Starting swimming, any advice?

SPG said:
Swimming is 20% fitness 80% Technique, Anyone can swim like yourself but swimming for any length of times can destroy the even the fittest of people.

By the sounds of it your just pushing through the lengths without any focus apart from pushing through the lengths. You are better off doing 25-50m focusing on technique and resting till your ready to go again. Than just churning out lengths with bad technique.

If your pool has a pull boy (the thing between your legs) use if for 50m then do 25 without, rest then the 25back, do this 3 or times focusing on your breathing and hand entry. This is not about speed that will come very easy once you have cracked the hand entry and breathing. Get a book called swimsmooth loads of them second hand for next to nothing on the forest, or book 5 lessons better still join a club, the coaches will spot everything wrong very easily within the first session then its just down to you sucking up all there thoughts like a sponge. Personally i love it when a coach picks something out i am doing wrong or improve on. Videos and books work very little with me i am afraid. So slow down and keep at it, focus on technique not distance.

(do not be fooled by my time really, swimming in a wetsuit is superman compared to a pool)
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Tried the pull buoy, what a difference, explains a lot, basically my legs are the problem, must be creating too much drag although I actually thought they were an asset.

With buoy I'm a proper swimmer, I can even see what I'm doing with my hands.

So how do I go from buoy to no buoy yet keep the legs and hips up?
 
Alas all of us menfolk suffer from this unless you have kept up swimming since a nipper.

So its back to 100m sets where you fully engage your core, push down on the water with your chest and try 3 or 5 beat kick, just to keep them up in the water and keep your toes pointed. All at the same time as hand entry and breathing...

Easy as pie isnt it :)
 
indeed yes .. I always study the style of the regulars at the local pool, as I try to glue my goggles on, and pitch is much less of a problem for the women.

An inertial sensor seems to be the solution to analyse your yaw/pitch/roll attitude in the water ... its a pity they seem a bit expensive at the moment:
attached with a strap at base of spine, would be great ... I don't care about alexa/hue ... give me some better sports gadgets.
https://gaitup.com/publications/using-physilog-to-track-to-the-milisecond/
https://gaitup.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Gait_Up_Splash_Magazine_swimming.pdf
 
If you developed relatively good technique, were pretty athletic, decent worker etc and still weren't improving speed wise much, what's the reason/solution?
 
Your training program is wrong. It needs to be structured and then you follow it to the letter, If you are finding that the you can only achieve 50% of what your program demands then change the program, its too much for your current ability and then use that next level of training as a extra target goal.
 
crsssi anti-fog 60ml <£5 .... usually apply it by undoing top and put a drop in each lense with sprayer tube - let it dry - sprayers are rubbish;
always wash goggle skirt with soap ... so renew each time ... nothing worse than not seeing.


about position in water .... looks like android watches could maybe monitor that -
https://youtu.be/C7JQ7Rpwn2k?t=243
would, just need, to strap it on your foot or lower back
 
SPG said:
Indeed you will smash it on race day i am sure.
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Except I've had a cold practically since this post and barely done any training to try and shift it for race day. Only now starting to feel human with 1 day to go :o Not ideal preparation but nothing I can do now.. I feel some breaststroke is quite likely :p
 
just reading the cv of the Sarah Thomas who is currently(now done?) a four way crossing of the channel

not as pictoresque as some of her other swims
  • On 22 August 2015, she completed a 36.2 km crossing of Loch Ness in Scotland in 10 hours 52 minutes at the age of 33. [4]
  • On 21 November 2015, she completed an Ice Mile in Wellington Lake, Bailey, Colorado, U.S.A. by swimming 1.1 miles in 4.57°C water at 8,000 feet altitude in 27:07 observed by Craig Lenning and Cliff Crozier, to achieved the Frosted Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming. [4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Thomas_(marathon_swimmer) wow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hetgOx6NE0A ice mile


(fewer people swum channel than Mt Everest)
 
Bit less than 4x the Channel but managed my 1k tri swim on Sunday. Surprised to have managed it with only a few seconds of breaststroke when I took a kick to the head and a lung full of sea water :o Already booked for next year :p

1k 60k 10k
S-00:23:13 B-02:01:45 R-00:55:44 Total-03:27:26
 
Got my 2k Serpentine swim tomorrow as (final) part of my London classics campaign. Should do it in under an hour or so.

Pull buoys are great but don't rely on them. Get some good jammer shorts or 2xu buoyancy shorts, that way you still kick. Kicking is the weight loss component of swimming. Flippers for improving the catch up technique to keep you moving in the water whilst you practice.
 
I can't seem to do more than 2 lengths (Front Crawl)
i literally run out of breath when im near the end of the 2nd leg

it's not like im racing/going fast

im taking my time, getting as much air in when i turn

any ideas? tips ?

been swimming for a year now
 
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