I know there is a discussion below about joining a Masters, but my background is different therefor there may be different responses.
To recap...I'm Tory. I'm a big loser. I've lost 100 pounds and have gone from a couch potato to fitness nut. I truly have redefined who I am and how I live my life and I love it!
Anyhow...I am a terrible swimmer. Okay, I'm not REALLY so terrible. I do not drown. That's a good thing. However my swimming lesson experience involves Forest Park Lake and 5th grade. In other words, not a big background. I tried an adult stroke class, but it was taught by a well meaning ADD teenager who mainlined sugar every night before class and spent much more time bouncing around on the pool deck and flirting with the girls, than actually teaching us anything. I spent the entire course just swimming laps.
I just found (as in last week) that there is an adult masters program in a city nearby. I was thrilled! I'm taking a triathlon training course and we've been doing the swim portion. I had my stroke evaluated and yeah, I'm a mess. However, I am working on it. I do know how to swim (or rather "not drown"), I can freestyle and *** but that's the extent. I stroke wide, kick wide, and over-rotate so those are my focii right now. It may not sound like much, but I can swim inefficiently like this for an hour (which is all the time I have), but I feel like I should be able to swim more in an hour than I do.
So...what do you think?
Join a Masters program and join the slow swimmers?
Find a GOOD adult stroke class and improve my stroke, then join a Masters program?
My goal for this year is to concentrate on my swimming. I must improve my stroke because I don't feel confident in the open water during triathlons and I refuse to submit to that fear. I also happen to really enjoy swimming. I love how relaxed I feel an hour after a good long swim and that that feeling lasts the entire day. I like the peace of swimming and being in my mind and letting go my concerns, or having time to chew them over. I actually, of the three sports, like running the best (because I am a glutton for punishment) and then swimming and both for a similar reason; they are great workouts that let me get out alone and just 'be' for awhile.
But I'd like to 'be' faster and more efficient!
Former Member
join the masters program and ask for help. my personal experience is they will leave your stroke alone unless you ask. that does not mean they dont want to help because if they dont you wont come back so just ask and have fun
Tory, Congratulations on the weight loss!
Most teams in our area will let new swimmers come and try out one or two workouts to see if the team is a good fit. Maybe the team or teams in your area do the same.
Talk to the coach of each team and see what they recommend.
Again, great job changing your lifestyle and losing the weight.
Depends on the Masters program. Ours is uncoached so there would be no opportunity for stroke help. The lanes are crowded so you really have to be able to make the workout.
I would go watch and see if you think you can MAKE the workout (or close) in the slowest lane, and see how crowded it is. Talk to the coach and tell him/her your situation and see if you could fit in. If there is plenty of room and the paces vary to your level, it's probably a great opportunity for you. If the paces are FAST and the workout crowded, I don't think it's the right thing and this time, and I'd lean toward a stroke clinic in that case.
Our Masters program incorporates a lot of stroke work for the people who need it and less for the ones with good technique. If there are several Masters programs in your area, shop around.
Coaching quality also varies. We are fortunate to have a coach who has experience as an elite competitor at the NCAA and national level, was a top caliber Masters competitor, and has years of coaching all levels of swimmers.
See if you can get a local swim coach to work with you for some one-on-one or semi-private lessons. That is better than having an instructor with no competitive or coaching background.
If you have a videocamera try to get somebody to film you so you can see with your own eyes. It helps if you have reference footage of what it's supposed to look like.
I find that sometimes the most obvious stroke fault is a symptom of something else that is wrong but less obvious. Example - insufficient body roll can cause a wide arm recovery which can cause a foot to kick out or the other arm to scull out wide as counterbalance. The solution for that problem is not to focus on narrowing the kick but to roll more appropriately and fix the wide arm recovery.
Our sport is full of opportunities for you to analyze and figure out how to improve your technique and go faster, which helps keep things interesting while you're going up and down the black line.
I had night two of the swim clinic section of my triathlon training Wednesday night. Today I swam and did 200, then 100 on each of four drills (with 100 in between trying to incorporate the skill into the regular swim). I figured I'd be able to do about 75% of what normally do in the time I had, but actually ended up doing my normal swim with drills and rests. (On days I just swim, I generally don't take rests, since I'm training for an endurance event.) Obvoiusly the drills were helping me move more water. I could also "feel" the difference in each stroke. It was akward and my body kept wanting to go back to what was comfortable, but I felt really pumped when I left the pool. (Until I discovered someone had walked off with my hair stuff and had to spend the rest of the day in bad hair hell...but that's a story for another time.)
I think I'll find a good stroke clinic first and then research the Masters team. Thanks for the input everyone!
Hi Tory! You've offered me some great advice on my weight issues, now I'll try to offer you some swimming advice... :)
Is there any way that you can do BOTH a "stroke and turn" clinic as well as the masters practices? I would look into both programs and see how often they run and if there are any certain requirements. Maybe you could do the stroke clinic one night a week and practice with the team 2 nights a week, or whatever you see fit. That way, you could let yourself review what you learned in the practices.
My opinion is that you concentrate on your stroke, especially if you feel it is that sloppy. Reason being is, once you develop your stroke, it can be hard to break certain patterns. I've been a long time competitive swimmer and I found that its difficult to break bad stroke habits the longer you let yourself continue to swim that way. Up until I was 12, I was swimming butterfly with only a single kick. It took me almost a year to incorporate a double kick, and when I did, my times improved significantly.
It seems like your concern is swimming more efficiently and faster in the water. Correcting your stroke will definitely help you with this. If your timing is off and if you are doing your kick wrong, you are most likely hindering your ability to move faster in the water. I guarantee once you work on your stroke/turn techniques, you will see big improvements!!
