I am a novice swimmer.
It usually takes 19 strokes and 22-23 seconds for me to finish 25 yards and I can hold this pace beyond 500 yards. Since people always say longer stroke lenth always means better, I try to improve my stroke length. The problem is when I try to finish 25 yards with 17 or lower strokes, I become exhausted very easily, also the speed is even a little bit slower.
Now I want to improve my swim conditioning, what kind of stroke should I use? the exhausting, slower, but longer one, or my previous easy, faster but shoter one?
This information might be useful. My hight is 173 cm, weight 134 lbs (Damn!). My kick is pretty weak and I can barely finish 50 yards. When I swim, I use 2 beat crossover kick.
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Originally posted by fireguard
Thank you guys for your help. I think my body position is pretty fine. I went to a coach several weeks ago and she said that. I
guess I need better conditioning and kick.
Also I found a very interesting thing yesterday. I used to breath to my right side and always feel not very comfortable. So yesterday I tried to breath to my left side,. It was awkward at the beginning, but once I got used to it, it was pretty smooth. I think ithis is very strange. Maybe my choosing to breath to my right side was wrong. This must be related to my stroke timing. When my left hand enters the water, my right hand is still in front of my shoulder. While when my right hand enters, my left hand is almost between my chest and waist. I always tried to change this strange timing, I couldn't. Somehow the kicking timing is also very asymmetric.
Anyone has similar experience?
Don't worry about the asymmetric kicking. Plenty of successful swimmers do that. Check out some video of Peter Vanderkaay at swimfastest.net to see it in the 200 free. As to what side you should breathe on, generally you'll be smoother in races if you breathe to the side of your more coordinated arm. It won't make that big of a difference, since such swimmers as Ian Thorpe breathe to their "wrong" side half the time, but it's a good idea.
Your arm timing indicates a significant lope that, as you said, fits much better with breathing to your left. If you breathe to your right with that kind of stroke, you will be basically stopping dead in the water every time you breathe. Many swimmers can lope either way, but you have to get in the proper rhythm in order to not be breathing backwards. Your hands are entering the water in a rhythm like this: "Plop plop ... plop plop ... plop plop." The way you describe your stroke, the first plop in each pair is the right hand, followed by the left hand, followed by a longer pause before the right hand enters again. You should always be sneaking your breath in the shorter pause in your stroke cycle, which means breathing to your left.
You could learn to breathe on your right more smoothly if you reversed your arm timing. Swimming like this would probably be awkward at high speed, but it's something you can do to relax on an easy set.
Originally posted by fireguard
Thank you guys for your help. I think my body position is pretty fine. I went to a coach several weeks ago and she said that. I
guess I need better conditioning and kick.
Also I found a very interesting thing yesterday. I used to breath to my right side and always feel not very comfortable. So yesterday I tried to breath to my left side,. It was awkward at the beginning, but once I got used to it, it was pretty smooth. I think ithis is very strange. Maybe my choosing to breath to my right side was wrong. This must be related to my stroke timing. When my left hand enters the water, my right hand is still in front of my shoulder. While when my right hand enters, my left hand is almost between my chest and waist. I always tried to change this strange timing, I couldn't. Somehow the kicking timing is also very asymmetric.
Anyone has similar experience?
Don't worry about the asymmetric kicking. Plenty of successful swimmers do that. Check out some video of Peter Vanderkaay at swimfastest.net to see it in the 200 free. As to what side you should breathe on, generally you'll be smoother in races if you breathe to the side of your more coordinated arm. It won't make that big of a difference, since such swimmers as Ian Thorpe breathe to their "wrong" side half the time, but it's a good idea.
Your arm timing indicates a significant lope that, as you said, fits much better with breathing to your left. If you breathe to your right with that kind of stroke, you will be basically stopping dead in the water every time you breathe. Many swimmers can lope either way, but you have to get in the proper rhythm in order to not be breathing backwards. Your hands are entering the water in a rhythm like this: "Plop plop ... plop plop ... plop plop." The way you describe your stroke, the first plop in each pair is the right hand, followed by the left hand, followed by a longer pause before the right hand enters again. You should always be sneaking your breath in the shorter pause in your stroke cycle, which means breathing to your left.
You could learn to breathe on your right more smoothly if you reversed your arm timing. Swimming like this would probably be awkward at high speed, but it's something you can do to relax on an easy set.
