Hello everyone,
First topic here! I'm a new swimmer (28 male, 6'3" 180lbs) who began back in May with a program called 0-1650. I spent six weeks completing that, and a couple of months after doing individual workouts before moving to a Masters team. We swim 4x a week, and I have a weight lifting routine/core workout that I do 2x a week, non-swimming days.
I have made a ton of improvement on all fronts thanks to my coach and team. My technique has improved tremendously, as well as my speed. My coach has often described this progression for me as: 1) we learned how to swim 2) we learned how to practice 3) soon we'll really train. I have my first meet in two weeks, so I'm excited about that!
However, one thing that I don't feel I've addressed properly yet, is an overall feeling of connection from stroke to kick. Separately, I feel I'm gaining a lot of competence in the two, but together they just don't work together like I'd expect. For example, when kicking with short fins, I feel I'm always behind in my stroke. I try to speed up, but the stroke just doesn't come together right.
I know much of this has to do with core strength. This is something I have lacked historically, but have been working on a lot lately with about 20 minutes of core work at the end of my lifting days. While I've definitely seen improvement in exercises like the plank, I'm not certain it's all getting translated to the pool like I'd expect.
Any general or specific thoughts on this? I'll provide some specifics below:
Times - These are just mid-workout times, nothing off the block yet.
50y - :37-:40
100y - 1:35 - 1:40
Dryland
75/80/90 Progression Incline Press - Max 130lbs
Bulgarian Split Squats - weighted
Pull-ups 5x5 weighted or Maximum Effort (depends on incline press progression)
Face Pulls - 20lbs
90s plank
45s plank - sides
25x each: hip raises, leg lifts, flutter kicks, plank to pushup, some exercises I don't know the name of
Pool Workout
Average of 3400y, usually a warm-up of 300 (ea.) swim, kick w/ fins, paddles, and a drill
Mixture of rest interval distances for main set.
More kick
Cool down
Any feedback would be helpful, and I appreciate you all taking the time to look at my post!
My former Masters coach, Sheila Taormina, had us think "catch-kick", where as you initiated your arm catch with one arm, you would be kicking down with the opposite leg. We would swim drills just focusing on establishing that relationship & timing. One drill I liked in particular was 6-3-6, where you did six kicks, three full strokes, then six more kicks.
Also, here is an article about kick timing from here on the USMS site: www.usms.org/.../articledisplay.php
My former Masters coach, Sheila Taormina, had us think "catch-kick", where as you initiated your arm catch with one arm, you would be kicking down with the opposite leg. We would swim drills just focusing on establishing that relationship & timing. One drill I liked in particular was 6-3-6, where you did six kicks, three full strokes, then six more kicks.
Also, here is an article about kick timing from here on the USMS site: www.usms.org/.../articledisplay.php
