anyone use a swim trainer machine?

i would advise against it and to invest any money into either coaching, master swim program, private lesson etc...

one of the most important aspect of training is specificity, and those trainer are not very specific to the movement. Also, improving your swimming is highly related to improving your ''feel of the water''. The best way to up your swimming and get better is to SWIM MORE.

it s simple and perhaps not the answer you want to hear but it s the key to getting faster!

best of luck!

oh, i understand you, i have live the past 15 years of my life as a professional triathlete and performance was all and everything in my life. i would have taken any advantage technique i could to improve. But the vasa trainer and other swim trainer arent. the concept seems good but it simply dosnt work physiologically.

try to get one or two more swim session in..... up your millage, rise your commitement. those are the effective way to get you faster....

my teenage son is my best example of why more time in the water is the way to improve swimming.

He is a freshman, so not the fastest on the team (though his fly I think is up there) anyway, a year or so ago I could still beat him (I am definitely a slow swimmer). 

Now he swims essentially twice as fast as me.

His workouts are 12,000-15,000 yards DAILY.  the short recovery workouts before a meet are 7,000 yards

no wonder my 3000 yards 3-4x per week keep me as slow as I am....

i think it s important for triathlete to have a reality check about swimming. Your exemple of you and your son is very good. most triathlete will swim 2-4k 2-4 times a week and some will consider that a lot.it s not, it s bare minimum if you want to improve and become proficient at swimming

 swimming required a lot of time in the water to improve, every kids in swim teams or university team or college team etc... like your son swim 9-11 times a week with volume that reach 30-60km a week. That is lots of time.

Chris McCormack told me in 1999 that if i wanted to learn to swim properly and be a front pack swimmer, 6 months of 40 000m/week was what is needed. The catch is, it will take anyone 2-5 year of training before your shoulder can take such training load so it isnt 6 months but more like many years of consistent hard work.

for the triathlete, winter time can be a very good opportunity to do a swim focus and put the bike and run on maintenance mode. swim swim swim!!!! every meter count!

How many hours of swimming does it take for him to swim 15,000?

I'm kind of late to the discussion but as a new Vasa Ergometer user I can tell you it's helped me like nothing else! I've been blogging about it if you are interested: http://www.cortthesport.com/p/vasa-training.html

For me it's been instrumental in improving technique and power and I'm seeing direct transfer to faster pool swim speeds. As a time crunched mom it's works well for me as a pool supplement, it's a big time saver.

3 hours or less - sorry did not see this until now - just asked him

I'm very curious to see how it works for you - keep up the blogging!

I'm sure real pool-time is better, but for most of us time-crunched people, that 15-30 minute drive each way to the pool is killer - I'd gladly trade off getting rid of that wasted time for 85% of the quality of a real pool swim and only get in the pool occasionally.

Sorry to be a debbie downer, but this whole thread has a troll or vendor (I'm promoting the heck out of my product) like smell to it.

Cortthesport - 1 post and you are sounding like a 2:00 am infomercial!

yup - I had the same thought - one post and it is promoting a product that she is MINIMALLY sponsored by.

will stick with the pool - I know I need to just swim a heck of a lot more if I want my swim to improve.

I am investing in some lessons after my HIM in 2 weeks