? for swimmers

im a noob swimmer, so im still learning all the basics. Anyways, you know when you do the flip thing at the end of the lane, is there some sort of trick you do to keep the water out of your nose? I can do the flip, but a lot of the times when im coming out of the flip i get water up my nose and it screws up my breathing.

thxs for the help in advance,
Ry

 

sounds insane to waste your precious air underwater, but you have to exhale through your nostrils to keep the water out. "swim now, breathe win you're dead."- every swim coach that will be

 

yup, breathe out of the nose hard. That will do the trick.

 

I never had this problem so I don't know how to correct it. I used it when I competed as a kid. Why are you using it now? Are you competing?

I just held my breath, did the flip fast, kicked off, and started swimming. Now I might have exhaled using my nose also. That might help.... just been to many yrs. to remember. I'd have to do it a few times to be sure.

Practice......

 

I'd help, but I'm satisfied by staying at the surface ... barely.

 

Ryan,

I was competitive for awhile. It's very difficult to master breathing, but it's one of the most important parts of creating fast lap times in the pool. You shouldn't be breathing at least 3 strokes away from the wall (by breathing I mean turning and inhaling air) and preferably five. Sounds harder than it is, but work on breath control every time you practice and it WILL become part of your stroke.

Anyway, my procedure was: breathe 5 strokes out, stroke,stroke,stroke,stroke,stroke, get as reasonably close as you can to the wall (takes practice, but the closer you are the better spring you can get when you push off) and breathe most of the remaining air out of your lungs and through your nose as you tuck and turn. Then, as you kick off, streamline as hard as you can and hold it your breath for at least three to five more strokes (or at least till you clear the flags). Then you are clear to breathe.

Remember to aggressively breathe with your diaphragm, not your lungs. Focus on pulling air in from the bottom of your stomach. You will find that you will be able to breathe in a greater amount of air as your body gets used to the technique.

Also, are you swimming freestyle? I'm assuming so. Don't get discouraged if you don't pick this up the first time. Swimming is largely about conditioning and it's difficult to hone your breathing, stamina, and strength to allow for this kind of technique. But it can be done!

Any more questions? Hope this helps ...

EDIT: One of the most effective techniques that I've used to control and condition breathing is the Counting Method. When you start your workout, count strokes in your head one, two, three, BREATHE, one, two, three, BREATHE, etc. On your next set, stretch it to four, than five, and try six. This will NOT come easy, and you'll struggle like hell to keep yourself composed. But the harder you train, the better you get in the pool.

There are so many components of a great stroke and a great race, but a lot of racing is won on the block and IN YOUR TURN. A lot of it. When you start swimming against a bunch of really good guys, most of them are not swimming with super-huge deficits in time. So a lot of the race is how hard you can get off of the wall against your opponents.

Stroke technique is important, but that's fine tuning. Try to focus on kicking and stroking; a lot of swimmers (myself included) will try to pull themselves through with their upper body instead of working their legs in at 50%. Breathing slows you down, so do it as fast, infrequently, and as aggressively as you can.

Another neat trick when you're learning freestyle form is to try to touch your biceps to your ears as you bring your stroke around. It will teach you to tuck and focus your stroke in instead of splaying it outward around you.

Damn, it's been too long since I've been in the water. I'll stop until you actually respond to this post.

 

good stuff, thxs for the advice.

I think i just need to build up my lung strength more. I can sometimes do ten laps or so with out having the breathing problem, but then sometimes ill get a bad flip every now and again. Tonight while swimming though i did notice that the harder i exhaled, the less likely i was to suck in a crap load of chlorine, lol..

 

No matter what, breath out of your nose when you flip and all is good.

 

i have noticed that i most definitely do try and pull my self through the water. But, when im trying to go for a few "all out" laps my legs really kick into gear. I raced BMX during highschool, and that sport is all sprinting, so i dont have much endurance in my legs, but they do have some sprinting speed to them (hope that makes sense).

and feel free to add anything else, any info on this is greatly appreciated.

 

Sorry, didn't know you weren't swimming competitively. I got a bit carried away, apologize for that.

I would say you just need to focus on breathing out of your nose as you flip so you don't get water up in your sinuses.

What kind of workouts/intervals are you doing? Are you going for strength, to stay in shape, burn some fat?

Just curious. Very cool to see someone swimming just for excersise; it will put you in shape.

 

if u are planning on doing triathlons do a lot of kicking drills. Not only will this help ur swimming, it will help the biking and the running, too. Start out using a kickboard, but eventually try without it because this helps work on water balance and causes u to have to kick more to stay buoyant.

 

I was a sprinter and LOVED the intensity of blasting off of the block and giving it hell for 23 seconds. I hated long swimming drills, 500's, 1000's. They're great for endurance and they're a necessary evil, but when we pracitced relays I was in love.

I'm sure you have strong legs and that's a real advantage, but you're going to be working a totally different part of your leg while swimming. Your hip-flexors, glutes, calves, lower-back all are in play here. You should be keeping your legs straight while kicking; no bending the knee! This makes it more challenging but you will be faster and more efficient.

What stroke are you swimming/practicing? Would love to add more, just let me know what to talk about.

Clint

 

All strength workouts for now, luckly, i have no fat to lose.I bench about 150ish right now, i hope to be up to 200 asap. On almost all weights i lift right around my body weight 160ish, ive been working out pretty hard though over the last few months though, so i should be seeing some big improvements. What i really like about swimming is how it loosens you up. After workinghard on weights your body feels really tight, but after a good swim, your nice and loose again.

and i should be putting my new swimming skills to test soon in some local triathlons, i do have some work to do though. Im thinking about joining the masters(old swimmers) swim team at my local pool. Ive pretty much learned how to swim by watching these people, so i figure it would really help if i was to actually be swimming with them instead of just watching. Its really an eyeopener when a 55 year old lady can out swim you, lol..

 

whats a competitive swimmers swimming routine(lap wise) like? My work out routine is work on weights MWF, and swim(50 laps, try to do it nonstop, but it doesnt always work, lol. My goal would be to get up to a 100 laps non stop in a couple of months) T,TH, and sometimes a 7 mileish run on the weekend.

 

You're doing weights; that's fantastic! I agree, weights + swimming = awesome workout routine. Remember eating right is half the battle in working out; you can bust your ass every day but if you're not feeding your body what it needs you will get nowhere fast.

I would beware of swimming with older folks; while they seem very skilled now, in a couple of months you'll have easily surpassed them. I would, personally, stick with a group of similarly-aged people, if at all possible. Just MHO.

As far as a competition-style workout, you've already got a bit of that covered by swimming 1250 yards/workout. But to simply do just that is not as productive as it could be.

For me, swimming against time is the easiest way to gauge my performance. It's real easy to start sharpening your body when you have a standard to outpace. Most pools have visible clocks that show the time of day. I can't imagine you going to do your workout and having a deck-timer there and plugged in, so I would recommend using the regular clock you can see on the wall or a cheap, waterproof digital watch (Timex Ironman) to guage your performance.

Try this. Start your workout with a 500. Just stretch it out - that's 20 laps back and forth. Do not worry about time, just start slow and let your body warm up. This is a great time to get focused on your workout and get a sense of how you are feeling today. Just relax, keep a slow and steady pace, and don't stop until you've done 20.

Next, once you are warmed up, try a 200 (8 laps back and forth) and shoot for under 4 minutes. (That seems like a lot for 8 laps, but when you're starting out, it may be about right) Do it as fast as you can, but try to keep a good, consistent stroke and start establishing breathing habits. Remember to pull all the way through your stroke. Do not slap the water when your hand enters, rather slide it in. Work on kicking smoothly, legs straight back and consistent with your stroke. These are essential to forming a good stroke-rhythm. Speed comes after a good foundation is built.

Anyway, after you complete your 200, try a 100. Try for under 2 minutes.

After you complete that, try a 50. 2 laps, there and back. Try for 45 seconds.

Do three more 50's at < 45 seconds.

Go back down; 100, 200, and cool-off with a slow 500.

This is a pyramid style workout that will get your heartrate up and keep it there for a bit.

N.B.: Very important! NEVER rest for more than 30 seconds between your sets. In fact, I would give you 30 after your warm-up 500 and than decrease your intervals to 15 after your 200 and than 10 after your 100 and than 5 between your 50's and back down again respectively.

It will be very hard (at least for a beginner who is flip-turning) to maintain this pace, but do your damnedest. You will get tired, but you'll also get conditioned. Remember what I said about breathing, too. Trying to teach your body to breathe in the water is hard, but once you have it you can focus on other things in the pool. (Like making all of your set-times and intervals!)

Remember to keep your flip-turns fast, hard, and in between breaths. NEVER breath before you turn or just off of the wall; it kills your momentum into and out of the turn. Think of it like auto-racing; a good driver carries speed into corners and doesn't scrub it by using the brakes right before the apex or on his track-out. Just as in swimming; you want to carry as much speed as you can into the walls and you do that by breathing out from the wall and stroking in and stroking out, breathing in.

My workout example above is small and not that advanced. I'm still assuming you swim freestyle only. Once you get into the other strokes, you can mix and match, do IM's, etc. But it takes time. And once you have the workout down, you can start increasing your intensity by brining your time down. You'll cut amazing amounts off when you first start doing this a couple of weeks. But gradually you hit a wall and it's hard to find 10th's. That's when finding that sweet-spot and putting it all together perfectly becomes a real challenge.

Swimming, like most Ferrari's, is this conglomeration of motion which requires constant fine-tuning and care. Remember, you need a great platform from which to build your workouts and stength. Focus on breathing, consistent stroking, hand position, and kicking. Once you have this medley down, work on power, speed, and start forming a good workout plan.

Again, the workout above is a great beginners workout. I hope you can try to use it, but I assure you that to independantly swim (sans coach and teammates), it takes a lot of self-disipline. To force yourself to swim the intervals, leave on time, and continue the workout. But you will be rewarded with increased strength, flexibility, health, and stamina.

When you go to the pool, bring water with you. It is nice to drink from a gallon on the deck when you are between sets and have 15 seconds to grab a drink. It's easy to become dehydrated when swimming, so be aware of that. Also, eat a small bit of protien prior to the pool and carbs/protien immediately after. (A good sandwich is perfect; whole-wheat bread, swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, turkey/ham/RB, mustard).

Oh, and if you're having a problem turning, do your 500 warm-up and then go and do about 100 flip-turns. Swim into the wall from about the flags and turn. Do it again and again. Soon you'll have it down and you can blend the good turn with your breathing and stroke and you'll be turning some good times soon after that.

Again, hope this helps; it's off of the top of my head. I would be more than happy to help you with your workouts or any other questions if you have them. I know you're not a super-serious swimmer, but developing proper technique will go a long way towards more efficient and stronger workouts, even if you don't go pro.

Feel free to PM me anytime if you have questions or want to talk swimming.

Clint

EDIT: To answer your question, a competitive swimmers workout is extremely intense. The yardage varies per session, but suffice to say it is considerably higher than 1000. The workout above is an easy beginners workout that allows for some difficulty in breathing, turning, lack of conditioning, and putting it all together. Do it hard for 4 weeks and it will become exponentially easier and you will be able to add a lot more yardage. Anyway, sorry for the long post and some redundancy; I hope you can apply some of the stuff in here to your workouts. Best of luck and like I said, I'd be more than happy to help you if you have any more questions.

 

Cserver hit everything on the head!

The biggest problem that I have is dehydration... You won't realize how much your sweating becasue your in the pool etc. A lot of coachs recommend drinking water during practice and gatorade after to replenish... Totally up to you though...

As time goes on start pulling (pull bouy) and then pulling with paddles... fins and zoomers also work well... Vertical kicking is another that will help to get your legs in really good shape...

the other thing that is really benificial is finding a training partner... Training by yourself sucks compared to having someone that will push you!

Regardless of what you do your gonna get a good work out!

As far as yardage... preseason we average about 5-6000yrds a practice which is about 30000 a week. During season we will be doing upwards of 80,000yrds or something like that a week. Im not sure what we will get up to at our peak though...

 

Wow, Cserver, that is great info. I need to get back in the pool and try some of these tips.

 

Cserver had some great info. I was a scholarship swimmer in college and then years later I taught triathlon swimming. Contra to what someone else said, we always recommended swimmers to try and save there legs for the bike and the run where it is primarily all legs. Go ahead and still kick about 2 beats per arm stroke. Now about breathing in a triathlon; Try to learn to breath on both sides of your body. This is done for several reasons, one; to see the competition, two; to keep you swimming in a straight line, three; to help you stay on course, and four to set up a rhythm in your breathing. You should never have to hold your breath under water. Inhale on the side, exhale underwater then inhale on the other side. Also,there is very little carryover value between the disciplines, (running more will do very little to help your bike times). You have to work each discipline hard. Good luck

 

We just went to level Orange!
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

CODE RED! CODE RED!

 

As all the other guys have said learning to breathe is the trick along with closing off the airways when water wants to enter. Here's a couple of little practice tricks: try swimming with a snorkel but NO mask (makes you isolate mouth from nose breathing); if you're a real beginner, just try putting your face under the shower and breathing (really! developes your reflexes to breath out when water gets up your nose and also helps with isolating nose/mouth).
I'm an ocean swimmer and these reflexes really help in rough water.

 

Cool. A thread about swimming. I was a DIV1 swimmer in college. I missed the NCAA qualification by .4 seconds. ARG. 1:50.34 was my best 200IM. I would have beat that my last year, but I got bronchitis!

Here are some tips for me.

Do very little weight lifting. When swimming as much as we did. (20hours NCAA regulation), your body is ALWAYS broken down. You are rarely going to build any muscle. If you want to do weights, do it all for endurance. Of course, if you are a sprinter, 50/100, that would be different.

Technique is extremely important. Learn the strokes well and do a lot of drills. Swim smarter and you will be faster.

Train like an animal.

Eat well. If there was one thing I would change it would have been my diet.

Swimming is IMO the hardess sport out there. We typically swim more miles than the track team runs every week.

It take a LOT of work to get really fast, but it is very rewarding when you reach your goals.