Is what I am (although strangly enough I love it a lot). Didn’t start trying to really swim until after I was 20. I did master’s for a year and did improve my technique a lot, but I am currently very out of swim condition. I can’t swim more than two laps of a ‘relaxed’ crawl before I go anaerobic. My question is, is it better to rest frequently and focus on technique? Or do whatever it takes to keep moving swimwise to get the aerobic machine going? TIA
Swimming is all about technique. Only get the aerobic machine going when you can do it well. You can gain fitness elsewhere. One of my fave’s: “Stop practicing struggling.” TI, yes.
How do you “stop practicing struggling”? This is something I want to stop doing. Would repeated 50’s with like a minute rest between be the way to do this? My endurance in improving with more yards, but my technique still starts going downhill after about 75 yards or so. I would guess th OP is in a similar boat.
while not a big advocate of toys in the pool, this may be a time when a pull bouy might be handy. Also swim slower. Do something like 20-50x50 drill/swim on :10 rest. No need to swim these fast but this is a good set for developing technique and endurance.
Breath every other stroke (not every 3, 4, or 5), and go slow. Take frequent breaks. And just stick with it. Oh…and don’t kick so darned hard!
I agree. Swim slower, think LONG in the water (body position and glide), and make sure you can feel each stroke, not simply cycles of strokes. That will come later. I like the almost catch-up style stroke for learning to swim- gives you time to feel.
LOL. I actually feel like I am barely kicking when I crawl. I have big feet and very flexible ankles and in kick drills can keep up with the elites. My past coach once said if I could just get the top half and the bottom half together, I could be good!
One option to look into may be your breathing. When I say this, I mean the quality of your breaths. Clearly if you can kick with the best (and you are a triathlete) endurance isnt the issue. Breathing, I have found, is the biggest issue in swimming, pool and open water. Take 5 minutes before you get in the pool, lay down on your back (feet flat or not, doesn’t matter) and close your eyes. Control your breathing and enhance your awareness of it. Bring the quality of your breathing up, ie longer slower inhales and longer slower more complete exhales, with a smooth rythm. There should be no stress involved IE turning blue bc you are blowing out so hard.
Once you move to the pool note your breathing when you are swimming and the quality of it. Try to bring that quality up, like you did on land. (note try not to have the inhale disrupt the timing of your stroke however).
Hope this helps.
Daved
Your coach’s comment on just “bringing your upper and lower halves together” really struck a chord with me. As a long-time swim coach (14 years), I would say that is one of the most common things I see with adult swimmers. i.e. trying to stretch & rotate with the upper body and being prevented from doing it by kicking excessively (esp, if your kick is actually acting as a brake dur to poor plantar flexion).
The first thing I do with these swimmers is teach them to stroke, stretch and rotate without kicking. If you find that you are sinking then we drill whatever body position you are sinking in, e.g. breathing position etc. You must be able to float in all of the swim positions before putting them together. So that would be my advice. NO KICKING until you feel you have a balanced stroke. When you do, you will ‘feel’ where in the stroke cycle to insert the kick.
A side effect of the no kicking is, once your body position is dialed in, you will be limited my muscular endurance of the arms, not the anaerobic endurance that comes from using every muscle in your body to try and keep yourself in a straight line.
Hope this helps.
Alan
Just wanted to clarify something, it can be an important distiction. Are you going anaerobic, or are you going hypoxic? If you are going anaerobic even though you are swimming “relaxed” that is one thing. If you are hypoxic, that is another.
Can you clarify please? I don’t understand what the difference is.
Thank you everyone, for your replies and help.
Does this mean swimming with a pull bouy, or just not kicking at all? Thank you!!
Think - ‘not kicking at all’, not in a rigid way, just relaxing your legs behind you.
In practice, as you roll from side to side, your legs will move to stabilize your body but this will happen unconsciously.
Most adult swimmers without a swimming background don’t have the plantar flexion to get any propulsive force from the kick anyhow, so in the meantime while you work on that flexibility via zoomers etc, teach your hips how to move properly through the water just using your legs for balance.
Remember, if your legs sink, the solution is not to kick but to get your head & body lower in the water.
Hope this helps,
Alan
No… we gain technique in order to lose it…
Mostly kidding. But like anything, it is BALANCE that is the key. It’s about properly applied technique utilizing strength, endurance and will power…
Body and mind are fully engaged…
Based on what little info is available here, and especially that I/we haven’t actually SEEN your stroke and your body position, - little information can be gleaned. In this situation, speculation, may not be too helpful.
That being said, I’ll do the opposite and say this:
It is possible that you need some help with your body position. It is also possible that you need some help with your timing: kicking and pulling and rolling at the correct time. It is good that you have a good kick. But if you’re still struggling with your overall stroke, I think that it’s probably not a good idea to isolate out either kicking with a kickboard or pulling with a pull buoy.
My best advice, and this may be difficult, - is to stay away from all advice from triathletes and triathlete coaches and consult a swimming coach and also get filmed/videoed. Nothing like a good swim coach to sit down with a video of you; you can work together to analyze what you’re doing right, and what you’re doing wrong.
Again, this is a GESTALT thing. There are many elements that work together, strength training, endurance training, complete stroke technique and body position. If any one of these elements are too disparate, or in conflict with another, - you are going to achieve less than optimum results…
CrashingGirl,
Start from point zero. Use your drills and kicking to gain conditioning while developing stroke patterns. Remember, “practice makes permanent.”
There are four areas to work on: kick, arm pull pattern, breathing and arm recovery. body rotation fits into all aspects of your swimming and therefore I did not mention it separately.
**Kicking **is a great cardiovascular conditioner. You can do it on your stomach with or without a board and on your back. Deliberately point your toes and think of kicking up. Build some distance just kicking.
Arm pattern - flex your wrist and lead the stroke with your hand and forearm feeling your elbow moving forward before you pull your arm back. Once you set up your stroke use your hips to power your arms back. Practice one arm swimming with your extended arm in front of you and in line with your shoulder. You can repeat many fifties changing arms at the end of each length.
One of the most difficult parts of a swim to master is the timing of the breathing pattern. As soon as you start your stroke by leading with your hips allow your head to move in line with your shoulder and breathe in. Make sure you have exhaled before you turn your head. You should feel as if your body is moving over your arm. Working on your breathing pattern will allow you to swim further with greater ease.
Arm recovery begins at the hip. Most of the power of modern freestyle comes the front part of the stroke and not the flailing back end. As your hand approaches your hip it is facing backward and not upward. Shrug your shoulder as you lead the recovery arm. Your elbow follows and your hand stays very close to your body. You hand is very relaxed as it leaves the water. You can do finger tip drag drills, thumbsies and even sewing machine drills.
Your drills will groove in patterns which will allow you to swim further with greater ease.
Give yourself the time to develop technique and endurance. They are not mutually exclusive.
Take rest as you need it and challenge yourself to swim further correctly. Always remain conscious as you swim. If you feel that your stroke is falling apart take a small break and assess the problem, make the correction and start again.
DougStern
PM me if you want me to email you a good article.
Chuck…email me the article please.
davedornausataoldotcom
thanks
daved
This has been said already, but I’ll put in another vote for two things from my personal experience:
- SLOW DOWN
- work on your breathing pattern
When I started swimming (also after the age of 20) I couldn’t do 25 yards without having to stop. It took me over a year to finally build up to about 250 meters max without having to stop, but I couldn’t break that barrier. In that time my technique didn’t improve, my body just learned how to cope with my thrasing about for a little bit longer. I was getting so frustrated that one day I just said to myself I’m going to swim at 1/2 the speed I normally do and see what happens. So I did and easily matched the 250, so kept on going. I did 1000m and felt fine afterwards! Talk about a massive breakthrough! From that point on I’ve managed to make huge strides in my technique simply because I’m able to swim for much longer. Now my limiting factor is boredom after about 3k in a pool. Being self-coached probably took longer for me to develop this way, but it sure has been rewarding!
I was fortunate enough to have a coach for a year who worked with me and video-taped me etc. I definitely do do better if I focus on relaxing and going slow, so I know what you mean! I do lots of side balance drills, because my balance on one side is way off, and that always helps. It is coming around, but I think because my swim fitness is so poor right now, I’m really struggling. Plus this is the first time I’ve been swimming at our new elevation of 8,000 feet and I’m convinced that with each new sport my body has to adapt to the altitude before I can gain fitness. It’s brutal! 