[Closed] Swimming - love to hate it.

Where do you live roughly - know a great guy in High Wycombe.

edit - [url= http://www.rickkiddle.com/aboutus.aspx ]here[/url]

What's good about Rick is he was not a swim natural when he started so has some emphathy - but is also a hard a **** bastard too!

Other than that - look at the swimsmooth website and subscribe their weekly blog/newsletter thingy for some nicely written and accessable stuff. Good DVD you can buy too.

Or look at total immersion courses and the books/dvd.

But don't do all of the above - they all have different ideas (more than one way to skin a cat and all that) and you will get as confused as hell.

2k a day? Lordy.

Convert... High Wycombe is just down the M40 from me.

Already doing the SwimSmooth DVD, just get the feeling that I might improve faster if someone looks at exactly how rubbish I am.

Following SS seems to have made me slower of late.

Where's the gif gone Jamie?

edited above - Rick Kiddle is his name.

if you're doing it for exercise, isn't it best to be as inefficient as possible?

otherwise you'll get less out of it and you'll have to do more to make up for it.

Dave

Where's the gif gone Jamie?

I am trying to be less reductive/disruptive towards others.

if you're doing it for exercise, isn't it best to be as inefficient as possible?

otherwise you'll get less out of it and you'll have to do more to make up for it.

I'd say no!

Inefficiant swimmers also tend to put undue pressure on parts of their body due to their poor biomechanics - lots of twisting torsos and arched backs. An hour's swim is and hour's swim - if you are good and travel 4000m+ then great; if it's only 1500m that's good too but it would be nice not to be damaging joints whilst you are at it.

Thanks Convert... I think you mentioned him before. I can get half price lessons at my gym but not sure if a standard coach is what I'm after...

4k+ in an hour [i]is[/i] what I'm after!

Give Rick a go - he's a bit straight laced but a nice guy with the best man cave at the bottom of his garden in the world.

I went for a day there last October(ish) with 5 other people. We were very different standards and all got our videoed 1-2-1s and all came out of it with new ideas and so on and plenty of video footage of our swimming. It's amazing the difference between what you think you are doing and what you really are doing!

What about instead of lessons in effect go to one of those never ending pools where they film you and you can watch how you swim! I think I KNOW how to do it but have no idea what I look like versus Swim smooth when I do! Bicester otherwise do some adult lessons, or come along to the tri club pool sessions?

M_C - which Tri club do you go to again?

That's what Rick Kiddle uses M-C - have to say after years of swimming that was the first time I've used an endless pool. Bloody wierd thing and I went thinking if I had a spare £10K I'd buy one to very non plussed by the experience. It is not very natural - a sort of sweet spot of max current that any slight issues with your stroke want to push you out of so at the edge of your speed comfort zone its a constant battle.

See if any local pools run a Swim Fit session - I go to them regularly and are very worthwhile - lots of advice on hand. Depends on whose actually taking the session though.

are there any masters clubs nearby?

[i]lots of twisting torsos and arched backs[/i]

I like twisting my torso, we do it in yoga too. I've not tried underwater yoga though 😉

Kev

[i]and not drinking half the pool every day.[/i]

Yeeaaaoowwh.

Yuckey, yuck, yuk !.

[i]2k a day? Lordy. [/i]

Yeah, but I figure, its TSY, so it aint news.
😉

Anyone else end up with lots of pool water in their mouth? If not actually swallowing it.

[i]Anyone else end up with lots of pool water in their mouth? If not actually swallowing it. [/i]

Not a drop.

I don't swim.

I love to swim, but I don't have my own pool.

I've been having one on one lessons in an [url= http://www.swimcanarywharf.com/ ]Endless Pool[/url] .

Only had a couple of lessons so far but have imrpoved my swim times lots - Mind, I was a pretty useless swimmer to start with, I could swim 2 miles of FC but very badly/slowly.

Anyone else end up with lots of pool water in their mouth? If not actually swallowing it.

Yep, this happens to me and is the main thing that disrupts my stroke. I'm actually swallowing air as a result rather than swallowing water.

Anyone else end up with lots of pool water in their mouth? If not actually swallowing it.

Are you constantly breathing out except when you're taking the in breath?, swallowing lots can often be a sign of stopping breathing at some point, which is generally not a good thing,

Swallowing water is often a sign of poor body rotation - if you are getting it right your body is rotating sufficiently for only a small rotation of the head to be needed and a "popeye" style breathing mouth to be clear of the water. It is also sometimes an indicator of a low leg postion so the torso is in an upward incline and the head reaching forward to breath and catching wavlets. Also, generating a flat patch of water under the arm within which to breath and getting the timing right helps enomously.

As with everything else in swimming the "problem" is often caused by something seemingly unrelated in the stroke and it takes some "unpacking" (why did I used that hateful phrase!) to work out what's what.

I'll be getting some lessons after my little triathlon in May as I have some other challenges lined up. Will probably go down the total immersion route.

The only problem I have with TI is their whole head towards the bottom of the pool, chest pressure, swimming downhill concept to sort body posture dosn't seem to translate as well to open water swimming as some of the other "philosphies" out there.

convert - what would you advise?

to be needed and a "popeye" style breathing

Last couple of days I've been making a concerted effort to do this... certainly better than the wide mouthed basking shark approach to breathing that I occasionally slip into!

What's your goal - open water swimming events or something else? What stage are you at now? Where do live?

There are swimsmooth coaching days/weekends available although Paul Newsome himself is rarely in the country these days. Swimsmooth do seem slightly more in touch with the open water part of the "market". The differences are suble and it very much depends where you are at at the moment as to how relevant the differences are.

Open water is all I'm interested in.

I started from zero 8 weeks ago with 10 x 50m and will do my first 1500m straight tonight. Doing a half Ironman in 3 weeks.

I can do 1'30 for a 100m without tumble turns.

I'll look into swimsmooth. Thanks.

I swim with my mouth open, no problems with swallowing water. IMO clamping your mouth shut only to open as you breathe leads to gulping of air.

No worries - the best thing anyone on here (therefore being a bit of a biker?) could do for their swimming is work on ankle flexibility - we tend to be rubbish. Flexible ankles with toes pointing behind you rather than towards the bottom is instant win. Enjoy your first event.

Swallowing water is often a sign of poor body rotation

I do rotate my body loads, I concentrate on this - but I seem to be pretty low in the water so unless I lift my head a lot then I get a gobful sometimes. It doesn't seem as efficient to lift my head enough to avoid it.

Molgrips - how low are your feet and bum in the water (difficult to know really without having someone film it for you)? You sound like you might fit into the 2nd group I mentioned (body low and inclined, reaching up and forwards slighly for air).

Well I thought I was quite horizontal but perhaps I'm not. Might try the float between the legs and see.

Mol when you kick... do your feet break the surface?

The club coach gave up on me about 15 years ago and has since left me cruising up and down the pool with my lousy technique and a wonky stroke thanks to a shoulder that has never recoverd from falling off a bike twenty years ago.

I'm quite happy swimming up and down for half an hour but find doing an organised programme so much of a chore it puts me off swimming. So I swim along daydreaming, making a mental list of what to buy in Lidl on the bike home or jobs to do when I get home.

I have a weekly adult swim lesson at the local leisure centre.
I could alredy swim but wanted to improve technique.

As I have progressed it is more like an hours swim fit but with the instructor there too.

TSY sorry in delay work got in the way 😉
Bicester have a newly formed tri club started Jan this year. Swim Mon, Thurs and Fri nights.

in relation to feet point toes out and towards each other as if toes flicking past each other when you swim. If you are swallowing lots of air you must have bad stomach pains? I just to get raelly bad wind from swallowing so much water. It will be ALL about your breathing. I think endless pool is best to watch you swim and someone can evaluate it from there a lot more natural. I think Bicester tri will arrange a session somewhere at some point. If interested in tri club drop me an e-mail.