Hey folk,
I've heard different viewpoints about my freestyle, and I wonder if I could hear from you on these various opinions:
1. Previous masters' coach: focus on high elbows, fingertips in first. (I hope I'm interpreting him right.)
2. Same coach: kick from hips, not knees (hard one... my kickboard sets are not pretty!)...
3. Swim instructor who happened to observe me one day: too much splash on kick (maybe related to #2)
4. Guy who swims pretty fast and efficiently in nearby lane: "You have a strong kick, but you don't reach far enough. Your hand goes into the water too soon." Tried more of a reach, and it did seem to help my time a little... read: VERY slow to merely "very slow" (sans caps). ;)
5. Current masters' coach: "If you've been swimming a certain way for a while, it actually could slow you down to mess with your stroke too much."
And... can a person who is still in pursuit of a sub two minute 100 have any hope of becoming not "very slow" but merely "slow" or even "halfway approaching fast"? I'm 55 and a regular runner as well as swimmer, so reasonably fit (resting heart rate of 31 measured a couple of days ago).
Thanks for your comments!
Thanks guys,
MichiganHusker and Craigill, yah, I'll go along with the "kickboards are evil" idea. Lately I tend not to do kickboard sets on my own, just when I work out w/ the group and that's the going thing. I do drills on my own: catch-up, finger tip, bilateral breathing....
But the dreaded kick/roll thing... my attempts to do that are not for young children to view. ;) Of course, that doesn't stop me from doing them... I think of it as character building, altho I really am quite the character already. ;) Also, it makes me appreciate just plain freestyle all that much more! And if by some chance I could cut a nanosecond or three from my times, that would be lovely too.
Thanks guys,
MichiganHusker and Craigill, yah, I'll go along with the "kickboards are evil" idea. Lately I tend not to do kickboard sets on my own, just when I work out w/ the group and that's the going thing. I do drills on my own: catch-up, finger tip, bilateral breathing....
But the dreaded kick/roll thing... my attempts to do that are not for young children to view. ;) Of course, that doesn't stop me from doing them... I think of it as character building, altho I really am quite the character already. ;) Also, it makes me appreciate just plain freestyle all that much more! And if by some chance I could cut a nanosecond or three from my times, that would be lovely too.
