How do you swim a 200 yard free?

I tried breathing every 4 the whole race and it really tired me out. Don't worry about breathing in a 200. You definitely don't want to beathe every 6 on the third 50. That's just insanity! Most people will breathe every two the entire time. If you like to bilateral breathe than breathe every 3. And if you want to swim fast you can't really hold back too much in the first 100. No, you can't start out at a dead sprint, but ideally you should only be a few seconds slower than what you can go for an all-out 100 (maybe three seconds slower or so?). Then the key is being able to hold on for the second hundred without dropping much speed. Simple, right? :)

Lots of good advice here. I think everyone can give more specific advse once you post your 100 and 500 times (with splits if possible). Good luck on your quest for the record.

What they said. I breathe every 3rd for the first 100 keeping the kick light, ramp up the kick the last 12 yards of the first 100. 3rd 50, switch to every 2nd stroke for breathing and start blasting the kick. Bring it home that last 50. Fight the pain. If you want to go 1:55, you're gonna need to take that race out in 55-56ish as easy speed. If your sprint 100 is currently 55, you may have a hard time maintaining your speed to make 1:55. If you can do 55 as reasonably easy speed, you shouldn't have any problem breaking 1:55.

200 is debatably the hardest race in swimming. If you've ever run a 400 (1 lap) in track I think they are very similar. If you imagine just building to full speed over the entire length of the track, that's the most efficient route. I would agree with building your speed throughout the 50's. I don't think it's in your best interest to go 99% on the first 50. That implies that you only have 1% for the rest of your race :). You don't need to psych out your competition since they can't necessarily see you. Kicking is also important. I feel all to often people focus too much on their arms and not enough on their legs. Turning is definitely important. If you're not in a tight streamline, breathing on the first stoke, and breathing in-between the flags, you're adding a lot of time. When I was in HS I can't tell how much time I was able to cut off my races just by improving my turns. Good luck with your goal. 1:55 is tough time to beat but if you're focused you can do it. What is your 50 Free time?

What is your 50 Free time? My 50 free time is a 26.56 :)

That will be tough to be a 1:55 with a 26.5 as a best 50 time. Indeed. You need an average of 28.7's. That's gonna be really tough to do unless you can fix some other things for easy speed like turns and the start/finish. If you're wasting time somewhere on those currently, its conceivable you'll be able to use those to help bring that average down. Whats your 100 time? What is the split time for the 100?

I guess some background information may help you in answering my question. Hello, my name is Alex and I am quickly approaching my last year of high school swimming. Last high school season I finished my 200 yard free with my best time of 2:12.17 (not that stellar I know :cry: ) However I did end up getting second place overall. Now next high school season I'm ranked first in the 200 yard free, but there's always room for improvement. I would LOVE to get the school record (1:55.45) by may 2012 but that's pushing it I think. So how do you swim a 200 free? Last 200 yard free I swam I got a time of 2:17.09 I tried breathing every 4 the whole race and it really tired me out. I believe my next strategy is going to be 1st 25 - go 99% breathing every 4 75 - 500 pace breathing every 2 50 - going 100% breathing every 6 50 - anything I got left My comment on your strategy for your next 200 is NO NO NO NO NO YOU WILL NOT SWIM THE FASTEST TIME YOU ARE CAPABLE OF BY GOING ALL OUT ON THE 1st 25 or 50 OF YOUR 200. All that will do is Make you swim slower than you could have and make you hurt way worse than you should have. 1st. Breathe every 2 or 3, the only exception is, if you can, don't breathe the last 5 meters of your race. air is CRITICAL VITAL ESSENTAL ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY 2nd 200's should be swum at 200 pace. Correct splitting is critical. Control the effort you expend during the race. Breathe often. Don't go all out. Keep your last 3 50's around the same time. Finish strong and fast. Swim Faster Faster can help you a lot. SFF tips on correct splitting Tip 12 Correct Splitting Tip 74 How to Correctly Split the 200 *** and 200 Fly SFF Tip 266 how to correctly split & incorrectly split a 200 (revisited) Tip 345 Correct Splitting What are your times for 50, 100, & 500? How many times a week do you train? How far per practice? Do you have a coach? What intervals can you hold? What kinds of sets do you do? Consider this: 1st 50 Go 89% to 93% breathe every 2 or 3, feel like you could go faster, gentle kick, lots of air 2nd 50 stay steady (your 100 SPLIT should be 2 - 4 sec slower than your ALL OUT 100 3rd work it 4th bring it home as fast as you can, be fierce and tough. Proper race strategy might help you improve your time by 1/2 to 1.5 sec per 100 Proper training is how you breakthrough and make massive improvements. If you're 26 in the 50, 57 in the 100 & 2:12 in the 200, you need to get in better condition. Train for the 500, 200 & 100.

Proper race strategy might help you improve your time by 1/2 to 1.5 sec per 100 Proper training is how you breakthrough and make massive improvements. Ande speaks the truth! Based on the splits you provided earlier in the thread it is clear that you need to tighten up your splits. An eight second drop-off from the first to the second 100 is too much. This tells me you don't have the aerobic conditioning to swim a great 200 and/or your stroke technique needs improvement. If your technique is poor it will ruin your efficiency and you will tire more quickly.

Agree with Ande and Kirk's comments. Similar advice to Ande but this is how I approach my 200 free: 1st 50 - I tell myself to hold back a little - in the excitement of the race you want to go out hard! Don't do it! "Easy" speed here. 2nd 50 - Maintain a good steady strong pace 3rd 50 - This is where you start to go harder - bring in the kick a little more and build - you should "feel" like you are going faster than the 2nd 50 4th 50 - Give this 50 everything you have left and focus on a good turn off the last wall (200 scy/m) - bring it home Good conditioning will allow you to bring the 2nd 100 home and have that split closer to the 1st 100. I breathe every two or three strokes the whole way. I have a big frame that needs as much O2 as I can get in! :2cents:

I went 26, 56 and 2:01 last year, so my 50 and 100 times aren't too far off from you. I think my 200 was 29, 30, 31, 31. I breathed every stroke to the left and tried to hold back a bit on the first 50. Withholding oxygen in a race like this isn't something I would care to experiment with. There is no shortage of great advice in this thread. Good luck!