A funny thing happened to me today, at least its funny to me. While I was at the pool during open swim there was this what looked to be highschool team (swam year around) drilling. When I finished my sets the coach who was there approached me and said, "You a swimmer?" I kinda laughed and said "No, not at all." He then looks at me and says, "Well you sure work hard for not being a swimmer." We then discussed that I was a junior in college and he told me I should try out for the swim team. Turns out he coaches highschool and coached college teams around my area and was watching me breifly while I was swimming. As you can see by the title of the thread he pointed out that I have no lungs and I have no legs, which is correct and I have been trying to work on those two attributes for awhile. He went on to say that with a few minor adjustments to my freestyle and with some proper training I could scare some people (I don't know if he was being serious or what but he sure looked it).
I haven't been swimming for all that long (about 8 months or so, only being serious for about 5 months) and have never been coach, so I kinda laughed at the idea of me being a college (D3) swimmer.
So I come here to ask you fine swimmers how could I improve in these two areas? I know theres the "Help my flutter kick is horrible" thread but I haven't found much on how to increase lung capicity and would like to hear some tricks/drills that may help me breath easier/last longer while swimming. One thing that bothers me as well, whenever I swim a long set (like 100's for me) the back of my neck bothers me. I don't know if it's because I'm not relaxed or because my head is to high but it cramps up sometimes.
Sorry for the long winded post, I just thought it was a funny story and would like to share it with you all while asking for advice :)
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I smoke a cigar every so often but I used to run a lot before I picked up swimming. In my mind I think it's the whole "plan when you have to breathe" thing that kills me. I'll have to devote some sessions just to doing sets that vary my breathing patterns it seems.
My head is rather up but not to the point where I can see out of the water. I try not to look at the bottom because then I feel like I'm going really slow:cane: It's weird.
I am not a big believer in breath control training. Just breath every other for the bulk of your workouts, and only worry about breath control during short sprints with lots of rest. As long as your are breathing hard frequently during practice, you are pushing yourself to improve your VO2 max no matter how many times you breath.
Sounds like adjusting your head position is just a mental game for you. You will figure it out eventually.
I smoke a cigar every so often but I used to run a lot before I picked up swimming. In my mind I think it's the whole "plan when you have to breathe" thing that kills me. I'll have to devote some sessions just to doing sets that vary my breathing patterns it seems.
My head is rather up but not to the point where I can see out of the water. I try not to look at the bottom because then I feel like I'm going really slow:cane: It's weird.
I am not a big believer in breath control training. Just breath every other for the bulk of your workouts, and only worry about breath control during short sprints with lots of rest. As long as your are breathing hard frequently during practice, you are pushing yourself to improve your VO2 max no matter how many times you breath.
Sounds like adjusting your head position is just a mental game for you. You will figure it out eventually.
