I need help!

My coach says my time needs alot of work. I can't remember what our workout conists of. She says my flipturn needs work. My time for the 200 free at my most recent meet was 2:38. My 50 free was 1:00min. flat. I was looking at the qualifying times for the nationals talk about intimidating! Sincerely, Swimminggirl I have training tomorrow, I will copy my workout on here tomorrow night. These times don't jive, and I think you must be wrong about your 50. If you go 1:00 on your 50, than your 200 would be 4:00, so you can go much faster on your 50, because you are doing it in your 200. One on one coaching will help, but just getting in the water more will help. You talk about the running quite a bit here, and running is good crosstraining, but nothing substitutes getting faster than getting in the water and working it. For me, learning as an adult, the swimming came in pieces. I would work on a piece, perfect it as much as I could, then work on the next, and so forth. Flip turns were about the middle, fly was one of the last things. When I did my first meet, I did all open turns and worked hard on making it a really fast open turn and good fast streamline off the wall. This was actually faster for me than flip turns, and remained that way for awhile. Then in practice I kept working on the flip turns. Down the road I went to a meet and signed up for the 1000 yard swim. Part of the challenge to myself on the swim was to do all flip turns and not open any of them up. I did and accomplished my goal time, so I knew my turns were getting better. I have also taken start and turn clinics which were very helpful. I took them with the age group kids, which is a bit odd, but for you, it would not be, as you are young.

I would say keep doing what you are doing. You cannot instantly get fast, it takes time, but keep working at it, read articles here, on-line, ask questions of your coaches, check out swimming books from the library. There are a lot of resources if you look. But mostly keep training and you will improve. As young as you are, you will probably improve a lot.

My 200 last night was 3:19. Of course, right before I went I did run 4 miles so, I was tired last night at practice. Last night our warm up was 3x100 and 2x200 and then 2x200 with fins and then we did a 1000m race and then our cool down was 2x200 easy. My 100 and 50 weren't very good last night. I train monday-thursday. I go to masters monday and wed. and then have personal one on one time with my coach on tuesdays and thursdays and I've started going to another pool on the weekends and training by myself. I really need to improve more. My turns were pathetic as well but, I wasn't giving it my all either. Again, I need all the advice and coaching I can get because, I really want to be ready for nationals next year and also, I have another swim meet coming up June 8 and 9th. Sincerely, Swimminggirl

Swimminggirl, You mentioned earlier that one problem you have is "stopping your motion" when you breathe on free and ***. What I have noticed when coaching is that when people do this on freestyle, it often means they are not breathing often enough. If you hold your breath until you are desperate for air, there is more of a tendency to stop when you do breathe. Make sure you get into a breathing pattern that gives you enough chances to get air. The second thing is to work on exhaling underwater so that when you turn your head to breathe, all you have to do is inhale. If you have to breathe out and then in above water, you are more likely to insert a pause into your stroke. The exhaling underwater first may help with your breaststroke, too. Also, in ***, try to lean forward and accelerate your hands when you breathe rather than stopping your hands before shooting them forward. These are common beginner issues, and as you solve them, you will see big time improvements. I hope this helps! Chlorini

It does help thank you. My other problem is sprinting at the beggining of races rather than at the end. I'm off from training until monday. I'm going to take the weekend to relax. I've also put myself on a really strict diet. Protein bars and shakes, lean meat; no bread, no sweets, no carbs. My trainer says I need to be eating carbs to give me energy. I'm staying plenty hydrated. I will be out of town for the weekend. I will be back sometime on sunday. So, I'm going to be a little more relaxed about my diet this weekend. I'm also going to join a gym and get a personal trainer. Any advice for me I'm training for another meet june 8th and 9th I need to really focus on training 4-5 days a week at the pool until then. Sincerely, Swimminggirl

Auuggghhh..... Stop running already..... If you have to run do it on a day that you're not swimming. Why would you tried yourself out so you can't swim as fast and your technique suffers..... If you want to get better at swimming make a choice... running or swimming..... when you accomplish your goals in swimming than start scaling up the running again or run in your off season.....

It does help thank you. My other problem is sprinting at the beggining of races rather than at the end. I'm off from training until monday. I'm going to take the weekend to relax. I've also put myself on a really strict diet. Protein bars and shakes, lean meat; no bread, no sweets, no carbs. My trainer says I need to be eating carbs to give me energy. I'm staying plenty hydrated. I will be out of town for the weekend. I will be back sometime on sunday. So, I'm going to be a little more relaxed about my diet this weekend. I'm also going to join a gym and get a personal trainer. Any advice for me I'm training for another meet june 8th and 9th I need to really focus on training 4-5 days a week at the pool until then. Sincerely, Swimminggirl I think its a big mistake to give up carbs. You need them for your energy and you don't want your body to be using muscle for energy. There are plenty of good choices in carbs that are high in fiber and provide needed vitamens. Don't forget your green veggies either!. They have lots of fiber and vitamens that bring everything together to build the needed muscle and give you energy. Now I'll be quiet, because this topic *really* sets me off!

I'm gonna go walk 4 miles today. I practiced all weekend long at an olympic size pool. My 50 free has gotten down to 25sec. flat. I also am keeping myself on a strict, low carb, lean meat, protein shakes and protein bars and am eating lots of veggies and drinking 6 filled up jugs of 480z everyday. I don't allow myself to drink juice or anything except water. I did have tea this weekend I felt horrible after drinking tea. I practiced my diving and starts this weekend and my turns and strokes. I'm ready for training tonight. I know my coach said to relax this weekend which I didn't do oh well. Sincerely, Swimminggirl

Damn! Dropped 35 seconds from a 50 in just a week! I must have missed something in this thread but carry on, you are making progress.

Please don't put yourself on a strict diet and especially not during a high-peak swim race season. Your body will suffer for it. Eat balanced meals but maybe smaller ones if you are trying to lose any weight. Training and dieting does not mix very well; much energy will be lost. Food replacement supplements should not be used in place of good food. And I agree, don't run so often if you are trying to improve your swimming. Your swim times have me confused. Initially you said you swam a 2:38 for the 200 free and then said a 1 minute flat for a 50 free. A good way to practice the motion required for flip turns is to get in the middle of the pool, take 3 or 4 strokes and do a flip turn while in the middle of the pool. It gets your brain/body trained for that motion without slamming your feet on the wall. On your last stroke pulldown, throw your body over in a tight ball. Get used to this and then have someone "spot" you for trying it on the wall so you don't hurt your feet. Initially, most people in the beginning start the turn too far away from the wall and/or are in a too-tight of a ball when they turn. It just takes a lot of practice to nail this turn. If it is still not what you want it to be, do what was earlier suggested: a very, very fast open turn. Also, your hesitation of swimming with breathing may be because you are taking too long to take that breath. If you speed the breathing up (take a big gulp quick), then you will also have less hesitation. Just some thoughts. It sounds like you are just so motivated and that is key!!! donna