Does being overweight affect swimming performances?

You may or may not notice the difference but it will be there...hiding in your technique. I took a 4 year break after college simply because I could not afford a pool pass anywhere and when I finally got back in the water at a very similar weight, I wasn't nearly as fast but things felt "right". I swam for 4 years before getting disrupted with children (how dare they, haha!) and am just getting back into the water after another 4 year break but this time am 25-30 lbs heavier. This is what I notice: - Instead of pushing past my thighs in free, I'm hitting my thighs - and not in the pretty just brush past them way. So I'm having to change my pull a touch in ways I don't want in order to get around the weight. - Side to side rotation is more difficult. Side to side rotation used to be effortless. Now my butt would prefer to act as a floating barge and getting the hip action rocking right is frustrating. - my breaststroke is a total mess - and I am (was?) a breaststroker. I can actually feel the drag hitting my stomach instead of gliding past. Sneaking my legs up behind is harder with thick thighs in the way. And it's messing with my buoyancy...popping my entire rear body to the surface far too fast when I'm trying to hit my straight line. - on the opposite end of the spectrum, it seems to be helping my fly. I probably didn't have enough pop in my hips as a kid and I may actually have greater leg strength now from walking around with the extra weight and carrying children everywhere. Are these things I would notice if I hadn't had technique beat into me for my formative years? Probably not. Am I able to drop some time despite being at within a pound of the same weight I restarted at 3 months ago? You betcha! I'm holding an overall pace ten seconds faster per hundred. I guess my point is that the weight isn't going to play much of a role unless you're trying to go from very fast to super fast and even then, you'll have perfected your technique to your body shape so it may not matter at all.

You may or may not notice the difference but it will be there...hiding in your technique. I took a 4 year break after college simply because I could not afford a pool pass anywhere and when I finally got back in the water at a very similar weight, I wasn't nearly as fast but things felt "right". I swam for 4 years before getting disrupted with children (how dare they, haha!) and am just getting back into the water after another 4 year break but this time am 25-30 lbs heavier. This is what I notice: - Instead of pushing past my thighs in free, I'm hitting my thighs - and not in the pretty just brush past them way. So I'm having to change my pull a touch in ways I don't want in order to get around the weight. - Side to side rotation is more difficult. Side to side rotation used to be effortless. Now my butt would prefer to act as a floating barge and getting the hip action rocking right is frustrating. - my breaststroke is a total mess - and I am (was?) a breaststroker. I can actually feel the drag hitting my stomach instead of gliding past. Sneaking my legs up behind is harder with thick thighs in the way. And it's messing with my buoyancy...popping my entire rear body to the surface far too fast when I'm trying to hit my straight line. - on the opposite end of the spectrum, it seems to be helping my fly. I probably didn't have enough pop in my hips as a kid and I may actually have greater leg strength now from walking around with the extra weight and carrying children everywhere. Are these things I would notice if I hadn't had technique beat into me for my formative years? Probably not. Am I able to drop some time despite being at within a pound of the same weight I restarted at 3 months ago? You betcha! I'm holding an overall pace ten seconds faster per hundred. I guess my point is that the weight isn't going to play much of a role unless you're trying to go from very fast to super fast and even then, you'll have perfected your technique to your body shape so it may not matter at all.