How Much Difference Does A Good Coach Make???

A good coach made a huge difference for me. When I started I was around 2 min per 100 M, after 9 months I'm at around 1:25. Times I never thought I could do.

A coach helped me to learn proper technique for the fly, and it made an ENORMOUS difference. I went from being just able to survive a 50 fly to swimming the 200 meter fly (long course). Not only didn't I fall apart, I made the top ten. It didn't happen overnight, but it did happen. Now that I have nice undulation and timing I find that I actually enjoy swimming fly.

It's hard to say for sure without seeing you swim, but I'd be surprised if a good coach couldn't help you to improve those times significantly.

Originally posted by jean sterling I went from being just able to survive a 50 fly to swimming the 200 meter fly (long course). Not only didn't I fall apart, I made the top ten. It didn't happen overnight, but it did happen. Now that I have nice undulation and timing I find that I actually enjoy swimming fly. Hi Jean, How did you go about it and how long did it take? I had just started a thread on 200m fly earlier this afternoon! Thanks, Lindsay

Mark, I took several MINUTES off my distance freestyle times after the University of Kentucky varsity coach was kind enough to "fix" my flip turns. He improved my stroke too, but the single biggest thing was improving my flip turn. So it is well worth finding a good coach.

Over the past 14 years I have been coached by three very fine coaches. Not only did they improve my swimming with great workouts, they improved my swimming with positive motivation, leadership and goal setting. I 100 % agree with Bob, a good coach will help you improve your times significantly. Huge help!

Hey, Paul. Why not check out the masters teams in your area? I would be surprised if you couldn't find a coached team within 20 minutes or so of your home and/or workplace. YMCAs, universities/colleges, even local high schools with pools often have masters teams. It's worth checking it out.

Originally posted by LindsayNB Hi Jean, How did you go about it and how long did it take? I had just started a thread on 200m fly earlier this afternoon! Thanks, Lindsay It took a long time - probably a couple of years. There was a lot wrong with my fly. When I was swimming on my own the coach of the kids' team at the Y suggested I swim one-arm fly as a drill, which helped a bit. Then I read an article in Swim Magazine about only doing as much fly as one could do with decent form - it said to start with just two fly strokes and finish the rest of a 25 with easy free, and gradually increase to three strokes, then four etc. I got up to 25 yards of passable fly. I would swim repeats of 25s like this. However, the timing of my kick was way off, so that I would rapidly become horizontal, which isn't a good way to swim fly. I would breathe every two strokes to try to alleviate this problem - also not good. Finally the Y got a coach that worked with masters swimmers, and he showed me the error of my ways. When I first tried kicking the right way, it seemed harder than ever, and it took a long time to get so that it felt natural to do it that way. However, the good news was that with my second kick timed better, my head lifted to breathe with much less effort and I didn't end up swimming horizontal fly - definitely a good thing! After I mastered the kick, which took at least a year, I began to work on not bringing my arms straight back. Later on I worked on improving undulation. Who says old dogs can't learn new tricks!! :-)

Originally posted by jean sterling ... Who says old dogs can't learn new tricks!! :-) Congratulations Jean. I am jealous. I am working on fly myself - but I don't get any coaching. Maybe I am doing more damage than good.

Originally posted by LindsayNB Hi Jean, Can you elaborate on what you mean by horizontal fly? I'm wondering if you mean vertical fly as I thought horizontal fly was a good thing? In terms of increasing your distance how did you go from swimming 25m to 200m? Were you just able to swim further as your technique improved or did you follow a plan? Absolutely I meant VERTICAL fly. And when I say vertical, I mean VERTICAL. Every time I took a breath my feet would sink down. I coul kind of blast a 25 fly in the 100 IM by not breathing much, but the second half of a 50 was definitely a problem. I didn't follow a real plan. What happened, I think, is that as my technique improved I found that I was able to go further with less effort and mess. It was real satisfying to swim fly and not look like something that needed to be rescued. Swimming sets of 25s with a gradually increasing number of fly strokes helped. Getting the kick timing down was a HUGE help. And the coach eventually sneaked in a 200 on me which included alternating one-arm fly drill and the whole stroke, which led me to believe that the 200 was a possibility. So gradually increasing the distance helped, but I would have been nowhere without improvement of technique. After getting the kick down I learned that I needed to not bring my arms straight back but to bring them back in an in-and-out motion. This wasn't as hard to learn as the kick, but it did help. This would not have happened without the benefit of coaching.