I've done the 5 day catch challenge I think it's called and the 8 week beginner programme, both worked really well for me but I am a slow swimmer. In the same event over two years I knocked 10mins off my 70.3 swim time by doing the beginner programme leading into it the 2nd, 49* Vs 39mins

* I made a lot of mistakes that day 🤣 normally around 42 - 44mins

Thanks for the feedback mate
My main issue is breathing that I tried to fix for years. Definitely I am not consistent at all as well with training or learning add to that a bit of fear for OWS

 

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...%20swimming#p7970862



https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...%20swimming#p7788171


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Once, I was fast. But I got over it.

I haven’t tried but a friend has and he was having fun with it. He liked it

Brenton from Effortless Swimming is a good coach and they have really worked on their on-line offerings.
I think it is really difficult learning to swim from videos and without a coach on deck to point out any flaws etc. I think for a beginning especially this is one of the most valuable things you can do. It is great getting how to videos etc, but you really need someone to look at your stroke and see what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.
There is no magic bullet with learning to swim, it really is a combination of in person coaching, swimming a fair bit and focusing on a few things at a time.

I did the 5 day catch challenge combined with 15km a week for 9 months and have dropped about 3sec/100 for almost all distances (the one I care about is 1900m and 3800m) as an aos intermediate tri swimmer. Also used his videos to get the 4 beat kick down.

Swimming and actively asking proper swimmers to comment is humbling but helpful, I also videoed myself quite a bit and watched vs the videos on line to see what was wrong. The 5 day catch challenge at least is simple enough u just join the dots via the drills and it taught me all the things I had wrong which could fix. I can learn this way.

I've shared with a load of ppl but yes common complaint especially for some of my lady friends is they can't learn from a video. And while some friends need to be spoon fed both genders, one lady is an amazing athlete sub 3 hr marathoner top 30 level wc 70.3 athlete but she just can't master the swim and videos translated to pool doesn't work. Despite her trying hard. So ymmv.