Hey gang, we leave Tuesday for 18 days to "work" on a couple of back-to-back Alaskan cruises (I teach adult arts & crafts classes aboard ship.). When I was training for Nationals, I was SURE that by the time I finished Nationals, I would want to take those 18 days off from swimming to rest my shoulders and just do dryland work. But, after many bad nights of sleep in a row (heat intolerance issues at Nationals), I did a crash and burn last night (thanks to 2 Tylenol PM), and had an awesome workout at the pool. I had forgotten, after 31 years, how GOOD it felt to do a hard post-taper swim! :bliss:I feel great and started mourning the loss of pool access during my travels, until I remembered the ship's tiny indoor pool! :D I obviously won't be able to "swim", but I CAN do drills... I'm thinking the feet first scull, kicking with my hands up against the wall, egg beater kick, and, ??? For various reasons, I won't be purchasing and bringing a tether or any other eqt. besides my suit and goggles. So, if you can recommend drills based on the size of the pool, I would greatly appreciate it. Below is a photo I shot of the pool last year, while working aboard ship.
Thanks! And, happy travels to any of you who have summer travel plans, as well. :)
P.S. I don't have a laptop (or fancy phone), so I'll be off the forums during my travels- unless I pop into an internet cafe. I'll miss you guys!
when I went to India for work, usually 3 weeks at a time, I took a swim belt with me, roughly 5m long, and did resistence swimming.
in the picture it looked like there were several things you could tie up to and swim in place.
maybe 5m is too long, but you could always tie it off shorter.
try interval training 30 sec on 10sec rest or 1:00 on 10 rest.
when I went to India for work, usually 3 weeks at a time, I took a swim belt with me, roughly 5m long, and did resistence swimming.
in the picture it looked like there were several things you could tie up to and swim in place.
maybe 5m is too long, but you could always tie it off shorter.
try interval training 30 sec on 10sec rest or 1:00 on 10 rest.
Thanks, Rykno, but you may of missed in my post that for various reasons, I won't be purchasing/ bringing a tether (swim belt) or any other eqt. with me besides suit and goggles. Any other ideas? Thanks!
Cruise ship pools really test the adage that some swimming is better than nothing. And yet it's still true. If the ship has an outdoor pool, then on an Alaskan cruise when it's windy, raining, and/or cold, you can count on being able to get in there with no one else to bother you. (It's a heated pool! Weather is not a problem! But don't tell anyone else that... it's your secret!) Use the other exercise equipment on board to get a full workout. A measly 500 yards in a cruise ship pool will feel like plenty. 1000 yards will really test your patience. But it's much better than nothing.
Whenever I go to hotels where the pool is tiny and sucks, I use that to practice my kick. Which is a frantic kick across the pool with no push off as fast as physically possible.
-Michael P.
Elaine...hmm forget drill in the pool have the Capt. assign you a watcher...jump over the side and keep up with the ship...simple really...
:bolt:
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr! :eek: :shakeshead::whiteflag: :drown:
Cruise ship pools really test the adage that some swimming is better than nothing. And yet it's still true. If the ship has an outdoor pool, then on an Alaskan cruise when it's windy, raining, and/or cold, you can count on being able to get in there with no one else to bother you. (It's a heated pool! Weather is not a problem! But don't tell anyone else that... it's your secret!) Use the other exercise equipment on board to get a full workout. A measly 500 yards in a cruise ship pool will feel like plenty. 1000 yards will really test your patience. But it's much better than nothing.
I don't think they even keep the outdoor pool open on the Alaskan run, so I don't believe that would be an option. But, the indoor pool will be available. I'm always a gym rat on cruises and take advantage of the eqt. fully, so I will definitely be in there on sea days. On port days, I walk until I drop! The other key to surviving a cruise: ALWAYS take the stairs, rather than the elevator. It keeps the legs fit and keeps the weight from piling on. I have never gained weight on a cruise (I've worked on 33 of them) and I usually lose a pound, even though I don't diet. :D
Whenever I go to hotels where the pool is tiny and sucks, I use that to practice my kick. Which is a frantic kick across the pool with no push off as fast as physically possible.
-Michael P.
Maybe I should see how many breaststroke turns I can fit in on one breath, before I run out of air! :cool:
For a good free drill, do closed fist swimming. Simply do free but ball up your hands into fists. You won't move as fast and it works on getting the feel of your pull out of the forearms alone rather than the whole hand.
Skulling is good but don't limit it to feet first. Work on each part of the stroke as a skull. it's nice and slow so a short pool seems longer when doing this.
Do wall kicking with hands on the side of the pool like 45seconds kick and 15 sec rest, etc.
Vertical kicking if the pool is deep enough. 15 seconds elbows out of the water, 30 seconds armpits out of the water. 15 seconds rest. Edit intervals to your ability.
In the shallow end do jumps. Lock your hands above or behind your head, crouch down under the water, then blast up out of the water, and immediately get back in the crouched position. Do this repeatedly for an interval time (45 sec and 15 rest?). REALLY works the pushoffs for the wall/start and is useful for a breaststroker too. You should be in chest to stomach-deep water and blast off so you get your knees out of the water or close. This one is surprisingly tiresome.
Another one, Stand in the pool facing a wall. Do a pushup on the side of the pool such that you end up with your legs in the water, and hands on the deck outstretched straight holding you half out of the water. With your hands only, walk hand over hand around the outside of the pool with your feet dangling beneath. Not quite sure what muscle group works on but I always found it hard to do. A canadian olympic coach came to one of our practices back in like 1997 and claims that all members of their olympic team do this twice around the pool every day. I had a hard time making it 25 yards without dropping back into the pool to rest. I still have my doubts whether or not the guy was really an olympic coach since he just showed up one day, but it sure is hard and works the hell out of the arms.
EXCELLENT!!! :applaud::applaud::applaud:
Now that I see the picture... hook your feet over the ladder when you do the closed fist free. You won't be pulling hard enough to make the feet hurt either.
However, I know when people from work have to go "work" on a cruise ship they're not allowed to go above deck! Hopefully that's not the case for you.
Thanks so much for taking the time to offer all these great drills to do! I can't wait to give them a try!
Lucky me, when I "work" on the cruise ships, I am considered a "guest lecturer" and have passenger status. That means, I get a passenger cabin, eat in the dining room, and have the run of the ship. The only thing I can't do is gamble or participate in games with prizes; no biggie for me! :D
