I'm absolutely amazed at the amount of misinformation on swimming, especially on the internet. One website I saw instructing the specifics of the backstroke advocated a completely illegal turn.
A bodybuilder site said that depleting your stores of Glycogen by starving your body of it actually helped the body move faster. I'm not buying that. You can't swim without it.
Other sites like USA Swimming, have a lot of kids with a lot of questions who for some reason don't ask their coaches or parents. Lots of ear infection questions - which are fairly preventable by wearing a swim cap.
Early on in my learning I suffered a severe injury by practicing a drill recommended by one of the so-called experts in swimming technique, who shall remain nameless. That's led me to pay closer attention to sports medicine specialists and surgeons who swim.
Everybody's body is different and has specific limitations. For example, the Neer Test for your shoulders. The entire approach to pitch, catch, pull, etc... is highly individual. I trust top athletic coaches and top swimmers and doctors.
One site on backstroke listed something very technical which actually made sense and works wonders but after running a search a dozen ways through Google I found no one knew of it or spoke of it other than that 1 site!
Who do you trust? What are your thoughts on this?
Parents
Former Member
Originally posted by Conniekat8
Also unlike 20+ people per instructor, as in TI clinics, in our clinics you get a max of 6 people per instructor.
As for coaching yourself, that has majopr limitations, unless one has superb visualization skills, and can see yourself in water and able to analyze where you need improvement. So far, I'm not aware of anyone having that ability.
It's very unwise to comment on swim training with which you have no personal experience. If you had ever attended a TI workshop, you'd know that the workshops never operate with "20+ people per instructor." At TI training, you will see 6 or fewer people per instructor. I've never seen a stroke clinic at my Y, either for kids or for adults, that had a swimmer/instructor ratio anywhere near that low. If your clinics have that kind of ratio, you're lucky.
I'm not sure where you think Tom has "misconceptions about swimming." His statement that "effective swimming is much more a product of skill than of sheer brawn and fitness" is right on the money. I've had a chance to talk to a couple of Olympic medalists about swimming, and was impressed by the fact that both of them seem to be constantly thinking about flawless execution of their stroke every time they swim.
If you're a kid on a kids' swim team, and have 4 or 5 or 6 practices per week with one or two coaches present, it may be adequate to rely on your coaches' feedback (if they're good coaches) to improve your stroke technique. But my impression is that few masters swimmers have this luxury. The masters team at my Y, for example, has one 1 1/2-hour and one 2-hour practice per week, but I wouldn't bet much on your success as a swimmer if those are the only times you hit the pool all week. And, if you swim more than that, you're going to have to, as Tom says, "be your own coach."
This doesn't mean (and I don't think Tom meant to say) that you don't need periodic feedback from someone who can watch you and identify things you're doing wrong. But it does mean that you're not going to be getting that kind of feedback most of the time, and therefore it is not likely to be adequate to operate with a typical kids' mentality of relying entirely on live feedback from a coach. Instead, you're going to need to develop a sensory awareness of what your body is doing in the water, and you're going to need to learn what good swimming technique and bad swimming technique feel like so that you can strive for the former and avoid the latter.
But there's no level of swimming where it makes sense to churn out mindless yardage (or meterage :D ). If a 3-time Olympic gold medalist still pays attention to her technique every time she swims, it stands to reason that the rest of us need to do the same (though she may be straining out gnats while we strain out camels).
And ignoring technique can be dangerous, regardless of your age! Just last month, I coached a 12-year-old girl who was recovering from shoulder surgery for problems brought on by her participation in competitive swimming. She said that her swim team just did long workouts, with very little said about technique. I've even heard of a 9-year-old boy having shoulder problems from competitive swimming.
Our swim practices contain workouts that are 30-50% skill drills, and pretty much only the main set is the hard working fitness or endurance work. The rest is drills and drills and the coach watching you and giving you pointers. Doing drills properly is plenty of a workout in itself.
Well said! It sounds like you're swimming with a well-coached team!
Bob
Originally posted by Conniekat8
Also unlike 20+ people per instructor, as in TI clinics, in our clinics you get a max of 6 people per instructor.
As for coaching yourself, that has majopr limitations, unless one has superb visualization skills, and can see yourself in water and able to analyze where you need improvement. So far, I'm not aware of anyone having that ability.
It's very unwise to comment on swim training with which you have no personal experience. If you had ever attended a TI workshop, you'd know that the workshops never operate with "20+ people per instructor." At TI training, you will see 6 or fewer people per instructor. I've never seen a stroke clinic at my Y, either for kids or for adults, that had a swimmer/instructor ratio anywhere near that low. If your clinics have that kind of ratio, you're lucky.
I'm not sure where you think Tom has "misconceptions about swimming." His statement that "effective swimming is much more a product of skill than of sheer brawn and fitness" is right on the money. I've had a chance to talk to a couple of Olympic medalists about swimming, and was impressed by the fact that both of them seem to be constantly thinking about flawless execution of their stroke every time they swim.
If you're a kid on a kids' swim team, and have 4 or 5 or 6 practices per week with one or two coaches present, it may be adequate to rely on your coaches' feedback (if they're good coaches) to improve your stroke technique. But my impression is that few masters swimmers have this luxury. The masters team at my Y, for example, has one 1 1/2-hour and one 2-hour practice per week, but I wouldn't bet much on your success as a swimmer if those are the only times you hit the pool all week. And, if you swim more than that, you're going to have to, as Tom says, "be your own coach."
This doesn't mean (and I don't think Tom meant to say) that you don't need periodic feedback from someone who can watch you and identify things you're doing wrong. But it does mean that you're not going to be getting that kind of feedback most of the time, and therefore it is not likely to be adequate to operate with a typical kids' mentality of relying entirely on live feedback from a coach. Instead, you're going to need to develop a sensory awareness of what your body is doing in the water, and you're going to need to learn what good swimming technique and bad swimming technique feel like so that you can strive for the former and avoid the latter.
But there's no level of swimming where it makes sense to churn out mindless yardage (or meterage :D ). If a 3-time Olympic gold medalist still pays attention to her technique every time she swims, it stands to reason that the rest of us need to do the same (though she may be straining out gnats while we strain out camels).
And ignoring technique can be dangerous, regardless of your age! Just last month, I coached a 12-year-old girl who was recovering from shoulder surgery for problems brought on by her participation in competitive swimming. She said that her swim team just did long workouts, with very little said about technique. I've even heard of a 9-year-old boy having shoulder problems from competitive swimming.
Our swim practices contain workouts that are 30-50% skill drills, and pretty much only the main set is the hard working fitness or endurance work. The rest is drills and drills and the coach watching you and giving you pointers. Doing drills properly is plenty of a workout in itself.
Well said! It sounds like you're swimming with a well-coached team!
Bob
