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Swimming Style
sfuller
Posts: 628
in General Chat
So Im curious to what training they do for their swimming, do you follow a plan? make your own?
Do you use TI? Is TI any good? any other styles used?
Personally I just hit the pool and sometime swim constant for 1 hour, ometimes break it down into certain distances and others do short sprint efforts but no set plan. ont know if im making any progress or not!!
Samuel
Do you use TI? Is TI any good? any other styles used?
Personally I just hit the pool and sometime swim constant for 1 hour, ometimes break it down into certain distances and others do short sprint efforts but no set plan. ont know if im making any progress or not!!
Samuel
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Do some intervals eg 15x100m with 15-20 sec rests in between, or do a ladder session ie. 100m, 200m, 300m, 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m with 15sec rest. Try timing each imterval and measure any improvements, soon you'll be blasting out each interval and your times will plummet.
Also incorperate some wieghts sessions into your week, I prefer lighter wieghts but higher amounts of reps.
Total Immersion has its fans, I dont know much about it, but try TriTalk as I know there are some TI instructors which frequent that forum.
Enjoy
Maybe this time I can put the lower stroke count into faster /easier splits!
Mike
I got this one. It includes videos of lots of drills plus complete training programs based on the drills. It has certainly improved my swimming a lot.
I think I prefer it's style of drills, I can feel the benefits of each drill, where sometimes when I use traditional drills at the swim class, I focus on the drill and lots of other things fall apart. One thing that it might lack is outright speed, as it does not really concentrate on this aspect of swimming, getting it's increases in speed by increasing efficiency. I like it though and have seen big increases in the last 3 months, but I do feel by concentrating on form, I have lost some "swim fitness". It is the closed season though, and I did expect this, hence I started the TI way when I had the time to give the TI way some time before needing to build the fitness back in.
As to what to do in the pool, I warm up with 10-15 lengths, do a similar amount on TI drills, then about 20 easy lengths of TI way. Every now and again I chase the fast boys in the lane to see how I'm getting on. On a Monday nigh I go to a structured "standard way" training class, and I just do what I'm told.
I thought I was pretty good until I had my stroke filmed and compared against a proper stroke. It was embaressing, but it's really motivated me to improve and after a couple of weeks of practising drills, I'm already seeing the benefits!
I have been taught (read 'mercilessly drilled') into doing much shorter swim and drill sets. I'll do a fast 1500m about once a month to check progress, usually as part of my normal 3500m set.
As a good test, try counting your stroke for 50m at about 50% effort, then count your stroke going as fast as you can. If there is an appreciable difference then you should put yourself in the 'improver' category and start working on your drills.
In my local 22m pool I get to the end in 11 strokes at 50%, and 14/15 at full speed. I consider myself to be an improver, so I work on my drills.
Here's another test: swim at fast pace, faster than you would normally plod along, say 80% effort. Be honest with yourself.... how many lengths is it before your technique starts to go sloppy? If you can go more than about 6 or 8 lengths with perfect form then you are doing very well. Any less than that... DRILLS!
As a general rule, never swim beyond the point where your form fails. You're just teaching your muscles to remember the wrong thing. Split it up: 15 x 100m with 15s rest is far more productive than 1500m of poor form. Probably quicker, too.