Absent technique improvement, I am wondering if each swimmer has a ceiling that can never really be broken once a minimal amount of training has occurred. This is my theory based on my own swimming experience over the last year.
No matter how fast I flail my arms the result in the 50 free always seems to be the same - 28.5, 29.2, 28.7. Seems like a random result +- 0.5 seconds. :frustrated:
Can someone with those kinds of results ever eventually go 26 something just by training harder, doing more and more sprints, etc.. I would hope to hear that is a possibility even though I know I have some fundamental flaws.
Former Member
I completely disagree with this. If you continue to do something wrong over and over and over your body may adapt to it but certainly you won't see any improvement. It's not like driving a lot on a flat tire makes it magically repair itself. Proper training, proper technique, drilling and conscious effort leads to improvement, not the continued repetition of mistakes.
Unconscious inevitable improvement is an oxymoron. I've seen the same people do the same stroke with the same flaws for years and years and their times get slower and slower and slower.
Gotta agree with the Geek. As the saying goes, "practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect". If you do dozens of lazy FR flip turns every day, and hundreds every week, and thousands every month, there is NO way you will do a proper one in the one meet you swim every 8-12 weeks.
You need to ingrain good habits (don't breath out of turn, don't breath inside flags, take 4 SDKs off every wall, or - my favorite - do TWO handed BR turns every time) in practice so that you don't have to think about it when racing.
:2cents:
Well this AM I grinded through a test set of 16 x 50's all out on 3:00 (from a start). Ouch! I was pretty spent by the end. The whole workout was about 3300, but I feel like it was 6500.
I tried working on my dive (entry), breakout, breathing pattern (the same each time), and just holding my technique together.
I had a similar experience with a clinic I went to. I had a couple of coaches who really knew something point out some flaws in what I was doing with my freestyle, and I wound up taking about 1.7 seconds off my 50 after I did my best to incorporate their suggestions. I am still working on freestyle and I wind up going back to some bad habits when I get tired, but at least I start to realize what is going on. It is still a work in progress, but what was said above is correct: perfect practice makes perfect.
So if you're really stuck, go to a clinic and have someone take a hard look at your stroke. Then really try to incorporate those changes. It is not easy, but it is very interesting. Ande's tips are also really good -- there is a lot of very solid information there.
Best of luck!
