Crooked Necks

Archive for the ‘Swimming’ Category

Training for the swim portion of a triathlon can be the same as training for a pool meet but again its not. You can swim lap after lap with some fast intervals included and do well. You also need to build a good aerobic base, because most triathlon swims are one mile or so. If you’re like me, this aerobic base will also help your running.

What can you do to improve your aerobic base if you only have a few days a week to get to a pool? You need to maximize your time the best you can. Maybe you can use one day as a long and slow day. Just plan on swimming a longer distance than the distance of your next triathlon. Swimming past the distance will not only prepare you physically but mentally as well.

If you don’t have the time to spend for a lot of swimming, try some tricks to help improve your strength while you’re in the pool. After swimming some laps using normal freestyle method, do some laps with you hand clinched into a fist. This will make you use the surface of your arms to propel you through the water and you will exert more energy. When you open your hand again to swim you will defiantly feel how much the open hand helps.

Training for the swim portion of a triathlon can be the same as training for a pool meet but again its not. You can swim lap after lap with some fast intervals included and do well. You also need to build a good aerobic base, because most triathlon swims are one mile or so. If you’re like me, this aerobic base will also help your running.

What can you do to improve your aerobic base if you only have a few days a week to get to a pool? You need to maximize your time the best you can. Maybe you can use one day as a long and slow day. Just plan on swimming a longer distance than the distance of your next triathlon. Swimming past the distance will not only prepare you physically but mentally as well.

If you don’t have the time to spend for a lot of swimming, try some tricks to help improve your strength while you’re in the pool. After swimming some laps using normal freestyle method, do some laps with you hand clinched into a fist. This will make you use the surface of your arms to propel you through the water and you will exert more energy. When you open your hand again to swim you will defiantly feel how much the open hand helps.

If you are having problems breathing while swimming the free style, what is it you could be doing wrong? Learning the proper technique for breathing does take some practice so if you are new to the freestyle don’t be disappointed you are having some trouble.

If you’re breathing wrong you may be swallowing water and choking, both of which make for an unpleasant swim. If you are not getting enough air into your lungs the oxygen will not be getting into your blood system and you will be starving for oxygen. When this starts to happen your performance drops off.

How do you breathe correctly when swimming the freestyle? First thing is it is important to relax. As you are stroking with your arms your body should be rolling side to side along the axis of your spin. This roll should be enough that you can turn your head as your arm comes up. Your face should be turned just enough that your mouth clears the water.

What’s the secret to swimming faster? It may look like there is some secret technique to faster swimming but there really isn’t. Swimmers have been getting faster every year due to better training, improved techniques, nutrition and even suits they wear. Coach’s and swimmers alike just keep trying new things and pushing the limits and finding ways to keep shaving fractions of a second off their times.

A fraction of a second does not sound like much but it could be enough to win a race. When you are at the elite level you want that little bit of extra speed and more. So if you are a swimmer on a school team, club or compete on a recreational level, you too can use the same methods the elite use to go faster.

Work on your technique, this can save you valuable time during a race. Learn to swim like your body is longer than it really is so you slide through the water more easily. Perfect the arm stroke so you can get the maximum pull with each hand to give you the best forward propulsion. Relax while you swim, don’t be tense because this will actually slow you down.

When we swim there are forces that are out of our control that we must contend with in the hopes of swimming faster. It doesn’t matter if you are in the pool or the open water, we must deal with these forces. The drag that is created by the water on our bodies is one of the main obstacles we must deal with and finding a way to reduce this drag makes a difference in how fast we can swim. So, how do we reduce drag while swimming?

Being water is so much denser than air we also have to fight this resistance. When the water flows along our bodies it tries to cling to anything it can grab onto, this is drag and reducing the effect of this drag will help us slide through the water more easily. Not only is drag a problem but we also have to deal with the turbulence of the water. If swimming in a pool with others, the surface of the water gets choppy which itself can slow you down a little as you plow through the chop.