I mostly swim freestyle, actually ... I only swim freestyle. I'm thinking it would be good to throw in a few others, mainly *** and back (forget fly). How much time should I dedicate to these strokes outside of my regular freestyle sets?
Cheers,
Eric
Former Member
The backstroke will fill up your sinuses with water, avoid at all costs.
Billy Fanstone, I damn nearly snorted coffee all over my computer when I read that!
That's just how I feel about backstroke. I don't care much for breaststroke, either. I train free and fly almost exclusively with free making up about 80 percent (and sometimes more) of my workout.
Like inflictfreedom I also wonder whether I should be doing more of the other strokes, or not. Not for racing purposes, mind you. I am only interested in them to the extent that they help me out with my freestyle. I wonder if I did more of the other strokes, would they improve aerobic capacity? Would training the other strokes, perhaps, make me a stronger and faster freestyler?
I like doing all the strokes (even side stroke, on rare occasions) because I feel I work more muscles that way. Plus, it keeps things interesting. I feel that each stroke adds a little something to the others.
If I did nothing but front crawl, I would kill myself. Don't get me wrong, I love front crawl, but if I couldn't mix it up a little, it would be so boring. When we do anything over a 200 FR, I start to get bored around the 75 yard mark, and it's even worse knowing I'm not even halfway done.
I mostly swim freestyle, actually ... I only swim freestyle. I'm thinking it would be good to throw in a few others, mainly *** and back (forget fly). How much time should I dedicate to these strokes outside of my regular freestyle sets?
Cheers,
Eric
If you are a specialty swimmer and truly only swimming freestyle I would say to do about 85 - 90% of your workout in freestyle and throw a couple of odd strokes in there every now and then just to add some muscle variation.
Yeah ... it's tough to be creative at 5:30 am.
One thing you can do is set up a week's worth of stuff ahead of time, with some agenda or theme for the week. This has always worked for me.
Examples include drilling various parts of the stroke, developing "cross-over" drills that force you to think (like freestyle pull utilizing a dolphin kick, corkscrew swims, alternate breathing sides/breathing locations).
I would think your 3*500 would get boring, although therre are times I have done similar workouts.
It's easy to just fall into a routine and stick with it.
I think that's the case with a lot of swimmers, though! They fall into a set routine and don't get enough variation and excitement in the workout (just my opinion as a coach).
Yeah ... it's tough to be creative at 5:30 am.
Ha! You're telling me; this is exactly why I write the workouts at night for my swimmers. I cannot and will not force myself to be creative that early in the morning!
Mostly I was thinking that throwing other strokes in would help stretching and possibly help prevent over use and shoulder problems, also it might keep things a bit more fun/interesting. Freestyle is a bit boring, and i've gotten used to what I do. It's easy to just fall into a routine and stick with it.
Lots of great advice, thanks.
One thing you can do is set up a week's worth of stuff ahead of time, with some agenda or theme for the week.
Hmm, ha ha ... themed swimming sounds fun. Maybe pirate drills ... put on an eye patch and swim across everyone's lane yelling "Gar!" underwater. Eventually it's a dry-land routine as I run away.
