I'm totally getting owned in swimming
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J.Michael posted 14 weeks ago.
I'm in the same boat. My swim is my weak link.
I'm starting a masters class at the local Y. (Coach there has kids that compete at worldchamp level)
I also started swimming on a tether at our condos pool. (I would just be kick turning back and forth otheriwse.)
I'm hoping to do better than 3rd in AG........Maybe 3rd overall?
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thesonicson posted 14 weeks ago.
At your age while it's ok to be judging against others don't be tunnel visioned by it. I would focus more on just improving your weak spots, in your case, swimming. The key I would say to focus on is staying positive about your swim. Don't hate it, love it. I tried this approach for my runs. I totally had no desire to train for it, now I can't wait and look forward to run on my specified days. And in 4 months I've shaved off over a minute off my mile. I started barely being able to run a mile, now I do 8 with no problem. Stay positve and look forward to small progressions and before you know it you'll be up there where you want to be.
I also agree on a coach, I know being in high school probably limits funding for a coach, in which I would use a potential free resource by joining the swim team. Good luck!
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White Wolf posted 14 weeks ago.
Well local coaches cost way to much money. Plus swim team is in track season so I couldn't do quit it or my coach would kill me.
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wpowers posted 14 weeks ago.
I'm not like you...Swimming is my strong thing. I don't even get in the water and train really. But I need help on the bike. I find myself in the front coming out of the water only to be pasted by what feels like everyone. Only to have to run my butt of to catch up to half of them. But I guess it like anything else you just have to put the time in. I feel like White Wolf local coaches cost $! your better off in my opinion going local and finding a friend or fellow tri friend and asking them to look at your stroke and fixing anything that might be a bad habit. A lot of tri athletes forget that kicking is so important. In your training in the pool you should use a kick board some after your worm ups.
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warrenp posted 14 weeks ago.
I started with the olympic tri distances and was also getting creamed in the water. I had swam for most of my life and always thought i was a pretty decent swimmer. When it came to the races i learned differently. I can't remember exactly but with the 1.5km swim it was taking me about 34 minutes. I hired a swim coach who was 63 years old and an ex olympian. He basically told me i was working way too hard and going nowhere due to poor technique. After about 9 months and about 15-20 hours of private lessons.WHAT A DIFFERENCE. He cut my swim time down from around 35 minutes to 23minutes.
I did the ironman and very fresh out of the water and not pushing at all i breezed to a 1 hr 15 minute time.
IN my humble opinion a coach is the only way to go.
good luck
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kylie posted 14 weeks ago.
wpowers wrote:
A lot of tri athletes forget that kicking is so important. In your training in the pool you should use a kick board some after your worm ups.
Gotta say I disagree here -- most triathletes I know tend not to kick much, even those who come from a swimming background.
+1 to the comments recommending a coach. Yes, it can be expensive, but you should be able to find some one to just do a couple workouts focusing on your technique to help you find what to work on, and it will be less than most race entries and worth it.
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Ironmom posted 14 weeks ago.
+ 1 on finding a local coach, you might be surprised to find that they're not always that expensive. At the pool I coach at, it's $15 for a half-hour coaching session. I can drop minutes off someone's swim time in 5 sessions or less. Swimming is all about technique, and usually no amount of just swimming or doing drills without some hands-on coaching is going to help you improve that much.
If you can't find a local coach, get someone to video tape you from front, back, and both sides, then post it here. There's several people here who can give you some great feedback, at least as good as possible based on a video.
Blue Skies, -Robin-
http://ironmom.blogspot.com/
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Ironmom posted 14 weeks ago.
wpowers wrote:
A lot of tri athletes forget that kicking is so important. In your training in the pool you should use a kick board some after your worm ups.
I disagree with this too. Kicking is a pretty small part of a distance stroke, I barely kick at all in open water swims. The only time you might need to work on kicking is if your technique is so poor that your kick is holding you back. Believe it or not, I've actually seen people who kick and stay still or go backwards. In that case, work on kicking technique with a coach, but the rest of the time you just want your kick to stabilize you, keep your hips from rolling too much, and provide a small amount of momentum increasing at the very end.
Blue Skies, -Robin-
http://ironmom.blogspot.com/
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Tri_it_out posted 14 weeks ago.
I've been swimming competitively for 15 years and having heard all kinds of stuff from coaches over the years I'd like to pass on that if you have bad technique it doesn't matter how much training time you put in, you're not going to improve all that much. Seek out someone who can give you some very good and valuable pointers and as long as you keep up your will power and determination, you will see results in no time. Good luck.
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coachks posted 14 weeks ago.
First off you need to kick. Kicking is huge, despite what others say. You look at the best swimmers around and they all have good kicks and spend time doing kicking sets. You want to be a good swimmer.... then swim like a swimmer. That means swim with swimmers. Triathletes will often teach you many poor habits.
One thing that has been huge in helping me and the people I coach is the Vasa swim trainer. Get on one of these keep your head down and keep you elbow high. This machine will teach you how to grip the water and become more efficient. Technique is huge this will assist you in getting that.
Stick with it you'll get it done ;)
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Leroy Bonkers posted 14 weeks ago.
+1 on a coach. The problem with videos, books, etc is that you may FEEL like you are doing the right thing, but until someone knowledgeable SEES you swim you just can't know.
I paid $45 each for two sessions with a great coach and it really helped a lot. So no need to invest the college fund. Perhaps ask for lessons for Christmas from Grandma or Uncle Larry.
Posting a video is a really interesting idea too...
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jperubog posted 14 weeks ago.
coachks wrote:
Triathletes will often teach you many poor habits.
probably the most ignorant statement I have read on this forum to date, especially coming from a supposed triathlete coach?
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kylie posted 14 weeks ago.
coachks wrote:
First off you need to kick. Kicking is huge, despite what others say. You look at the best swimmers around and they all have good kicks and spend time doing kicking sets. You want to be a good swimmer.... then swim like a swimmer. That means swim with swimmers. Triathletes will often teach you many poor habits.
Sorry I must say I still disagree. I am not the best swimmer, but when IronMom also agrees I know I have to be on to something :) Also, my coach is a damn good swimmer (olympic trials) and triathlete swimmer (first overall out of the water at Kona last year -- beating all the pros) and I have not had much kicking in my sets from him. And as he has posted before:
"As for kicking... you've got to use your legs for the next 2/3rds of the race. Learn to pull super efficient and just do a "tick kick" counter balance flick of the feet. The legs are very LARGE (read... lots of energy consumed here) for very little forward momentum."
I think triathletes usually have plenty to focus on in their swim technique, and are doing a very different race than those swimmers. We are not doing 3 sports back to back, but one sport with three parts to it.
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gatrswmr posted 14 weeks ago.
+1 triathletes do not need a strong kick. Neither do distance swimmers for that matter, 2-4 beat kick is actually recommended because of the energy savings and how little extra propulsion kicking hard gives you.
However, you should incorporate kicking on your side (not with a board) into your workouts to work on body balance. If you PM me your email I can send you a sample video of what I'm talking about.
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Ironmom posted 14 weeks ago.
coachks wrote:
First off you need to kick. Kicking is huge, despite what others say. You look at the best swimmers around and they all have good kicks and spend time doing kicking sets. You want to be a good swimmer.... then swim like a swimmer.
Well, I have to say I'm with Kylie here and I still disagree. If you want to swim the 100 Freestyle like Michael Phelps, train like a swimmer. If you want to swim 1500 - 4000m in open water, usually in a wetsuit, and then be fresh enough to bike and run for hours afterwards, train like a triathlete.
I was a sprinter in college and in all of my early triathlons I kicked like a swimmer, thus using far too much oxygen and unnecessarily wearing my legs out in the swim portion. As I developed as a triathlete, I developed a two-beat distance kick that does me much better in open water long distances. I've been first or 2nd swimmer out of the water plenty of times with very little kick.
coachks wrote:
That means swim with swimmers. Triathletes will often teach you many poor habits.
I'm not sure why that would be the case. Swimming with swimmers is good advice, but half the swimmers in my Master's group are also triathletes, and they're damn fine swimmers too.
Blue Skies, -Robin-
http://ironmom.blogspot.com/
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rahaa1 posted 4 weeks ago.
I agree with others that I would seek out a triathlon swimming coach. Also, I thought this articles had some good pointers
So I had been training for my tri for a long time. I am a very very strong runner a fairly strong biker and the worst swimmer ever. I got to the line and swam (.5 swim sprint tri and i'm in high school) I was marked leaving the first transition at 51st place. I killed myself and got up to the front group of 11 by mile 8 and relaxed. I got to the run in 9th place the pack stayed for 2 miles then four of us broke away. It got steadily faster and soon I couldn't keep up because my legs couldn't handle it. My heart rate was low I wasn't breathing hard and they pulled away. I took 4th by a sprint. After everyone was telling me how good I could be one day but, I thought if I was a good swimmer I could have won that because I would have been up there the whole time. I want to go up to so more elite bigger races because of my cycling and running so that means I need to really improve my swimming.But, before the race I was training pretty hard for swimming and didn't do anything right I guess. So I really would be so thankful if you could give me workouts, advice on my form things like that to help me so I can become a better tri-athlete.