Is it worth rebuilding my swim stroke?

Triathlon Forum
1

I am at the start of my lead up to Kona, and have just started in with a new squad/swim coach. He has suggested that we spend the next month basically doing drill for three 90 minute sessions a week to correct some of the crappy things in my freestyle stroke. I find this to be a really tedious task, but I am also aware that there are things to fix.

I usually swim about 53/54 mins for the IM swim, with a best of 52:08.

Do you think that this is a worthy investment of my time?

2

definetely not, as you will then beat me and most of the other people here by an even bigger gap! 52-53 seems pretty quick, what do you need to fix?

I redid my stroke entirely and got a LOT faster over the last few months. I’m not 53 fast, maybe 56-57 now but compared to before that’s pretty quick.

3

At 53 mins you should know that its definetly a good idea given the time of year. Its not like your’re going to lose fitness, and with a better stroke, the fitness you have NOW will translate to a faster swim without doing monster sets. Then, when you get that new stroke hammered out and start with the monster sets again and start to GAIN strenght and fitness, LOOK OUT FISHES!

4

Your taking the wrong view on this. If the improvments will make you more efficient then they are good. You expend less energy and go faster, it’s a win-win. If you just get faster but develop other flaws or jst can’t fix that hitch in your stroke then the time is better spent elsewhere. FWIW, I found when i was a swim coach that 90min at a stretch is too long for both the swimmer and coach to maintain focus on a few technical issues. Give it a few sessions then re-evaluate your progress.

5

edit:

If it’s not underwater but your recovery, and it doesn’t effect your entry, catch or the amt of water your pulling unless your losing water through the stroke, then I personally wouldn’t worry about it. Position/head problems probably.

6

Ok. You guys win. I just hate drill. I am one of those type A morons who just likes to go flat out all the time. I’m just using this forum as a wailing wall.