Help My Speed is Horrible!

Since there is Help my Flutter Kick is Horrible and Help my SDK is Horrible I decided to begin Help My Speed is Horrible! a thread for swimmers who want to dramatically improve their 25 speed and times Help My Speed is Horrible! is a Sprint improvement program If you do it consistently you should dramatically improve your 25 swimming time. When you improve your 25 speed you'll improve your times in all swimming distances especially 50's, 100's, & 200's even 400, 500, 800, 1,000, 1,500 & 1,650 times will benefit. Here's the Program for "Help My Speed is Horrible" Begin with testing figure out your starting point. Where are you now? Then train Then retest Test Get your times on the following swims 1) 15 meters 2) 25 3) 50 4) 75 & 5) 100 Test the 15, 25, & 50 on one day then the 75 & 100 on a different day put plenty of rest between each timed effort like a very easy 75 or 125 or 175 then 3 to 7 more minutes of rest put more rest between the longer sprints also note The suit you wore Your start: how did you start each swim (roll, push, or coaches go, ) dive from a block or side push from in the water Use a STOPWATCH tell the timer how you want them to time you Report your Results in this thread Training 1) do this set 2 or 3 times a week, 12 x 25 swim 3 EASY recovery concentrating on perfect form 1 as fast as possible for time YOU MUST GO SUPER FAST ON THESE IF YOU HOLD BACK AT ALL YOU'RE WASTING YOUR TIME preferably no breath, unless your 25 time is over 20 or 25 seconds It's OK to do more working out, just fit this set in some where in your workouts, be consistent, one round is better than none 2) Test every Friday or Saturday 1) 3 weeks of 15, 25, & 50 2) 1 week of 25, 75 & 100 3) work on improving your flutter kick and SDK www.usms.org/.../showpost.php www.usms.org/.../showpost.php if you're working on your swimming speed, SDK and Flutter kick do 2 x (4 x 25) swim 2 x (4 x 25) flutter kick 2 x (4 x 25) SDK 4) stretch your feet / ankles to improve your toe point 5) Lift weights to improve your strength power and speed 2 or 3 times a week 6) get a tech suit www.usms.org/.../showpost.php www.usms.org/.../showpost.php 7) perfect your swimming technique pushoff streamline SDK head position body position arm motions leg motions touching the wall (the clock doesn't stop until you touch the wall) 8) Train and test for 5 weeks then Rest one week, reduce your yardage Mon 2 x 4 x 25 Tue easy Wed 4 x 25 Thu easy Friday or Saturday TEST wearing a tech suit Report your results 9) begin another 6 week cycle Report your test results in this fashion (put most recent times on top) 8/10/08: 23.48 7/26: 25.92 7/6: 24.94 7/2: 25.45 5/10: 25.55 4/4: 27.18 3/29: 26.27 3/22: 27.62 3/15: 27.12 3/8: 28.0 3/1: 30.2 You should begin to see dramatic improvements in your 25 speed. I look forward to reading your results. Let me know if you accept this challenge Give it a try and see what happens Don't be fooled by how simple it is. Are you in?
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Hello Radu You should work on your stroke efficiency. You need 28 strokes on a 25 meter, that is way to much. If you count the achieved time to it, it is 28 + 16 = 44. I can do a 50 in 29 seconds, but only need 16 strokes on a 25. When I see your kicking, your ankles seem a bit stiff. They act like barriers in the water instead of being propulsive. (specially in the underwater phase) On youtube you will find some excercises to loosen your ankles a bit up Succes!! Will you be attending the european ch in Eindhoven in 2013? Thanks for the advice, I've been working on my ankle flexibility since I started Ande's program (in September). I do 10-20 minutes of stretching each day, and I hope it will work in time. Regarding efficiency, I can see I'm spinning pretty much in place, I'll try to improve it. I can decrease the stroke count if I swim slowly - like 18 strokes on a 25m - but it goes up when sprinting all out. And if I don't go all-out the times increase. I'd really like to go to Eindhoven, but that depends if I make my qualifying time - 29.5 in the 50 free for the 30-34 age group. Radu
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    It looks like you,are dropping your elbows on the pull.Either EVF(high elbows) or straighter arm (windmill) would be faster. Thanks, I'll probably try straight arm, it seems easier to learn it than to correct a bad habit. Though EVF would pay off for longer distances as well.