Hi, new to the board, back in the pool about 4 months.
Worked up to doing Mo Chambers workouts, but always substituting for fly in the IM's because I just never learned it.
I've always been a lousy kicker, but I bought a pair of Zoomers and quit using the board, which has helped a bunch. I do dolphins front and side and flutter on my back. I just started to dolphin kick off the flip (without the fins), which has really helped reduce stroke count (10 catchup; 13 -- 14 normally; 15 + is a failed lap). I'm 6'2" and dropped from 200+ when I started down to 190 - 195, which feels great.
Today I tried doing the fly legs in the IM's wearing the Zoomers, and I think there's some hope. Can a 44 year old lousy kicker learn to fly? Is it OK to learn with fins? Are there bad habits to watch out for when learning with or without the fins? Or should I forget about fly and just concentrate on the other three strokes?
I'm having a lot of fun swimming again, love the workouts and chat here, and am not afraid of looking like a complete dweeb.
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Former Member
The breathing frequency issue reminds me of an observation I made at a recent meet where I was a turns judge. Many of the younger and slower swimmers did not keep a constant stroke rhythm when they breathed, their stroke rate was faster when they weren't breathing than on strokes where they were. The faster swimmers seemed to have a pretty much even stroke rate regardless of whether they were breathing on any particular stroke. I know that for shorter distances I swim faster when I breath less often. I expect some of this is simply that I keep a more streamlined body position when I don't breath, but I wonder if maybe I don't also delay my recovery a bit when I breath. I really need to get video taped...
The breathing frequency issue reminds me of an observation I made at a recent meet where I was a turns judge. Many of the younger and slower swimmers did not keep a constant stroke rhythm when they breathed, their stroke rate was faster when they weren't breathing than on strokes where they were. The faster swimmers seemed to have a pretty much even stroke rate regardless of whether they were breathing on any particular stroke. I know that for shorter distances I swim faster when I breath less often. I expect some of this is simply that I keep a more streamlined body position when I don't breath, but I wonder if maybe I don't also delay my recovery a bit when I breath. I really need to get video taped...
