I have been swimming for almost 2 months about 5 times per week. In the beginning I did mostly freestyle and a little breaststroke but have been taking a class to learn the other strokes. I found out my breaststroke technique was off and am revamping it. I can do backstroke but am still refining technique a bit. I am learning butterfly - learned dolphin kick this past week.
My question is about how to spend my time at the pool. I have been spending about 45 minutes in the past month. I warm up with a little freestyle. Then I spend about 10-15 minutes each on backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly (aka dolphin kick right now). Is that a good idea? Or should I devote entire workouts to one stroke at a time? I think that could work better - I would have more time to get the technique down. But I worry I will lose something if I don't maintain a little every day. Any suggestions? Should I spend more time in the pool?
Thanks -
Former Member
I would recommend that you take a look at the workout section of this forum as well as search the forum for beginner workouts. Your question has been discussed in great detail in other threads.
Former Member
I realize that my last reply sounded a bit harsh. I did a search for you and found some great replies. Just go to forums.usms.org/search.php
I would also suggest you join a Masters team. Good luck to you.
Former Member
Get the technique down for all the strokes you want to swim. Best source is a swim coach who knows the strokes. We can do the warm ups using all the strokes. Get the feel for the water and swim. Some like to do drills, but I believe in swimming whole strokes.
Former Member
Get the technique down for all the strokes you want to swim. Best source is a swim coach who knows the strokes. We can do the warm ups using all the strokes. Get the feel for the water and swim. Some like to do drills, but I believe in swimming whole strokes.
I'm curious, but how does one actually find a coach?
Former Member
Ink
The fastest way is to go here http://www.swimmersguide.com/ the swimmers guide. Go to the city you live in find the local pools and see if they have a swim club. Swim clubs have coaches, some good some bad. If you are not a good swimmer even a bad coach can help.
You might also want to look at the list of club websites on the USMS site. These are listed by state, so you can check out those in your area to see what they have.
Also www.swimplan.com gives you workouts based on info that you enter, such as times for certain distances (100, 200, etc.), resting pulse, etc. Swimplan also gives you workouts based on what strokes you want to include, as well as the equipment you'll be using, such as kickboards, fins, etc.
Good luck and enjoy!
Sara,
I swim with the NASA masters group at Northwestern. We do have some complete beginners, so don't feel at all shy about trying the group out. There are noon and evening workouts three days a week as well as Saturday mornings. Drop me a note (skip@pobox.com) and I'll put you in touch with our fearless leader, Pam Smith.
(edit) Let me add something else. Pam is very good about adjusting the workouts to the needs of individual swimmers. One fellow who's a new swimmer with us and a complete beginniner seems to swim something completely different than the rest of us, something I assume Pam has tailored to his needs. I've been training for the USMS postal swims this summer so she understands that sometimes I am going to do something else when the workout calls for 3x200IM. Also, as we age our bodies ache in different ways. Some days I can do a little fly, some days not. Some days my knees hurt so I stay away from breaststroke. yadda yadda yadda...
Skip Montanaro
Sara,
don't worry about having to maintain something every day. your body isn't going to forget how to swim breaststroke over the course of three days if you decide to do some massive amounts of freestyle for a couple consecutive days.
it helps to set some goals and then cater your pooltime accordingly. Are you looking to swim for a set period of time (ie 1hr swim), open water swim, pool meet, etc? For example, 2 months ago, I was prepping for some open water swims and a pair of long distance pool races, so I did very little strokework, focusing mostly on long distance freestyle. What are you looking to do?
Former Member
I apologize - I am usually good about searching before asking, but I dropped the ball this time thinking the workouts were more for people who are proficient with the strokes...
I appreciate the advice and I will look more at the workouts section. I think the coach idea is good - I am in a class now but having more individual attention would help. And I would like to join masters at some point when I am a little further along.
I would recommend that you take a look at the workout section of this forum as well as search the forum for beginner workouts. Your question has been discussed in great detail in other threads.
Former Member
Some master clubs have some complete beginners. I have visited many where some could barely swim a length of the pool. So don't be shy. Give a city where you live and some one may be able to make a suggestion. If you lived in Yellownife NWT there is a swim club there and that is 20 miles from the Tundra (perma frost).
