Swim drills/Swim websites

Hello!

I am new here- I've read a lot, but this is my first post. A little get-to-know-me: I started running 3 years ago, bought a road bike (a Cannondale Synapse) last spring and started riding (and fell in love) and then got crazy and thought, hmmm, I've got 2 of the 3 sports under control, why not shoot for a triathlon? I'm sure you all know where this is headed....the SWIM. Yikes! I AM BAD! I never had a single swim lesson growing up, but grew up on a lake so being comfortable in the water is not a problem. However, proper technique is. Knowing this, I immediately signed up for lessons and started working on the front crawl. It's been 2 months now and I'm still really not good. I guess I should say that my form has improved about 200% since I started, but my main problem is endurance. Finally today I was able to do a few 100m repeats, but mostly I can only do 50m without stopping to catch my breath. And seriously, in the beginning I was literally gasping for breath after 50m! That has improved marginally. Any words of wisdom? It is extremely frustrating for me, as I consider myself to be in above-average shape. I know I am just starting, and my technique still needs to improve, but I thought I'd see bigger gains by now. As my title stated, I am looking for any drills to help with strength/endurance/form, or any good swimming websites you all may know about. I seem to have a big problem with my hips sinking. I just bought a kickboard, but don't really know what to do with it. I see people in the pool using them, so thought I'd jump on board and be cool like them. Just kidding.

I think I'll start hanging out here awhile-
2PharmDs

It took me many months to get up to swimming even 300m non-stop. After 10 months I can now go to 1000m but I'm still fighting sinking hips. I just read that doing side swimming drills can be a good way to learn better balance and help correct this.

12x25's kicking on your side.
With your hips rotated to the side, and your shoulders parallel, keep your head still and continue looking at the bottom of the pool. Extend one arm out in front. When you need air, rotate all the way onto your back, take a few good breaths, and repeat. Do odd number lengths on the right side, even lengths on the left. Now you're getting the feeling of being on your side in the water!

I'm going to try this tomorrow for the first time.

I second what MD said, side kicking drills are excellent for training body position in the water.

While you're doing the drills it helps to think abut pressing the dwnward side of the chest wall down into the water, this brings the hips up and lay yur upper arm right along the side of your body, try to get a body position where that arm is actually exposed to the air.

Here are some links to Youtube vids for drills.

This has commentary with Dave Scott and includes 3 basic drills.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=5


This has a bunch of kick drills and includes the kick drill on your side.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=4

This shows a bunch of drills but has no commentary

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...86357774676416

I tried these today. They were hard! I felt like I was this close to drowning. It's going to take a while to feel comfortable. However, when I went back to freestyle I felt like I was rocking side to side more than before, so maybe it already helping?

Welcome to the boards! Glad to have another one here.

Drills are excellent for technique, but for endurance you'll want to swim repeats of longer distances (100 repeats, 200's, etc).

Here is another site with a bunch of drills:
http://trinewbies.com/category2.asp?catID=4


There is an endurance program that my husband used when he first started swimming. It got him from swimming 25 yards w/out stopping to swimming 1000+. I can't find it right now, but I'll look after work.

For endurance training I used something called "0-1650 in 6 Weeks":

Week 1 (x 3 days)
100m x 4 (12 breath rest)
50m x 4 (8 breath rest)
25m x 4 (4 breath rest)

Week 2 (x 3 days)
200m (12 breath rest)
100m x 4 (10 breath rest)
50m x 4 (6 breath rest)
25m x 4 (4 breath rest)

Week 3 (x 3 days)
400m (12 breath rest)
100m x 4 (8 breath rest)
50m x 6 (4 breath rest)
25m x 6 (4 breath rest)

Week 4 (x 3 days)
600m (10 breath rest)
300m (8 breath rest)
100m x 4 (6 breath rest)
50m x 4 (4 breath rest)

Week 5 (x 3 days)
1000m (8 breath rest)
100m x 4 (4 breath rest)
50m x 4 (4 breath rest)

Week 6 (x 2 days)
1200m (6 breath rest)
200m (4 breath rest)
100m (4 breath rest)
50m x 3 (4 breath rest)

Week 6 (day 3):
1650m straight!

I liked the simple, progressive, increase but found the jump from week 4, 600m straight, to week 5, 1000m straight, to not be possible for me. I ended up getting to 1000m straight more slowly and haven't really gone beyond yet.

Thanks, MDhillslug! That's very similar to the program my DH did. Thanks for posting it.

Wow!

Thanks for all the great replies! I am happy to report that I went from only 100m without stopping on Monday to 450m today! Yay! I couldn't believe it! I think I could have made it another 50-100m, but I would have been struggling and my form would have gone to heck, and I'm trying to only swim as long as I can with good form. It's been 2 months and FINALLY I got a little distance under me! I still have a long way to go, but that was a great confidence booster! I really like the endurance training plan and am going to start it Friday. Great stuff, thanks again!

2PharmDs

That's a really cool program MD. Thanks for taking the time to post it. I think it will help a lot of people here.