Swim form and cadence?

I am not a fast swimmer, but I watch fast swimmers alot.......I'm talking 4:40 - 5:00 for 500 SCY swimmers.  They have a balance in the water that I don't have.  Yes, even they would describe much of their swimming as effortless, or at least the idea of being able to relax as they swim 1:15-1:20 hundreds.  I think it's hard to learn that balance when we learn to swim later in life.....at least it has been for me.  The people I watch are all 15 and under.

That's EXACTLY what I pick up from watching fast kids swim.  

That's very cool.  A 2:06 200 is something I'll never attain, or come close to......and then I watch an entire pool full of 14-15 year olds who can beat it.  I'm amazed by people who can really swim.  

I'm not trying to take anything away from your swim at your age......again, amazing!

Dude...like I said, I have great respect for your swimming.....but I have come to realize that truly good swimming, like yours, is a product of learning the basics at a very young age....and I don't care what anyone says, it's all about being balanced in the water. (as you said)   

People can learn to swim fairly well later in life....but realistically, virtually nobody who learns to swim as an adult is going to go under 2:00 for 200.  I watch 14-15 year old kids do it all the time....it's truly astounding for someone like me, who didn't learn to swim until I was in my 20's......30 years later and I can go 1:35 for 100 on a good day.....once.

I pick my kid up and say, "how was practice?"...he says, "it was good, we did 30 100's on 1:10 for the main set"....WTF??? 

Yeah, they're in long course now....and I couldn't tell you what the intervals are....practice is at 5am....I'm still asleep.

Dude I so hear what your saying!  My kids swim workouts these days just blow me away. All the tri dads sit and watch the meets in total ah of what they can do in the pool, we always say "wish I learned how to swim at that age!"

Over the past 3 years, my son has gone from a crank the cadence and splash away BOP to the total opposite slow cadence long glide MOP swimmer.  At this past weekends swim meet all the parents are amazed at his glide and slow turnover.  His physical stature is small in comparison to other 13-14 YO.  Now the coach is on him to increase his turnover and we just bought him a Tempo Trainer.

OP, have you seen the BT TI video, How to Swim Faster: Guaranteed, Not Guesswork.  There are so many little things in the 40 min video I found very useful.

I'm not sure I can agree with you on this one. I started competitive swimming as a sophomore in high school. During those years I only had workouts September to March. I didn't belong to a swim club. I was an ok high school swimmer. Nothing special. After being out of the water for a decade I returned to swim masters when I was 29 - 30 and went on to swim my best times. Much better than my high school years. I think if you commit yourself to swimming in your 20's and 30's (and some people in their 40's) you can be a FOP on the swim leg at your local tri.

However, a multi-sport athlete doesn't usually have the luxury of spending so much time in the pool. That is why I strongly recommend to people that they commit a lot of time on swimming during the off season. Improvements in form will carry over as you place more emphasis on training the run & bike later in the season.

I think if you learn to swim in your 20's you might (and this is total speculation) be able to go 2:00 SCM. Maybe even if you didn't learn until your very early 30's. However it would have to a very special athlete with a strong background in competitive athletics. A wingspan of six feet, seven inches and a size 14 shoe size would also help a lot (Michael Phelps).