triritter/William Ritter "Rock Out in 2010" CLOSED! (Page 12)

Looks like some cross over, for sure on the left and maybe some on the right as well.. hard to tell. Finger tip drag, or even better drag your thumb along the side of your body in the middle of recovery. That way your arm should be coming up in a straight line and continue that path into your catch. Don't worry too much about hand entry, it doesn't need to look pretty, and it's something beginner swimmers focus WAY too much on. Throw those arms/hands out there in front of you, don't worry about a little splash. The only goal of your hand entry is to go in with a good position to start your catch and causing as little amount of bubbles as possible. However you don't want to be entering right above your head. This causes more chance of cross over and you will never swim straight in OW. It may look pretty, but especially in OW it's much much better to get those hands out there.

Your kick is a mess, grab a kick board and start kicking! You mainly just need to tighten it up. Still, don't just kick while doing kicking set. Change from easy to hard through out the set of kicking. While doing kick sets try different things with your kick. Keep asking your self questions... Am I more effecient with a low tight kick, do I need to raise my feet up a bit, or lower them? Is my kick too small, too tight or do I need to tighten it more? There is a sweet spot for kicking, you gotta find it. You can have your feet too high making your kick worthless, and you can have your feet too low in the water making you drag dead weight.

Figuring out your kick should help your hips and core get in line as well, but as it is right now you're over rotating basically everything. Especially your hips, which drives everything so that's not good and causes you to do the wiggle. Think Streamline when you are swimming, keep everything inline and this comes from the core. Keep the hips rotating but keep everything inline and streamline with your core.

went back and watched your pull, as well as I can from the side in a youtube video. I'd like you to do some 100s of fist swimming(using a closed fist). Really focus on where your weak spots are in the pull and play with changes. Stay away from paddles or buoys right now, you don't need either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUULNJEdKU8

Check out the video, the main one I would want you to focus on from that video is the quick catch and focus on popping those elbows up to get a vertical forearm during your pull.

Thanks for the tips, I'll give them a try... Not sure where you are seeing a glitch in the pull, but i know my right side pull is off.  Have a really crappy shoulder on that side (before swimming), and try and put things through the position where it doesnt hurt. Dont know if that is causing some overrotation or not, but definitely when i try to change my pull Ive noticed pain. When i speed it up (pull) and accelerate the reach on the other arm, i dont feel the water as much but seem to keep the same speed, just thought that wasnt what i was after (gotta love a self taught mess).

The kick, thats another point where im afraid i listened a little too much when people said to not worry about the kick.  I usually kick very little, even to the point where my only purpose is to reduce my leg drag... this again was probably due to being self taught and poorly read on the subject.  I do notice that my legs splay when I rotate in one direction and wasnt sure why...   So I tried incorporating more kicking yesterday during my lengths, all of it was from the hips with very little knee bend... it made me faster, but I still dont know how much to kick...

Your scissor kick is from you rotating too much when you breath. Or so it looks like from this angle. Even when you're not breathing(and not sure why you're breathing every 4) it's a sloppy weak kick that needs work. As of right now, don't worry at all about what's the most effective kick for a race. Just worry about kicking. Work on that kick and then later on start to work on what works best for races. It will come pretty naturally. A good kick is all so important in being a good swimmer. If you need to kick or not in a wet suit swim is besides the point.

I don't want to say too much on your pull as it's almost impossible to really say what's going on from above the water. However I said it looked a little weak because it looks like it slips a little too fast in spots(mainly the catch phrase) and the fist swimming drill will help point those spots out to you.

Just keep evaluating your self each and every swim seeing what feels right and what seems to work versus what doesn't. There isn't a need for a coach, though they do help. I'm a example of a non-coached swimmer. I still have room to improve for sure, but I've come a long way.

Things do take time and it won't be over night.

Quick note,

Don't just do all drills for a session, still keep a main set for your workout. Also, don't be afraid to toss in drills during your main sets. This is something a lot of people look over. Just doing drills at a slow, slow easy pace during your warm up isn't always what you want.

lol, thought the reason for breathing every 4 strokes was obvious from the muffin top over the swim shorts (still pretty out of shape)...

in all seriousness, i sometimes practice bilateral breathing every 3rd, but seems to hurt my right shoulder more.  How many strokes per breath do most people do?

Thanks for the tips Stephen. I learned a lot too. BTW I am coming after you in the water. Get that foot ready. You shoulda came up this weekend.

Question about making a training schedule: I want my first race to be a sprint. However, race season (around here, at least) doesn't start until June/July and I feel like most of the sprint programs I see are only 8-10 weeks. Since I have at least 16 weeks, should I just complete a 10-week sprint program and then move on to an Olympic program, maybe doing a longer race at the end of the summer? Or is there training I should be doing now to build up more of a base?

Either way, I need a schedule- I don't think my workouts have been too efficient. What do you guys think?

on another note it looks like your letting your hands drift like your trying to block the water, espeically with your left hand. You basically want to set your hands then start the pull. lots of work to do!

That will be fine, or you can start earlier and build up to it some or extend it. Don't forget to take a recovery week around every 3 weeks or so. Definitely be building up the base.

I usually do 4 strokes per breath with the predominate side being my left (even though I am right handed).

I'm not big on going past 3 strokes for breathing. If you're doing them as a drill, not to train your lung capacity(that's stupid) but to make your self more comfortable, then that's fine. Otherwise, why limit your self? Breathing every two is the most efficient for oxygen consumption while every 3 is just a needed skill and can help even out your stroke as well. When you run easy you don't hold your breath, so why would you want to do so in the pool?

Congrats to Mr. Lance Vernon, last night he swam his fastest 100m. That was after all the other stuff he did before it.

He's busting it right now on the tready doing hill repeats right now.

Woo hoo, Lance! Good for you!

I may be able to actually hold you off on the bike this year, but it won't do me any good because I'll be moving at turtle pace on the run. You should come do Nationals with us this year as well.

However, in the water, you're not going to catch me. I haven't started to plateau there yet.

Edited by smilford 2010-02-10 9:59 AM

We have snow in East Texas..looks like a trainer day.

Thanks Emily. He keeps me going.  I was a little excited about it myself.

He usually says Whoooooo hooooo too, when he is excited.  

We have a bit of snow in East Texas, I got to come in late to work this morning. We have about 6 inches here but I hear Dallas-Fort Worth has more like 12"+. It's my rest day so that is good but I have a fairly big weekend planned.

Go find a snow hill and do some hill work.  That would be a decent work out

Ritter-  Can you post some interval or tempo swim workouts?  I am a 1:48 swimmer right now, which is where I finished last year, and I would not mind dropping to 1:40 consitantly by November.  What say you.  I will give it 3x a week, but my bike is still priority.  I am just abbbleing.  Maybe I just need you to coach me 

threshold

10x100 race pace
5x200 race pace effort.
4x400 steady

strength
paddles/pulls
6-8x200 pulls (4 pulls, 4 pull/paddle)

endurance
2x1000m steady to hard. 




 

How's it going everyone, I report to you with smashed legs as I just finished my 4th week build. race season for some of us is just right around the corner. I have my first ever Duathlon next weekend at the Fort Worth Texas Motor Speedway and March 6th will do the Athens triathlon. They even have a free carbo load dinner the night before with sweet give-aways. Let me know how you are all doing and if you have any questions. Cheers!!!!

Good luck at the duathlon! I went bike shopping this weekend- didn't buy anything, but got a feel for what's out there. I'll probably bite the bullet some time in the next couple of weeks. Went swimming with a friend today and got WORKED. I've only been able to do 25 meters at a time when I swim by myself, but by the end of the workout, I did a couple of 100s, which felt pretty good (mentally, definitely not physically).

I am doing TMS as well. Maybe we can meet up and say hey.