SPL

Thanks. That's definately one drill that's already on my list.

how much do you breathe in a 50 now? you might be able to drop some decent time with cutting down your breaths if they are excessive.

how much do you breathe in a 50 now? you might be able to drop some decent time with cutting down your breaths if they are excessive. 1 down 2 back. Working towards making that only 2 back. Paul

1 down 2 back. Working towards making that only 2 back. Paul lookin good there!! :) I guess with sprinting you have a fine line to thread between SPL and your turn over rate. Do you do any VO2 type sets (10x25 on .30 and 4 x50 on 60) where you concentrate on maintaining a consistent stroke and breath count for all repeats?

lookin good there!! :) I guess with sprinting you have a fine line to thread between SPL and your turn over rate. Do you do any VO2 type sets (10x25 on .30 and 4 x50 on 60) where you concentrate on maintaining a consistent stroke and breath count for all repeats? Yeah, we do those occasionally in practice. I'm just looking for ways to refine my stroke. Guess I need to actually CON-CEN-TRATE on emphasizing proper technique in practice instead of just trying to survive the set without :drown:. One thing I am going to do is sit down with my team's coach and plan some workouts. The only problem is that we have a fairly large team but not a lot of the team competes. So it's difficult to do aynthing out of the ordinary during a team workout. So anything really specialized will have to be swum solo during lap swim UGH. Paul

Paul, I know our team has a spl test. I will find out what it entails (I was told last weekend that I need to take it) and let you know. I know it's something you do fresh in the water. THen once you have the base, the trick is speeding up your rotation while not losing technique. Alison

Thanks, Alison!!!!

I'm going tomorrow and the coach might have me do the test. If not, maybe Sat morning. Alison

Admittedly, I'm a novice at all this, but I found a great stroke reduction when I tried combining catch-up drill with a high-elbow (fingertip drag) drill; at the same time. I found a rythym and flow that kept me stretching long, rolling properly, and maintaining streamline for longer. For what its worth...

Guess I need to actually CON-CEN-TRATE on emphasizing proper technique in practice instead of just trying to survive the set without :drown:. YEP!!! My thoughts: 1) Stroke drills!!! Get these from coach, other swimmers, videos. If you're not doing at least 25% of practice time on drills, go do them on your own. You can't over drill but they have to be done correctly. 2) Work on streamline. IMO, this is the single easiest means of improving your stoke and time. 3) Work on kicking (without a board) on your stomach, side, and back. Free, fly, and back! 4) Integrate that into SDK! (steamlined dolphin kick) You have 15 meters before you have to actually start swimming in Bk, Fr, and Fly. But, SDK without maintaining speed is counter productive so work on kick first. If you are taking 17/23 stokes per 50m, your stoke isn't very efficient. For someone your height and wingspan, 14/18 is certainly not unreasonable and with lots of work it could be lower than that. I'm 6' tall with a 6' wingspan and definitely NOT a freestyler but I'm about 11/12 in a SCY pool. If you are swimming without proper technique you are just making the matter worse. Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do in the short term to gain something we do want for the long term. My suggestion would be to work privately with your coach or other knowledgeable swimmer than focus on keeping that technique in practice. Our LMSC (spma.net) has a video lending library that you can rent videos from. They are great for drills and technique. Contact Julie Heather. Hope that helps, Allen