One topic of great interest to us all is
"What do you need to do to have a major swimming breakthrough?"
"What do you need to do to significantly improve your swimming times over one season?"
Do you have any specific, nitty gritty type suggestions.
I think it's really easy to fall into ruts, to just show up and go through the motions rather than seizing the moment while we train.
Any one have any thoughts on what we need to do to significantly improve?
forums.usms.org/showthread.php
I see the ex-college swimmers have insane kicking ability and that they never use kick boards. They are always on their backs in a streamline or face down streamline flutter kick.
Should I focus on fast kicking (on intervals) or hard kicking or more fin work?
I still use a kickboard about 35-40% of the time, mostly when I want to work the legs hard and not worry about breath control. (Snorkels might be good for this also but I still have a love-hate relationship with mine...actually, mostly it's hate.)
Some people use fins a lot and are happy with the results. I only use them occasionally myself, though I've been trying to do more. (I really only like to use them in a LCM pool so I don't have to worry about walls. Also my lane-mates sometimes complain when I put on fins so I try to do it when I swim on my own.)
I think the key to making a kick useful is to attack kick sets with the same intensity and work ethic as "regular" swim sets. Also do them varying distances, not just 25s or 50s.
Also: make some swim sets "kick intensive." For example, you can make it a point to do more kicks from the wall than usual (our coach calls these "double-do" sets, where you go twice as far as usual off the walls) and really push the kicks from the wall while backing off slightly the swim portion (to recover a little before the next wall). Or you can "double-do" the back half of hard repeats to try to work on your ability to use your legs even when you are tired.
I see the ex-college swimmers have insane kicking ability and that they never use kick boards. They are always on their backs in a streamline or face down streamline flutter kick.
Should I focus on fast kicking (on intervals) or hard kicking or more fin work?
I still use a kickboard about 35-40% of the time, mostly when I want to work the legs hard and not worry about breath control. (Snorkels might be good for this also but I still have a love-hate relationship with mine...actually, mostly it's hate.)
Some people use fins a lot and are happy with the results. I only use them occasionally myself, though I've been trying to do more. (I really only like to use them in a LCM pool so I don't have to worry about walls. Also my lane-mates sometimes complain when I put on fins so I try to do it when I swim on my own.)
I think the key to making a kick useful is to attack kick sets with the same intensity and work ethic as "regular" swim sets. Also do them varying distances, not just 25s or 50s.
Also: make some swim sets "kick intensive." For example, you can make it a point to do more kicks from the wall than usual (our coach calls these "double-do" sets, where you go twice as far as usual off the walls) and really push the kicks from the wall while backing off slightly the swim portion (to recover a little before the next wall). Or you can "double-do" the back half of hard repeats to try to work on your ability to use your legs even when you are tired.
