OK so I go to Masters Practice yesterday and we did some drills and some swimming. 5 x 200 ankles crossed with pull buoys. I finish with most of the other swimmers. 5 x 100 kicking and I finish with most of the other swimmers. Then later 5 x 200 crawl and I am the LAST FINISHER. Even slower than the guy I am sharing a lane with and he kicks like he is riding a bike. WTF!! Anyone have any ideas on what I lost when I put everything together?? Coach is working on my hip rotation and not letting my shoulders drop. I left the pool a little discouraged to say the least.
Well, kicking with a board has no rotation involved and pulling highly limits rotation, so I’d assume you probably have bad balence and poor rotation. Try doing your kick sets without a board and on your side (switching sides every 25). Also, work more on longer swim (crawl) sets when you’re by yourself, limiting kick and pull untill your swim speed catches up with your kick/pull. This has helped me.
Sounds like you just haven’t gotten it all to click in together.
Focus on the drills. Don’t worry about slow - worry about FORM. Don’t get discouraged. It takes time.
Remember - Practice does NOT make perfect! Practice makes PERMANENT. If you have a flawed form, more practice will only make that flaw more permanent. Practice the drills, work on streamlining your stroke and finding that feeling of slipping through the water (as opposed to fighting your way through it). Eventually it’ll begin to all click in, and then you’ll be able to start to work on speed.
A thought about kicking - for triathlon swimming, you need not kick a lot. Try to think of the kick as a “stabilizer” for your pull. You just want to keep your legs & hips riding high in the water.
I have been in a similar rut recently. Last night it hit me that to swim faster, I had to swim faster. IOW you might try to increase turnover rather that just swimming harder and worrying about rotation, etc.
focus on a very small and controlled kick when you swim. meaning dont let your feet come very far apart. this helps to balance your stroke and keep your hips in line.
this is the number one issue i see with triathletes swim stroke.
hope this helps
chris www.2XU.com
Your invisible friends can’t really help you on this one without some idea of what you’re doing now. Don’t suppose you’ve got some video of yourself swimming that you could dump onto YouTube?
Now, what is slow? I know there are folks who swim 50 or so in the 100yd and always KICK my butt.
Now, how long have you been swimming? The real faster swimmers I swim with have been doing it basically
their entire life. They are blown away why I say I have only been swimming for 9 months so there are exceptions.
And there are folks I swim with who have been doing it for many many years and by genetics, will never be “fast”.
But, at least they are in the pool doing it!!
Enjoy yourself, forget trying to using masters as another competition that makes you negative.
Big kicker? Quickest way that I know of to send middle of the packers to the back of the pack…
I agree with others that we need to see your stroke. But it could also be your strength, and even more likely, - poor timing. A strong kick, working out of time with your arm stroke and breathing pattern is a sure fire way to slow you down: other than to have a high head position.
Timing is key, and coordinating the kick with your recovery, catch/pull phase, breathing, and good body position is no easy task. Outside of your technique, you need a lot of upper body strength. And anyone who tells you different is whack. Propelling your body over your catch and hold on the water with one hand/forearm requires a good bit of strength and if you’re not doing push ups, or spending time on the bench press, you may want to consider it.
Man do I agree. When I feel I get a good catch and pull, it really is hard, but boy does it move me fasters.
When I get tired, I wuss on the correct technique of a good roll, reach, catch, high elbow and pull. :o(
I am just an average swimmer (1:25-1:30 /100yds continuous swimming) so take my advice for what it is.
I find that if I pull a long set with a pull bouy it messes up my rhythm or timing between stroke, rotation and kick. It feels weird when it happens and passes after a while. Maybe you have this more permanent. If you must do a pull set, use paddles and flutter kick to maintain rhythm, no pull bouy.
I have found focusing on different technique elements when swimming longer sets helps me enforce “good” technique. I split my “focus” into 200’s:
**1st 50 I focus on pulling over a barrel (firm catch, high elbow, push chest and armpit down, swim down hill)
**2nd 50 I focus on rotation and pull (high elbow, exaggerate rotation starting from hip, rotate with snap, feel that the rotation applies force to your pull)
**3rd 50 I focus on swimming tall (set arm firmly into the water, extend shoulder toward wall, elongate spine while keeping pressure on arm pit, touch your thigh with the thumb at the end of the stroke, exaggerate glide slightly)
**4th 50 I focus on rhythm (feel like you are paddling a kayak, initiate rotation with hip, slightly exaggerate left kick when pulling with your right hand, feel the connection between your left hip flexor/quad and right shoulder/lats, time your exaggerated kick with your rotation, drive your left shoulder forward as you pull with your right arm. It is all about timing! Notice the feeling when you get it right and try to find the same every time.)
**Repeat
**If you swim a set of 100s do 1 and 2 on the first and 3 and 4 on the next etc… Don’t cut each focus to less than 50.
Doing this also helps me count laps. If I am focusing on swimming tall I am either in my 3rd, 7th, 11th etc. lap and I only have to make sure I swim the right number of 200s which is pretty easy.
Take somebody with you next time you go swimming that can video you as you swim a couple lengths. I was in a swim clinic not too long ago where they did that, and it was amazing to watch the videos. Biggest problem by far was people crossing over center/over-rotating on the breath strokes, which causes the whole body to go out of whack, including the legs splitting apart and throwing on the brakes. If your form has those kinds of errors, just about anything else you work on is just going to frustrate you.
I don’t know what to call average for a tri swimmer. I do know that a good tri swimmer can beat me by 5 minutes over 1500m in an Olympic distance race. That makes me feel pretty average!
