You know you're slow when...
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1640 days
trainDaBrain posted 3 years ago.
Make little discoveries everyday. There's a lot to learn about swimming. Especially for folks like us who never swam in school. I guess we just had better things to do ;)
Recently I've been concentrating on the reach and catch. Really focusing on how the water feels in my hands as I roll slightly forward to grab more water. My times are coming down!
As long as you're willing to absorb (no water pun intended) the information available, and if you're willing to experiment with the way you move thru the water, you're going to get it. Having someone around to help is awesome, but if you don't have that, reading, watching other swimmers and visualization are your next best bets.
477
Member
1292 days
geochuck posted 3 years ago.
Vollenda
Don't worry about people who pass you. When I used to train there was a swimmer that I lapped every 7 lengths. As time went on I could lap her every 6 L, then every 5 L, then every 4 L, she became one of the top female marathon swimmers in the world.
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1321 days
xcdave posted 3 years ago.
Traindabrain -
Do you find that by concentrating on the reach & catch, that your arms tire out more easily?
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vollenda posted 3 years ago.
Thanks trainDaBrain and geochuck for the encouragement. I am improving and I know I will continue to improve. I just get impatient.
trainDaBrain - funny thing but what you said has really been helping me... "reach and catch". I lowered my stroke count 1-2 strokes per lap yesterday and even had a really good lap where it was down 3. It also helped my breathing - it seemed more natural. Thanks! :-) I think I tend to forget form when I get tired so I really need to work on that because all I'm thinking is "am I done yet?". :-)
Lisa
My blog: http://vollenda.trifuel.net/
483
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1640 days
trainDaBrain posted 3 years ago.
xcdave wrote:
Traindabrain -Do you find that by concentrating on the reach & catch, that your arms tire out more easily?
At first I did, most likely because it was using muscles I don't normally use. Now it's not as bad, but I was sore the next day in my lats :)
Vollenda: that's great! Glad what I wrote had some positive effect. Keep at it!
39
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1256 days
stone posted 3 years ago.
I only started swimming (for distance, not in general), this year approximately 9 weeks ago. I have a woman who coaches me every now and then which really helped. But I ran into a problem where I started thinking about too many things and my bad form got worse and my slow speeds got slower. I decided to simplify and all I really think about is reach and roll. I find if I don't think about these two things, I swim too flat and my stroke shortens. When I get into a rhythm, I might throw in a few catch thoughts and maybe let my mind wander and try to figure out what my legs are doing :) In general however, I just think reach and roll, reach and roll, be the ball
Best
Stone
477
Member
1292 days
geochuck posted 3 years ago.
Be sure to finish the stroke, the rest usually takes care of itself. How long did it take me to break a record? I started racing at 5 my first Canadian record came 15 years later.
477
Member
1292 days
geochuck posted 3 years ago.
Here you can find swim videos of the top crawl swimmers in the world http://www.swim.ee/videos/freestyle/free.html The swimmers I suggest you watch are Popov and Thorpe.
So last night, I had a pretty good swim. I shaved 1:30 off of last week's time. Definitely not fast but I am seeing some improvement. :) There was a super swimmer guy in the lane next to me and he passed me often. Which I expect since that guy is a machine. But then out of the corner of my eye, I see him coming again. And he's passing me again. But he was swimming under water! How sad is that? He was faster than me under water. :rolleyes: And he wasn't coming off the wall either... but he was using hand paddles.
For those of you who consider yourselves speedy, how long did it take you to reach that point? Are you there yet? Will hand paddles really help my form? I haven't tried them yet.
Like someone said on another thread, swimming is so technical. There's just so much to remember and I can't wait for it to be second nature to me so I can enjoy it more. Not that I don't now, but I would still rather bike or run.
Lisa
My blog: http://vollenda.trifuel.net/