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.phpwww.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.phpwww.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
I'll do it. I can't afford to buy and use a tech suit every week, but I'll take my dragsuit off for the tests. I'll start next week, and I'm looking forward to it!
Edit - I read the post incorrectly (it's late) so scratch that statement about the tech suit every week.
Don't get sucked into thinking that good Breaststroke splits in IM are only a direct result of improved Breaststroke. How you swim the Fly and Back legs have a lot more to do with your *** splits. Using too much legs prior to Breaststroke will kill even the best Breaststroke swimmer. So while imporving your *** is always a good thing, don't ignore improving your Fly and Back and also train to swim the 2IM and 4IM properly.
Then agian, this is coming from a self professed sprinter so take that as you will.
my son came back a few weeks ago from the Zone meet in Atlanta and was laughing about his assigned 15-18 coach. My son has figured out the pace he needs in the fly leg of the 400 IM to swim the race effectively. He told the coach not to panic if he is trailing after fly that he will begin to make it up on back, then catch up on *** and finish strong on free. He knows that swimming the fly too fast will kill his breaststroke. Anyway, the coach told him that he should not have that attitude and that he should be trying to lead after the fly. Obviously, he ignored that and did a best time. I fully agree with your assessment. Fred
I'm in, but I have a meet in 4 weeks and it's only 10 weeks until my next "big" meet.
so i will do a quick 4 week training and then a 6 week training after that. can do my first test this sunday. we have increased our pool time on sundays from 90 minutes to 2 hrs.
the first 4 weeks i will work on my free speed. since that meet I will be swimming all strokes.
BUT the second 6 weeks will be breatstroke. Since I had already planned on concentrating on getting a good 200 *** time, I will incorperate the 12x25's just after warm up. will be interesting to see how my 50-100 -200 times will be. it's always hard to compare LCM to SCM but here are my last two "race" times
50 scm 33,42
50 lcm 34,57
100 scm 1:15,20
100 lcm 1:16.87
200 scm 2:47.91 (actually swam at end of practice to get an entry time)
200 lcm 2:53.23
my goals for Nov SCM are 32.99, 1:13.50, 2:40.99
if you're training for the 200 & 400 IM
you pretty much need to be able to swim anything from a 50 to a 500
focus on sprints and speed
focus on middle distance fr and breastroke
in your 200 IM you were
out in 62.56 = 29.16 + 33.40
back in 73.28 = 40.85 + 32.43
so there was a 10.72 second difference between
your first 100 and your 2nd 100
work to get those much closer by
1) developing more speed so you can use easy speed and have more left over at the 100
2) making a better splitting choice
try saving your legs on fly and back, work the *** and sprint the free
3) getting in better condition to rock on the way home
drop that 40.8 by as much as possible, get that 32.4 under 30
good luck
keep us posted
ande
From our state meet last SCY season, untapered + at altitude:
200 IM:
Cox, Michael 30 BeeGees 2:25.00 2:15.84
29.16 33.40 40.85 32.43
400 IM:
Cox, Michael 30 BeeGees 4:56.69
31.16 34.50
36.15 36.44
42.39 43.03
36.28 36.74
I realize that my free split also needs to improve. I'm going to take probably at least 1-2 training cycles (1/2 - 1 year) on improving each stroke then re-integrating. I'm starting with *** because it's the one that I should be able to PB in the easiest (PB: 1:09/2:27 100/200 br). Last year after 3 months back in the water I went (1:11/2:30).
I like the idea of doing the 150 IM test every 4th week, with breaststroke 25 / 50 timed tests on the 1 - 3 weeks of each mini cycle.
you don't need to buy a new tech suit evey week
but it's good to have one or 2
best value for your $ is probably the FS PRO Legs or hineck
I'll do it. I can't afford to buy and use a tech suit every week, but I'll take my dragsuit off for the tests. I'll start next week, and I'm looking forward to it!
Edit - I read the post incorrectly (it's late) so scratch that statement about the tech suit every week.
Hey RYKNO
good luck
hope you swim faster faster
let us know
ande
I'm in, but I have a meet in 4 weeks and it's only 10 weeks until my next "big" meet.
so i will do a quick 4 week training and then a 6 week training after that. can do my first test this sunday. we have increased our pool time on sundays from 90 minutes to 2 hrs.
the first 4 weeks i will work on my free speed. since that meet I will be swimming all strokes.
BUT the second 6 weeks will be breatstroke. Since I had already planned on concentrating on getting a good 200 *** time, I will incorperate the 12x25's just after warm up. will be interesting to see how my 50-100 -200 times will be. it's always hard to compare LCM to SCM but here are my last two "race" times
50 scm 33,42
50 lcm 34,57
100 scm 1:15,20
100 lcm 1:16.87
200 scm 2:47.91 (actually swam at end of practice to get an entry time)
200 lcm 2:53.23
my goals for Nov SCM are 32.99, 1:13.50, 2:40.99
Absolutely
Lactate sets are great, they are critical for speed, speed endurance, and mental toughness. They take you to how you will feel when you race.
Become lactation specialists, uh lactate specialists
It's also good to do some lactate sets every once in while. Something like 6x 50 all out on 5 minutes. This will help you hold your top speed for a longer periode of time.
It's also good to do some lactate sets every once in while. Something like 6x 50 all out on 5 minutes. This will help you hold your top speed for a longer periode of time.
