The Swim
Buddy
Posts: 20
in General Chat
I am really rubbish at doing front crawl as I find that I just forget to breathe and end up drowning!!!! Does anyone actually do breaststroke or will it just make me look like a wally? Its only a 700m swim so I think I just need to practice.
0
Comments
700m for your first tri is HUGE! Well done! Most people (inc. me) start with a 200m fun event, so you should feel very chuffed. And people do breaststroke/backstroke/crawl/whatever gets them through the distance - don't worry about looking daft, because there will be plenty worse swimming than yours on show!
Tom
DAvid
Swim competitions are rightly hot on stroke technique and loads of rules: Tri is not although i'm not sure whether you would be disqualified for walking in the pool.
Like most of the people here i couldn't swim more than 2 lengths f/c without choking and i couldn't jump out of the pool at the end - now catch me if you can!
David
Anyway, Mad and DoTri are right - you may not be such a hot swimmer but you can always reel people in on the bike or the run and that's what makes the sport so cool!
Seriously don't worry I did my first Tri in May and I was dreading swimming the whole course in front crawl. After about 250m I swapped over to breastsroke, having looked up most of the field had also done the same.
Just watch one thing! Obviously when you swim breastroke you use your legs a great deal. I noticed with my wetsuit on that the added bouyancy meant my legs were coming out of the water more reducing my propulsion.
However as I say don't worry too much!, Just enjoy it. I guarantee you will have a smile from ear to ear when you finish!
My advice is to make sure you try swimming in your wetsuit before you try it for real
Also don't worry about the swim - stay out of the pack at the start and enjoy it!
madnurse
I did read about that on the website so sounds good.
mad....
Seriously?
did you find it helped bouyancy? I know it should have, but I didn't really notice any difference. Could be just me - my wife, who swims like a fish, said it was totally different, but I (who swims like a brick) thought it was just the same!
Tom
I could barely swim a couple of lengths front-crawl a couple of months ago. I've signed up for a 10 week improver class and told my coach that my goal was to compete (complete/participate) in sprint tri's. We've focussed on front-crawl technique and what a difference - I'm amazed at how much more efficient I've become. There are lots of aspects to think about and I usually forget breathing, but over the weeks it's comming together.
My coach has given me drills and swim-sets to do in my own time which has helped my conditioning/fitness etc.
It's by far the best, most rewarding improvement I've got from any sports coaching ever.
Al
In the gym that I go to they do swimming technique classes so I think I will enrol on a few of them. Sounds like a good idea
Cheers
good luck
fatmatt