200m Freestyle

Sandu, I acknowledge your appreciation for swimming technique. And hey, from the splits you discussed, 1:20 for 100m, making your goal time for the 200m would be a stretch, but not outside the realm of the possible. As I said before, please feel free to dish out a helping of crow for me, and I'll eat with a smile on my face and compliments to the chef. I understand now the disconnect between our approaches to swimming. You asked triathletes for advice on swimming (ACK!) Put it this way, asking a triathlete for advice on a 200m swim, is like asking a tug boat skipper for advice on building a formula one race car. Yes, they both have combustion engines, but the similarity ends there. Without trying to be tedious, let me list some of the reasons why triathletes would be a poor choice of coach: 1) Their event involves three disciplines, and the scores are not normalized, i.e. the swim does not count as much as the bike or run. By sheer dint of effort, and the fact they make most of their time on running and biking, they can get away with oh so many stroke discrepancies that would eat you alive in a 200m swim. 2) The swims they perform are at minimum 1000m, and often longer than that, a lot longer than that. This is a distance swim. In contrast, a 200m is at the upper end of a sprint. Totally different animal. And oh BTW, the swim is only part of their race, so they are training for races that take 2-3 hours, or 9-12 if they are iron manners, and you are training for a race that is less than 3 minutes. I say again, ACK! 3) These folks, as good as they are at what they do, are athletes, not coaches. Your world-class tri-guy is probably an excellent swimmer, who could kick my opinionated butt at any distance. But, he is also probably a natural who does not give to much thought to exactly how he does it, or what to tell someone else. His advice to just get to the point, however you get there, of being able to finish 50 meters, then we'll talk, suggests someone whose approach to training is more yards, always more yards. Fine for 3K races; it won't get you to your goal for a 200m. If you have video footage of yourself swimming, go straight to Emmett Hines' web site: www.h2oustonswims.org Hit the "Project VDO" link, and see if that make sense for you. Emmett is an outstanding coach, and a real stroke guru. He can fix you up. As far as turns are concerned, a good flip turn is an asset, but a lousy flip turn can be a big waste of effort. Please go to the discussion thread on this very web site that talk about a breaststroke turn or a butterfly turn (I can't remember which), that Wayne McCauley started. Even though the title is *** or fly, he is really talking about an open turn, which as Wayne pointed out, you can polish to the point where it is faster than most of the half-assed flip turns you see in mediocre swimmers (I include myself in this category). Best of all, it is ALOT easier to learn for a beginner than even the aforsaid half-assed flip turn. Good luck and keep us posted. Matt

Sandu, I acknowledge your appreciation for swimming technique. And hey, from the splits you discussed, 1:20 for 100m, making your goal time for the 200m would be a stretch, but not outside the realm of the possible. As I said before, please feel free to dish out a helping of crow for me, and I'll eat with a smile on my face and compliments to the chef. I understand now the disconnect between our approaches to swimming. You asked triathletes for advice on swimming (ACK!) Put it this way, asking a triathlete for advice on a 200m swim, is like asking a tug boat skipper for advice on building a formula one race car. Yes, they both have combustion engines, but the similarity ends there. Without trying to be tedious, let me list some of the reasons why triathletes would be a poor choice of coach: 1) Their event involves three disciplines, and the scores are not normalized, i.e. the swim does not count as much as the bike or run. By sheer dint of effort, and the fact they make most of their time on running and biking, they can get away with oh so many stroke discrepancies that would eat you alive in a 200m swim. 2) The swims they perform are at minimum 1000m, and often longer than that, a lot longer than that. This is a distance swim. In contrast, a 200m is at the upper end of a sprint. Totally different animal. And oh BTW, the swim is only part of their race, so they are training for races that take 2-3 hours, or 9-12 if they are iron manners, and you are training for a race that is less than 3 minutes. I say again, ACK! 3) These folks, as good as they are at what they do, are athletes, not coaches. Your world-class tri-guy is probably an excellent swimmer, who could kick my opinionated butt at any distance. But, he is also probably a natural who does not give to much thought to exactly how he does it, or what to tell someone else. His advice to just get to the point, however you get there, of being able to finish 50 meters, then we'll talk, suggests someone whose approach to training is more yards, always more yards. Fine for 3K races; it won't get you to your goal for a 200m. If you have video footage of yourself swimming, go straight to Emmett Hines' web site: www.h2oustonswims.org Hit the "Project VDO" link, and see if that make sense for you. Emmett is an outstanding coach, and a real stroke guru. He can fix you up. As far as turns are concerned, a good flip turn is an asset, but a lousy flip turn can be a big waste of effort. Please go to the discussion thread on this very web site that talk about a breaststroke turn or a butterfly turn (I can't remember which), that Wayne McCauley started. Even though the title is *** or fly, he is really talking about an open turn, which as Wayne pointed out, you can polish to the point where it is faster than most of the half-assed flip turns you see in mediocre swimmers (I include myself in this category). Best of all, it is ALOT easier to learn for a beginner than even the aforsaid half-assed flip turn. Good luck and keep us posted. Matt