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.
I went back and re-read all of the posts in this thread 4 months after I started out. They make a whole lot more sense to me now than when I first read them, and all are spot-on.
So here's where I've ended up:
I fell into a 2 kick fly. It just feels more natural to me.
I'm currently breathing just about every stroke after trying an every other pattern early on. As I stretch the distances, I'm grateful for the oxygen intake, and it gives me an opportunity to work on my head position every stroke. I don't notice an appreciable difference in my stroke when I skip a breath.
I was bending my knees too much and kicking way too hard. I find it helps to think about the whip metaphor, and concentrate on the forward momentum coming off straight legs with fully extended toes.
My kick timing was messed up, I think due to my confusion over one kick vs. 2 kick fly. A private coaching session helped clear that up for me by emphasizing the rhythm.
She also showed me how to correctly do one arm fly; I was struggling to understand how to do it. One arm is a great drill, and a great way to finish a length when I run out of gas.
50's are finally starting to feel pretty solid. Tuesday I decided a good challenge would be to do 15 consecutive 100 IM's in the middle of the workout; I was able to get through those by allowing myself to rest as needed between 100's. Yesterday I swam 6 200 IM's, although not consecutively, plus a couple of 100 IM's, plus a few extra 25's of warmup fly for good measure. The last few 200's weren't pretty, but I concentrated hard on not butterstruggling and allowed myself to come up early on the breastroke pullout a couple of times.
So my immediate goal is to be able to do a 200 IM reasonably comfortably. Then I think I'll try and get to the point where I can get through a 100 fly.
So far so good. Thanks for all the pointers, I appreciate each and every one.
I went back and re-read all of the posts in this thread 4 months after I started out. They make a whole lot more sense to me now than when I first read them, and all are spot-on.
So here's where I've ended up:
I fell into a 2 kick fly. It just feels more natural to me.
I'm currently breathing just about every stroke after trying an every other pattern early on. As I stretch the distances, I'm grateful for the oxygen intake, and it gives me an opportunity to work on my head position every stroke. I don't notice an appreciable difference in my stroke when I skip a breath.
I was bending my knees too much and kicking way too hard. I find it helps to think about the whip metaphor, and concentrate on the forward momentum coming off straight legs with fully extended toes.
My kick timing was messed up, I think due to my confusion over one kick vs. 2 kick fly. A private coaching session helped clear that up for me by emphasizing the rhythm.
She also showed me how to correctly do one arm fly; I was struggling to understand how to do it. One arm is a great drill, and a great way to finish a length when I run out of gas.
50's are finally starting to feel pretty solid. Tuesday I decided a good challenge would be to do 15 consecutive 100 IM's in the middle of the workout; I was able to get through those by allowing myself to rest as needed between 100's. Yesterday I swam 6 200 IM's, although not consecutively, plus a couple of 100 IM's, plus a few extra 25's of warmup fly for good measure. The last few 200's weren't pretty, but I concentrated hard on not butterstruggling and allowed myself to come up early on the breastroke pullout a couple of times.
So my immediate goal is to be able to do a 200 IM reasonably comfortably. Then I think I'll try and get to the point where I can get through a 100 fly.
So far so good. Thanks for all the pointers, I appreciate each and every one.
