Hi,
I'm an 18 year old guy who is interested in swimming competitively. I've never been on a team sport before and I've been training now for about 3 or so weeks. At first, I could barely swim 75 m without being exhausted, but now my practices average between 500-600 m per day. However, I still can't swim more than 50 m continuously and my endurance isn't too good. What kind of workouts should I be doing while swimming to improve well enough to be on a team? How many meters should I be swimming a day? Thanks for the help
You need someone to teach you proper technique. Have you looked for a Masters team near you?
Yea, I have a personal swim instructor who's preparing me for the club team near me. But I'm just wondering about the basics, how much do I need to average per practice and how much is necessary to get on a team level?
One questiOn: how much of your coaching focus has been on proper breathing and body position? Without that foundation, everything is pretty much a waste of time.
One questiOn: how much of your coaching focus has been on proper breathing and body position? Without that foundation, everything is pretty much a waste of time.
Breathing is the first thing I worked on, it's not perfect yet, but it's pretty good. And I'm also working on body position though I already have pretty good position currently
You can look at the workouts posted on this site and get an idea of training basics. Check forums.usms.org/forumdisplay.php
If you want to swim in Master's meets, I think you should try to swim 3 to 5 times a week and try to get in 10,000 to 15,000 a week. You will not be able to do that in the beginning and you should begin with workouts that allow you to preserve your form. If you want to swim in USA Swimming meets, you should probably plan on more.
Most Master's teams have a wide variety of swimmers (by ability) in each workout and there should be a lane that matches your current and future abilities. You will find that training with a team is much better than trying to workout on your own - not only because of the input from coaches and others, but also the shared goals of the other swimmers.
Good luck to you. Let us know how it works out.
Hi,
I'm an 18 year old guy who is interested in swimming competitively. I've never been on a team sport before and I've been training now for about 3 or so weeks. At first, I could barely swim 75 m without being exhausted, but now my practices average between 500-600 m per day. However, I still can't swim more than 50 m continuously and my endurance isn't too good. What kind of workouts should I be doing while swimming to improve well enough to be on a team? How many meters should I be swimming a day? Thanks for the help
While some masters teams are very competitive, most also have places for beginners, for "developmental" swimmers. Talk to the coach or visit a practice to see how they run their program.
Don't worry about not being good enough. The most important things are being consistent with your training and developing good stroke technique. Believe me, you'll improve a lot faster as part of a masters program than swimming on your own. If they see you are making the effort, then your masters teammates will be the most supportive group you can find. I've been lucky to have some excellent coaches, but some of the best advice & tips I've gotten have come from my teammates in the water with me.
Our coach makes out a daily workout that is about 3500 yards, with the understanding that the newer or less skilled swimmers may not be able to complete the entire workout as written. That's okay. Most folks (myself included) struggle to keep up at first, and you may have to take some extra breaks when you're first starting out. But if you stick with it and you're consistent with your training, then you'll start to see improvement in your skills & endurance. Just be patient, it takes time & effort.
And old rule of thumb is that you should be swimming at least three times per week or more if you want to see significant improvement.
Our team has an IM-based philosophy, so even though we mostly swim freestyle, we also work the other three strokes into our workouts on a regular basis. A typical workout starts with 600-1000 yards of warm-up & drills, then goes into stroke sets of 500-1000 yards. Some days we work on endurance sets, and some days on speed. Coach usually mixes it up so we aren't doing the same thing every day.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
Mark
I'm in the same boat you are. I could turtle late in life and then a few years ago I learned to swim. I just recently am able to do 100 fly, 400 IM. It takes a lot out of me but I can do it. The form is off but some of that is conditioning.
Any tips for those of us who don't have a swim team support that others do and didn't have the basics of swimming as a kid to learn "swim meet" info?
Any tips for those of us who don't have a swim team support that others do and didn't have the basics of swimming as a kid to learn "swim meet" info?
Also to reply to Nichollsvi (and anyone else who is swimming on their own), we have a forum thread here dedicated to solo swimmers like you. You might want to check it out! Here is the link: forums.usms.org/showthread.php
Good luck!
Thanks, Julia, for referring Nichollsvi to Solo Swimmers! I was just going to do that-- and, I thought I would mention the article you asked me to write for Swimspire!
Nichollsvi, I wrote an article entitled, "Six Suggestions for the Solo Swimmer" that will be appearing at www.Swimspire.com soon. As soon as it is up on the site and Julia sends me the link, I will post it on the Solo Swimmers thread and here on this thread.
Cheers!
Elaine-iaK
Please try not to expect to improve so fast to the team and competition thing. It takes time to learn all the little + big things in swimming. Many can splash around quickly but, it will take time & correct technique to get team faster. Keep at it my friend. We are with you and want you to succeed
