Greetings!
This is my first post so bear with me as I give a little history...
I am 43 and a professional musician. I swam USMS in the 80s. I was competitive all through high school (graduated in '78), I was an ocean guard for 6 years on beautiful Nantucket Island, I coached HS swimming and taught advanced lifesaving and water safety for several years.
I am recovering from a 4 year illness and began swimming again in November. A year ago I could barely walk let alone swim. Now I swim 4x/wk in a 25 yd indoor pool. My top yardage to date is 4000.
My current workout goes something like this...
(all free)
1000 warmup (average 20 minutes)
2x500 (1 without and 1 with paddles)
5x200 "Lungbusters" (3-5-7-5) - tough cause I have asthma!
5x100 on 2 minutes
6x50 on 1 minute
200 warm down
I have always tried to go from distance to sprints in all my workouts.
Now the catch - I had back problems and got used to pulling my entire workouts. I am trying to break the habit. I just bought Vertex II short blade training fins as a start. I am fairly tight in my build so I have to be careful not to do any damage as I try and get my kicks back.
I would appreciate feedback on my workouts as well as advice on my kick training. I am very self motivated but have as a goal to rejoin USMS in the near future.
It is great to have access to this wonderful forum and I hope to see you all at meets in the future!
Parents
Former Member
Ted,
This represents the Total Immersion school of thought, which some people like, and some do not, but almost ALL of your head should be underwater. Look down, at the lane lines on the bottom of the pool (rather than the cross at the end), and feel like water could wash over the back of your head. If you'd like to know why, go to the Articles section of this web site (www.usms.org/.../technique.htm) and read "Air & Gravity" by Emmett Hines.
Another tip: the key point here is not so much to put your head under the water (the absurd exaggeration would be to put your chin on your chest), but to lean on your lungs so that, like a life preserver, they force your hips to float. If you are doing it properly, you should be able to do a pull set (no kicking) without any kind of a pull buoy.
Welcome back, and happy laps,
Matt
Ted,
This represents the Total Immersion school of thought, which some people like, and some do not, but almost ALL of your head should be underwater. Look down, at the lane lines on the bottom of the pool (rather than the cross at the end), and feel like water could wash over the back of your head. If you'd like to know why, go to the Articles section of this web site (www.usms.org/.../technique.htm) and read "Air & Gravity" by Emmett Hines.
Another tip: the key point here is not so much to put your head under the water (the absurd exaggeration would be to put your chin on your chest), but to lean on your lungs so that, like a life preserver, they force your hips to float. If you are doing it properly, you should be able to do a pull set (no kicking) without any kind of a pull buoy.
Welcome back, and happy laps,
Matt
