Swimming

FAT_ROB

Ey up

Been trying to do a bit of cross training this week, as its been to icy, dark and now snowy to take the bike out. I have discovered that although I can clock up the lengths Im no Mark Phelps and to be honest it's quite embarrasing bringing up the rear in the impromptu beat the pretty girl in the lane next to me race I always seem to find myself in.

Anyone had any swimming coaching? My local gym shrugged there shoulders and the Council run leisure centre stated that unless I wanted to actually 'learn' to swim they couldnt help. Where do these people hang out???

phreak

Join your local club. I competed as a youngster and we would regularly have cyclists and triathletes joining our less busy sessions. I should warn that these are usually early in the morning (6am start kinda thing) but they will give you a lane and a session to follow (or try to follow )

Alternatively there are a lot of private coaches out there. I would have thought your local centre would have known who they are, but the local club should know. A club would be the best bet though as even a private coach would probably have to coach you during a public session, which is never ideal.

innocenti

My council provide free swimming lessons and lessons for those wishing to improve their swimming. Its half an hour on a Thursday lunch time and I have to say its one of the best things I have ever done. I find the breathing a problem though, there never seems to be a shortage of oxygen when cycling but when your face is in the water most of the time...

antfly

Surely if you couldn`t swim you would have drowned by now!
All you need to know is "bend,wide,together,bend, wide,together,bend,wide,together..."

FAT_ROB

Hmm ok might give coaching a go, I know what you mean about lack of oxgen!!!!

steve-m

FAT_ROB wrote:

Ey up

Been trying to do a bit of cross training this week, as its been to icy, dark and now snowy to take the bike out. I have discovered that although I can clock up the lengths Im no Mark Phelps and to be honest it's quite embarrasing bringing up the rear in the impromptu beat the pretty girl in the lane next to me race I always seem to find myself in.

Anyone had any swimming coaching? My local gym shrugged there shoulders and the Council run leisure centre stated that unless I wanted to actually 'learn' to swim they couldnt help. Where do these people hang out???

I used a group called swm4tri and though it was well worth it, they began by videoing us and showing us our "technique" - think scenes from Jaws. The lesson was 90 mins per week for 10 weeks, they focus on technique by a series of basic drills which you also practice as "homework". They are based in London so not an option for you but I'd recommend something similar.

woody-som

my local pools both teach new and improver classes, one is a council pool, the other charity run. If they can teach someone to swim, then they should be able to teach you how to improve, but a good book I found usefull is 'Swimming-steps to success by David Thomas' lots of useful step by step drills, or 'Championship Swimming by Tracey McFarlane Mirande' which has many drill to improve your technique and swim faster, not used this much yet as been ill since buying, but reading it looks good.

finchy

Get some floats and do some lengths using just arms (or just one arm) or just legs. This is by far the best way of nailing the technique.

Check out the swimming techniques on youtube, there's some decent stuff on there.

Mettan

FAT_ROB wrote:

Hmm ok might give coaching a go, I know what you mean about lack of oxgen!!!!

Re: "oxygen", if you want to improve your swimming efficiency, you need to learn to breathe out underwater - its absolutely vital. As John mentioned, the Swim tutorials on YouTube will give you some useful pointers (on technique and breathing).

FAT_ROB

I think my main problem was breathing in under water in a dis- jointed mesh of arm and legs, will def give float work a try and the you tube bits.

Thnaks very much.


Oh and if this dosen't work look out for me being the last one out the water at this years London Triathlon!

Mettan

FAT_ROB wrote:

Oh and if this dosen't work look out for me being the last one out the water at this years London Triathlon!

If your freestyle technique's a bit haphazard you could always alternate between freestyle and breastroke during the swim leg? (there'll be a smaller but significant portion of breastroke-only people anyway). For your Freestyle, have a look at the Total Immersion stuff - bit if a Tri bible.

http://www.totalimmersion.co.uk/

richara3

Join your local swimming club , but be aware most of the folk will be youngsters that swim like fish. Whilst you more than likely will just thrash the water to a foam as they porpoise past. I agree though it is 90% technique. I am a faster swimmer now at 37 yrs old than I was in my late teens when i swam for a club.

Andy

harry58

I had the same problem. After flying round on my bike on the road, being overtraken by pregnent women in the swimming pool started to hit the confidence. I got a half hour swimming lesson for 20 quid. Made a huge differance. Won't say that I've cracked swimming yet but I'm unrecognizeable from the swimmer I was. Wish I'd done it sooner rather then struggling along for ages.

cougie

Try your local tri club - they are great at teaching people to swim properly. I went from about 25m of breastroke to 4km of crawl in a couple of months.