Hi All,
This is a very newbie question and a hesitant one at that having read forums.usms.org/showthread.php
and being from that group of how was if phrased "trying 2 b athletes" or "mediocre at 3 sports" ouch.
Still I thought the best place to get swimming advice would be from swimmers.
I only started swimming this month. I have worked steadily at it but only know three basic strokes (crawl, *** and side). Needless to say I have been concentrating on the crawl and have progressed from being able to do 50M non stop to 1800 M non stop but painfully slow (40 minutes!). Still it beats the alternative which is drowning.
Going to a masters class is not an option the only class available to me conflicts with my wife's dragonboat practice. Which leaves open swim during regular pool hours to do laps.
1 - What would be the best DVD or book for a new swimmer to get to improve their technique. Specifically crawl.
2 - How do you keep count of laps without losing track!?! Sometimes I lose track in the mid 30's other times in the 60's either way I am either swimming more or less than intended and of course the times may look better than they actually are. Any advice would be appreciated.
3 - Last thing - I really need to learn how to do a flip turn. Can anyone point me to a FAQ or video that shows how to do it?
Parents
Former Member
My $0.02:
1) Technique: Total Immersion, as Bob said.
2) While you are working on your technique, don't count laps unless you are only doing a few at a time. Go by time. The reason is that you can rush N laps and do it with lousy technique, but you can't rush M minutes.
3) Don't get OCD'ed about counting laps/yards, there are no walls in lake/ocean and the distances are iffy, at best, so all the splits in the world only give guidance; not an answer. Best advice I ever got while I was race walking came from an old Italian coach named Francesco. I gave him a long list of my training, endless lists of splits/distances/times/etc and then asked him that, based on that, how fast he thought I could walk a 50km. He took one look at it, smacked me in the back of my head and said: "This is all b@ll sh@t. You get in that race, you go like Hell."
-LBJ
My $0.02:
1) Technique: Total Immersion, as Bob said.
2) While you are working on your technique, don't count laps unless you are only doing a few at a time. Go by time. The reason is that you can rush N laps and do it with lousy technique, but you can't rush M minutes.
3) Don't get OCD'ed about counting laps/yards, there are no walls in lake/ocean and the distances are iffy, at best, so all the splits in the world only give guidance; not an answer. Best advice I ever got while I was race walking came from an old Italian coach named Francesco. I gave him a long list of my training, endless lists of splits/distances/times/etc and then asked him that, based on that, how fast he thought I could walk a 50km. He took one look at it, smacked me in the back of my head and said: "This is all b@ll sh@t. You get in that race, you go like Hell."
-LBJ
