I guess pull-bouys(the bit of foam you put between you ankles) stop you kick you legs, and make you legs float high in the water . So you can then focus on your arms/breathing only and get the arm technique correct?
Are there any good resources for drill I can use to get my swimming right?
I am willing to spend 4 days a week in the pool for the next 3 months doing technique work so I can swim in the top of the triathlon race pack. At the moment I am back section of the middle group during Olympics. There are no real swim coaches at my pool so looking for a good book or guide somewhere of drills I can use to build a proper technique.
My recommendation would to be: Find someone who is a coach… I’m sure there is someone in your area that offers private lessons. ask around to swimmers or other Tri friends. Get the fundamentals down on stroke technique and find out what you are doing right and wrong. From there you can use a buoy to practice and improve. Using a book or film to mimic may only encourage improper technique and prolong any improvement.
As an aside, most people don’t put a pull-buoy between their ankles (although
that is a drill I’ve seen sometimes). The more common use is between your
thighs.
My recommendation would to be: Find someone who is a coach… I’m sure there is someone in your area that offers private lessons. ask around to swimmers or other Tri friends. Get the fundamentals down on stroke technique and find out what you are doing right and wrong. From there you can use a buoy to practice and improve. Using a book or film to mimic may only encourage improper technique and prolong any improvement.
x2. Alternatively, you can take a video of you from front, side, rear both above and below water and post it for analysis.
Also, most pull buoys that I am aware of go between your thighs (There’s a reason the old ones with straps used to be called nut busters) not between your ankles. What they do is allow you to eliminate the kick to solely focus on upper body technique and isolation.
As far as getting from the back third of the race to the front of the pack, that might be possible depending on what your current form, workload and times are. If you posted your flat out 100m time, your 500m time and Oly times we could make a better assessment (Make sure you qualify if it’s with or without wetsuit). Just as a stab in the dark, I’m thinking maybe not, since it sounds like you are a fairly new swimmer, but if you put in QUALITY time, it might be doable.
I have no friends so I cant get somebody to tape me. Pretty sure if I even brought my phone into the pool to tape myself I get a beating for being a pedo trying to video kids at the pool.
There are no real swim coaches at my pool so looking for a good book or guide somewhere of drills I can use to build a proper technique.
Library?
I check if there are any swim coachs in the library but I dont think there will be ay there. Usually pretty empty there.
Ummm… You said you were looking for a book. They usually have some at libraries. Depending on the size of your local library system, they could have a dozen or more books on swimming.
I guess pull-bouys(the bit of foam you put between you ankles) stop you kick you legs, and make you legs float high in the water . So you can then focus on your arms/breathing only and get the arm technique correct?
Are there any good resources for drill I can use to get my swimming right?
I am willing to spend 4 days a week in the pool for the next 3 months doing technique work so I can swim in the top of the triathlon race pack. At the moment I am back section of the middle group during Olympics. There are no real swim coaches at my pool so looking for a good book or guide somewhere of drills I can use to build a proper technique.
I’d be willing to bet most of your swimming technique problems are just going to be covered up by a pull buoy. most people swim slow because their body position is off, not because they can’t pull well enough. It helps you roll some, which a lot of people need help with.
Also, put it right between your thighs, not your ankles
and yeah, 4 times a week for 3 months won’t make you FOP in the swim. The FOP swimmers have swimming backgrounds usually, so there’s lots of ground to make up, but it’s not out of the question!
If you don’t have a good kick, I think that the pull-bouy is more likely to hurt rather than help your technique. I think the bouy has a benefit similar to a wetsuit. I avoid training in my wetsuit because if I swim in it a lot I have trouble swimming well without it…
If you don’t have a good kick, I think that the pull-bouy is more likely to hurt rather than help your technique. I think the bouy has a benefit similar to a wetsuit. I avoid training in my wetsuit because if I swim in it a lot I have trouble swimming well without it…
I keep my head buried in the water, I don’t hold my breath under the water, I breath out immediately. But I notice my legs drag because they sit low in the water. So I got to kick like a Mofo. Is there anything else I can do to get my position nicer? Weedy upper body and brawny legs. Nit great for swimming
If you don’t have a good kick, I think that the pull-bouy is more likely to hurt rather than help your technique. I think the bouy has a benefit similar to a wetsuit. I avoid training in my wetsuit because if I swim in it a lot I have trouble swimming well without it…
I keep my head buried in the water, I don’t hold my breath under the water, I breath out immediately. But I notice my legs drag because they sit low in the water. So I got to kick like a Mofo. Is there anything else I can do to get my position nicer? Weedy upper body and brawny legs. Nit great for swimming
You have position issues. Body composition has nothing to do with it. I know plenty of triathletes that have brawny legs and skinny upper body and regularly crank out 100’s on the 1:20.
Be careful with a pull buoy- they can be like crack for triathletes. As said, they can turn into crutches and mask body balance/position flaws. Also, go easy when you first start to use one because they can load up your shoulders more than you think (you turn off any kick propulsion, you then try to hold your lap time with pull alone, you get more strain on the shoulder)>
The best thing to do IMHO is to try to develop a sustainable two-beat kick that helps you with balance and rotation but doesn’t such the oxygen out of your blood so fast that you go anaerobic. Search YouTube for two-beat kick vids and read some descriptions then practice. Once mastered, you’ll only go to a turbo kick to bridge to a swim pack, pass a floundering yahoo, or hit the exit chute first.
X2 on the pull buoy doing more harm than good. Best thing I ever did was ditch this crutch. Without the pull buoy you learn how to swim with your feet higher in the water. If you take your times with and without the pull buoy and compare you can see if it is masking feet dragging issues. Early in my swim progression the pull buoy was improving swim times by over 10%. Now that is a problem. Today it would be something like 3%. Maybe even lower as I don’t measure so not really sure.
On swimming in the front of the pack. This is so dependent on who is in the race. FOP on ST is going to be a lot different than swimming FOP in a local spring or oly race. I am not a fast swimmer in any sense but I once did have the fastest OWS swim time for the final top 15 in a local sprint race. Do I swim FOP? Not even close.
Out of the three disciplines I have improved swimming the most by far. So depending on where you are coming from there is opportunity. But since I did not swim competitively as a kid and I am really old I don’t kid myself that I would ever be FOP. Swim fast enough and then make the difference on the bike and run is my motto.
