Stop kick sets. Stop doing drills. Throw out the pull buoy.
SWIM HARD. DO IT OFTEN.
I know today we did some wide open 250’s and then 50’s. Boy is that painful!!!
And this was after our 3000 yesterday. I just love the exercise.
Dave
We should create a site to upload swimming/biking/ running form videos so that people can comment…
Seriously - that would be pretty cool…
When my masters team took video, and then we went back into the room with the coach and was given inputs,
it was pretty sick.
Dave
Stop kick sets. Stop doing drills. Throw out the pull buoy.
SWIM HARD. DO IT OFTEN.
I will half-way agree with you. Not swim “harder” - that for most people will leave them thrashing through the water, and that is not fast. Swim often? Yes. Swim very often. Act like a swimmer and spend half of your waking hours in the water 
Get rid of the pull buoy, get rid of the kickboard (you can kick streamlined on your back or your front or your side).
Do drills and kick sets as part of your warmup. Then, YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY SWIM! Feel the water and let your body adjust so you figure out how to move through it smoothly. I think drills help to feel your stroke, but you have to actually swim too… drills and kicking and pulling are not swimming, they merely isolate parts of it. You have to keep doing it, and let the parts come together.
When they do, it feels like you’re made of gold
Yep, I agree with you.
Dave
Head position dictates body position…
Head up, - legs and hips down.
Head down, - legs and hips up…
Basic stuff yo…
I agree that folks overemphasize toys. But, - toys can be useful when analyzing stroke issues. I’ve seen people actually move backwards when isolating their kick with a kickboard. Correcting that detrimental kick technique, helped to improve that person’s stroke.
Martin, another thing interesting is how there are short and long distance swimmers.
When we did some all out 50’s today, with my wimpy open turn, I was doing like 31.5.
(yea I know the fast ones do 25’s or less) Now, this was better than a lot of the “faster” swimmers that kill me with the distance stuff,
between good flip turns, and better technique. But, it was fun seeing them hear my time
and go wow. I may be slow to swimmers standards, but I am happy with my times.
So this is why I have gone to the shorter stuff. I do not have the desire, or skills,
to compete as events get longer.
Dave
At our pool, we have folks that do 2:20/100.
I am in lane 4/12. Sounds like in your pool I would be dead last.
Dave
We have a very good support team, where time is less important. Guess this is why I enjoy it so much,
it is inclussive, and helping folks be the best they can be. I judge folks be attitude and effort, not
what lane they swim in.
Dave
What team are you on? Does not fit the kind of team I am looking for.
Some of these “slow” folks are not new, or Tris. They have swam for years. They are older and trying to stay
in the best shape they can. I am glad they are there.
Now, I see the attitude of some folks in lanes 1/2. If the entire masters were like them, I would be swimming on my
own again. I did not join master to be a swimmer. I joined masters to help me have a better quality of life
with exercise.
Dave
Seriously - It’s called Youtube.
Martin, you killed your post too fast.
You doing any TBF race this weekend?
Dave
Check out this video and you will see the side kicks drills mentioned above.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1387883746453817821
alright… since I happen to be familiar with Magnify (have a couple of other sites using their back-end), I set up a quick site called http://checkmyform.magnify.net
Takes about 5 minutes to set up a site, but I set the permissions so that anyone could upload video. There are community features like rating the video, comments section, etc.
Not sure if it is useful, but video would be a good alternative to the photos that I always see uploaded to Slowtwitch for cycling position, etc… would be useful for other sports as well I suppose.
If anyone wants to be added as an administrator of the site let me know… I guess we can see if it catches on…
I don’t even consider myself an average swimmer (my average non-wetsuit 100-yd time is 1:58 - 2:00) yet I was in the top 15% out of 1725 in last year’s Accenture Sprint Tri. So, triathlon swimmers are generally pretty crappy compared to “swimmer” swimmers… Good thing for me.
Not true.
If your head position dictates your body position, then you are not using your core muscles properly. Torso should be strongly stabilized by proper core muscle use and fleixibilty.
Using your head to keep your body stable is a cheap shortcut that will come back to bite you in open water conditions for a variety of reasons.
Yep, which is why I do tri’s, I am no good at any single sport.
I am a crappy swimmer compared to swimmers
I am a crappy bike rider compared to roadies
I am a crappy runner compared to runners.
But, I sure have a great time being crappy
Dave
Yes it is true, I’m afraid…
Simple tests definitely prove this, - once the head goes up, - the hips go down…
That’s why no good swimmers swim with a high head… it’s in the films, - if you can show me one film where someone swims fast with a high head position, I’d love to see it…
I never said that one should use their head to keep their body stable. Further, - I don’t know what you mean by body stability in that sense. One does not swim perpendicular to the water’s surface; unless you’re walking along the bottom, and that is a lot slower than swimming…
How about all of these crappy swimmers? Poor bastards have their heads looking straight ahead at the wall.