Login required to started new threads

Login required to post replies

How bad does a swim tether mess up your stroke?
Quote | Reply
So yes I get that ’swimming’ with tether, rubber band etc., in a small pool mainly provides a musculuar lats triceps workout, little to do with swimming? some aerobic gains in there, I dont know

But can swimming standstill in the water bound up with a rope cause your swim technique to Actually deteriorate?

Thanks
Last edited by: scandinavianguy: Jun 13, 20 13:33
Quote Reply
Re: How bad does a swim tether mess up your stroke? [scandinavianguy] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Pre covid, I was swimming 4-5 times a week for about 4.25 hrs max. My last swim was 5000 yds in 1:20 holding a 1:26 100 yd pace.
Covid hit and they shut down the pool. Took a week for me to open mine. I started tether swim building from 3x45 min to now 4x1hr. Last weekend I raced a local sprint tri and came 3rd out of water. 11:20 something for 800 meters. So the tether swimming does help. I think it maintains any fitness you may have, but it'll be hard to build any fitness.
Few things I have learned:
1. The longer your tether, the less harsh the tether will be. Its simple spring physics. Myosource sells an extension that can lengthen your tether and it can attach to anything.
2. You're not moving relative to the water, so there's no wake/pocket to breathe out of. So you'll need a snorkel if you want to keep the same head position and not over rotate. I recommend the finis monosnorkel.
3. This is great time to work on your stroke. Specifically, get one of those cheap wall mirrors and place it on the bottom of the pool and watch your stroke. See how your hand is entering. Are you rotating on your side? Are you crossing over or pulling too wide? Dropping your elbow?
4. Again, you're not moving relative to the water. So pulling water is going to be tougher. But if you go long enough, you may be able to make a small current. I can feel a difference from the beginning to end of the workout.
5. Lastly, not sure how long your pool is. My is 12 yards which means I can get 8 strokes before I hit a wall. But to break up the boredom, I warm up and cool down 5 min back and forth. Also, any kick set is back and forth.
Hope this helps.
Quote Reply
Re: How bad does a swim tether mess up your stroke? [scandinavianguy] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Tether swimming to me felt totally legit in terms of a swimming workout. You have to go hard to get the best benefits, but to me, it didn't feel at all problematic for stroke deterioration, and absolutely translated to swimming. I used a tether exclusively for a 2 week block at a rental lake house where I didn't want to swim out due to motor boats regularly coming by, so I tethered myself to the pier and swam for up to an hour at a time. Worked great.

The problem as others have noted, it that is is hellaciously boring. Like kill yourself boring. And this is coming from a die hard Vasa erg user and most people find that extremely boring as well. (At least you can have music, or even watch videos on the erg).

But absent lap lanes, if I had access to a small home pool, you bet 100% I'd be using a tether setup regularly. I also would use a home pool to do legit water running, which is a great way to get more run miles in without the beating - you can go really hard with it. With those two things, you can turn a home pool that seems 'useless' for triathlon because it's too small, into something totally viable for legit training.

I
Quote Reply
Re: How bad does a swim tether mess up your stroke? [hetron] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Thanks! This is super helpful. So a longer cord. Mono snorkel. Work on technique esp stroke with the help of a mirror. Adapt to the avaliable pool lenght?

Impressive development on your result given the circumstance

hetron wrote:
Pre covid, I was swimming 4-5 times a week for about 4.25 hrs max. My last swim was 5000 yds in 1:20 holding a 1:26 100 yd pace.
Covid hit and they shut down the pool. Took a week for me to open mine. I started tether swim building from 3x45 min to now 4x1hr. Last weekend I raced a local sprint tri and came 3rd out of water. 11:20 something for 800 meters. So the tether swimming does help. I think it maintains any fitness you may have, but it'll be hard to build any fitness.
Few things I have learned:
1. The longer your tether, the less harsh the tether will be. Its simple spring physics. Myosource sells an extension that can lengthen your tether and it can attach to anything.
2. You're not moving relative to the water, so there's no wake/pocket to breathe out of. So you'll need a snorkel if you want to keep the same head position and not over rotate. I recommend the finis monosnorkel.
3. This is great time to work on your stroke. Specifically, get one of those cheap wall mirrors and place it on the bottom of the pool and watch your stroke. See how your hand is entering. Are you rotating on your side? Are you crossing over or pulling too wide? Dropping your elbow?
4. Again, you're not moving relative to the water. So pulling water is going to be tougher. But if you go long enough, you may be able to make a small current. I can feel a difference from the beginning to end of the workout.
5. Lastly, not sure how long your pool is. My is 12 yards which means I can get 8 strokes before I hit a wall. But to break up the boredom, I warm up and cool down 5 min back and forth. Also, any kick set is back and forth.
Hope this helps.
Quote Reply
Re: How bad does a swim tether mess up your stroke? [scandinavianguy] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
I just opened my pool and tried tether swimming a few times, by no means an expert
I don't think it is messing up your stroke, but it is different than "real" swimming since you have no water flow
To me it felt a lot harder to keep my legs to the surface since there's no water flow to help - maybe its a good thing to help focus on correct body position
Also, I got tons of water in my nose which was awful. I am planning on trying again with a nose clip
With these distractions, it was very hard for me to focus on form and strokes; it was much more focused on body position
Quote Reply
Re: How bad does a swim tether mess up your stroke? [scandinavianguy] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
For someone that has done a decent but not crazy amount of swimming over my life, my experience with swimming exclusively on a tether is that I suffer little to no technique deterioration. To give you a rough idea, I stopped lap swimming probably ten years ago, and began swimming only seasonally in my home pool on a tether during spring, summer and early fall. When I've done a half ironman race with lake or ocean swim in the spring time, I still clock about a thirty minute swim give or take a minute -- which isn't any different from my swim time at these races when I was training higher volume lap swimming in a pool. So that is maybe a total of 7-10 hours of tether swimming in the months leading up to the race, compared to 2-3 hours a week swimming laps in the gym pool in my earlier days of triathlon.

The only thing that I notice on race day is that the first couple minutes of the swim, I feel a little weird actually moving through the water and need to concentrate on getting long in the water and paying attention to form and drag. Once I'm through first third of the swim leg, things really start to click and my stroke feels totally normal and adjusted.

So for me, no lap swimming at all with just seasonal swimming on tether, for sometimes two or three years without any open water or laps swimming and limited volume of tether training, there is no noticeable drop in race day performance. If you aren't comfortable with your swim stroke, I could see where you might need some swims in open water or lap pool to adjust back to moving through the water.
Quote Reply
Re: How bad does a swim tether mess up your stroke? [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Hi! Water running is a great suggestion, I have used it to get back on track from an injury. Unfortunately the pool I am looking at is too shallow.

W regard to boring, a bit concerning it comes from you as I have followed your Vasa success and the mental fortitude it takes. On the other hand, surviving loong trainer rides perhaps gives some mental training. I did actually get a xc ski bench (where the resistance comes as you pull yourself upward) a couple years back inspired by your Vasa experience. It gives a good strength workout for lats etc but easy to overload and get shoulders hurt, I have discovered. Hence tethered swimming feels like an option, with at least some splashing for ’feel’
Quote Reply
Re: How bad does a swim tether mess up your stroke? [Route66] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Inspiring to hear you get by on swimming with a tether, I am roughly a 1hr IM swimmer (when in shape...). Maybe there is less to lose at that level from missing out on proper pool time? I mean maintaining basic swim fitness should be good enough. To shave 5 or more minutes from a full IM swim I think I would need 8-12 months of proper swimming 4-5 times per week at least, preferably with a squad. And that doesnt look likely at the moment, both due to pool closures and time constraints.

Thanks for sharing


Route66 wrote:
For someone that has done a decent but not crazy amount of swimming over my life, my experience with swimming exclusively on a tether is that I suffer little to no technique deterioration. To give you a rough idea, I stopped lap swimming probably ten years ago, and began swimming only seasonally in my home pool on a tether during spring, summer and early fall. When I've done a half ironman race with lake or ocean swim in the spring time, I still clock about a thirty minute swim give or take a minute -- which isn't any different from my swim time at these races when I was training higher volume lap swimming in a pool. So that is maybe a total of 7-10 hours of tether swimming in the months leading up to the race, compared to 2-3 hours a week swimming laps in the gym pool in my earlier days of triathlon.

The only thing that I notice on race day is that the first couple minutes of the swim, I feel a little weird actually moving through the water and need to concentrate on getting long in the water and paying attention to form and drag. Once I'm through first third of the swim leg, things really start to click and my stroke feels totally normal and adjusted.

So for me, no lap swimming at all with just seasonal swimming on tether, for sometimes two or three years without any open water or laps swimming and limited volume of tether training, there is no noticeable drop in race day performance. If you aren't comfortable with your swim stroke, I could see where you might need some swims in open water or lap pool to adjust back to moving through the water.
Quote Reply
Re: How bad does a swim tether mess up your stroke? [hetron] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Actually, 5000 yd in 1:20 is a 1:36/100 yd pace. 80 min/50 = 1.6 min or 1:36.


hetron wrote:
Pre covid, I was swimming 4-5 times a week for about 4.25 hrs max. My last swim was 5000 yds in 1:20 holding a 1:26 100 yd pace.
Covid hit and they shut down the pool. Took a week for me to open mine. I started tether swim building from 3x45 min to now 4x1hr. Last weekend I raced a local sprint tri and came 3rd out of water. 11:20 something for 800 meters. So the tether swimming does help. I think it maintains any fitness you may have, but it'll be hard to build any fitness.
Few things I have learned:
1. The longer your tether, the less harsh the tether will be. Its simple spring physics. Myosource sells an extension that can lengthen your tether and it can attach to anything.
2. You're not moving relative to the water, so there's no wake/pocket to breathe out of. So you'll need a snorkel if you want to keep the same head position and not over rotate. I recommend the finis monosnorkel.
3. This is great time to work on your stroke. Specifically, get one of those cheap wall mirrors and place it on the bottom of the pool and watch your stroke. See how your hand is entering. Are you rotating on your side? Are you crossing over or pulling too wide? Dropping your elbow?
4. Again, you're not moving relative to the water. So pulling water is going to be tougher. But if you go long enough, you may be able to make a small current. I can feel a difference from the beginning to end of the workout.
5. Lastly, not sure how long your pool is. My is 12 yards which means I can get 8 strokes before I hit a wall. But to break up the boredom, I warm up and cool down 5 min back and forth. Also, any kick set is back and forth.
Hope this helps.


"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."
Quote Reply
Re: How bad does a swim tether mess up your stroke? [scandinavianguy] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
scandinavianguy wrote:
Hi! Water running is a great suggestion, I have used it to get back on track from an injury. Unfortunately the pool I am looking at is too shallow.

W regard to boring, a bit concerning it comes from you as I have followed your Vasa success and the mental fortitude it takes. On the other hand, surviving loong trainer rides perhaps gives some mental training. I did actually get a xc ski bench (where the resistance comes as you pull yourself upward) a couple years back inspired by your Vasa experience. It gives a good strength workout for lats etc but easy to overload and get shoulders hurt, I have discovered. Hence tethered swimming feels like an option, with at least some splashing for ’feel’


The Vasa is mind-numbingly boring is you aren't doing hard intervals and using no entertainment, but it's still better (by a lot) than tether swimming as you can actually watch videos very easily on it (I do this for long Vasa swims, esp over 1hr) and you can easily use earbuds for music, which is obviously harder to do in water. Also, the wattage display gives good feedback on the erg, whereas the lack of feedback of how hard you're working in the tethered pool is annoying.

You can easily still water run even with shallow water that's not deep enough for optimal water running (I like it all the way up to my neck!) Just get a belt tether and run in the pool while tethered. If the water is at least up to your waist, you're good to go.
Quote Reply