end of the swim and into the protected bay.

I think you need to try some ocean swimming with that wetsuit, as the the buoyancy of the wetsuit combined with the rolling chop of the waves could be a lot more movement than you expect.

BrokenSpoke
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [Fleck] [ In reply to ]
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Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for the "sales pitch", I didn't know that. I probably will need a new wetsuit this season and you will be at the top of my list to check out now that I know that. Coming from a swimming background wetsuits have always bothered me because they mess with my stroke and make my shoulders tired and sore, so I've always worn a sleeveless even though I've read and heard so much how full suits are faster. So thanks again!
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [brokenspoke] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks, I think! If there were an ocean in Cleveland, I would be in it. :) Guess we'll just have to see what the confluence of the moon & stars & saints & angels holds in store on race morning.

Incidentally, what did they do with the 50+ women? That's what I be ...

See you there.
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [dreaming~big] [ In reply to ]
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Regarding St. Anthony's wave starts...guess you have to email the RD to find out what's in store or check the St. A's message board on their web site. They used to put the 50+ women up in one of the first few waves. I haven't been down there for St. A's in a couple of years, so I'm not sure what they've done with the waves.

At least if you're in Cleveland, you'll be used to "flat" at least for the bike and run. The only thing that won't be flat is the swim!

BrokenSpoke
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Re: wetsuit swimming issues [dreaming~big] [ In reply to ]
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Hi! I think the key is RELAX. Or to learn to relax. I come from a swimming background & had a terrible time learning to like swimming in my wetsuit. I stopped wearing it for a while b/c I hated the feel of wetsuit swimming even more than I liked any time advantages that came with the buoyancy. Anyway, I went back to the wetsuit & devoted some time to just playing --

First just floating around, doing some of the total immersion style body position drills to re-learn where my center of gravity was with the wetsuit, and where to push down chest or lift hips in order to be in an efficient swimming position without expending too much energy.

Next, building on the new body position by doing some kicking on my side and adding in a few long, slow freestyle arm strokes.
Basically, after 30 minutes of "play", I had figured out how to swim efficiently in the wetsuit, instead of fighting the buoyancy.

Last, I would say that even though the wetsuit keeps you floating and high in the water, CORE STRENGTH is critical to being able to transfer power while you're in that high float.

Give it a try!
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