Hi all...thank you for giving me some advice.

I find it that running is more easier than swimming.

and yes i was being told to swim properly by my former no1 club traithlon champion.

But then it doesnt work that i havent reach under 10 mins at all.

I guess that probably that because my body is not perfect for swimming.

Thank you.

Spideyrunner you need to put as much time into your swimming as you did your running. It won't happen just because you want it to.
Nobody has the perfect body for swimming, thats why humans are so slow compared to other creatures in the water, but if you wwork at it you will get faster. I used to swim about 10min 30 sec for 500m now after 8 years of consistent training I normally swim about 7-7.30 for 500m. This only happened because I stuck to it, got a good coach who worked with me and I focussed on getting a better stroke.
Stats-freeaks S shape is pretty correct but so are things like high elbows, relaxed hands, wrists positioned correctly, and many other factors once these are fixed up then getting fitter and stronger in this position will allow you to swim faster. So see a coach even if it is only once a month to give you some guidance.

true, there is a category here for Tri, Multi sport and similar. and there are plenty of tri-heads on here. (myself included until not that long ago). why dont we just open the floodgates. i'm sure i'm not the only one on the site that enjoys a game of cricket. can anyone out there help me with my 'in-swinger'?? ;)

what you need to do is go here - otherwise you are wasting your time

www.svl.ch/CrawlAnalysis/

The "S" shape is old news. I train 10 x 200m, I do them on 3mins and it is a rule to bring em in on anthing under 2.40 - if not penalty extra 200m added. I time them all and seek to swim 2km in 26mins flat total swim time. Wrong side of 2.40 sees an extra 200m added as penalty. You must concentrate - it is as much about streamlining as it is about power of stroke - anyway to the link above - it will all make sense from there. Any further advice - I am up at the Warringah Aquatic Centre most days of the week at the moment training myself as well as a group of school kids.

DB

excellent link David B... i have also been told that the 's' shape thing is old news and also believe that doing drills to practice, practice and practice the right technique is what is important in wanting to swim faster. get a good coach yes! and train with a group? yes.

Good luck

to the initial 500m swimming dude.

Most coaches and leaders of squads dont know what they are doing - so be careful what squad you shell out money for - I go to a number of diff pools watch so so many coachs who dunno what they are doing.

Grub Carroll at Warringah Aquatic knows what he is doing and so does Anne Jenkins at Terrey Hills.

You should break up your 500m into 5 x 100 with 15 second break between each 100 - time em to completion. Then improve time or do penalty extra - I cannot emphasis strong enough to keep a long line - on that link I posted above - Ian Thorpe focuses more than anything else on maintaining a long water line length

Dave Burgess

David B

could You recomend coaches, who knows what they are doing in Melbourne ???

More specifically Eastern subburbs, closest to Knox, Ringwood etc ??

Thanks

Rudolf

Sorry I cant help too much there - but one thing I will say is that I like the way the swimmers with Nunawading Swimming Club swim big time. So whoever is coaching them is doing a very good job. I think Brooke Hanson swims outta there as well - make your enquiries down that line.

Use paddles in your training - biggish ones with small holes in them. Use a pool bouy too - but not one that has a bigger half than the other half to it - it will upset your floating dynamics. Very very reluctantly use flippers when swimming freestyle as it doesn't promote knee flexibility / bend - though do do flippers with freestyle and pool bouy when doing the fingernail drag drill which does promote high elbows. Basically that link that I posted above is better than any text book I have ever read - what do they say - a picture says a thousand words.

Do 10 x 100m normal freestyle, then 10 x 100 with pool bouy (but do kick round the pool bouy too), then 10 x 100m freestyle with paddles - time the whole shebang - then graph it @ home - this will work

Dave Burgess

David B,

thanks for the replay, much appreciated.

You said :

time the whole shebang - then graph it @ home - this will work


Coul You please elaborate on that, what You time, the breaks etc, the breaks between the sets
when changing the tools etc.

Is it timing the whole lot, similar to the Mona running fartlek, or other track fartleks, when You run 5km in a style say 400m fast/200mslow
and time the whole 5 km, or You time each individual rep and plot it.

I come from running, so the swimming jargon and the timing graphing stuff is not than clear cut to me, and I guess, there would be lots of people like me on this CR website .

thanks in advance.
Rudolf

Ok

With me and what you need to do.

I do 10 x 200m Freestyle - I go to the Warringah Aquatic Centre 8pm of a Weeknight - so don't have to share a lane - noboby ever wants to share a lane with me anyway. When you have slow coaches in the lane with you and you gotta go round them and all that crap it wont work.

Spend time stretching / limbering up etc. Also you gotta get your head around what you wanna try to achieve. Takes about 5 mins.

Start stopwatch when you start your first 200m stop watch immediately you finish it. Look at the clock on the wall when you come in. Take 20secs rest and then go - when you go start your watch again. Stop your watch when you finish the second 200m. What you will do is do the whole lot like that finally finishing your last 200m - you will be very rooted. When you have like 2 200m's to go you will start to get thinking about how you are going relative to record pace - my fingers actuall quiver a touch. Dont let your hand go too deep - see link above. You can also obviously see total time swum and the average time it takes you to swim each - the first, second, ninth and last usually are the quickest.

At the end you will be very tired - cause you have raced yourself big time. Make sure when you start your goggles are a touch tighter than normal. Twenty secs is not a long break and you don't want to be fart arsing around with your goggles. Don't mentally switch off when you are swimming - think of the link I posted about THE WHOLE TIME.

At the end of this 2km you might just want to go home - I often do - I am that exhausted - I have even had to spend a minute or two just getting my breath back - 26 minutes of hell - you will feel it in your shoulders big time. Tell people what your program is - that way you can't run from the situation - you will get home and your wife will ask as mine does how you went - it is no good if you never beat your record. Loser.

Think of yourself as a pool cue with arms and legs. See / visualise Thorpey swimming in your mind as you swim.

This will make you fit too and set you up for running. You wont be able to talk during the 2km either you will be so tired.

Last Sat I ran 37.48 for 10km with the Striders - but I had only run 20km in total since Jan 1st.

No matter what continue with the 10 - don't get to seven and go christ I can't keep this up - it will cross your mind - at 5 think half way - at 8 think two to go. At nine you will think - christ just one more and give it hell on the tenth.

Hope that helps - Dave Burgess

Little K, you might find this link useful: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/skills/4174602.stm
:D

42.195 you're a genius! thanks for the link and the laugh bro. :D

Hi all,

I'd definitely recommend a coach: if you've been swimming for 4 years then you'll have all the physical strength and a base level of fitness....which means what is holding you back is technique.

Try a swim squad or a local coach at the pool. Even if you think you might have it fairly right my experience is that you only need some subtle adjustments to make big changes to speed.

Cheers,
Darryn