Swimming tips

use base 14

I'm not sure what that is, Mike....

I would call it sarcasm

If you don't mind spending a few bucks www.totalimmersion.net has some good videos and books on the subject. Maybe TriSwimCoach will poke his head in and ofer up some advice.

Sorry - yes sarcasm. (I logged off and didn’t follow this up – sorry)

Base – different way to count. Instead of decimal you use a different system – IE Binary = base 2 etc

Total Immersion's Triathlon Swimming Made Easy book is great. It's helped me alot already...although I still have a ways to go. But I'm definitely headed in the right direction.

There are alot of drills about balance and learning to glide through the water.

okay math geeks, you want to teach us all to count in hexadecimal or you want to answer the question?

They're talking about improving the efficiency of your stroke (stroke length, or SL), which is a much better way to swim faster than just increasing the number of strokes (stroke rating, or SR). You very quickly reach a point of diminishing returns when you increase your SR. See how far you can glide with each stroke. Cut the smallest possible hole through the water. Focus on taking a perfect stroke every stroke. That sort of thing. It's more complicated than just cutting down your stroke count, but that's a good place to start.

All right - picking on the new guy. Sounded like some kind of training program. LOL. Funny

Thanks, CLLinIA! I'll try some of the books.

in Hex,Dec:

1,1
2,2
3,3
4,4
5,5
6,6
7,7
8,8
9,9
A,10
B,11
C,12
D,13
E,14
F,15
10,16

That should get you started Ok, I have no life

I have the video "Freestyle Made Easy" and the book "Triathlon Swimming Made Easy"from ti. The video shows the drills and makes it much easier to follow the book.

Edited by JayC 2004-03-30 2:19 PM

If you are not an engineer or a programer, that is kind of.. well, unsetteling, to be perfectly honest....

I am a lawyer. You should be unsettled.

I am much worse...Both (Computer Engineer mix between Computer Science and Electrical Enginering)

Math minor....?

ooo, a lawyer. I feel better

Really funny, JayC

We use a decimal base with units of ten. This is just a general workable agreement and wasn;t always thus. For instance Babylon math had a 60 base.

Lets look at base 10. We have 10 units 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. At the point when increasing numbers we used a Ten unit and preface wit a 1, so the system reverts to 0 but with a 1 in front of it. Ie 10.

Using the system we can then go 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12, etc.

With a different base it means we no longer use the decimal system. For instance base 7 has 6 as its highest digit the nuber order here would be 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,20

With a base above 10 then other symbols must be used

For instance in base 14 we can show the numbers – assuming that after 9 we use a,b,c,d,e for numbers. I’ll do a listing of decimal numbers with base 7 next to it and base 14 next to that.

Decimal base 7 base 14
0 0 0
1 1 1
2 2 2
3 3 3
4 4 4
5 5 5
6 6 6
7 10 7
8 11 8
9 12 9
10 13 a
11 14 b
12 15 c
13 16 d
14 20 10
15 21 12
16 22 13
17 23 14
18 24 15
19 25 16
20 26 17
21 30 18
22 31 19
23 32 1a
24 33 1b


So 22 strokes per length in decimal becomes 31 in base 7 and 19 in base 14. Solved

Hexadecimal uses base 16 which is why you see the symbols a to f.

Heres a pretty good explanation and its also a good site for other math issues.
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/55739.html



If that doesn’t explain it then I’m stuck and can only suggest one of the other people have a crack at it (who will be better than I at explaining) or check out google

Math spouse. Remember the Apple Newton, the far distant forerunner of the Palm Pilot? He helped design that - as an undergrad. The giant geek aura rubs off.

To reduce your stroke per 25 yards, concentrate on elongating your reach as your hand enters the water. Reach with your shoulder as well as your arm with fingers closed (better H2O scooping) It may also help to simultanelously focus your attention on the strength and effectiveness of your kick. i.e. If your foot breaks the top of the water, it's not efficient. Your legs and feet should stay just beneath the surface, moving against as much resistance as possible to get maximum forward momentum.

Min-
Welcome to our board! I hope the math doesn't scare you away

Check out my post on "Why do I take fewer strokes ..."

sawyer

not scared yet! I figured a little qualitative might round out the quantitative approach on swim tips.

Awesome!

With all the math AND swim tips, I should be able to improve my times considerably. Now if I could just get someone to balance my check book....