How to improve my swimming...?

Question

Ok, so I am a competitve swimmer, 16 years old, and I do about a 53 in the 100 free. So you get a good idea of my swimming overall i guess. The only thing is, I don't lift weight in the gym much, I mean, I do the machines occasionaly, just not free weights yet. I do push ups, sit ups, and stretch bands at home for the biceps. Should I do anything to get better?

Answer 1

Race strategy is critical to improvement.  53 is a decent time for a 16 year old.  You could easily drop to 52 or 51 high if your current race strategy is different from what I'm going to describe:

Here are a few tips:

1. You must have a very thorough warm-up that you complete within 5 minutes of your race. That means that you have swam at least 1000 yds.

2. On the first 25 yds of your race you MUST, on the 2nd stroke after you breakout, start breathing every stroke cycle (that is one left and one right arm). DO NOT hold your breath on the first 25 yds. The air you breath in 'now' does not reach your muscles for about 30 seconds. So, if you don't breath at the beginning of your race, as you're doing your third length there is no fresh oxygen reaching your muscles because you didn't breath 30 seconds earlier.

3. Determine how fast you should be going on the first 25 yds/m of your race and practice that speed, off the blocks, in practice. The formula for determining that speed is to take your goal time expressed only in seconds (that's for longer races). Due to your start on the first length, depending on whether you have good starts or poor starts, add 1.2 (for good starts) to 1.4 (for poor starts) to the seconds for your goal time. THEN divide by 4. That time is what each of your last THREE 25's should be. And, subtract 1.3 seconds (the start) from the time you should be doing for the last three 25s which will be your time for your first 25.

Here is what it looks like. Let's pretend your goal time is 52. (if it were a 200 you'd change the minutes into seconds). Add 1.4 + 52 = 53.4.

divide 53.4 by 4 which equals13.35.

So, you should be doing13.35 for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 25s of your race. However, for the first length, you should subtract the 1.4 from 13.35 ... and that time is 11.95 (13.35 - 1.4 = 11.95). So, your first 25 should be 11.95.

Thus, in practice, you should do some 25s off the blocks with a LOT of rest between each 25 and see if you can hit 11.95 seconds. Of course, if your goal is to go faster than 52 then you'll need to substitute your goal for the 52 I used in the example.

The key thing is that during your race you must work at speeding up BEFORE each turn and hold that speed for the next whole length ... always be speeding up slightly throughout the race. Then, on the last 30 yards, you've GOT to use your kick and really sprint it home.

Good luck and e-mail me to tell me how this works.

Answer 2

Just keegoing at it, do what you always do. And maybe do some some jumping-jacks and run a little bit.

Good luck, Sean

Answer 3

Swimming is the best thing you can do to prepare for swimming...other cardiovascular exercises don't work your muscles the same way that they are worked swimming....a person that can run cross country like a pro can get in a pool and be completely burned out after swimming 100 yards....

the closest thing I could probably think of to help train for swimming would be one of those ski-master type things that they have in the gym that works your arms and legs at once...

Answer 4

Swim year round on a harder team.

Do lift weights and vary what you practice, as in, climbing ropes or ladders and pull-ups/ push-ups.

Make sure you do both dry land and swim practices.

If you really want to get good try to get 10 practices or work outs in a week.

Also, don't drink pop or eat crappy, it slows you down.

I too am a competitive swimmer :D

Answer 5

keep swimming