Relationship Pull-Ups to Swim Performance

Yes I can do these exercises, but I don't really think they are as related as you think.  The pull-ups will work your lats, shoulders, & core which are very important muscles in swimming.  But technique is still king!  This is probably personal but even when I was at my worst level of fitness and unable to do a significant number of pull-ups, I could still swim a sub-2-min 100 yd. 

My best guess is that getting below that 2 minute mark is probably more related to technique.  Getting sub 1:15 may be where you see the additional strength benefits.

I would say core strengthening is more important for distance swimmers.  Sprinters may benefit from pull ups, dips, lunges, etc., but for distance, I would focus on core exercises, rotational strengthening and shoulder stability exercises (for injury prevention).

Of course lunges help biking power and core helps everything, so there is cross benefit for all disciplines.

Which is best achieved through swimming.

I can swim sub-2:00/100, but have no idea how many pull-ups or push-ups I could do.  And I can guarantee you I could find people in the gym who could easily exceed those latter benchmarks, but would need months (or years) to catch me in the pool.  So I will guess a minimal relationship, at best.

Nevertheless I am convinced that technique will not get you fast times, unless you have the proper strength and muscle endurance in the upper body (and core).

Can they help a particular swimmer with their own endurance and strength? yes....or at least make them better/faster

Will someone with strong lats upper body, and core stregth swim faster/endure more than soemone who is weaker in those areas? No or not necessarily so

I am stronger in my upper body, legs and core than 80=90 percent of people in the pool but I struggle to keep up with somecof them....so in my opinion you will get the most gains by learning better form than spending the time in the weightroom for swimming 

This ^^^^^^

Now ask yourself how many pullup and pushups this little girl is doing to swim fast.

http://www.swimbikerunvideos.com/8-year-old-crushes-500-freestyle-record/

Cheer up, just get in the pool more, focus on stroke, watch some videos, read some books - but mostly swim.  I put in a lot of time in the pool the past few months, and I'm MOP at best, but I'll keep swimming and should keep improving.  But you really do need to focus when you swim, don't just get through the laps, try and achieve small improvements when you're in the water.

I do 1:15/100m and i cannot do one pull up. I don't even swim as part of my training. My endurance in biking/running and my swimming technique are more than enough.

One of the Browlee's (Johnny?) was quoted as thinking he could maybe do 3 pull-ups.

^ this.

I can do 18-20 pull ups on a good day and 70-80 push ups. It does not help my swim much in my opinion. I am a 1:50/100 pace on long swims, 1:22-1:27 on hard 100s...slightly front MOP in my races. Saw improvement when i worked on technique and swam more often

Interesting...

I'm probably top 25% out of the water in any race I do and I can only do about 2-3 pull ups, tops since I'm 6'7" and 230.

I guess if I can get that up to 20-30, I should be faster than Phelps, no?

That seems pretty unlikely, he was probably being modest.  I barely weight trained and I could do way more than that just from being in shape and thin.  

At the very pointy end of the field it might make a small difference.  2:00/100 isn't anywhere close to that and swimming lots with good technique (and some hard effort) will give you all the strength and endurance you need.

To answer your question, I swam a 54 min IM, can do around 1:00 for 100m, cruise around 1:20/100m and I'm sure my pull up and push up count would be in the single digits (possibly combined....).

I guess the good news is that there would be little benefit to add specific strength training to my work-out.

The bad news is that besides swimming regularly and having had some coached sessions in the past I see very little progress. With something that is mostly technique based one should make go from a 3:00 to a 1:00 min per 100yds easily when the technique is right.

Which I would think should be learned in 3+ month...

Not sure what the typical tri-athlete swims.

But my log is up to date.

I try to swim 3 times a week. Monday's are pool days and Wendesday and Sunday is OWS.

Yesterday I did a mile in the pool and was at 2:30+ in OWS I can't even get below 3:00 (assuming my Garmin 310XT in Swim CAP) measure accurately...

Thanks for the advice.

I was under the impression OWS is where the time should be spent.

The local pool has lap swim only from 8pm to 9pm. So get most of the time ~50minutes in the water.

When doing sets it comes down to 20 - 30 minute swim time...