Swimming?

Mr_Roboto

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I know having discussed in passing there are a few people here who have done swimming at a HS level or otherwise. I've been taking lessons and swimming 5 days a week since about last September. Things are going pretty well but I'm still working on a lot of things. I did a ton of back stroke before I started taking lessons and have expanded into freestyle and breast stroke as well as doing flip turns. Combined with my eating I'm down 40lbs at this point and hope to be down another 10-15lbs in a couple months. There's a lot of stuff that I'm working on and having the instructor is more helpful than I would have thought honestly. That said, I do have a few questions I'd love opionions on:

-How the hell do you get power out of the breast stroke? I just don't see it still, I mean it's getting better but I am just not seeing the intensity in the kick I think I should be seeing. It may be my pace though, but I'm probably doing about 28 strokes for a length. Maybe it's more powerful than it feels? Don't really know, just asking.
-Any pointers on building lung capacity? I feel like this is a spot I am particularly short on. It's getting better, although not super quickly. 100 free with flip turns is a bit of a push for me at this point, although I'm getting where I can. I can do a ton of back with flip turns, I just run out of oxygen doing free.
-If I'm doing flip turns I'm having trouble with consistently pushing off the wall too deep. Is there something from a muscle perspective I should be doing to come out more shallow/tune how deep I am coming out? I think this is really hurting me on the above, when I have too much delay in coming up I run out of oxygen quicker.
 

Mr_Roboto

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Iā€™m going to pass these questions on to my mom. She is an avid swimmer in her mid 70ā€™s. Forgot how many thousands of miles sheā€™s recorded.

Question for you though, where are you swimming at and do you like the facility?

I swim at Inwood in Joliet and love it.

Was playing around with free 50s doing a flip turn and getting into low to mid 40 second range and moderate effort. Flip turning is new enough to me I do not know the boundaries I can hit yet. I would like to be refined enough in what I am doing to knock a couple seconds more off at a minimum but my stomach muscles are sore after so I think that needs some more work.

I am also going to try and add more time as well going from 50ish minutes to an hour and a half a few days a week when logistics permit it
 

SpeedSpeak2me

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Okay, I passed along the questions.

i used to be an avid swimmer and mild diver. But I messed up something in my shoulder/back where the levator and rhomboid minor attach to the scapula. Doing any kind of swimming motion makes it feel like a red hot ice pick is getting jammed into that intersection,

Only thing I can do comfortably is SCUBA since you donā€™t use your arms much.
 
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Mr_Roboto

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Get up early beat the rythims of others. It is by f
Okay, I passed along the questions.

i used to be an avid swimmer and mild diver. But I messed up something in my shoulder/back where the levator and rhomboid minor attach to the scapula. Doing any kind of swimming motion makes it feel like a red hot ice pick is getting jammed into that intersection,

Only thing I can do comfortably is SCUBA since you donā€™t use your arms much.

My left shoulder isn't great, if I miss a few days I feel it bad. If I keep it stretched out it's pretty okay typically not to say it's problem free though. Getting old sucks!
 
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Mr_Roboto

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Good for you! I have an inground pool and barely use it. Need to get motivated.

Wake up early, it's a great way to set the rhythm of your day. If you're not careful or getting up later others set your rhythm and it's not good, it just kills inertia. I go swimming at 7AM daily, then off to drop the kid at school then off to work.
 
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SpeedSpeak2me

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Get up early beat the rythims of others. It is by f


My left shoulder isn't great, if I miss a few days I feel it bad. If I keep it stretched out it's pretty okay typically not to say it's problem free though. Getting old sucks!
I got an answer from my mom. Itā€™s really long and she did it via text-to-speech. When I get back home Iā€™ll transcribe it and send you a PM.

Just to post something impressive, since October 1985 she has logged 3,520 miles. No joke, 3,520 miles.
 

SpeedSpeak2me

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Yeah, she inherited the desire from her parents, who also swam regularly.

Those are just the miles she logged when she started going to Wheaton Collegeā€™s pool. I think itā€™s because she was able to find an Olympic size pool so the distance would be consistent and easy to track.
 
There are are three things that are going to be most crucial for you with swimming. Those being technique, stamina and breathing control. YouTube can be a pretty excellent source of info on all three to fill in bits that your instructor might miss. On the topic of breaststroke (that's was my jam in H.S. and college) its gonna be super important to get a proper glide in after your kick. This is where you want to be cutting through the water like a arrow same as when you make your initial off the wall push.
 
Also if your running out of oxygen after swimming regularly for 6 months or so you're gonna want to look at your breathing control. This is to say getting full breaths during your rotation stage in freestyle. Although to your point regarding working on lung capacity we would do what my coach called hypoxics where we do underwater breast for full lengths and then some. Though if you're swimming alone or in a place with no life guard I wouldn't recommend it.
 
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Mr_Roboto

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There are are three things that are going to be most crucial for you with swimming. Those being technique, stamina and breathing control. YouTube can be a pretty excellent source of info on all three to fill in bits that your instructor might miss. On the topic of breaststroke (that's was my jam in H.S. and college) its gonna be super important to get a proper glide in after your kick. This is where you want to be cutting through the water like a arrow same as when you make your initial off the wall push.

I keep getting lectured about my glide. Maybe I need to put some more consideration into it. Is there actually a "thrust" feel to the kicks at all or is it just kind of mushy? I may not have enough velocity in my kicks to be honest or my angles aren't wide enough.

Also if your running out of oxygen after swimming regularly for 6 months or so you're gonna want to look at your breathing control. This is to say getting full breaths during your rotation stage in freestyle. Although to your point regarding working on lung capacity we would do what my coach called hypoxics where we do underwater breast for full lengths and then some. Though if you're swimming alone or in a place with no life guard I wouldn't recommend it.

I've been getting somewhat better as my breathing has become better. Right now the combination of freestyle with the flip turns is just kicking my ass though. I'm going too deep and losing too much oxygen before I get back up. As an example I can do 200m back without any real problem doing flip turns, I can do 100 free without much issue without flip turns but the combination of the two is just brutal. When I started though doing 100 free was brutal, so there's definitely consideration there since that was probably 2-3 months ago or so I really started doing it.

I feel like my recovery is probably also shitty overall and that may just be I need to go longer intervals as well. I've been focusing on learning technique and may need to swing back to endurance.

I've dabbled in some of the Hypoxics both just messing around and in lessons, last time I went I made it 3/4 the way down when I was fresh and half way down or so the second and third time. I'm thinking it's not great but it's not terrible either? Definitely NOT something to do in my mind without a life guard there. I want someone to come in after my happy ass if that goes south.

#tcgknowsalittlesomethingaboutfuckingeverything

Beware the collective. We will assimilate you.
 
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Mr_Roboto

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Are you doing laps with a kick board?

I'm doing some, I try to do at least a couple 50s every time I go. Today I did a 100, day before I did a 150. My legs are definitely weaker than my arms are though and I need to do work there to get the balance a bit better.
 
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Mr_Roboto

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Started playing around with butterfly. That's some real burn right there, I don't know if I'm not used to using my muscles in the way that I am there but it's hard core on the arms. It's not bad overall but I need practice for endurance at this point. I'm on my third day and I'm getting to the point I'm starting to not feel beat every length. It also seems cardio intense but I'm not sure if that's my pace too. I'm doing a length in 25-30 seconds a hair more towards 30 than 25 it seems.
 

Mr_Roboto

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Did an 800 kick set on Saturday and it wasn't bad. Did it again this morning, not so easy. :rofl:

Probably somewhat of a strange question but anyone know what jammers tend to be looser in the leg openings? I tend to use the Speedo Endurance+ ones and even though the waist is fine the legs just seem too tight.
 

Mr_Roboto

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Well, I think I joined a masters team. Been kicking around the idea for a long time now, so we'll see how this works out. Also think I got quasi invited to go do open water swimming locally. This could be interesting. I swam with the distance swimmers who were going slower but I held up pretty well. Definitely got some work to do, I think if I go 3 times a week I'll be in a lot better shape pretty quick and I don't think that the pace is unbearable with my current routine of 5 days a week for 30-45 minutes a morning either.
 

Mr_Roboto

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Got a few months in on the Masters Team, this fucking rocks man. I've been enjoying myself it's great to have company. I'm mostly swimming with the tri people but I try to get in the sprint set when I can. I'm a little more diverse than just freestyle which can get boring after a bit. Longest swim I did was 4200, 2800 is pretty typical of a morning though. I'm at a point I can do 50 fly, so I'm pretty stoked about that. I'd love to get where I can do say a 200 IM cleanly and in a not shit time. That's kind of where my mind is going now.

My breast stroke is still shit, I'm still fighting my kick. From what I've been told I'm having trouble with my feet going out correctly. I think it's overall leg position that's influencing it but I'm not super sure.
 
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Mr_Roboto

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First meet under my belt, was an experience. Events went as follows:
1-50 back, I missed the wall on the turn and did a 46 or 47 second lap.
2-100 Free, missed this one because I went and cooled down not realizing how fast the events were between one another. Should have probably just waited 5 minutes lol.
3-100 back I did a decent bit better here got a 1:35 and some change. I was thinking more like a 1:40 (think I entered at 1:45,) but I'll gladly take it. I did a flip the first turn and realized I was running out of go and did touches on the second and third turns
4-50 free I think I did well on this but I need to wait for the time to come back. I hit the lane divider on the turn but it wasn't bad so I don't know that it cost me a lot.

Lots to think about here, probably some variance on what I do next time around and more practice around things like turns and starts. My stroke felt really good overall, I didn't feel like I "missed" any strokes during the event so I was happy with that too.

What's even stranger is I don't think I've ever been in a formal athletic competition (as much as this was a casual event) certainly not in 20 years. That's just fucking wild to me. Definitely a lesson in it's never too late.
 
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