Since I am sort of forced to swim alone rather than on a master's team this summer I often end up swimming after/before/next to someone who has horrible technique. I'm not nitpicking here, but I'm talking about dragging legs, barely getting arms out of the water, and nearly stopping to breathe on freestyle, or arms that kind of lazily flop down during the backstroke.
The question is, if you see someone doing something like that do you offer help with their stroke / or pointers?
Currently, I don't. But I'm somewhat torn. I don't want to sound arrogant and like I know everything, or to hurt someone's feelings, but I can't help thinking how much less energy these people would expend, and how much more success they would have swimming if they swam correctly. So, what do you do?
Parents
Former Member
I don't usually say anything to people about their strokes, but I do offer advice about their flip turns if I see they are trying to learn it.
Just last week there was a guy trying it out. Couldn't get it at all. So when I was done my workout (I never inturrupt my workout!) I asked him if he wanted a pointer. The I gave him some basic pointers, and offered to point him to the FLIP TURNS VIDEO link. I got his email address and sent him the link.
So far I have done this with three people who all wanted the link.
But one guy did turn me down. I swim with him pretty regularly, and he's rather quick, but slow on the turns. If he could keep up on the turns, I'd have someone who could push me for any distance. (I didn't tell him this, though.) I just asked him if he would like to make his turns faster, but he wasn't interested. He's a triathlete, and a pretty damn good one. Turns don't matter for his purposes, and I fully understood and let it drop.
Besides flip turns, I rarely talk stroke techniques with people. Unless they ask first. But I have made one exception. There is this 17-year-old kid who just took up swimming in the past year. He's captain of his high school cross country and track teams, and he wants to be a triathlete. In a year he has become a formidable swimmer, and I can hardly contain my excitement for his progress. I think we're going to be reading about him in years to come. He's unusually humble for an athlete of his calibre. As he has progressed, I spoke up to him about some things I noticed. He never seemed put off, so I haven't held back. Nowadays there is nothing I can add, so we just talk about what's next on his horizons (upcoming mini-triathlons, his college plans, stuff like that.) Sometimes I wonder if I make a pest of myself, and I just hope I don't.
I don't usually say anything to people about their strokes, but I do offer advice about their flip turns if I see they are trying to learn it.
Just last week there was a guy trying it out. Couldn't get it at all. So when I was done my workout (I never inturrupt my workout!) I asked him if he wanted a pointer. The I gave him some basic pointers, and offered to point him to the FLIP TURNS VIDEO link. I got his email address and sent him the link.
So far I have done this with three people who all wanted the link.
But one guy did turn me down. I swim with him pretty regularly, and he's rather quick, but slow on the turns. If he could keep up on the turns, I'd have someone who could push me for any distance. (I didn't tell him this, though.) I just asked him if he would like to make his turns faster, but he wasn't interested. He's a triathlete, and a pretty damn good one. Turns don't matter for his purposes, and I fully understood and let it drop.
Besides flip turns, I rarely talk stroke techniques with people. Unless they ask first. But I have made one exception. There is this 17-year-old kid who just took up swimming in the past year. He's captain of his high school cross country and track teams, and he wants to be a triathlete. In a year he has become a formidable swimmer, and I can hardly contain my excitement for his progress. I think we're going to be reading about him in years to come. He's unusually humble for an athlete of his calibre. As he has progressed, I spoke up to him about some things I noticed. He never seemed put off, so I haven't held back. Nowadays there is nothing I can add, so we just talk about what's next on his horizons (upcoming mini-triathlons, his college plans, stuff like that.) Sometimes I wonder if I make a pest of myself, and I just hope I don't.
