Hey, solo swimmers! :wave: Welcome to the thread for all of us who train solo. Whether you train on your own due to a lack of a Masters team in your area (or for any other reason), this is our virtual locker room. Please post training tips that you think would be helpful, or anything else you would like to share with the rest of us. Have a rant? Go ahead and vent here! :rantonoff:
I'll start with a tip:
The most frustrating thing for me training solo is not having a coach on deck to evaluate my stroke and keep me on track, so I bought a waterproof camera and enlisted the help of my husband to periodically shoot video of all four strokes. Shooting underwater video became a knee/back buster, so I bought a camera mount and attached it to PVC pipe, so my husband could stand up straight to shoot underwater video. The camera gets dunked underwater, and he twists the pipe to pan the camera as I swim by.
Today, I bought a 2-pack of 12-inch "Gear Tie" reusable rubber twist ties (available at Home Depot), so I can tie the PVC pipe to the pool ladder (located in the corner of the pool) and shoot video myself. (If I angle the camera just right and keep it on wide angle, I can video me coming and going.)
10687
After each video session, I upload the videos to my desktop computer and compare my stroke to my favorite Go Swim stroke videos to see what I'm doing well (or not). I also post them on the Forums for feedback.
Ok, solo swimmers, what's your tip?
Hopefully the noodler was sculling and not skulling. And while it used to bug me that noodlers were taking up valuable pool space, I’m now of the belief that anyone getting exercise in the water is doing a good thing!
As for no T’s or crosses at the turns, I suggest bringing a couple of diving bricks to place in the corners as reference points. Or if you have a few extra bucks, invest in a Pace Pal, you can put it in the pool as a turn reference point and a pace clock.
4 feet at the ends and 5 in the middle, that’s deeper than the Y I swim at. Count yourself lucky!
As for the Ga Tech engineer, my son was a “Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer…” also a decent swimmer on their team. I’m sure he’d design a pool that was unswimmable, just to spite us. And, it seems like most pools get designed to be Olympic ready, but through budget cuts the end up being a Motel 6 kidney bean.
Hey, now. If your son was truly a Helluvanengineer, then you oughtta know we don't spell very well! I'm not knocking the guy, I agree with you. I just seemed to have created an expectation among some others that I'll throw in a little bit of humor in my posts based on a thread I started about moving from lap swimming to workouts. But I digress.
I'm getting better at finding the end of the pool. I have used fins as position markers in the past. And there are lines on the bottom of the pool. But I'm not consistent enough yet to do a flip turn without seeing the wall, itself, in front of me. Depth perception is lacking without something contrasting in front of me. What I have found is that if I get the lane with ladders on both ends, those are the best markers for me.
The depth. Wasn't a complaint. The point was the drains. They are huge and move a lot of water relative to the size of teh pool. And most of the time when you see drains like that, they are in deep water, or in the middle of the pool. Here they are at one end. So it is like I'm swimming in a river. In one direction, with the flow, the other direction, against the flow.
When was your son at Tech? Got my Bachelors in 97, so I was there when they were building the pool (and swam in a bubbled pool before, until I broke my ankle which ended my swimming), and my Masters in 2000. Didn't know any swimmers, though.
Hopefully the noodler was sculling and not skulling. And while it used to bug me that noodlers were taking up valuable pool space, I’m now of the belief that anyone getting exercise in the water is doing a good thing!
As for no T’s or crosses at the turns, I suggest bringing a couple of diving bricks to place in the corners as reference points. Or if you have a few extra bucks, invest in a Pace Pal, you can put it in the pool as a turn reference point and a pace clock.
4 feet at the ends and 5 in the middle, that’s deeper than the Y I swim at. Count yourself lucky!
As for the Ga Tech engineer, my son was a “Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer…” also a decent swimmer on their team. I’m sure he’d design a pool that was unswimmable, just to spite us. And, it seems like most pools get designed to be Olympic ready, but through budget cuts the end up being a Motel 6 kidney bean.
Hey, now. If your son was truly a Helluvanengineer, then you oughtta know we don't spell very well! I'm not knocking the guy, I agree with you. I just seemed to have created an expectation among some others that I'll throw in a little bit of humor in my posts based on a thread I started about moving from lap swimming to workouts. But I digress.
I'm getting better at finding the end of the pool. I have used fins as position markers in the past. And there are lines on the bottom of the pool. But I'm not consistent enough yet to do a flip turn without seeing the wall, itself, in front of me. Depth perception is lacking without something contrasting in front of me. What I have found is that if I get the lane with ladders on both ends, those are the best markers for me.
The depth. Wasn't a complaint. The point was the drains. They are huge and move a lot of water relative to the size of teh pool. And most of the time when you see drains like that, they are in deep water, or in the middle of the pool. Here they are at one end. So it is like I'm swimming in a river. In one direction, with the flow, the other direction, against the flow.
When was your son at Tech? Got my Bachelors in 97, so I was there when they were building the pool (and swam in a bubbled pool before, until I broke my ankle which ended my swimming), and my Masters in 2000. Didn't know any swimmers, though.
