:help:
:dunno: or :lolup: ?
Since I'm new to swimming i have a problem and need of advice. I've been swimming 5 days a week for about a month now at my local 25 yard gym pool. I've gotten to a point where my technique is somewhat good but i cannot swim more then 50 yards straight without coughing a lung (or at least feeling like it). Yesterday i got some inspiration and did about 400 with a couple of seconds breather every 25 yards. To my surprise it went well, and i actually felt i was improving my technique (endurance breeds efficient swimming?). Anyways, I find it extremely hard to focus on technique wen I'm trying to work on endurance and here lies the problem.
Do i keep working on establishing second-nature proper technique and keep doing 25/50 yards until i feel i'm ready to overcome long distance, or should i start working on endurance regardless of whatever technique faults i think i have at the moment.
I see swimmers doing laps at my pool and i can't help but think about their faulty technique. i don't want to be one of them.
Parents
Former Member
I'm increasingly of the opinion that you cannot separate technique and conditioning. One difficulty is that it's hard to objectively assess the quality of a person's technique, so when someone is swimming faster than they were, we don't know where the improvement has come from. And even if their technique could be proven to have improved, it may only have been made possible by an accompanying improvement in conditioning.
I normally train 5 times a week in the following pattern - train, train, rest, train, train, train, rest. The interesting thing is that my technique feels at its best on the days after I have had a day's rest, because my muscles are fresher and I'm better able to make my body move in the way I want it to.
It's approx 18 months since I started Masters swimming, i.e. joined a club, though I had been swimming by myself prior to that. When I first joined the club, if we did a lactate tolerance set of 10 x 100m free on 3:00, I could only just do each one sub 1:20. Now I can do 10 x 100m free on 1:30 at an average of 1:10, so clearly there has been a drastic improvement in some department!
I do believe that my technique has improved, however I also believe that no matter how much time I had spent working on technique at low speed, that alone would never have got me to where I am now, because when I'm repeating 1:10 on 1:30 I'm using a very large number of muscles all over my body to keep everything moving the right way, particularly core body muscles. Even now, when those muscles get tired, I then become unable to sustain the quality of technique that I'm aiming for.
I don't agree that you can't develop both technique and conditioning at the same time. I think that with practice you can concentrate on technique while working hard. Your limbs might be too tired to do what you want them to do, but I think that as long as you're trying to perform the correct movements, it will all come good with time. I'm also not convinced that it's as hard as some people say to change your technique, I've been constantly evolving my own technique over time. I think it's important to a) develop a sense of awareness of what your body is doing while swimming along, b) have a mental model of what your body should be doing, and c) gradually bring what your body is actually doing closer to your mental model over time.
Reply
Former Member
I'm increasingly of the opinion that you cannot separate technique and conditioning. One difficulty is that it's hard to objectively assess the quality of a person's technique, so when someone is swimming faster than they were, we don't know where the improvement has come from. And even if their technique could be proven to have improved, it may only have been made possible by an accompanying improvement in conditioning.
I normally train 5 times a week in the following pattern - train, train, rest, train, train, train, rest. The interesting thing is that my technique feels at its best on the days after I have had a day's rest, because my muscles are fresher and I'm better able to make my body move in the way I want it to.
It's approx 18 months since I started Masters swimming, i.e. joined a club, though I had been swimming by myself prior to that. When I first joined the club, if we did a lactate tolerance set of 10 x 100m free on 3:00, I could only just do each one sub 1:20. Now I can do 10 x 100m free on 1:30 at an average of 1:10, so clearly there has been a drastic improvement in some department!
I do believe that my technique has improved, however I also believe that no matter how much time I had spent working on technique at low speed, that alone would never have got me to where I am now, because when I'm repeating 1:10 on 1:30 I'm using a very large number of muscles all over my body to keep everything moving the right way, particularly core body muscles. Even now, when those muscles get tired, I then become unable to sustain the quality of technique that I'm aiming for.
I don't agree that you can't develop both technique and conditioning at the same time. I think that with practice you can concentrate on technique while working hard. Your limbs might be too tired to do what you want them to do, but I think that as long as you're trying to perform the correct movements, it will all come good with time. I'm also not convinced that it's as hard as some people say to change your technique, I've been constantly evolving my own technique over time. I think it's important to a) develop a sense of awareness of what your body is doing while swimming along, b) have a mental model of what your body should be doing, and c) gradually bring what your body is actually doing closer to your mental model over time.
