I’m trying to start swimming on a regular basis. I want to improve my times and get faster.
These are my prs:
100: 1:23
200: 3:05
450: 8:34
Any help is appreciated! Thank you in advance!
Just swim on a regular basis. They’ll improve.
This. Touch the water as frequently as possible. If you want a deeper dive, go read the current Joel Filliol thread in the main forum. Actually, just read the initial post from @waverider101 and probably ignore the thread. Then go listen to Filliol’s podcast on the topic from 2020. Preferably while you’re commuting to the pool.
1 Like
I’m a big fan of joining a squad. It’s fun, you don’t have to think about your workout, and you learn a lot of the finesse skills in swimming where a lot of speed can hide, and I think a lot of triathletes ignore that.
Find a good masters group around you that trains for competition, not triathlon, and have fun!
So if the OP has really poor form, swimming more with poor form will lead to improvement?
That’s not likely to get very far.
To the OP:
I’ve found (as an adult onset swimmer) that there are a couple of steps to getting faster wrt technique.
- know what you are actually doing in the water
- know what you are supposed to be doing
- figuring out how to go from what you are doing to what you should be doing
- implementing the above
A truism: “what you think you are doing is not what you are actually doing.” You need a
competent swim coach on deck to watch your technique for 1). You need to learn what 2) looks like. A good coach can give you 3). You need to do 4). It’s called “swim practice” for a reason: every stroke in every length in every interval in every set should be focused on to ensure you are ingraining correct technique.
“Frequency and consistency.” If you are a beginner (and nobody here knows that), swimming three times per week, every week, should show improvement. Swimming four or five times per week will show faster improvement. At some point, three times per week will only maintain your speed, at best.
Mix up your workouts. Some days, do shorter (50, 100) intervals, some days medium (150-250), some days longer (500-1000) intervals. Swim hard, but finish each set strongly. If you find yourself fatigued, stop. Don’t swim with bad technique.
Well of course he needs to [probably] have technical changes and adjustments, etc, but you know.. how many times can someone just come on and say, “i’m stuck”, “i’m slow”, etc. with no backstory, video, anything, and ask “how can I get faster?” With those kinds of times, unless they’re already swimming 15k a week, simply swimming more even without technical improvement will lead to a drop in time. If they really want feedback find a coach. If they want the forum to play coach, then provide a visual.
Same here I’m also a newbie and still figuring out what actually sticks week to week. I’m trying to keep it simple and consistent so I don’t burn out early.
There was a book in the 90’s/2000’s about basic swim technique that focused on developing a long, efficient, catch-up type of freestyle with minimal kicking. I can’t recall the name of the book/program unfortunately.
The best thing about it was the beginner drills were an excellent starting point for new swimmers to develop the feel of balance in the water, developing rhythm and timing. It starts out very, very basic (just kicking on your stomach, arms at your side) and slowly progresses to freestyle.