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?
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Right, parachute? Never tried it, but I completely agree with the changing gears analogy. Full length pool tubing has a similar effect, you can swim with the cord or against it. Changing the water pressure on your body is a great way to have appropriate adaptation without thinking too much. It's like being a rock in the ocean.
No, it is the other way: the chute slows you down quite a bit. It isn't like working with the stretch cords or fins to speed up. I think Josh Davis talked about his work with swimming against weights using a pulley system, or some such. We don't have anything like that at our pool, though, and the parachute is portable.
I tried it yesterday briefly after practice with the hole all the way closed. It reminds me a little of one coach I had who used to make me swim with jean cut-offs, complete with pockets. One advantage of the parachute over the cut-offs is that it doesn't feel like it affects my body position as much for some reason.
My reasoning with the parachute is to try to build more swimming-specific strength/power, sort of like overgearing or hill sprints in cycling. Weights are nice but sometimes I wonder if the strength gains transfer completely to swimming power. Paddles are another option but I have a problem getting a good turnover with them and they can cause joint stress if I overuse them.
Right, parachute? Never tried it, but I completely agree with the changing gears analogy. Full length pool tubing has a similar effect, you can swim with the cord or against it. Changing the water pressure on your body is a great way to have appropriate adaptation without thinking too much. It's like being a rock in the ocean.
No, it is the other way: the chute slows you down quite a bit. It isn't like working with the stretch cords or fins to speed up. I think Josh Davis talked about his work with swimming against weights using a pulley system, or some such. We don't have anything like that at our pool, though, and the parachute is portable.
I tried it yesterday briefly after practice with the hole all the way closed. It reminds me a little of one coach I had who used to make me swim with jean cut-offs, complete with pockets. One advantage of the parachute over the cut-offs is that it doesn't feel like it affects my body position as much for some reason.
My reasoning with the parachute is to try to build more swimming-specific strength/power, sort of like overgearing or hill sprints in cycling. Weights are nice but sometimes I wonder if the strength gains transfer completely to swimming power. Paddles are another option but I have a problem getting a good turnover with them and they can cause joint stress if I overuse them.
