How do you swim slow?

If you want to learn to swim slow pick up one of the TI dvd's on learning to swim....

Sorry, couldn't help myself.....

ingleshteechur - 2011-04-01 9:10 AM I just seem to be a natural at it.

Same here.  Never had to work at it or do any special drills.

Look at some of the TI videos on YouTube.  Once you get comfortable with the whole balance thing he teaches. I think you will be able to work through your drills nice, slow, and focused.

I might have a bad habit, or just physiologically gifted with big lungs, but have you tried keeping your lungs fuller while slowing down your stroke?  I seem to be able to float pretty well with the lungs inflated, and will hold my breath for a short time before turning to exchange air.

I've tried the closed-hand drill, and that sucks!  I don't go anywhere if my hands aren't opened up.

I have you ever tried just floating face down and relaxing so there is no tension in your arms or legs?

It's interesting to do and see how time changes how your balance point changes and finds equilibrium.   

Do start to exhale as soon as you put your face in the water? I found early on if I didn't fully exhale when I breathed I didn't get a good full inhale and felt breathless.

What happens when you turn your arms over slower?

Have you tried using pull buoy or fins to do drills? How do they change how you feel in the water if you use them?

Tarzan drill is tough and don't expect it to teach you to slow down as most folks speed up their turn over.

Do you try to engage your abs to keep your feet up? My husband had his swim coach tell him to try and pinch his butt checks together which helped him keep up his feet? Press down your chest is good way to get feet up.

Go to findingfreestyle.com and look up the SoL drill..there is some video and try it. You may need to try it with fins to get hang of it but also try to do it without fins.

Agree on catch-up drill. Except I will actually touch thumbs. REALLY slow.

Lately I am trying to focus on rotation, which means I spend more time gliding on my side. Add a wetsuit to this and it feels effortless.

x2 - Listen to Kathy

Floating is swimming very slowly.  I just tried this recently - its pretty darn hard for me to float in the proper balanced position. My legs stat to sink within 3 seconds.

I know how you feel.  It's true that swimming fast makes things easier in many ways, yet it takes years of training to be able to put out that type of effort for the duration.  Fast swimming creates that nice bow-wake at the head and puts an air pocket just in front of your shoulder that allows you to catch air below the surface of the water which allows for much improved breathing.

Higher speed helps keep the legs high too, as well as allows you to generate lift from the lead arm (that's a bad thing...but it makes it easier to breath).

Once you slow down, there is water right where your air pocket used to be making it harder to get air and therefore you spend more time with the face out of the water.  A slower stroke means more time with the arm in the air during recovery which increases downward pressure sinking you.  Legs sink...

I actually work on 'slow' swimming as a technique drill.  If you swim well slowly, it's harder and demonstrates a cleaner more balanced technique.

I'm not offering you any solutions, I'm just telling you I understand that slow swimming IS harder in many ways.

Sounds as though your balance is off in the water and you are using your stroke and kick to maintain your body position, hence the need to swim "fast".

I would work on balance drills and forget the stroke drills. Dont use your stroke to maintain your balance in the water. Balance first, rotation second, stroke third.

x3.  I also agree with catch-up as a natural 'slow-down'

My swim coach used to 'yell' at me all the time to slow down, to make more of a difference between my fast and slow pace.  I think what she really wanted me to do was find better balance and control, which are actually harder in some ways when you swim slowly.

Get a tempo trainer, you can get one for around $30 - $35. You can set it up to control your stroke rate. 

I have found mine to be very helpful. I follow TI methods (no drills though) and have been working out with my TT for a few weeks now. You will find out that swimming at a slower rate will uncover form issues left and right. 

Good luck

- Manuel

I had a short swim lesson earlier this week - I was told to look down more when swimming, not pushing my head down but looking more toward the bottom of the pool.  This keeps your legs up higher in the water. 

Also, the reason you might be feeling breathless is because you may not be exhaling enough.  If you don't exhale enough under water all of that carbon dioxide builds up and your lungs can't absorb the oxygen you need.  I have this problem sometimes and I have to remind myself to exhale.  

How fast are you, objectively, anyway? 

Not trying to start a pecking order contest - just it sounds to me as if you might be confusing swimming fast with swimming inefficiently and using a lot of energy. 

I say this only because you mention having a hard time getting air, suggesting that you're not an experienced swimmer. Of course, if you're throwing down 1:20s/100m or having been swimming for years, your original post title would indeed be correct!

On the other hand, swimming as hard as you can but going slow is the norm for beginner swimmers who are inefficient (such as myself.) On my intervals, I feel like I'm going 150%, but my results suggest I'm only going 25% =(

To answer some of your questions:

I have not tried floating face down, but whenever I have tried floating on my back, my legs always sink.  I have NEVER been able to just float....  I'll certainly try this.

Yes I start to exhale as soon as I put mty face in the water.

When my turn over slows down, my balance gets all wacky.  I can't stay in the rotated position at all, I kind of feel like the shoulder on my recover arm "falls" into the water.

I have used a pull bouy, that seems to help a lot as I can really isolate my upper body.  No fins though.  The pull bouy helps lift my legs and give me a feeling for goot body position, and I can emulate that sometimes when swimming without.  I also don't get as "out of breath" when using the pull bouy, but I think thats just becuase I'm not kicking.

I've tried engaging my abs, pushing my chest down, but it throws the rest of my form so off that I begin to lift my head to breath.

This is just very frustrating! Grrr!  Thank you all for the feedback!

I'm consistently around 1:40-1:45 for 100 sets, and usually around 1:45-1:55/100 on longer sets (depend on when the longer sets are).  So its mostly a swimming inefficiency problem (I think).  I feel like I have to work very hard against the water to keep moving sometimes.

That sounds to me like you are pushing down with your lead arm to support your head out of the water.  A good drill for that is side swimming.  You rotate on to your side.  the top arm is against your side, your bottom arm extended forward.  You kick for 5 seconds, then roll with a stroke to the other side and hold while kicking for 5 seconds, then repeat. 

You can do this without breathing at first.  Just keep looking down at the lane line while on your side.  Do it for a length, or half a length at a time...however long you can hold your breath.  Then stop, breath and start again.

Once you have gotten that, add the breathing in...even though you turn on your side for 5 seconds at a time, you look down when you aren't inhaling....turn your head quickly for your inhale, then put the face back in the water.  So 5 seconds on your side has your face in the water for 4 seconds.

Then transition to catch-up swimming drills so you won't be dropping that lead arm.

short update:

Went for my swim today and I tried many of the things that were suggested here... I found out that if I stretch myself out (focus on staying "long" in the water) swimming becomes MUCH easier.  I was swimming "slow" for my cool down 100.  It felt VERY easy throughout the whole 100.  Breathing was spot on, balance was great.  I was trying to stay streamlined and fluid, not trying to apply any speed and I came in at 1:40!

Thank you BT for all your support.  All the suggestions gave me LOTS to think about and I'm very thankful for all the words of wisdom!