riftknight

I agree Melinda, except that most people don't use them correctly. It is one thing to have someone who is experienced and even trained in how to use paddles and/or gloves, and flippers. It is entirely something else to have anyone slap on some paddles and flippers and go. Most people I see who are swimming have issues with…

So true....and to come out of the water with perfect hair is an even more incredible feat. One coach I had used to have us crouch on the bottom of the lane and dive up and back down to the bottom to exagerate the roll. I do prefer doing the Patrick Duffy thing more though...

If you're game for it, modify the 75's to do breathing ladders along with the stroke drill. ie, first 75, every other stroke, 2nd every 3rd, 3rd every 4th, so on and so forth. It will build up your power and speed in the fly.

I acutally am against paddles for the same reason that I'm against flippers. 1) they alter your stroke. 2) they create a dependancy on the item.

Try looking at them in a new light. At the pool where I swim, the poor life guard's have their chair at the end of the lane I'm normally in. My goal is to help cool them off on the hot summer days by producing the biggest splash I can on each flip-turn! Make it fun and it's less work. Also helps if you start throwing in…

To be honest, if you're breathing every other stroke, freestyle tends to be lop-sided and encourages bad habits. I think every third stroke so that you're alternating which side you're breathing on is probably the best technique.

Hi Melinda, That's wh i do the 8 x 75 sets training butterfly. I realize now that I may not have explained well enough that the first length is right arm, 2nd length is left arm and 3rd length is both. Try doing them on a 1:20 or 1:30 interval. See if that helps!

My workout at this point in time goes something like this: 600m breaststroke warm-up 3 x 200m pulling ladders (600m) breathing changes each 25 I go 5, 7, 9, 11, 11, 9, 7, 5 8 x 75m stroke drills (600m) (r arm, L arm, both arms; Butterfly on M,W,F and Free on T, R) 12 x 50m kick (600m) 1st 50m breast 2nd 50m butterfly 3rd…

Incidentally, the Breast-a-fly techinique is also indespensible in learning to barrel-roll your breast-stroke. These are all excellent suggestions. The only thing that I would add, is to break the stroke down into it's most basic components and over exagerate -each component (big, deep dolphin kicks/ Slow and wide,…

It also helps to practice breathing on a kick-board. One of the things that I always see when watching other people swim, is the exagerated body roll that accompanies breathing. You should practice keeping your shoulders and body parallel to the pool bottom and just rolling your head to the side with your stroke. This…

For starting out I suggest 4x100 for stroke technique, since you are usually isolating part of the stroke, which makes the pace overall for it lighter and less intense. For instance, training front crawl, you use a pull-buoy and focus on building power or speed into your stroke. Just a thought.

Because the basic idea of vigorous pace is subjective, I would suggest weighing how you feel at the end of your set. If you find yourself out of breath and spent, then it is probably safe to call it "vigorous", whereas if you feel like you could another 100 lengths, you might want to consider it leisurely.

Of course I already rendered my opinion, but I'll restate it. You aren't competing in your first triathalon to win, you're competing to finish. If you are comfortable with breaststroke, then refine it as much as you can before the race so that the swim will be a piece of cake for you. While you could learn freestyle in a…

I recently jumped back in the water after a 4 year hiatus. The only suggestion I have, since I haven't been faced with this problem is to set a scheduled work out and stick to it. I have to do the math to translate "laps" into "meters", but basically it sounds like you're swimming 2,500 meters (1 lap is 50 meters x 50).…

Awesome Matt! To increase endurance and speed throw in some pulling sets and kicking sets between all-out swimming sets.

Fins are also used to isolate the arms for training specific strokes. If you don't have to put effort into kicking then you can put more effort into the stroke technique. Personally, I prefer to forgo fins, because I find that when I use fins my kick is weaker overall. I agree with the bonuses for using fins, but I have to…

This is just a thought for you, but if you are confident with your breaststroke, then focus on perfecting that and don't worry about trying to learn a new stroke in three weeks. The breaststroke is a sufficiently fast stroke and usually very good at conserving energy. If this is your first triathalon, your goal isn't to…

Try just doing a sommersault in the water. Once you can do that and come up still knowing your bearings, then lay out flat (well away from the wall) and try doing a half sommer sault so your body ends up pointing in the opposite direction. Once you master that, lay out about 3 ft from the wall and do the half sommersault…

Hi there, After spending the last eight years in school, behind a desk, I'm finally getting back into swimming as my primary form of exercise. I just started back yesterday and plan on swimming 5 days a week for about an hour - 1 1/2 hours each day.

I personally find that the best way to increase speed with little effort is by improving your stroke technique. Since it doesn't seem like you swim intervals or sets, the easiest way to increase your speed at freestyle is by doing what used to be called a SKPS (Swim, Kick, Pull, Swim). For starting out, I would suggest…

I don't know if this has been suggested to you, but one of the chief ways to improve your breaststroke without a coach and seeing a video is to focus on your glide (the part where you kick and push your hands forward). A simple exercise is to reach as far as you can for 5 seconds during your glide. When you finish the…