Beth and Yanti's Newest Manatees - FULL (Page 5)

Ummm no thanks I need to work up to swimming that distance I am such a horrible swimmer.  I am signing up for more swimming lessons I think.  Are private lessons worth the money or is a group lesson just a good?

Good luck on your upcoming race Heidi!!

TR thanks I will look them up and see what I can arrange.  I would really love to become a not a great swimmer but someone that can go and swim 2000m workouts and more from there

Swim Talk:

It seems like there are a few folks that are starting out on the swim and interested in learning more about technique.

I dug out my training material from my tri clinic and thought I would post a few tips based on people's level of interest.

I thought a good place to start might be by listing out some of the common freestyle errors -

1.      Dropping the hand and shoulders when the hand enters the water

2.      Sweeping the hand out too far away from the body during the recovery phase of the stroke

3.      Pushing water down in the first third of a stroke instead of pulling back and pushing water up in the last third of the stroke

4.      Kicking hard with too large of a motion

5.      The arm crossing over to the opposite side of the midline of the body on the pull phase

6.      Lifting the head out of ht water to breath

7.      Not exhaling fully during the pull phase, or holding your breath while your mouth is under the water.

These can give you a few things to think about when you are swimming.  If you haven't had the benefit of formal lessons or coaching, some of these things can be hard to self diagnose, but hopefully is some good food for thought.

Videos

I found a couple of video clips that I thought were quite good.  Hope you enjoy!

Alexander Popov swimming technique  - this video includes some really nice commentary about the stroke and the technique.

Swim Smooth Visualization (Bill Kirby) 

Yanti is dead on about relaxing!

On the topic of lessons, I echo the recommendation and if you have a good instructor, group lessons can definitely be of value and more affordable - especially if you get lucky and the class is small

One other thought:

Swim races are decided by hundredths of a second. That is rarely the case for us triathletes. The goal for us is to finish the swim going as fast as possible using the least amount of energy as possible. It is not cool for us to get on the bike and have to recover from our swim.

So the key is to focus first on technique, so you can become efficient in the water and not be too tired when you finish the swim portion of the race.

I'll post more tips as we go along, if you have any specific questions or areas that are more difficult, be sure to post your question.  If you're wondering, chances are someone else is also

and YANTI, where do i get one those turtle honky-horns

thanks for the reminder about HAVING FUN doing the TRIs.

it IS like when were kids isnt.

i forget and get ridiculously/needlessly intense.

Morning all -- Just jumping on here beofer I do a 45 minute fartlek (great word, huh?) run and then a 45 minute bike -- a reverse brick today. 

Re: backstroke. My swim coach says since most triathletes are focused on freestyle it's good to do a few yards/meters of backstroke at the end or in the middle of your swimming to "unwind" the arm/shoulder. I've had a shoulder injury (that finally seems to be under control) and using the backstroke after swimming free for my workout does seem to help stretch my shoulder in the opposite way and it's a good way for me to cool down after a tough/strong swim. I also get in some breast stroke just because I like it and it uses different muscles on the kick. I've seen athletes swimming backstroke in a tri, but mostly because they got tired and needed a break. Again, from my swim coach, you're more fluid in the water doing sidestroke instead of breast or back in a tri IF you need a break. I do think having a goal of swimming free for the tri is what most people aim for and that efficiency that our Mentor mentioned.

Have a great day, everyone!