Improving swimming
Discussion
Due to an injury, I've had to stop running for a few months. So I've taken to swimming twice a week to keep fitness up.
Been going to the local pool twice a week for six weeks, and I'm now doing 1000-1500m each time. All front crawl as my injury precludes doing breaststroke.
Thing is, I'm not fast.
Slow, in fact.
This morning I was overtaken by a middle-aged lady doing a relaxed-looking breaststroke.
Did 1000m this morning in about 23 minutes,
I've tried swimming faster, but that gets me exhausted after a few lengths. Going at my usual pace i'm fine.
So what do I need to do to improve my pace? Is it just a question of keep ploughing away and the speed will improve, or do I look at technique videos? They all seem to be aimed a 'elite' swimmers and involve loads of stuff (cameras and mirrors etc) and seem to be more about shaving 0.1 secs off of 100m.
Been going to the local pool twice a week for six weeks, and I'm now doing 1000-1500m each time. All front crawl as my injury precludes doing breaststroke.
Thing is, I'm not fast.
Slow, in fact.
This morning I was overtaken by a middle-aged lady doing a relaxed-looking breaststroke.
Did 1000m this morning in about 23 minutes,
I've tried swimming faster, but that gets me exhausted after a few lengths. Going at my usual pace i'm fine.
So what do I need to do to improve my pace? Is it just a question of keep ploughing away and the speed will improve, or do I look at technique videos? They all seem to be aimed a 'elite' swimmers and involve loads of stuff (cameras and mirrors etc) and seem to be more about shaving 0.1 secs off of 100m.
Will be good to hear the responses as I'm going through the same issues. Patellar tendinitis so can't run, I'm 28 and can still run 100m 11 secs flat, 400m 50 secs, 10k 41 mins but 1000m swim just over 23 mins. I've had 2 lessons with a triathlon swim coach and she says I try too hard. My crawl is my best stroke but she thinks I should try to improve my breastroke to get a better glide which will in turn help my crawl.
It's really frustrating but gotta keep at it.
It's really frustrating but gotta keep at it.
23 mins for 1Km is not bad for a beginner.
At that level its all about technique. You need to be as streamlined as possible to reduce drag and have a good catch and pull in your stroke to maximise propulsion. I've highlighted somethings below to look at but I heartily recommend getting a coach. If you are near Milton Keynes then Adam @ www.greenlightpt.co.uk is your man. He turned me from someone who couldn't swim two lengths to a 6min 400m swimmer. He will look at your stroke and identified flaws and will test your fitness. He will then give you some drills to fix the flaws and a training plan a tailored to you. Its £45 for a session but there is a bit of a waiting list.
Breathing: Always exhale when your face is in the water. Many people turn the heads to breathe and then exhale.
Head Position: When you turn your head to breathe you need to keep your head as flat as possible. You want a split screen effect where one google is under the water and one is above. There is a dent in the water created by your bow wave so you can breathe whilst keeping your head low.
Feet Position: If your head it too high it will generally cause your feet to sink. You are then compounded the problem and creating too much drag. Fixing the head position should improve the feet position.
Kicking: You need a good flutter kick. Make sure you keep your feet close together in the kick. Many people have a scissor kick which is like opening a parachute behind your. Drills like side kick are good for this.
Hand Entry: You want a spearing entry with your hands flat. Shoulder tap is a good drill for this. When your hand enters the water you want to glide it forwards before you start your catch and pull. At the end of the glide your fingers need to drop slightly. Think of it as reaching over a barrel. You want your elbow bent and your forearm near vertical at the start of the pull. Swimming with fists is a good drill here. Skulling is a great drill to help with the feel for the water.
Pull: Make sure you are pulling all the way to your hip. A good drill is to make sure to brush your thumb against your hip before pulling your hand out. This will build muscle memory.
There is some jargon in the above. You will find descriptions and pictures by googling them. Also a good place to look is on the Swim Smooth website.
Don't try and do all the stuff above at once. You need to work out what your biggest flaw is and fix that before moving on.
As said though, get a coach. Once you have the technique down its then just swimming lots and lots and lots to build the feel for the water and the swim fitness.
Babw - some impressive running stats there. Unfortunately swim fitness is quite specific and doesn't always translate. Also working on your breaststoke to improve your crawl sounds like utter b
ks to me Sure doing additional strokes when you are a serious swimmer can help but at this level you will get more benefit by fixing stroke flaws and just doing crawl.
Writing all that has made me realise how much I miss swimming. I;m the opposite of you both, running because injury (infection) stops me swimming.
At that level its all about technique. You need to be as streamlined as possible to reduce drag and have a good catch and pull in your stroke to maximise propulsion. I've highlighted somethings below to look at but I heartily recommend getting a coach. If you are near Milton Keynes then Adam @ www.greenlightpt.co.uk is your man. He turned me from someone who couldn't swim two lengths to a 6min 400m swimmer. He will look at your stroke and identified flaws and will test your fitness. He will then give you some drills to fix the flaws and a training plan a tailored to you. Its £45 for a session but there is a bit of a waiting list.
Breathing: Always exhale when your face is in the water. Many people turn the heads to breathe and then exhale.
Head Position: When you turn your head to breathe you need to keep your head as flat as possible. You want a split screen effect where one google is under the water and one is above. There is a dent in the water created by your bow wave so you can breathe whilst keeping your head low.
Feet Position: If your head it too high it will generally cause your feet to sink. You are then compounded the problem and creating too much drag. Fixing the head position should improve the feet position.
Kicking: You need a good flutter kick. Make sure you keep your feet close together in the kick. Many people have a scissor kick which is like opening a parachute behind your. Drills like side kick are good for this.
Hand Entry: You want a spearing entry with your hands flat. Shoulder tap is a good drill for this. When your hand enters the water you want to glide it forwards before you start your catch and pull. At the end of the glide your fingers need to drop slightly. Think of it as reaching over a barrel. You want your elbow bent and your forearm near vertical at the start of the pull. Swimming with fists is a good drill here. Skulling is a great drill to help with the feel for the water.
Pull: Make sure you are pulling all the way to your hip. A good drill is to make sure to brush your thumb against your hip before pulling your hand out. This will build muscle memory.
There is some jargon in the above. You will find descriptions and pictures by googling them. Also a good place to look is on the Swim Smooth website.
Don't try and do all the stuff above at once. You need to work out what your biggest flaw is and fix that before moving on.
As said though, get a coach. Once you have the technique down its then just swimming lots and lots and lots to build the feel for the water and the swim fitness.
Babw - some impressive running stats there. Unfortunately swim fitness is quite specific and doesn't always translate. Also working on your breaststoke to improve your crawl sounds like utter b
ks to me Sure doing additional strokes when you are a serious swimmer can help but at this level you will get more benefit by fixing stroke flaws and just doing crawl.Writing all that has made me realise how much I miss swimming. I;m the opposite of you both, running because injury (infection) stops me swimming.
Babw said:
Will be good to hear the responses as I'm going through the same issues. Patellar tendinitis so can't run, I'm 28 and can still run 100m 11 secs flat, 400m 50 secs, 10k 41 mins but 1000m swim just over 23 mins. I've had 2 lessons with a triathlon swim coach and she says I try too hard. My crawl is my best stroke but she thinks I should try to improve my breastroke to get a better glide which will in turn help my crawl.
It's really frustrating but gotta keep at it.
Some good times there - quite a bit quicker than me. It sounds like you were doing track workIt's really frustrating but gotta keep at it.
My 5k park run is 21:25, 10k roads (with hills) best 44:52
No idea on 100m/400m times as never run them as a timed effort.
944fan said:
23 mins for 1Km is not bad for a beginner.
At that level its all about technique. You need to be as streamlined as possible to reduce drag and have a good catch and pull in your stroke to maximise propulsion. I've highlighted somethings below to look at but I heartily recommend getting a coach. If you are near Milton Keynes then Adam @ www.greenlightpt.co.uk is your man. He turned me from someone who couldn't swim two lengths to a 6min 400m swimmer. He will look at your stroke and identified flaws and will test your fitness. He will then give you some drills to fix the flaws and a training plan a tailored to you. Its £45 for a session but there is a bit of a waiting list.
Breathing: Always exhale when your face is in the water. Many people turn the heads to breathe and then exhale.
Head Position: When you turn your head to breathe you need to keep your head as flat as possible. You want a split screen effect where one google is under the water and one is above. There is a dent in the water created by your bow wave so you can breathe whilst keeping your head low.
Feet Position: If your head it too high it will generally cause your feet to sink. You are then compounded the problem and creating too much drag. Fixing the head position should improve the feet position.
Kicking: You need a good flutter kick. Make sure you keep your feet close together in the kick. Many people have a scissor kick which is like opening a parachute behind your. Drills like side kick are good for this.
Hand Entry: You want a spearing entry with your hands flat. Shoulder tap is a good drill for this. When your hand enters the water you want to glide it forwards before you start your catch and pull. At the end of the glide your fingers need to drop slightly. Think of it as reaching over a barrel. You want your elbow bent and your forearm near vertical at the start of the pull. Swimming with fists is a good drill here. Skulling is a great drill to help with the feel for the water.
Pull: Make sure you are pulling all the way to your hip. A good drill is to make sure to brush your thumb against your hip before pulling your hand out. This will build muscle memory.
There is some jargon in the above. You will find descriptions and pictures by googling them. Also a good place to look is on the Swim Smooth website.
Don't try and do all the stuff above at once. You need to work out what your biggest flaw is and fix that before moving on.
As said though, get a coach. Once you have the technique down its then just swimming lots and lots and lots to build the feel for the water and the swim fitness.
Babw - some impressive running stats there. Unfortunately swim fitness is quite specific and doesn't always translate. Also working on your breaststoke to improve your crawl sounds like utter bks to me Sure doing additional strokes when you are a serious swimmer can help but at this level you will get more benefit by fixing stroke flaws and just doing crawl.
Writing all that has made me realise how much I miss swimming. I;m the opposite of you both, running because injury (infection) stops me swimming.
Wow, cheers for the effort you put in to write all that At that level its all about technique. You need to be as streamlined as possible to reduce drag and have a good catch and pull in your stroke to maximise propulsion. I've highlighted somethings below to look at but I heartily recommend getting a coach. If you are near Milton Keynes then Adam @ www.greenlightpt.co.uk is your man. He turned me from someone who couldn't swim two lengths to a 6min 400m swimmer. He will look at your stroke and identified flaws and will test your fitness. He will then give you some drills to fix the flaws and a training plan a tailored to you. Its £45 for a session but there is a bit of a waiting list.
Breathing: Always exhale when your face is in the water. Many people turn the heads to breathe and then exhale.
Head Position: When you turn your head to breathe you need to keep your head as flat as possible. You want a split screen effect where one google is under the water and one is above. There is a dent in the water created by your bow wave so you can breathe whilst keeping your head low.
Feet Position: If your head it too high it will generally cause your feet to sink. You are then compounded the problem and creating too much drag. Fixing the head position should improve the feet position.
Kicking: You need a good flutter kick. Make sure you keep your feet close together in the kick. Many people have a scissor kick which is like opening a parachute behind your. Drills like side kick are good for this.
Hand Entry: You want a spearing entry with your hands flat. Shoulder tap is a good drill for this. When your hand enters the water you want to glide it forwards before you start your catch and pull. At the end of the glide your fingers need to drop slightly. Think of it as reaching over a barrel. You want your elbow bent and your forearm near vertical at the start of the pull. Swimming with fists is a good drill here. Skulling is a great drill to help with the feel for the water.
Pull: Make sure you are pulling all the way to your hip. A good drill is to make sure to brush your thumb against your hip before pulling your hand out. This will build muscle memory.
There is some jargon in the above. You will find descriptions and pictures by googling them. Also a good place to look is on the Swim Smooth website.
Don't try and do all the stuff above at once. You need to work out what your biggest flaw is and fix that before moving on.
As said though, get a coach. Once you have the technique down its then just swimming lots and lots and lots to build the feel for the water and the swim fitness.
Babw - some impressive running stats there. Unfortunately swim fitness is quite specific and doesn't always translate. Also working on your breaststoke to improve your crawl sounds like utter b
ks to me Sure doing additional strokes when you are a serious swimmer can help but at this level you will get more benefit by fixing stroke flaws and just doing crawl.Writing all that has made me realise how much I miss swimming. I;m the opposite of you both, running because injury (infection) stops me swimming.
Breathing bit I know I do. Other than that it is all a bit of a mystery. I'll try and think about one aspect each time I go and see if i can improve it.
Nowhere near milton keynes unfortunately. Is there a register of coaches or anything? Our pool does adult swim classes, but i think they are aimed at non or poor swimmers
boyse7en said:
Wow, cheers for the effort you put in to write all that
Breathing bit I know I do. Other than that it is all a bit of a mystery. I'll try and think about one aspect each time I go and see if i can improve it.
Nowhere near milton keynes unfortunately. Is there a register of coaches or anything? Our pool does adult swim classes, but i think they are aimed at non or poor swimmers
Yeah most classes at a pool will be about teaching people to swim, rather than performance swimming.Breathing bit I know I do. Other than that it is all a bit of a mystery. I'll try and think about one aspect each time I go and see if i can improve it.
Nowhere near milton keynes unfortunately. Is there a register of coaches or anything? Our pool does adult swim classes, but i think they are aimed at non or poor swimmers
Swim Smooth have certified coaches. Info here: http://www.swimsmooth.com/certifiedcoaches.html There are a few locations. They do video analysis and such like and are good I hear.
Otherwise look for a triathlon coach as they tend to focus a lot on improving front crawl. Make sure you get someone who is qualified. Look for an ASA Level 3 Certificate in Coaching Swimming.
As a (former) Triaflete 
I used Swim4Tri. For a year in 2011/12 or so to improve my FC. Did 8 weeks of Instruction. Then 9 months with their group once a week. They were OK, but I never a) felt like I was part of the group. Bit clique! and b) The skills were aimed at people that weren't me and I wasn't really getting the benefit. I was "slightly above average" but in their group was slow lane. And they neglected us! Plus the day after the block finished and I hadn't renewed like everyone else. I got a snotty email from the company saying "You haven't paid, don't just turn up cause we won't let you swim!" I wasn't planning to just turn up. It was approaching Christmas and I was having my end of year break. But that email meant I never went back in the new year.
I went and had a Evening with SwimSmooths local coach. Full video analysis. And then a full break down the next day on what I needed to work on. Arms crossing centre line, not fast enough turn over. Was offered to join their twice weekly squad, but the times weren't compatible with my work hours, which was a shame. I'd recommend them though. Also see if you can get on their email list. Every Friday something that will help. I'm adamant that the techniques they taught me (plus working on it!) is what meant I can swim 4K in under 1h20 now.
I used Swim4Tri. For a year in 2011/12 or so to improve my FC. Did 8 weeks of Instruction. Then 9 months with their group once a week. They were OK, but I never a) felt like I was part of the group. Bit clique! and b) The skills were aimed at people that weren't me and I wasn't really getting the benefit. I was "slightly above average" but in their group was slow lane. And they neglected us! Plus the day after the block finished and I hadn't renewed like everyone else. I got a snotty email from the company saying "You haven't paid, don't just turn up cause we won't let you swim!" I wasn't planning to just turn up. It was approaching Christmas and I was having my end of year break. But that email meant I never went back in the new year.
I went and had a Evening with SwimSmooths local coach. Full video analysis. And then a full break down the next day on what I needed to work on. Arms crossing centre line, not fast enough turn over. Was offered to join their twice weekly squad, but the times weren't compatible with my work hours, which was a shame. I'd recommend them though. Also see if you can get on their email list. Every Friday something that will help. I'm adamant that the techniques they taught me (plus working on it!) is what meant I can swim 4K in under 1h20 now.
Edited by Rich_W on Saturday 7th November 13:14
Rich_W said:
As a (former) Triaflete
I used Swim4Tri. For a year in 2011/12 or so to improve my FC. Did 8 weeks of Instruction. Then 9 months with their group once a week. They were OK, but I never a) felt like I was part of the group. Bit clique! and b) The skills were aimed at people that weren't me and I wasn't really getting the benefit. I was "slightly above average" but in their group was slow lane. And they neglected us! Plus the day after the block finished and I hadn't renewed like everyone else. I got a snotty email from the company saying "You haven't paid, don't just turn up cause we won't let you swim!" I wasn't planning to just turn up. It was approaching Christmas and I was having my end of year break. But that email meant I never went back in the new year.
I went and had a Evening with SwimSmooths local coach. Full video analysis. And then a full break down the next day on what I needed to work on. Arms crossing centre line, not fast enough turn over. Was offered to join their twice weekly squad, but the times weren't compatible with my work hours, which was a shame. I'd recommend them though. Also see if you can get on their email list. Every Friday something that will help. I'm adamant that the techniques they taught me (plus working on it!) is what meant I can swim 4K in under 1h20 now.
Thanks. I'll give them a look.I used Swim4Tri. For a year in 2011/12 or so to improve my FC. Did 8 weeks of Instruction. Then 9 months with their group once a week. They were OK, but I never a) felt like I was part of the group. Bit clique! and b) The skills were aimed at people that weren't me and I wasn't really getting the benefit. I was "slightly above average" but in their group was slow lane. And they neglected us! Plus the day after the block finished and I hadn't renewed like everyone else. I got a snotty email from the company saying "You haven't paid, don't just turn up cause we won't let you swim!" I wasn't planning to just turn up. It was approaching Christmas and I was having my end of year break. But that email meant I never went back in the new year.
I went and had a Evening with SwimSmooths local coach. Full video analysis. And then a full break down the next day on what I needed to work on. Arms crossing centre line, not fast enough turn over. Was offered to join their twice weekly squad, but the times weren't compatible with my work hours, which was a shame. I'd recommend them though. Also see if you can get on their email list. Every Friday something that will help. I'm adamant that the techniques they taught me (plus working on it!) is what meant I can swim 4K in under 1h20 now.
Edited by Rich_W on Saturday 7th November 13:14
Did 2000m in a busy lane on Saturday morning in about 55 minutes, but that includes quite a few pauses to allow people past on the turns.
I'll have a look at Swimsmooth site and get on their email list.
I also swim front crawl only due to a back problem. I improved my swimming using 'Total Immersion' coaching. I went from being unable to swim more than 25 metres due to exhaustion (and at the time I was running a 1hr30min half marathon, so I wasn't unfit), to putting in reasonably competitive times over distances as long as a mile.
Total Immersion (known as "TI") focuses on streamlining, the idea being that water is about 800 times denser than air so little things make a big difference. It also focuses obsessively on technique, rather than power (plenty of TI swimmers are skinny little things with next to no muscle, but swim faster than plenty of triangular muscle bound swimmers). All TI technique is in sympathy with what's good for your body - you're very unlikely to get injured with TI.
My TI coaching used underwater cameras in a small pool with a current that held me stationery. This is important because almost all of what matters with swimming is under the water, and the tiniest things make a difference.
My improvement as described above took about five years of regular coaching, but I was seeing improvements after about 12 months. I tried other swimming lessons (group and individual) and they didn't have any effect at all.
I learnt with www.swimsolutions.co.uk, based near Egham, but any TI coach would do, although I would definitely look for somewhere with underwater filming.
best of luck!
Total Immersion (known as "TI") focuses on streamlining, the idea being that water is about 800 times denser than air so little things make a big difference. It also focuses obsessively on technique, rather than power (plenty of TI swimmers are skinny little things with next to no muscle, but swim faster than plenty of triangular muscle bound swimmers). All TI technique is in sympathy with what's good for your body - you're very unlikely to get injured with TI.
My TI coaching used underwater cameras in a small pool with a current that held me stationery. This is important because almost all of what matters with swimming is under the water, and the tiniest things make a difference.
My improvement as described above took about five years of regular coaching, but I was seeing improvements after about 12 months. I tried other swimming lessons (group and individual) and they didn't have any effect at all.
I learnt with www.swimsolutions.co.uk, based near Egham, but any TI coach would do, although I would definitely look for somewhere with underwater filming.
best of luck!
Some useful posts here, I got the biggest improvement by really trying to focus on the high elbow pull as described in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTQpF_mmg44&lis...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTQpF_mmg44&lis...
I was lucky to have a very accomplished veteran swimmer coaching at my local club; she was happy to coach me just for front crawl and set up a stroke clinic for the benefit of me and a small number of other would-be triathletes.
As a result I went from being unable to string together 4 25m lengths in the February to finishing an open water IM swim in 1:27 in the August - with not much more than two hours a week in the pool. 1:27 is hardly a stellar performance, but four months earlier I simply could not swim.
Away from that I'd add to the recommendations for SwimSmooth - they seem to have very able coaches and a solid approach.
As a result I went from being unable to string together 4 25m lengths in the February to finishing an open water IM swim in 1:27 in the August - with not much more than two hours a week in the pool. 1:27 is hardly a stellar performance, but four months earlier I simply could not swim.
Away from that I'd add to the recommendations for SwimSmooth - they seem to have very able coaches and a solid approach.
A year later I was down to 1:21 - on about an hour a week average; I reckoned that with limited time to train I'd find bigger gains per hour invested if I concentrated on improving my bike and run fitness.
Sadly that was a fair while ago, and I hate to think how bad I'd be in the water again now: work and training just don't fit like they used to.
Sadly that was a fair while ago, and I hate to think how bad I'd be in the water again now: work and training just don't fit like they used to.
BoRED S2upid said:
I have the opposite problem fast but after 10 lengths I'm done in! And can't seem to do front crawl slowly.
TI would teach you do do front crawl super slow, but when you check your watch you've been swimming really fast http://youtu.be/rJpFVvho0o4
I bought TI's book a few years ago.
It's over complicated and only works for certain people. Matey above who can spin his arms over fast, but gets knackered. He needs to find a coach to embrace that. Not try and change the fundamental characteristics of the swimmer. If you are as flexible as a lump of granite. Do you think a stroke for someone who is like a gymnast will work?
It's why I like Swimsmooth. They identified several different "types" of swimmer. And thus ways to improve them.
http://www.swimtypes.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DXiYc2BIvw
It's over complicated and only works for certain people. Matey above who can spin his arms over fast, but gets knackered. He needs to find a coach to embrace that. Not try and change the fundamental characteristics of the swimmer. If you are as flexible as a lump of granite. Do you think a stroke for someone who is like a gymnast will work?
It's why I like Swimsmooth. They identified several different "types" of swimmer. And thus ways to improve them.
http://www.swimtypes.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DXiYc2BIvw
944fan said:
23 mins for 1Km is not bad for a beginner.
At that level its all about technique. You need to be as streamlined as possible to reduce drag and have a good catch and pull in your stroke to maximise propulsion. I've highlighted somethings below to look at but I heartily recommend getting a coach. If you are near Milton Keynes then Adam @ www.greenlightpt.co.uk is your man. He turned me from someone who couldn't swim two lengths to a 6min 400m swimmer. He will look at your stroke and identified flaws and will test your fitness. He will then give you some drills to fix the flaws and a training plan a tailored to you. Its £45 for a session but there is a bit of a waiting list.
Breathing: Always exhale when your face is in the water. Many people turn the heads to breathe and then exhale.
Head Position: When you turn your head to breathe you need to keep your head as flat as possible. You want a split screen effect where one google is under the water and one is above. There is a dent in the water created by your bow wave so you can breathe whilst keeping your head low. I agree, but if you're not moving fast enough you don't always get that depression that allows you to breath like this so might necessitate a bit more rotation. Additionally when face is in the water, look down, not forward. Head down, hips come up, drag reduces.
Feet Position: If your head it too high it will generally cause your feet to sink. You are then compounded the problem and creating too much drag. Fixing the head position should improve the feet position.
Kicking: You need a good flutter kick. Make sure you keep your feet close together in the kick. Many people have a scissor kick which is like opening a parachute behind your. Drills like side kick are good for this. yep good tight kick with decent rate, especially if you haven't got a good glide on the stroke, you'll need your feet to keep your momentum up in-between strokes. The kick is really more like making a whipping action, small movement at the hip, amplifies through the ankle. Ankle flexibility is absolutely key to good efficient kick, so if you have stiff ankles, do some ankle stretches
Hand Entry: You want a spearing entry with your hands flat. Shoulder tap is a good drill for this. When your hand enters the water you want to glide it forwards before you start your catch and pull. At the end of the glide your fingers need to drop slightly. Think of it as reaching over a barrel. You want your elbow bent and your forearm near vertical at the start of the pull. Swimming with fists is a good drill here. Skulling is a great drill to help with the feel for the water. Yep, bent elbow pull, so vertical forearm, and pulling outside the body, not across it or anything like that. Bent elbow can actually be less powerful, but the drag reduction over swimming with straighter arms wins out significantly. The only people who should be doing straight arm freestyle are the 50m boys who are built like brick out houses.
Pull: Make sure you are pulling all the way to your hip. A good drill is to make sure to brush your thumb against your hip before pulling your hand out. This will build muscle memory.only to the hip? :P you want to be pushing right past the hip and in doing so you hand should be at its highest speed. Its the fastest part of the stroke
There is some jargon in the above. You will find descriptions and pictures by googling them. Also a good place to look is on the Swim Smooth website.
Don't try and do all the stuff above at once. You need to work out what your biggest flaw is and fix that before moving on. In my experience its normally hips sinking (keep you head down) and not pulling with a high, bent elbow. Normally pick up the bent elbow quickly, but often people drop the elbow below the hand which just removes any remaining power in the movement. Think about how your arms are if you were to pull yourself out of the pool with both hands. Thats pretty much the position! (if a little too close to the body)
As said though, get a coach. Once you have the technique down its then just swimming lots and lots and lots to build the feel for the water and the swim fitness. absolutely this, very difficult to really see what your limbs are up to in swimming because nearly everything happens out of sight. A coach and a coach with video kit will make a huge difference because they can see and show you exactly what you're doing right and wrong
Babw - some impressive running stats there. Unfortunately swim fitness is quite specific and doesn't always translate. Also working on your breaststoke to improve your crawl sounds like utter bks to me Sure doing additional strokes when you are a serious swimmer can help but at this level you will get more benefit by fixing stroke flaws and just doing crawl. Indeed, swimming tends to be all upper body fitness, which you wont have from running. Though you will have general CV fitness that will help. Doing other strokes to improve a different stroke is rubbish. If I learned anything from reading journal papers its that the best way to improve x in swimming, is to do x in the pool.
Writing all that has made me realise how much I miss swimming. I;m the opposite of you both, running because injury (infection) stops me swimming.
Added some addtional points in bold, (if you dont mind!)At that level its all about technique. You need to be as streamlined as possible to reduce drag and have a good catch and pull in your stroke to maximise propulsion. I've highlighted somethings below to look at but I heartily recommend getting a coach. If you are near Milton Keynes then Adam @ www.greenlightpt.co.uk is your man. He turned me from someone who couldn't swim two lengths to a 6min 400m swimmer. He will look at your stroke and identified flaws and will test your fitness. He will then give you some drills to fix the flaws and a training plan a tailored to you. Its £45 for a session but there is a bit of a waiting list.
Breathing: Always exhale when your face is in the water. Many people turn the heads to breathe and then exhale.
Head Position: When you turn your head to breathe you need to keep your head as flat as possible. You want a split screen effect where one google is under the water and one is above. There is a dent in the water created by your bow wave so you can breathe whilst keeping your head low. I agree, but if you're not moving fast enough you don't always get that depression that allows you to breath like this so might necessitate a bit more rotation. Additionally when face is in the water, look down, not forward. Head down, hips come up, drag reduces.
Feet Position: If your head it too high it will generally cause your feet to sink. You are then compounded the problem and creating too much drag. Fixing the head position should improve the feet position.
Kicking: You need a good flutter kick. Make sure you keep your feet close together in the kick. Many people have a scissor kick which is like opening a parachute behind your. Drills like side kick are good for this. yep good tight kick with decent rate, especially if you haven't got a good glide on the stroke, you'll need your feet to keep your momentum up in-between strokes. The kick is really more like making a whipping action, small movement at the hip, amplifies through the ankle. Ankle flexibility is absolutely key to good efficient kick, so if you have stiff ankles, do some ankle stretches
Hand Entry: You want a spearing entry with your hands flat. Shoulder tap is a good drill for this. When your hand enters the water you want to glide it forwards before you start your catch and pull. At the end of the glide your fingers need to drop slightly. Think of it as reaching over a barrel. You want your elbow bent and your forearm near vertical at the start of the pull. Swimming with fists is a good drill here. Skulling is a great drill to help with the feel for the water. Yep, bent elbow pull, so vertical forearm, and pulling outside the body, not across it or anything like that. Bent elbow can actually be less powerful, but the drag reduction over swimming with straighter arms wins out significantly. The only people who should be doing straight arm freestyle are the 50m boys who are built like brick out houses.
Pull: Make sure you are pulling all the way to your hip. A good drill is to make sure to brush your thumb against your hip before pulling your hand out. This will build muscle memory.only to the hip? :P you want to be pushing right past the hip and in doing so you hand should be at its highest speed. Its the fastest part of the stroke
There is some jargon in the above. You will find descriptions and pictures by googling them. Also a good place to look is on the Swim Smooth website.
Don't try and do all the stuff above at once. You need to work out what your biggest flaw is and fix that before moving on. In my experience its normally hips sinking (keep you head down) and not pulling with a high, bent elbow. Normally pick up the bent elbow quickly, but often people drop the elbow below the hand which just removes any remaining power in the movement. Think about how your arms are if you were to pull yourself out of the pool with both hands. Thats pretty much the position! (if a little too close to the body)
As said though, get a coach. Once you have the technique down its then just swimming lots and lots and lots to build the feel for the water and the swim fitness. absolutely this, very difficult to really see what your limbs are up to in swimming because nearly everything happens out of sight. A coach and a coach with video kit will make a huge difference because they can see and show you exactly what you're doing right and wrong
Babw - some impressive running stats there. Unfortunately swim fitness is quite specific and doesn't always translate. Also working on your breaststoke to improve your crawl sounds like utter b
ks to me Sure doing additional strokes when you are a serious swimmer can help but at this level you will get more benefit by fixing stroke flaws and just doing crawl. Indeed, swimming tends to be all upper body fitness, which you wont have from running. Though you will have general CV fitness that will help. Doing other strokes to improve a different stroke is rubbish. If I learned anything from reading journal papers its that the best way to improve x in swimming, is to do x in the pool.Writing all that has made me realise how much I miss swimming. I;m the opposite of you both, running because injury (infection) stops me swimming.
I would also add.... what is your core strength like? Core strength and the posterior chain is another key thing for swimming. Your body is in water, you only have the water and your body to push off of and one of them isn't solid! so the body core needs to be tight and strong so that you can really generate some force with the hands and by strong, controlled rotations. Good core exercises to do include hi-low wood chops, planks, hip thrusts, russian twists on swiss ball etc.
On YT have a look at TheRaceClub. Good set of videos on there that talk about swimming with a bent, high elbow and why you should do it.
BTW, 23 minutes for a 1k swim isn't really that terrible!
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