Developing power and endurance - with the right stroke

Give a man a soap box and he's gonna stand on it : ) happy to share what I've learned/experienced, but I came here looking for insights, so please add your own too. Jan 2012 a friend and I split from our 'lunch bunch' group who did fairly narrow workouts. Initially we focused on IM's (5*100 on 2min-2:30 and added sets as we built endurance till we were doing 4(5*100 IM's) at our peak aka 'best days'. The first real break through was bringing in an underwater camera (I've owned 3 different underwater cameras and this one has been my favorite hands down). We uploaded our vids to YouTube, compared them against other great swimmers (Thorpe, Lochte, Franklin, Phelps, Yang, etc) and tried to figure out where we sucked the most. We also took away some general observations on the elite swimmers.Almost every last one of them (under 400): had at least 5 fly kicks off each wall. Their hand/arm/shoulder extension was seemingly ridiculous. They pushed/stretched their www.youtube.com/watch it looks like their shoulder is coming out of its socket. Their kicks were wide amplitude and at least appeared very strong. another breakthrough was me hurting my shoulder trying to throw someone out @ home from center field May 2012 - Hello 8 weeks of PT. Since I couldn't use my right arm for 6 weeks I: shoulder rolled kicked on my back for 5 - 10 minutes at a clip. At first My quads felt like they were going to divorce my body. with no attention to speed, 1 arm drilled front and back, just focusing on hand entry, catch/vert forearm as early as possible (with shoulder still extended) - I paid attention to what muscles got tired (deltoids) for both, abs if on stomach, quads if on back. Once I could lift my arm over my head, I braced in streamline position and fly kicked on my back. I explored kick amplitude underwater. How wide could I make it, when did I feel it in my lower abs? My main take-a-ways from this 8 week time span: What's 6 weeks of your training life? What if you focused on legs, trained lung capacity? Perfect body position? Stroke Drill shouldn't be the middle 50 of a kick/pull/swim 150. pick a drill do it for 2 minutes, 5 minutes maybe even 10 minutes. then think about doing it faster. QuickSilver really nailed it "Form first. Engine building second." I don't have to approximate near death experiences with cardiovascular workouts - punishing the muscles doesn't give the endorphin rush, but its hellacious in its own special way. I also received this book which I think is an excellent reference. I've lacked the discipline to pick up the dryland yet, but I know I need to figure out how to add this in. So now I do a lot more kicking, a series of sculling drills to strengthen forearms/hands but also to develop a feel for the hands grabbing the water, 1 arm drills, hypoxic kick sets (5 fly kicks off each wall, doesn't matter what you do for the rest) - all for lengths of time, not yards. 2, 5 minutes... 10 minutes if I can handle it. FWIW, my times have dropped. Backstroke I've gone from a 1:08 to a 1:05, breaststroke 1:19 to 1:15 - freestyle has not been tested yet, but my practice speeds are steadily improving. Hope this helps. P.S. My training partner has seen time drops also, even though he chooses to not swim in meets. And, overall both of us perceive that we feel better in the water.

Give a man a soap box and he's gonna stand on it : ) happy to share what I've learned/experienced, but I came here looking for insights, so please add your own too. Jan 2012 a friend and I split from our 'lunch bunch' group who did fairly narrow workouts. Initially we focused on IM's (5*100 on 2min-2:30 and added sets as we built endurance till we were doing 4(5*100 IM's) at our peak aka 'best days'. The first real break through was bringing in an underwater camera (I've owned 3 different underwater cameras and this one has been my favorite hands down). We uploaded our vids to YouTube, compared them against other great swimmers (Thorpe, Lochte, Franklin, Phelps, Yang, etc) and tried to figure out where we sucked the most. We also took away some general observations on the elite swimmers.Almost every last one of them (under 400): had at least 5 fly kicks off each wall. Their hand/arm/shoulder extension was seemingly ridiculous. They pushed/stretched their www.youtube.com/watch it looks like their shoulder is coming out of its socket. Their kicks were wide amplitude and at least appeared very strong. another breakthrough was me hurting my shoulder trying to throw someone out @ home from center field May 2012 - Hello 8 weeks of PT. Since I couldn't use my right arm for 6 weeks I: shoulder rolled kicked on my back for 5 - 10 minutes at a clip. At first My quads felt like they were going to divorce my body. with no attention to speed, 1 arm drilled front and back, just focusing on hand entry, catch/vert forearm as early as possible (with shoulder still extended) - I paid attention to what muscles got tired (deltoids) for both, abs if on stomach, quads if on back. Once I could lift my arm over my head, I braced in streamline position and fly kicked on my back. I explored kick amplitude underwater. How wide could I make it, when did I feel it in my lower abs? My main take-a-ways from this 8 week time span: What's 6 weeks of your training life? What if you focused on legs, trained lung capacity? Perfect body position? Stroke Drill shouldn't be the middle 50 of a kick/pull/swim 150. pick a drill do it for 2 minutes, 5 minutes maybe even 10 minutes. then think about doing it faster. QuickSilver really nailed it "Form first. Engine building second." I don't have to approximate near death experiences with cardiovascular workouts - punishing the muscles doesn't give the endorphin rush, but its hellacious in its own special way. I also received this book which I think is an excellent reference. I've lacked the discipline to pick up the dryland yet, but I know I need to figure out how to add this in. So now I do a lot more kicking, a series of sculling drills to strengthen forearms/hands but also to develop a feel for the hands grabbing the water, 1 arm drills, hypoxic kick sets (5 fly kicks off each wall, doesn't matter what you do for the rest) - all for lengths of time, not yards. 2, 5 minutes... 10 minutes if I can handle it. FWIW, my times have dropped. Backstroke I've gone from a 1:08 to a 1:05, breaststroke 1:19 to 1:15 - freestyle has not been tested yet, but my practice speeds are steadily improving. Hope this helps. P.S. My training partner has seen time drops also, even though he chooses to not swim in meets. And, overall both of us perceive that we feel better in the water.