Me:
Swim 3 times a week, total about 10 km.
51 yo, PB 100M 1.16 min in 25M pool.
Can swim my warmup with av stroke pr length 17-18 in the 25M pool and about 1.50 min/100M, but when i swim my 20X1000M intervals sub 1.30, start 1.45 min., av stroke pr length is 25 and heart rate is going up vey fast.
I had the life guard recording me swimming yesterday. Your comments about my swimming would be very welcome, thanks.
You seem to have a high stroke rate, but it’s quite inefficient. Your catch and pull is ineffective and that could a fair few reasons. You’re not rotating enough for starters, you get a lot of power from rotating at the hips, it allows you to use more muscles and lengthens the stroke. The DPS drill might help. You should still be able to swim with power with a much lower stroke rate. You are trying to thrash your arms as much as possible to generate speed, which is leaving you gassed. And are you wearing core pants?
Totally agree!!
My stroke is very ineffective when trying to swim fast. I must try to better the catch and the pull, I know I “wiggle” my hands when pulling - and that’s not going to help my propulsion.
I am not wearing core pants, just regular jammers.
Totally agree!!
My stroke is very ineffective when trying to swim fast. I must try to better the catch and the pull, I know I “wiggle” my hands when pulling - and that’s not going to help my propulsion.
I am not wearing core pants, just regular jammers.
An effective catch and pull is tricky to master. It really will feel quite different to how you are currently swimming. You should be able to swim well slowly, swim with power at a slow speed, but as you are relying on a fast (inefficient) stroke rate to get speed, rather than a powerful stroke, if you slow down and slow your stroke rate down it will probably feel like crap and you will swim like crap. So do the DPS drill, plus other drills that help with a good catch and pull. And instead of doing 100s on a 1.45 time cycle, coming in 1.30, do them slower. 1.40-1.50 on a 2 minute cycle, focusing on technique. Also it will help, at least for the time being, if you swam with almost a 3/4 catch up, so one arm is always out in front. If you see your arms below, they are in the same position and look at pic below that. You shouldn’t necessarily swim with a 3/4 catch-up, but I would try that as I think it would help with your stroke, slowing down the stroke rate and making you more efficient. Any changes you make to your stroke will feel crap and wrong at first, but then will feel better after a while.
So much to work on.
We really need underwater shots to have a better idea of what’s happening.
But, the low hanging fruit…your stroke rate is way too high for your pace, so you can’t be catching and pulling anywhere near enough water.
You need to slow down your stroke, lengthen it out, and complete the stroke, your recovery portion suggests you don’t pull through completely.
I am not a swim coach, but I would suggest you get one who can review above and below water shots and give you targeted advice on what to work on.
Suggest looking at the effortless swimming youtube channel and you can even send stuff to Brendan and he will do remote coaching for you. He is very good.
My first suggestion is to hire a coach and get some private lessons from someone who can stand there and focus on just you and helping with your form. They should be able to also suggest drills and things to work on that should help.
There are a couple things that stand out in your videos. First, your left arm is not in line with your body. Your body should be a straight line from your fingertips down to your toes. The second this is that you’re not fully extending your arms at the beginning or end of your stroke. By not fully extending in front of you, you’re losing part of your catch, and then you’re cutting the stroke early by starting you’re recovery too soon.
Definitely this. I was a terrible swimmer (still not good), but after getting a coach for just a few lessons to identify areas to work on and drills to use for those improvements, I was able to drop from a 2:00/100 1500m kind of swimmer to 1:20-1:30 swimmer with no additional volume (about 4000-6000 per week). I spent about 50% or more of my time in the pool doing drills as well. Swimming form improvements are where you can make those really big initial gains.
You do a pretty good initial catch with your left hand …
… only to drop your elbow and let go of the water very shortly into the catch… you are now just moving your hand through the water, producing no forward propulsion.
You then, very briefly catch the water again…
Producing forward motion for a very short while, then you let the water go again…
