Hi guys!
I need help, if you can please assist me. I used to swim competitively when i was younger up until i was 17, and back then i was improving a lot, very fast. I am extremely frustrated, as all i want to do is to become a faster Masters swimmer, and be the best that i can be. I'm still young so I want to take advantage of that, i came back to the pool about two years ago after being off for about 8. I'm doing cross training with Running intervals 2x/week for 45 mins, doing a weight routine designed for swimming 2X/week, and swimming with my team 5-6X/week. I've been doing this for about a year now, and my times have not changed at all, or have changed very little. I am investing a lot, I even have a nutritionist to help me with a good diet to support my workouts, and nothing. I was told that What's worse, I see people who seldom go to practice, or don't train all that much and they are quite fast. I feel like all the work that I am putting in is not paying off at all as it should be.
Any help, advise or anything would be hugely appreciated.
I used to swim competitively when i was younger up until i was 17, and back then i was improving a lot, very fast. I am extremely frustrated, as all i want to do is to become a faster Masters swimmer, and be the best that i can be.
Of course you were improving a lot, very fast, in your teens. You were growing. But your arms and legs stopped getting longer eight or ten years ago. You might be able to put on muscle mass through training, but you're not going to pack it on the way you did as a teen; and anyway, bodybuilder-style muscle mass does not seem to correlate much with swimming speed.
Technique does. The most likely reason that people who "seldom go to practice" are "quite fast" compared to you is that their technique is superior. Their hips are at the surface. Their elbows are above their wrists throughout their pulls. Their hands are in line with their forearms, and their forearms point straight down rather than sweeping under their bodies. Their faces look directly to the side when they breathe, and only their top eyes come out of the water. Their torsos stay straight when they pull, rather than wiggling from side to side.
I am faster at 46 than I was at 30. For instance, I can go about 5 seconds faster now in the 500, and about 20 seconds faster in the 1500/1650, than I could then. My resting heart rate isn't any lower, although my maximum heart rate probably is. My body composition hasn't changed significantly. The best explanation for my improvement is that my technique is better.
I used to swim competitively when i was younger up until i was 17, and back then i was improving a lot, very fast. I am extremely frustrated, as all i want to do is to become a faster Masters swimmer, and be the best that i can be.
Of course you were improving a lot, very fast, in your teens. You were growing. But your arms and legs stopped getting longer eight or ten years ago. You might be able to put on muscle mass through training, but you're not going to pack it on the way you did as a teen; and anyway, bodybuilder-style muscle mass does not seem to correlate much with swimming speed.
Technique does. The most likely reason that people who "seldom go to practice" are "quite fast" compared to you is that their technique is superior. Their hips are at the surface. Their elbows are above their wrists throughout their pulls. Their hands are in line with their forearms, and their forearms point straight down rather than sweeping under their bodies. Their faces look directly to the side when they breathe, and only their top eyes come out of the water. Their torsos stay straight when they pull, rather than wiggling from side to side.
I am faster at 46 than I was at 30. For instance, I can go about 5 seconds faster now in the 500, and about 20 seconds faster in the 1500/1650, than I could then. My resting heart rate isn't any lower, although my maximum heart rate probably is. My body composition hasn't changed significantly. The best explanation for my improvement is that my technique is better.
