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

I'm a beginner so I have breakthroughs practically every time I swim. The learning comes fast in the beginning because there's so much to learn. Last night my breakthrough was to swim the pool length underwater (with fins, 51') and did a backflip underwater comfortably.

I found this interesting, do you see a wider role for the breaststroke kick being used or is this a personal strategy for dealing with a weakness with your dolphin kick? I have never tried the whip kick in fly and you've got me curious. Me too but is that legal in a meet?"

I think the kick is the best part of the fly. I love that feeling especially when practicing with fins. My biggest swimming breakthrough was Sept 7th when I donned the bathing suit cap and goggles and walked out onto the deck for the first time in 22 years and not knowing anyone at all. I was soooooooooooo nervous it was like starting grade 9 all over( without the zits but more body fat :lmao:). When I entered the water for the first time I knew I had conquered the worst part of iswimming and it could only get better from there. And I am happy to say it has. I improve daily small baby steps but it is hard to believe 6 weeks is gone. I am exicted to see what the next 6 bring Katie

Anyone working on a breakthrough? How will you make it happen? Yes. 1 tenth of a second at a time.

Yes. 1 tenth of a second at a time. Same here (hate it, but progress is progress). :bouncing:

Anyone working on a breakthrough? How will you make it happen?

how'd you do with your 2010 SCY Season? Now as the SCY season ends & the LCM, SCM or Open Water Seasons begin, it might be helpful for you to ask yourself: What are my focus events? "What do I need to do to have a major swimming breakthrough?" What would a breakthough look like? What's keeping me from taking action? ~ ~ ~ please share your answers. I had an unintended breakthrough in the 2010 SCY season. My 50 breastroke dropped from 28.6 in 2009 to 27.4 in 2010. It also helps to ask, "What do I need to do to get better?" write down your answers. create plans to address each aspect then get to work, do your plan. hope this helps you swim faster faster and break on through to the other side. Ande

Anyone working on one?

Anyone working on one? I have actually had a breakthrough recently in my backstroke. It has always been poor -- just good enough to have a decent 200y IM (2:10) when I was younger -- but I could never figure out how to carry my hips and shoulders or how to relax my head. Background: My focus event this year is the 100 IM. (I set a goal of breaking 1:10, which seemed far-fetched 6 months ago.) I was sitting wth some older swimmers (they had 20 years + on me) who also happened to be IMers and also talked about hating backstroke. We were lamenting feeling disoriented and how when someone told us to get our hips up we'd always be thinking, "They are up!" It was a fun conversation, but it got me to thinking afterwards. I decided I did not want to have an awful backstroke for the rest of my swimming life. I looked up backstroke drills, and asked about drills here. My body position was so bad that I sank and/or hardly moved while trying to learn these drills. I was going :20+ on a 25 and :45 on a 50. Paying attention to my stroke made me feel slower than ever. Then one day about 2 months ago, I decided to do the same drill set for back as I do with fly and ***: 50 kick/50 pull/50 pull/full stroke. I noticed 2 things -- when I just kicked (relaxed), my hips floated up, and when I just pulled, with buoy, my legs fishtailed like mad. I kept at this drill set, going extra slow until I could pull and keep my legs straight. What worked was imagining my pull starting at the opposite hip (throw left hip up on right arm recovery). It was still not pretty, but I was keeping the legs straight, even during full stroke. After about a month of this, my backstroke felt much faster all of a sudden. So much faster, in fact, that I had so much momentum going into my flip that I cracked my heels on the gutter. I was so happy with the speed I was getting that I hardly felt the pain. It felt much faster, but the times were only about a second better per 25. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. The day after I got my issue of Swimmer and read the backstroke tips, actually. When I got to my backstroke, it felt different. My head did not want to rise up and look at my feet like it always had. It was relaxed. I did not have to try so hard to rotate my hips or float. It just happened. I had my breakthrough. I am now repeating 17-18 on my 25s and going under 40 in my 50s, which is about where it was in HS (still plenty of room for improvement, too!). At a meet last week, I went 1:12 in my first 100 IM since 1982. I feel like I can go a lot faster as my conditioning improves -- especially now that I am not resigned to a terrible backstroke split. The 1:10 should be easy, and I think I can go way under in time. Now if I can just have a breakthrough in breaststroke!

I am trying to break 22 sec (current recent best is 22.51) in the 50 free, 24 in the fly (24.62) and 50:00 (50.86) in the 100 Free. I had never noticed how poor my EVF was until i was taped last year, I was dragging it back at a 30-45 degree angle sometimes. So I am trying to get that down, but it has been tough when swimming at speed,so I am trying to find that balance between fast turnover and meaningful turnover so i can make sure I get EVF. Also trying to lose 10 pounds by May, by replacing cokes with water. Also trying to do race work every thurs and or Friday. My coach gets frustrated when he gives a set of 6 200's and I do a sprint 50 followed by a 50 easy, then skip a 200, then repeat.....but I never get a good chance to work on sprinting, he loves distance sets too much. Right now I am turning my 50's in 24 high/25 low from a push at the end of practice, not sure how that translates. I went 22 flat with fins last week, but that's really cheating!