I'm an au-pair in Germany, and the daily afternoon cake-and-coffee is starting to hit... I love swimming, and did a few seasons during high school. Hopefully, I'll be able to continue at my university (Div-III), when I start college next semester.
What I need, however, is to first get back into swimming shape. There's a lovely little 8-lane, 25-m pool about 5 minutes away. Facilities are not a problem. The other swimmers are :rolleyes:
The vast majority of the swimmers there are nice little German grannies, who believe that the afternoon coffee talks should be continued in the pool....the hair never gets wet, and I've seen one or two with their glasses still on. The idea of lanes and circular swimming has not yet hit.
It's frankly impossible to swim as a normal speed without zig-zagging all over, or causing some major accidents. So, ending this book, does anyone know of anything that I can do fairly slowly that won't ruin any technique I might still have? It would be nice to still be able to swim fast and decent in those rare times when the pool is empty. I've been doing a lot of pulls and kick sets, and catch-ups...but they're getting pretty old. Other drills? Or something else? Anything with times would be excellent, as I do best when I have either another person or a clock to work against. There's a Deutschland Masters Swimmer I see once or twice a week at the pool, but he's going to internationals...a bit out of my leauge.
Parents
Former Member
I am headed to a German pool the minute I am done with this email. I have been struggling with your very issue for 8 months: fabulous facilities full of very slow people doing breaststroke in random directions. I recommend the following:
1) Try to figure out if there are times when the pool is less crowded. Here it is always somewhat crowded, but it is best around 3pm (i.e., between lunch break and when people get off from work) and early on weekend mornings.
2) Avoid frustration by not planning a workout in advance. Go with what the crowd gives you. If you get lucky and the pool thins out for awhile, work hard. If it's really thick do slow drills.
3) As for drills, I find freestyle or backstroke kicking to be the slowest useful activity. Then there's breaststroke kick or pull, or one-armed fly, or the catch-up stuff you've been doing. I also do a lot of min-stroke-per-length work, and breathing games (e.g., swim 200 or 400 or whatever, not very fast, but breathing every 3 on the first length, every 4 on the second, and so on, until I can't go any higher, and then I bring it back down. The trick for me is not getting bored while not being able to do real sets, so I still think in terms of reps (5 x 200 or whatever), even though it's very rare that I'm doing them on the clock or even able to swim (as opposed to doing the various drills).
4) If I had to do it all over again, I think I would look for a team or Schwimmverein that I could practice with. Maybe there's one near you ...
Best of luck -- I'm headed back Stateside next week, and though I'll miss Germany I can't wait for my American pool!
I am headed to a German pool the minute I am done with this email. I have been struggling with your very issue for 8 months: fabulous facilities full of very slow people doing breaststroke in random directions. I recommend the following:
1) Try to figure out if there are times when the pool is less crowded. Here it is always somewhat crowded, but it is best around 3pm (i.e., between lunch break and when people get off from work) and early on weekend mornings.
2) Avoid frustration by not planning a workout in advance. Go with what the crowd gives you. If you get lucky and the pool thins out for awhile, work hard. If it's really thick do slow drills.
3) As for drills, I find freestyle or backstroke kicking to be the slowest useful activity. Then there's breaststroke kick or pull, or one-armed fly, or the catch-up stuff you've been doing. I also do a lot of min-stroke-per-length work, and breathing games (e.g., swim 200 or 400 or whatever, not very fast, but breathing every 3 on the first length, every 4 on the second, and so on, until I can't go any higher, and then I bring it back down. The trick for me is not getting bored while not being able to do real sets, so I still think in terms of reps (5 x 200 or whatever), even though it's very rare that I'm doing them on the clock or even able to swim (as opposed to doing the various drills).
4) If I had to do it all over again, I think I would look for a team or Schwimmverein that I could practice with. Maybe there's one near you ...
Best of luck -- I'm headed back Stateside next week, and though I'll miss Germany I can't wait for my American pool!
