What do YOU need to do to have a major swimming breakthrough?"

Hey Ande, The season for my school as started, and for the 50 yd freestyle I have gotten down to a 27 flat as my lifetime best. The time I would like to go, as I mentioned before, is less than a 24.3 sec. I have heard that running helps swimming, and I believe that, but does it really help in terms of sprinting? For endurance during minutes or hours of swimming, no doubt it will help, but for a 30 second interval of time (or a 24.3 second interval of time) will it make much of a difference? Thanks a lot, 08sharmag

And also, when you said lat press, what is that? What I do is lat pulldown, is that the same thing? I tried searching on google for images of lateral press, but none really came up.

Here some of my statistics 16 years old 6 feet tall 175 pounds (I can fluxuate it easily from 165-185 depending whats going on in my life) I swam a summer season that lasted about 6 weeks long and I took my my 50 free time from a 35 second in yards to a 27 high, in yards in just 6 weeks. Now my HS 5 month long season has begun. My PB is 26.85 in the 50 free and my 100 PB is 1:03.16 My goals are a 58.0 - 100 Free 24.9 - 50 Free I have 2-3 meets a week. and 3-5 practices a week. So 6 or so swims a week. practices are like...3,500-4,500 yards long. are my goals realistic? and I want to be a State winner when im 18. is that possible? Im really athletic and dedicated and I want to know what I can do outside of regular swimming with my team to get better. and my dive needs work!! funny story-yesterday at a club meet I feel in the pool after false starting slighltly and trying to stop myself. hahahha. any who. Sweet forum ande!

haha today I did a 1:01 in the 100 and a 26.2 in the 50. heck yes to improvements!

If you're only focused on the 50 DON'T RUN Improving your jumping ability will help your 50 Loaf long endurance sets endurance training kills speed sprint on sprint sets get your times get timed concentrate on perfecting your technique lift weights, get strong lat press is just like taking an underwater freestyle or butterfly pull with weights don't do the recovery stroke, go back up the way you came down ande Hey Ande, The season for my school as started, and for the 50 yd freestyle I have gotten down to a 27 flat as my lifetime best. The time I would like to go, as I mentioned before, is less than a 24.3 sec. I have heard that running helps swimming, and I believe that, but does it really help in terms of sprinting? For endurance during minutes or hours of swimming, no doubt it will help, but for a 30 second interval of time (or a 24.3 second interval of time) will it make much of a difference? Thanks a lot, 08sharmag

hi wisey, congratulations on your improvements without seeing you or you swim I have no way of guessing how much more you can improve within a particular time frame and even if I did it's just one opinion and the only opinion that really matters is yours so I don't know if your goals are realistic or not they way you're still improving, they are probably very doable you should be able to go much faster in the 100 free train as often as you can do a lot of sprinting and race rehearsals lift weights, work on each aspect of the 50 and 100 who's to say if you can win state what does it take now? for now work on getting under 26 I know if you don't train it won't happen READ my swim faster faster tips forums.usms.org/showthread.php Ande Here some of my statistics 16 years old 6 feet tall 175 pounds (I can fluxuate it easily from 165 - 185 depending whats going on in my life) I swam a summer season that lasted about 6 weeks long and I took my my 50 free time from a 35 second in yards to a 27 high, in yards in just 6 weeks. Now my HS 5 month long season has begun. My PB is 26.85 in the 50 free and my 100 PB is 1:03.16 My goals are a 58.0 - 100 Free 24.9 - 50 Free I have 2-3 meets a week. and 3-5 practices a week. So 6 or so swims a week. practices are like... 3,500 - 4,500 yards long. are my goals realistic? and I want to be a State winner when im 18. is that possible? Im really athletic and dedicated and I want to know what I can do outside of regular swimming with my team to get better. and my dive needs work!! funny story-yesterday at a club meet I feel in the pool after false starting slighltly and trying to stop myself. hahahha. any who. Sweet forum ande!

My 2005/2006 season was a disaster, I didn't improve any of the times I did at 2005 Nationals at the end of the previous season, partly due to getting sick a lot. This year I decided to try the swim fast in meets by swimming fast in practice strategy, and to concentrate on getting faster in shorter distances, so I have been concentrating on the 50 and 100 in free and fly. I have also started going to the gym. I've swum in five meets this fall and improved my 100 free time in each one, in the last meet I took 3sec off my time from the meet the week before (2.5sec of my 2005 Nationals PB), which really surprised the heck out of me! I only hope that it wasn't a once in a lifetime swim! :eek: I've still got lots of specific things to work on. E.g. starts and turns and SDK. Luckily our coaches have been giving us more sprint stuff in workouts, but I still do a lot of "adjusting" to the sets we get to avoid one long medium intensity workout. Don't get me wrong, I'm still relatively slow, but it is nice to be getting better again! Thanks for all the tips and advice you've posted Ande! :notworthy:

hi lindsay, great to hear from you glad the tips are working in terms of time drops, I think you have a good ways to go before you hit the wall where improvements stall keep working on your speed and technique don't do distance and aerobic sets keep us posted on your progress Ande My 2005/2006 season was a disaster, I didn't improve any of the times I did at 2005 Nationals at the end of the previous season, partly due to getting sick a lot. This year I decided to try the swim fast in meets by swimming fast in practice strategy, and to concentrate on getting faster in shorter distances, so I have been concentrating on the 50 and 100 in free and fly. I have also started going to the gym. I've swum in five meets this fall and improved my 100 free time in each one, in the last meet I took 3sec off my time from the meet the week before (2.5sec of my 2005 Nationals PB), which really surprised the heck out of me! I only hope that it wasn't a once in a lifetime swim! :eek: I've still got lots of specific things to work on. E.g. starts and turns and SDK. Luckily our coaches have been giving us more sprint stuff in workouts, but I still do a lot of "adjusting" to the sets we get to avoid one long medium intensity workout. Don't get me wrong, I'm still relatively slow, but it is nice to be getting better again! Thanks for all the tips and advice you've posted Ande! :notworthy:

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum and also new to masters. I'm 20 years old male, my name is Jesse. I just joined masters a couple weeks ago but I joined unattached because the masters team where I live (wilmington, nc) doesn't accomodate my schedule. I swam my first ever masters meet last weekend. I started swimming a little over 3 years ago during my senior year of high school. Before that I was a runner so I came into it was a good aerobic base, I just didn't know anything about technique. After about 6 months on a club team I went 5:13 500 fr, 1:57 200fr, and 52.8 100fr. These times were at a meet where I was shaved and tapered. Back then I was 6'0" and weighed about 155lbs, and was swimming with my team about 30,000 yds. a week. 3 years later and in college I am still 6'0" but 175 lbs. I didn't gain much fat though, mostly muscle because I started lifting weights. The meet I swam last weekend I went 5:16 500 fr, 11:02 1000 fr (first time I swam the 1000 and now it's my new favorite race), and 53.8 100fr. I was pleased with the times from this meet because my training isn't as much as it was when I got my best times and I wasn't shaved or tapered for it. After high school I kept swimming but it was mainly just to stay in shape, I was only doing 2000-3000 easy yards 4 or 5 times a week. I started back serious training again about 4 months ago. My goal for the next year is to break 5:00 in the 500 fr. My training now is I'm swimming tue, thu, and sat about 4,500 yds each practice, and on mon, wed, fri, I lift first then swim between 2,500 and 3,000, all my yardage is scy. I swim alone with no coach or teammates so it can get kinda boring. I also make up all my practice and most of my main sets are between 1500 and 2500 yds free on a 1:20 base interval with other random stuff thrown in there to get the yardage up. I know there is no magic set that makes anyone faster but I'm looking for workouts tailored to improving 500y free and 1000 y free. I know there are ways out there for me to improve I just haven't gotten my hands on them yet. I want to keep my yardage where it's at for now but maybe even it out from day to day. Could it be possible to break 5:00 in the 500 on 4,000 yds./day with weightlifting and quality yardage? Any advice will be greatly appreciated, especially from ande, you really know your stuff. I feel like I am going in circles as far as training goes. I want to have that breakthrough that this thread is all about.

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum and also new to masters. I'm 20 years old male, my name is Jesse. I just joined masters a couple weeks ago but I joined unattached because the masters team where I live (wilmington, nc) doesn't accomodate my schedule. I swam my first ever masters meet last weekend. I started swimming a little over 3 years ago during my senior year of high school. Before that I was a runner so I came into it was a good aerobic base, I just didn't know anything about technique. After about 6 months on a club team I went 5:13 500 fr, 1:57 200fr, and 52.8 100fr. These times were at a meet where I was shaved and tapered. Back then I was 6'0" and weighed about 155lbs, and was swimming with my team about 30,000 yds. a week. 3 years later and in college I am still 6'0" but 175 lbs. I didn't gain much fat though, mostly muscle because I started lifting weights. The meet I swam last weekend I went 5:16 500 fr, 11:02 1000 fr (first time I swam the 1000 and now it's my new favorite race), and 53.8 100fr. I was pleased with the times from this meet because my training isn't as much as it was when I got my best times and I wasn't shaved or tapered for it. After high school I kept swimming but it was mainly just to stay in shape, I was only doing 2000-3000 easy yards 4 or 5 times a week. I started back serious training again about 4 months ago. My goal for the next year is to break 5:00 in the 500 fr. My training now is I'm swimming tue, thu, and sat about 4,500 yds each practice, and on mon, wed, fri, I lift first then swim between 2,500 and 3,000, all my yardage is scy. I swim alone with no coach or teammates so it can get kinda boring. I also make up all my practice and most of my main sets are between 1500 and 2500 yds free on a 1:20 base interval with other random stuff thrown in there to get the yardage up. I know there is no magic set that makes anyone faster but I'm looking for workouts tailored to improving 500y free and 1000 y free. I know there are ways out there for me to improve I just haven't gotten my hands on them yet. I want to keep my yardage where it's at for now but maybe even it out from day to day. Could it be possible to break 5:00 in the 500 on 4,000 yds./day with weightlifting and quality yardage? Any advice will be greatly appreciated, especially from ande, you really know your stuff. I feel like I am going in circles as far as training goes. I want to have that breakthrough that this thread is all about. I'm not Ande, and I'm just a sprinter, but my advice would be to do more pace work. Your body (and mind) need to know exactly what it feels like to swim at a sub 5:00 pace. Sets of 100s are great, do 10 x 100 - you should be doing them faster than 1:20 if you are going :53 in meets untapered - you should be able to do them on 1:10 no problem ... A set you need to do/master is 6 x 100 on 1:10 trying to hold under 1:00 on each 100 - then once you can do that do it on 1:05 - the goal of this is simply to make your body swim at the pace you want to during the 500 - that way you know what it feels like ...eventually you want to do a 500 in practice at under a 1:05 pace ... Also, sets like 5 x 200 desced on 2:40 or even 10 x 200 done 2 @ 3:00, 2 @ 2:55, 2 @ 2:50, 2 @ 2:45 and 2 @ 2:40 or similiar would be good for you - teaching you how to either hold pace or descend the pace ... GOOD LUCK! I'm sure Ande will have some great advice for you when he gets back!