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 >.
are your times off a starting block or just from wall to wall? I agree with what another user said- need a coach to look at your stroke to see where any improvement can be found. Hard to know what's missing with out seeing it. Long ago when I first had similar issues my coaches said I was trying to come up too early after the jump off the starting block (slows you down) and not getting a good kick off the wall after the flip turn. if your friend swims faster, then you should do side by side comparison. Start at the same time and try to keep up, both for kick, for pull, and for sprint- watch him? how far below he water is he kicking, how much splash? position of where your kicking changes your body in the water- if your on top of it, or fighting through it.
my arms are also my strength, however my kick does help- so sometimes when im practicing I count as fast as I need to kick and kick to the rhythm of my counting to force me to think about my kick. My arms are automatic- but I tend to not use my legs even during sprint- Since I have to think about using them I drum out 1,2,3,4 1,2 for one pull, 3,4 for the next- good luck
are your times off a starting block or just from wall to wall? I agree with what another user said- need a coach to look at your stroke to see where any improvement can be found. Hard to know what's missing with out seeing it. Long ago when I first had similar issues my coaches said I was trying to come up too early after the jump off the starting block (slows you down) and not getting a good kick off the wall after the flip turn. if your friend swims faster, then you should do side by side comparison. Start at the same time and try to keep up, both for kick, for pull, and for sprint- watch him? how far below he water is he kicking, how much splash? position of where your kicking changes your body in the water- if your on top of it, or fighting through it.
my arms are also my strength, however my kick does help- so sometimes when im practicing I count as fast as I need to kick and kick to the rhythm of my counting to force me to think about my kick. My arms are automatic- but I tend to not use my legs even during sprint- Since I have to think about using them I drum out 1,2,3,4 1,2 for one pull, 3,4 for the next- good luck
