I’ve always been a bad swimmer. My first half IM was about 65 minutes. After that I got a swim coach, and I improved, but my IM swims (did Louisville twice) are at about 1:35. I’m very fit, and I train, so the only reason that I’m slow is poor technique. I don’t even want to be fast on the swim - just average. Since I can’t afford a trainer, is there a specific video/set of videos or book that can point out common technique errors and how to fix them?
Firstly, buy a kickboard and improve your kicking, spend plenty of time making your kick efficient - that will provide you with a base to build from and help you maintain a good body position. Then, watch this video, and swim OFTEN - twice as much as you are now. If you want to improve your swim you need to commit. I found that swimming straight after my run was a good use of time.
I’ve found the swim smooth website (www.swimsmooth.com) to be quite helpful in explaining and showing common problems. Don’t have the DVDs, but there’s a lot of info on the website that would probably be helpful to you.
Forget the coach. Take private lessons.
I am/was a horrible swimmer.
My wife took private lessons most of her youth. Last year when we started doing TRIs she was significantly faster. I am not faster. The only thing I have worked on is technique in the water. Swimming is all about technique. My fitness is being improved running and biking.
As fitness and technique improve, I will be swimming much faster.
This year I will do my first Oly distance race, and next spring, I will probably do my first half. My goal was simply to make the swim cutoff when I first thought about it. Right now, I’m thinking I can get to where I can do the swim in less than 50min for both if I keep doing my current plan.
I’d definitely recommend finding freestyle (FF). It is a web based coaching and video training. It is really all about self discovery and finding out what is wrong with your stroke and learning how to fix it on your own.
The video linked in the 2nd post is ideal. My journey towards ideal is progressing, but I have a long way to go. FF is a very inexpensive way to see idea done in a series of drills broken down so that you can piece it all together. Dave and Rob also provide excellent feedback to students via their members only discussion group.
I honestly was thinking of hiring a swim coach this spring myself, but for $60 I had to try FF since it gets good reviews on this forum. It’s the best $60 I’ve spent to date on triathlon in general. My time per 100/m is screaming downward quickly. I’m going to do some open water clinics this spring and summer, and do the FF program again. I’m such a slow swimmer, doing the entire 12 week program is going to help me immensely.
I concur on the Swim Smooth stuff, specifically their swim typing protocols. Here’s an interview with Paul Newsome, who designed the Swim Typing:
Ben Greenfield
To offer a 3rd route, I made good progress with a book and a couple of pool toys.
I used the book by Ennis, I found it very helpful in explaining what I was meant to be doing, what my posture should feel like etc. Then came the toys.
The Finis freestyler’s snorkel is great for body position, because if you get your position wrong it delivers you a mouthful of water. This leads to some embarrassing choking moments, but it works.
Second, Finis zoomers (fins) are useful in strengthening the kick and stopped the wayward leg thing I had going on before. It is hard to kick too far out of line wearing fins, so they re-enforce good technique.
Anyway, this worked for me. Good luck with whatever route you pick.
Another vote here for Finding Freestyle…especially good for budget minded athlete…you do the work and in the process learn a lot about awareness of what your body is doing in the water…and you have access to a top notch coaching team via the internet, including submitting video for review.
Thanks to everybody for your advice. It looks very promising. And hopefully I can get my IM swim down to 1:15.
It is not enough to say technique is everything. When you see an accomplished swimmer move through the water almost effortlessly, they appear relaxed as though it takes no effort at all to move through the water.
What you are seeing is proper technique and body mechanics in action. Many beginning swimmers are competitors and want to work hard and believe through this hard work that improvement will come. But unfortunately in swimming, you will improve, but not to the degree you may be looking for. If you started off with mastering technique. Slowing down to get body position, stroke mechanics and timing will go along way toward quantum improvements.
You may find that you jumped in and worked hard and now have some bad habits that are going to be hard to break. Good mechanics may feel strange. There are a lot of great program that will help for sure. Incorporate some personal video along with the video training programs so you can watch what you are doing and compare. Often what you feel is big change in your stroke, really is very minor and you may need to exagerate the change in order to get to the best outcome.
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