Hey guys, do you have any strategy to swimming the 50 free?
1) Do you just go as hard as you can and hope you can stay strong till the end?
And
2) Same thing with breathing (if you can't last a lap without breathing) so do you pace your breathing or do you try to last as long as you can and then breath till the end?
Jamesmap, Don't listen to this guy.... A perfect 50 is a thing of beauty... All joking aside, I do agree. What a perfect 50 requires, though is perfection:
Perfect reaction time off the blocks -- work on this throughout the season, both in and out of the water. Get used to jumping/moving quickly to the sound of the beep.
Perfect / clean entry into the water -- think about getting your whole body through the same hole in the water. Rich Abrahams once mentioned (I think it was him) squeezing your glutes off the start and the turns to further tighten the core/the legs/the streamline.
Perfect amount of underwater kicks (dolphin preferred) that allow you to propel from the momentum of the dive, but don't spend too much time underwater on a 50. You generally don't see the elite 50 guys spending the time on their underwater SDKs that you do see from, say, a Phelps or a Lochte on their 200 free.
You need the perfect balance between a high stroke rate and a perfect catch -- turn the arms over too fast and you'll be slipping and not propelling; turn them over too slow and you'll look like one of us distance guys trying to sprint and not be happy with your time.
Perfect turn -- whatever you do, don't breathe into or out of the wall. Snappy, snappy turn -- make sure you're hitting your core exercises outside of the pool. Make sure you know your stroke count at race speed so you don't need to look for the wall. Head down in and out.
Perfect finish & close -- drive, drive, drive to the wall.
Wow. All that required perfection just tires me out.
For the record, I took the 2010 SCM and 2011 SCY season and tried to be a sprinter. I swam lots of 50s, focused on all of the above in workouts and I only ever had one 50 race where I felt like I approached a modicum of decency on all components. I've given up on the 50 because I don't have the attention span to be perfect for 21+ seconds! Give me a race where I can make a mistake or two here and there and not have it blow the final time.
Jamesmap, Don't listen to this guy.... A perfect 50 is a thing of beauty... All joking aside, I do agree. What a perfect 50 requires, though is perfection:
Perfect reaction time off the blocks -- work on this throughout the season, both in and out of the water. Get used to jumping/moving quickly to the sound of the beep.
Perfect / clean entry into the water -- think about getting your whole body through the same hole in the water. Rich Abrahams once mentioned (I think it was him) squeezing your glutes off the start and the turns to further tighten the core/the legs/the streamline.
Perfect amount of underwater kicks (dolphin preferred) that allow you to propel from the momentum of the dive, but don't spend too much time underwater on a 50. You generally don't see the elite 50 guys spending the time on their underwater SDKs that you do see from, say, a Phelps or a Lochte on their 200 free.
You need the perfect balance between a high stroke rate and a perfect catch -- turn the arms over too fast and you'll be slipping and not propelling; turn them over too slow and you'll look like one of us distance guys trying to sprint and not be happy with your time.
Perfect turn -- whatever you do, don't breathe into or out of the wall. Snappy, snappy turn -- make sure you're hitting your core exercises outside of the pool. Make sure you know your stroke count at race speed so you don't need to look for the wall. Head down in and out.
Perfect finish & close -- drive, drive, drive to the wall.
Wow. All that required perfection just tires me out.
For the record, I took the 2010 SCM and 2011 SCY season and tried to be a sprinter. I swam lots of 50s, focused on all of the above in workouts and I only ever had one 50 race where I felt like I approached a modicum of decency on all components. I've given up on the 50 because I don't have the attention span to be perfect for 21+ seconds! Give me a race where I can make a mistake or two here and there and not have it blow the final time.
