So I’m training for my first tri (sprint) and can’t seem to get the freestyle stroke down. I’ve been told to kick less to save my legs for the bike/run but doing that makes me feel like I’m sinking…anyone know of some drills to help one stay “up” in the water???
Also…I’ve read on this forum that breaststroking during the swim is poor etiquette due to the whole “kicking people in the face” issue, which I can certainly understand. However, I’m not sure I can complete the swim w/o breaststroking part of it. Should I wait until my freestyle stroke is “fixed” before entering a sprint tri or could I combine freestlyle/breaststroke and just make sure I swim on the outside of the pack? Any advice is appreciated.
Someone tried to give me lessons in college and I sank to the bottom of the pool just trying to float like that. He said he never saw that before. So no swimming for me yet…
Start from the back or over to the side and don't worry about it. You'll be fine. If you kick somebody, they're probably kicking someone else at the same time. There is no etiquette in a triathlon swim. At the turns you'll get kicked, punched, swam over, swum under, dunked, pulled and probably pissed on. If you're a good enough breast stroker to be at the front, just take your turns a little wide. If your not, which I think it is, just start at the back and don't worry.
Here are a couple of tips… Maybe one or two will help you with your stroke…
Try looking down a bit more when you are swimming i.e., don’t angle your head up if you are, it will help keep your legs higher.
Reach out far and use your large back muscles, rolling side to side (don’t stay flat in the water). Be long and slippery.
Relax, don’t fight it, slow your arms down a bit kind of like you are pulling yourself through the water with a rope (don’t make your arms do that motion, just picture how it would feel to be pulling yourself across the TOP of the water, not through it) Don’t try to pull too hard on your arms (fighting the water), just pull enough to slip along easily across the top.
Swim downhill, almost like pushing your chest down a bit, it will keep your legs up a little more.
You’ll have plenty of company in the sink like a stone club. If you can borrow or buy a wetsuit, it’ll help you out, but isn’t a cure. I breaststroked , sidestroked, backstroked, and freestyled my way through my first, and had lots of company.
The most important thing you can do (other than use a pull buoy a lot like me) is to make sure your head is down in the water looking down at the line, not looking forward. The top of the water should be hitting closer to the top of you skull rather than near your eyebrows. If your head is down and you are pressing your chest down somewhat, your legs will pop up to the surface.
Try swimming a catch-up style. That will get your weight more up front which will tilt you back up like a teeter-totter does. When I swim catch-up style it’s slower than my already slow pace, but my feet are at the surface.
Kicking is crucial, especially in the pool, for three reasons…
it provides a platform that you can leverage your stroke off
it keeps your legs up, helping reduce drag
it provides some propulsion.
Now, you don’t need to kick like blazes, but if you ever check out the underwater shot from Kona, those buggers are churning away there. Even in a wetstuit swim the best swimmers kick.
For a beginner swimmer, with likely poor shoulder flex and poor body position in the water, the kick is more important. Not so much the strength of it, but the timing.