What do YOU need to do to have a major swimming breakthrough?

Thanks Ande, I'll do more 200 br. You mean 200's *** in practice, but do you mean also race it? I think I am just now getting descent at fly and now you want me to change my breathing?!? I will experiment with every stroke. I see alot of people doing two up one down which looks like a good compromise. Back to *** turns for me are a nightmare and I end up doing a slow open turn due to a lack of confience and some bad attempts at quicker turns at meets. It's a detail I need to address. I have a tendancy to fall asleep and use back as some sort of recovery. I need to attack it more. TJ say's to also work on back. Should back be leg driven or arm driven in the IM's. I think leg driven, but not sure. Thanks for the advice.

focus on easy speed breastroke and the 200 *** easy speed freestyle and the 200 free fast back to *** turns easy speed backstroke easy speed breathe every stroke butterfly fast turns correct splitting & finshing strong 35.03 49.60 55.78 30.8% focus on signifcantly dropping your breastroke split 40.24 finish faster your FL split and FR splits should be close 3:00.65 is 180.65 seconds Focus event for this SCM season is the 200 IM. I've only swum it twice in my life. Here are the results: (date, 5/18/08) 3:06.86 36.74 1:26.46 (49.72) 2:24.03 (57.57) 3:06.86 (42.83) (date, 11/23/08) 3:00.65 35.03 1:24.63(49.60) 2:20.41(55.78) 3:00.65(40.24) I hope to go 2:50. I've been working on *** and it is improving big time. Fly is improving in the sense I don't want to split it much faster, but I should get through it more relaxed and fresher. Thanks for this post Ande, it motivates me to read other peoples goals. Does anyone have ideas on where I should focus and how I should train based on these splits? FYI I haven't been in a tech suit since March and I wore an old fastkin today (pool lost heat, so it helped for warmth). I felt a pronounced speed improvement during practice. I can only imagine a jaked!

Rtodd, I mean train for the 200's *** in practice Phelps breathes every stroke, you need air, most masters don't put in enough training to really attack the 200 IM, if they really attack it they wind up with a time and splits that are worse than if they split it right. keep working on Back to *** turns turn them into a dream swim back smooth & fast I need to attack it more. back is leg and arm driven, swimmers need to have energy at the 100 to finish strong.

for those who replied earlier this season & for those who want to reply now: How's your training going? What SCM meets are you swimming? What races? Had any breakthroughs in practice this season?