Hello!
I´m from Germany 25 years old and I hope my english is understandable... :)
I´m swimming for 3 years now, and I really love it and want to be as good as i can!
For the last year i started practicing very hard. 5-7 times a week, but i have the problem that i dont see any improvements in the 50m of any stroke...
I dont have a Trainer, and there are no forums like this in german where i could ask someone. at the moment i´m swimming with someone i know from university (but he is a much better swimmer than me, 25.2s on 50m) but he doesnt know how to help either, hes just telling me to keep training^^ thats what i will do anyway!!
Maybe someone has experienced a similiar problem and knows how to fix it. i will try to explain where the problems in my swimming skills are...
when i started swimming and learned the techniques by myself, watchning youtube videos and reading a lot of books about swimming i have been improving very fast until i swim ~30s on 50m short course. that was about 1,5years after i started. about half a year later i was down to 28.8s on 50m short course, but from this point on wasnt improving anymore. that 28.8 is still my best time...
last weekend i swam 30.1 on 50m long course. i dont understand it because i put so much effort in my swimming training, and i got better i.e. in holding good times in intervalls, or in 100m and 200m and longer distances. but no improvement in 50m. i believe i´m naturally a sprinter, i always was, in evry sport i did, canoeing, and bicycling which i first did on the street but then changed to velodrome. still i love swimming more than any other sport i did.
that 30.1 makes me kind of upset... so that i want to train even harder >.
Thank you both for your fast answers! Yeah i think i will now focus more on my technique, and especially on the things you said: stroke efficiency, body position and rythm, and of course on the flutter kick. I cant go under 1:00 on LC50M too, so that will also be a problem. but i was also swimming as fast as now when i swam 1:20 flutter kick on short course. i think i maybe worked too much on my pull for the time i swim. too much meters with a pullbuoy, that could be the problem why my improvement in flutter kick now isnt paying off?
i think maybe i shouldnt use the pullbuoy until i became faster... and i think i will try to change my training to shorter intervalls, so i can focus more on the technique. i think strength is not my problem, when i started swimming i became strong very fast in my upper body again. i think because of my canoeing background. (although i had a break from sport for 6 years, i also lost about 22lbs)
ankle flexibility is also something i am currently working on using some exercises i saw on "the race club" site.
i will try to get myself filmed at saturday for the first time when im swimming a 50m freestyle and upload it on youtube and post a link inthis thread. i just read a lot of threads here, and i think this might rly help me improving and maybe im going to see my mistakes when i made a video :)
on the whole thing i will now focus on technique more than power and endurance
btw i think ur 46s on 50LCM for the flutterkick are amazing!^^
Thank you both for your fast answers! Yeah i think i will now focus more on my technique, and especially on the things you said: stroke efficiency, body position and rythm, and of course on the flutter kick. I cant go under 1:00 on LC50M too, so that will also be a problem. but i was also swimming as fast as now when i swam 1:20 flutter kick on short course. i think i maybe worked too much on my pull for the time i swim. too much meters with a pullbuoy, that could be the problem why my improvement in flutter kick now isnt paying off?
i think maybe i shouldnt use the pullbuoy until i became faster... and i think i will try to change my training to shorter intervalls, so i can focus more on the technique. i think strength is not my problem, when i started swimming i became strong very fast in my upper body again. i think because of my canoeing background. (although i had a break from sport for 6 years, i also lost about 22lbs)
ankle flexibility is also something i am currently working on using some exercises i saw on "the race club" site.
i will try to get myself filmed at saturday for the first time when im swimming a 50m freestyle and upload it on youtube and post a link inthis thread. i just read a lot of threads here, and i think this might rly help me improving and maybe im going to see my mistakes when i made a video :)
on the whole thing i will now focus on technique more than power and endurance
btw i think ur 46s on 50LCM for the flutterkick are amazing!^^
