I practice a lot of drills to improve my technique and I always try to feel if I am catching and holding water. But if I try to swim fast everything falls apart and I don't grab any water. I'm extremely inefficient and fatigue easily.
what is the best way for me to train to get past this problem? I woukd like to be able to compete and see progress in my times. Would more work in the weight room help me control my form? More pace 50s trying to descend? I'd like to do more interval work but if I make the interval challenging I end up not making it after a few reps due to all the energy I waste spinning. I don't have a coach or a practice group. How do elite swimmers manage to grab water and pull themselves past their anchor at high turnover rates?
Are you using a Tempo Trainer? The best way to make changes in stroke rate without your form falling apart is to do it in tiny steps. That's hard to do using your "internal stroke rate meter." Increasing your stroke rate by mentally trying to speed it up is likely to result in pretty coarse steps. The Tempo Trainer lets you do it in much more granular increments.
It is definitely challenging to keep technique intact when you increase your speed and there is a variety of different methods of evaluation and strategies for improvement in this area. That's why the absolute best approach is to work with a coach/trainer who can assess your needs in real time and adjust immediately. In your case, you'll want to keep a balance between drills/technique work and conditioning. You need both, but the perfect combination is unique to you. You can try sets of alternating between drills and fullstroke, you can try drills on interval....and remember that not all of the drills are going to be right for you. You might need a step up from your usual routine to be able to maintain your stroke even at a higher rate of swimming. Bottom line is to try to maintain that balance between your technique and conditioning - don't isolate the two of them and with practice and consistency you will continue to improve! Good luck!
The tempo trainer is a great idea. Julia is right that a coach or knowledgeable observer would help.Can you video your stroke and look for the differences between how it looks with good form vs "fast"? I'd also suggest that you do a series of 25s with plenty of rest between them,first doing your "good form stroke",then speed up by making each stroke harder,not faster.Try to keep the same speed,but one less stroke per length. When you can do that try adding one and only one stroke per length while going faster.When you can do that add another etc. until you get to sprinting.This should take several sessions. Ease into speed. Good luck.
One thing I'd also suggest is that you do some sets of 25s/50s where you start with normal stroke but then try to decrease to the least you can do before increasing the effort. Pay attention to what you do to decrease the number and try to retain elements of that when you build back up. It really is a case of 'playing' with your stroke sometimes. Another analogy is like when you try to find the 'bite' point in driving with clutch control, if you drive with gears that is! Not such a good analogy for Americans who are more used to automatics!
Try short distances of freestyle with head up and looking forward using a fly kick on good rest. Results in super high turnover and there's no room for errors with the catch.
Not such a good analogy for Americans who are more used to automatics! :nono:
I drive a 5 spd manual ;).
