Can some body help me with my swim training?

Question

I have had experience on a swim team before, but that was about 5 years ago.

Answer 1

Hey! I'm going to be a sophomore in high school too!

Swimming is a great sport and I'm glad you're thinking about joining.

Using both the pool and gym facilities will definitely work. Getting some swimming yardage done at the pool would be good. So get into swimming lots of laps at a consistent pace. As you practice a little more, sprint sets by 50's will be good as well. Work on all four strokes and use some drills.

Work on your arms and legs at the gym to get more toned. Any machine or self exercises will work!

Answer 2

The only real way to get into shape for swimming is to actually swim.  You can work out different muscles for different strokes (tris and shoulders for free style leg curls for kicking stuff like that)  but to work up your endurance you should get in the pool and get a workout going.  You can find some online but try starting with 50s.  id say 5 slow 50s a fast 50 or 2 then go into 100s resting in between each.  After that go on to drills like kicking stream lining, holding strokes by laying on your side and swimming with one hand straight forward and the other out of water against your side.  Remember flip turns and diving are important too.  Always try swimming further and further without stopping with a 200 or 300 or even 500s  

Answer 3

Blue,

You mentioned two things that I would have questions about:

1.) ..since it's late in the summer I wanted to train this year...

To be successful in swimming most athletes are training year around. It depends on what you define as successful. If you're simply wanting to make the team then your past experience should help. It also depends on what your HS's experience is. If your HS is a national (or state) power then it'll be more challenging to make the team. If you also wish to score points at your HS's championship meets then starting early should help but most of the top places are filled by year round swimmers. Please take this into account. I also want to give you encouragement in that I've known swimmers that began swimming as sophomores and were state finalists by their senior years.

2.) You've had experience 5 years ago...  Why did you give this sport up? What's changed since then? Why do you want to start it up again?

If you're serious about it and want to commit to it then I'd suggest joining a US Swim club and begin training in a team environment with a coaching staff. It's always more difficult to train by yourself.

Since this is August it's the off-season so you may not have a choice but to train yourself, especially if you're in a part of the country where the HS swim season is a fall sport.

Here's some suggestions for training yourself:

1. Always start with a warm up.

This can be as short as a 200 or as long as 1000 (yards/meters). This should be used just as a way to get your heart rate up and to get a feel for the water.

2. After the warm up you can either do a stroke drill set or a short swim set (25's or 50's) Don't worry about your times but concentrate on stroke mechanics. There are many drills that are available out there that you can do. Select the ones you prefer and enjoy. I'll give you some popular links below.

3. I'd place your main set (main focus) of your workout next. The type of set to choose would depend upon what your strength is. If you're a sprinter then do a a set of 50's or 100's (a multiple set of 75's would fit nicely too). If your a stroke specialist then you can swim the same set of the stroke you specialize in. Sometimes this can be overwhelming so you can customize it by swimming every other, every 3rd, or even every 4th swim your specialty while swimming freestyle on the others.

The time intervals should be short rest (mostly aerobic) when you first begin (early season) or longer rest (mostly anarobic) when you get in better shape and can put high energy into this set. Of course, if the distance races are your forte then you can swim a set of 200's, 500's, or even 1000's (I usually like to mix it up, maybe even strange distances - i.e. 250's, or 300's)

4. I'd then throw in a Kicking (kick board) and/or pulling (pull buoy) set to isolate the upper and/or lower part of your body.

5. If you want to extend your workout you can put a second main set in here.

6. I'd recommend a sprint set to finish your workout. Usually a set of 25's of your choice of strokes would work well. Give yourself enough rest in between each swim so that you can swim at race pace without bringing your heart rate too low before the next swim.

7. Then perform a warm down, nice and easy. This can be anywhere from 200 to 400.

If you have two hours for your workout this is the amount of time I'd set aside for each part of this:

1. warm up - 5-10 minutes

2. stroke drill set - 5-15 minutes

3. main set - 30-60 minutes

4. kicking/pulling - 10-15 minutes

5. secondary set - 20-40 minutes

6. sprint set - 5-15 minutes

7. warm down - 5-10 minutes

I'd recommend using this template (or something similar) but use variety in the different elements of it to 'spice it up'. You also need to prepare the entire workout before heading to the pool. Your going to find that you will not spend your time well at the pool if you're trying to think of a creative set or drill for your next work out segment.

Good luck and enjoy...

Answer 4

swimming is a hard sport. It may  look easy, but it's not and especially since u were never on the swim team and u want to try out in HIGHSCHOOL, IT WILL BE hard, but u just have to practice everyday

do 10 minutes of freestyle

10 minutes of backstroke

10 minutes of breastroke

20 minutes of butterfly (since that's the hardest stroke)

10 minutes of cool down