What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?

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2012-05-08 8:54 PM


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Subject: What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?

Am still improving, but always looking for the next technique-related gain. I'm curious as for all you intermediate or faster swimmers who can swim faster than 1:40/100yds T-pace - what was the technique refinement (if any) that gave you the most benefit below this pace? I'm trying to squeeze all I can out of the technique!

2012-05-08 8:57 PM
in reply to: #4198742

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Expert
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Subject: RE: What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?
Have someone take a video or still pix of you in the water.  I find a lot of intermediate swimmers lose speed by allowing their legs to drag in the water too much, pix will allow you to get a good assessment of your technique.
2012-05-08 9:06 PM
in reply to: #4198742

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Master
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Subject: RE: What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?
The most common mistakes I see are head to high in the water which drops the hips, dropping their elbows on the pull, crossing over on the entry and pull phase and kicking like a runner. Mostly people just do not swim enough to make technical improvements or gain fitness.
2012-05-08 9:22 PM
in reply to: #4198742

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Coach
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Subject: RE: What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?
Everyone is different. POst a video and you'll get some decent feedback.

Here you can see short video of me pre & post Total Immersion study...9 months apart. Pre-video was self-coached book/video Total Immersion and my fastest 100 was 1:35..so right around your 1:40 (and boy do I look sloppy), post-video was post weekend workshop and coach training, and down to 1:24/100. This also highlights the difference you can get from self coaching vs. lessons from a skilled swim coach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaeIGcvWaO8

Major things I changed...
-keepign head down on breathing
-elimiated crossing over
-staying on rotated edge longer in stroke...not falling flat.
(the above thing helped eliminate crossover as I no longer had to swing my arm over the surface to keep it clear)
-reduced "pulling" thoughts in the water and increased "holding" and "spearing" thoughts

Note that I THOUGHT I had already corrected those things with the self-coaching, but I didn't have an objective observer or enough self-knowledge to know how to identify & correct those things.

I also completly changed the way I thought about swimming and swim practice. The changes above were on about 1500 yds 3x per week of focused acute attention on individual technique components. Every swim was a practice in improveing just one aspect of my stroke.
Add up all the small improvements and they make a huge sum total difference

Step one for you is to identify YOUR opportunities for improvement.

Edited by AdventureBear 2012-05-08 9:30 PM
2012-05-08 9:30 PM
in reply to: #4198742


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Subject: RE: What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?

Went from 2 min 100's last year to1:35-1:40 this year.  It wasn't technique, it was volume.  Went from 5k a week to 8-10k a week.  Masters swim is your friend, it makes the increased volume much more bearable.

 

2012-05-08 9:34 PM
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Subject: RE: What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?
yazmaster - 2012-05-08 8:54 PM

Am still improving, but always looking for the next technique-related gain. I'm curious as for all you intermediate or faster swimmers who can swim faster than 1:40/100yds T-pace - what was the technique refinement (if any) that gave you the most benefit below this pace? I'm trying to squeeze all I can out of the technique!

 

 

Lotsa laps

2012-05-08 9:36 PM
in reply to: #4198742

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Subject: RE: What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?
I posted a video and got a ton of feedback. I took a listold all the advice to the pool and incorporated focused sessions on each point as I jacked my yardage from 6k/wk to 10-12k.

I went from a 1:50 T1k to a 1:40T1k to a 1:42/100 1.2 mile test all within 8 weeks.

I was very surprised to realize what I thought was correct was wrong and slow.

High elbow catch. Deliberate and intentional.
Don't push down on the water. If you think you may be, you are.
Look straight down. Lower. No straight down. Tuck that chin in until you get good body position then you can adjust it.
1 eye under water on the breath stroke
Kick from the hips. Like there is a penny between your cheeks. Stop bending knees.

Those are the big points I got. I think they could apply to any of us non-swimmers.
Hope that helps.
2012-05-08 9:43 PM
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Master
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Subject: RE: What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?

Don't get hung up too much on technique. It's mostly endurance that you are lacking.

I swim with people that crush me....and their "technique" could be ripped apart. In fact, you could rip apart Micheal Phelps technique if you wanted to....no one swims perfect.....actually, humans really suck at it.(That's what makes ripping even the best swimmers technique fairly easy)

Everyone knows what to do (ie swim as perpendicular to the surface as possible, pull as much water as you can yada yada)....whether or not they want to put in the yards and consciously make the appropriate changes is another story. 

2012-05-08 9:53 PM
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Coach
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Subject: RE: What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?
I'll just add one more thing. My favorite quote from Stength and Conditioning coach Gray Cook,

"First move well, then move often."

2012-05-08 9:56 PM
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Subject: RE: What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?

I'm DEFINITELy lacking in the volume/intensity department! (Am working on it...) Pretty time limited, so I really can't slack on the technique though.

 

I totally hear you on the 'swim fitness' thing though. I got completely crushed by a high school kid (I'm guessing he was on a swim team) in the adjacent lane who had some really ugly technique. Partial crossover, really choppy form, looked outright bad to me. Super high turnover rate, such that I was thinking 'this kid's going to die in less than 5 minutes!' after he blew by me at about 1:20/100 pace, making all my 2-beat smoothness look like a joke.

He kept it up for an entire HOUR with only very short <10sec rest intervals between the sets. Ugly and all. Pretty impressive what that big time arm turnover can do to technique gaps.

2012-05-08 10:13 PM
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Subject: RE: What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?

I swam 3 times a week for 1600m each time.  I would swim almost continuously the whole time every time.  Did that for a year.  Tried every technique adjustment and drill in the book and never got faster.  I honestly think I gradually got slower.

three months ago I did three things.

Step 1, increase volume to 4 days a week 2900-3200m per session

Step 2, increased intensity with shorter length intervals and stoped camping out on the wall for more than 10-15 seconds in between sets.

Step 3, watch time fly off like crazy.  My 300m T-pace went from a solid 2 minutes per 100m to 1:39 per 100m in less than 3 months.

2012-05-08 10:17 PM
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Subject: RE: What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?
Bonafide505 - 2012-05-08 9:34 PM
yazmaster - 2012-05-08 8:54 PM

Am still improving, but always looking for the next technique-related gain. I'm curious as for all you intermediate or faster swimmers who can swim faster than 1:40/100yds T-pace - what was the technique refinement (if any) that gave you the most benefit below this pace? I'm trying to squeeze all I can out of the technique!

 

 

Lotsa laps

x2!

2012-05-09 12:22 AM
in reply to: #4198742

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Champion
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Subject: RE: What technique changes helped you swim sub 1:40/100?
Volume.  I wasn't very good back in HS, but with all the training then, I was around 1:14/100 SCY for the 500 yd free (what I swam the most back then) and these days I can't really do better than about a 1:30-1:31 pace for that distance.  Stroke isn't different (if anything my form is probably better now), but I just swam a heck of a lot more back then.  Since I started doing tri's, I've transitioned from one swim a week to two and...guess what...my 1.5K pace went from around 1:42-1:44/100 yds to 1:33-1:35.  I've worked on stroke mechanics along the way, but the real improvement came from more yardage and more interval work.
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