Solo Swimmers

It doesn't seem like that long ago not many girls/women could go a sub 1:00 in the 100 ***. This year at NCAAs 19 women did it in prelims! True, Lilly King gid a low 56 which was a top time for men in the 1970's. Guys could make nationals doing 59 in the 1970's. As for 1:06 breaststroke, well Ella Eastin spilit that in 1 400 I'm. It once was the American breastsroke record in 1972 by Kim Brecht,

Doc said I can do *** stroke and water aerobics. I guess I'll be taking bs lessons or floundering around in the shallow end for a while.

Hey, Solo Swimmers! Since we train by ourselves, we need to rely on various resources to learn stroke technique, dryland exercises to stay healthy; and, how to write workouts to suit our particular needs and goals. I find videos to be very helpful; however, I also have a few books I continue to use for reference, even after I read them cover to cover. Here are my favorites: Mastering Swimming, by Jim Montgomery and Mo Chambers Swimming Past 50, by Mel Goldstein and Dave Tanner Swimming Anatomy, by Ian McLeod My favorite instructional videos for stroke technique are from https://www.goswim.tv/home Sign up for a free subscription, and they will send you a video each day. My favorite videos for dryland exercises to keep my shoulders (and everything else!) healthy are on YouTube from physicaltherapyvideo . The intro to their videos is really cheesy, but these guys are good and know their stuff. I also recommend McKenzie Technique exercises. In the YouTube search box, type in "McKenzie Technique," and you will see the various options available. DeniseMW recommended this to me, because her physical therapist used this technique successfully on her. The exercises are very good. Treat Your Own Shoulder is a McKenzie Technique book I purchased on Amazon, and I do the exercises regularly. What resources (besides this website) have you all used that you can recommend? Are there any particular books or videos that you find yourself referring back to over and over?

Doc said I can do *** stroke and water aerobics. I guess I'll be taking bs lessons or floundering around in the shallow end for a while. I'm glad your surgery went well and you are making progress. I'm sorry to hear about the vertigo, though. Having Meniere's myself, I can relate! Regarding breaststroke, you may want to check out some videos on YouTube to learn proper technique. Total Immersion and Go Swim have good ones. I would recommend working on the pull and kick separately before getting caught up with trying to get the timing right. Good luck!

(I should introduce myself real quick! I'm Sola, I'm in my very early twenties, and since I started swimming behind all my peers, I am always training myself in hopes of catching up! I have a bundle of resources I use to keep me on track!) Books and Videos, "Self-Coaching", Technique, Training Swim Smooth (www.goodreads.com/.../13839162-swim-smooth), one of the best books on freestyle technique. Very easy and enjoyable to follow. YouTube accounts I've been using include Raw Alignment (general health, fitness, wellbeing), Effortless Swimming (technique and mental training), GoSwim (I like the YT account better because it's kind of annoying to only see one video at a time on the free version...), and theraceclub (drills and speed/technique tips). Workout Plans Generated workouts: Swimplan (https://swimplan.com/). Free to use, the paid version is worth it if you like it. I like this more than the USMS workouts because Swimplan asks for your times in each stroke and tailors the workouts to your speed. You customize every workout, choosing the yardage, stroke, and whether or not you'll use toys like fins or kickboards, or have drills vs. just swimming. Pre-written workouts: Websites or books about swimming often have a category set aside to provide workouts of different levels. I'm intending to look through YourSwimBook (www.yourswimlog.com/.../) as well as some other places for new workouts to follow. Motivational Splash!: Great Writing about Swimming (www.goodreads.com/.../82499.Splash. I can't tell you how many times I re-read "wet" by Laurie Colwin and "Water" by Maureen Stanton. Swimming Studies (www.goodreads.com/.../13585762-swimming-studies). This book is really poetic and I often take fragments from it to just think about throughout the day. It makes me really nostalgic for swim team in HS, which in turn makes me motivated to get right back to the pool. Dryland (www.goodreads.com/.../25397016-dryland) is another book I keep close to get the same bittersweet feeling. Swimming to Antarctica (www.goodreads.com/.../153727.Swimming_to_Antarctica). This makes all my "unrealistic" goals in swimming seem incredibly tiny and puts me in another perspective. Clicks (www.goodreads.com/.../17596261-clicks). Science fiction and swimming, my personal indulgence. I only put it here to share that for me at least, being imaginative and telling stories around swimming makes me love swimming more. Organizational Printable calendar, including swim schedule. Unless you swim in your backyard, your main pool facility probably posts a monthly calendar showing operating hours, closures, and special events like a meet or maintenance day. (Here's an example from Google Images: www.spartaparks.com/.../junecalendar.jpg) I print and hang this calendar where I can see it every day, so I know well in advance when my main pool is closed or open. Every time I swim, I put a checkmark on the date, and every month I try to get a certain amount of checkmarks. Log or journal, which in addition of normal diary-style entries could include tools such as outlining or re-outlining your goals, recording how much effort you felt you put into the day's practice, important footnotes on your overall health, and visualizing how you think your next swim will go. I prefer having it digital instead of handwritten, just remember to back it up! Activity tracker or "pedometer" for swimming. I received a Moov Now as a Christmas gift a few years back and I would recommend activity trackers to swimmers who stray from written workouts or keeping track of counting laps, especially if the distance they swim each day is relevant to their overall goals.

This is great stuff, Sola! Thanks for your contribution. I will check out your references for sure! I already read Swimming to Antartica, and I highly recommend it as an inspirational read. My mom gave me an autographed copy of it along with Lynne Cox's other book, Grayson. When I was a kid, I used to watch Lynne Cox train in front of the beach house my family rented during the summer. She would run in the deep soft sand and swim along the buoy line. I greatly admired Lynne and followed her career from her first Catalina Channel swim. She sure was an inspiration!

I just got back from the spine doctor and she told me to give up swimming. She said it's going to continue hurting my shoulder and it's not natural for people to be in the water so whatever I do is distorting my body. I'm so depressed the only thing I want right now is a huge chunk of cake. Even trying to tell her I'm aligned when I swim was like watching water roll off a duck's back. Then she went on to say it could be worse that we're only talking about a change in my exercise and not some terrible disease. I was stunned and walked away wondering if she has ever even been in the water or watched a good swimmer (which I'm not but hey). And cycling is out because it's an unnatural position, so I'm supposed to stick to the recumbant and walking and the elliptical but no arm motion. Oh, and she took x-rays and I have degenerative spine disease so I'm headed for another MRI. Pfffffffft on today. Sorry. I just needed to vent.:censor: Why did the doctor say it’s not “natural” for you to be in the water?

Why did the doctor say it’s not “natural” for you to be in the water? I'm a bit confused here. When was this thread posted by Denise? Last I have read she was recovering from successful shoulder surgery.

Hi, Dan: That was posted more than a year ago. I did indeed see a doc who didn't know squat about swimming. I had surgery on my right shoulder back in January (nothing to do with swimming, torn supraspinatus with a bone spur). I think mikeh found that old post and wondered why she told me to quit swimming. Mikeh, that doc was an idiot. She was a runner and didn't have any idea about swimming although she was supposed to be a sports medicine specialist. I only went to her because I'd moved to another state and was still having neck/shoulder issues which the therapist cleared up. I went back to my original bone doc/ He said to ignore her and keep swimming. BTW a friend had the same supraspinatus tear and he's never been in the water. From what I've seen bad shoulders and bone spurs run in the family.

Cleared to swim.:banana: :applaud::applaud::applaud: