Swim lessons with a view to entering a triathlon -

kingQuez

Hi folks,

Next year I want to do a sprint tri, or if I can get my swimming good enough an olympic distance one. My frontcrawl is recently self-taught from looking at other people swim and tips in random videos on youtube.. so im sure there's lots of room for technique improvement. I need to take a short break after each length (and definitely after two if I link them) to regain my breath, so im pretty sure my breathing technique is off too.

I've been thinking of taking some swimming lessons, and amn't sure what the best route is. Am I a beginner or an improover if I go for group lessons in the NAC or TCD pool? and are generic group lessons a good way to go given I only want to improve my frontcrawl for doing a tri.. do you need to use a different technique for OW swimming that I might pick up better somewhere else?

The few youtube videos Ive seen people doing the TI swimming technique in make it look so easy, so I picked up the TI book, but reading text descriptions arent really helping me much.

Suggestions or comments appreciated!

(hope this is the right forum; as i'm specifically intersted in swimming/learning to swim for triathlons rather than for general fitness or pool competitions etc. i put it in this one)

geoff29

lol, I'm in exactly the same boat except... I'm an even worse swimmer - so there's hope for you yet! I'm hoping to hit the pool every week to figure out better breathing - been looking on youtube too, so far, not much use!!!

hmm, if I could just get through the swim without being rescued or lost at sea, the cycling and running could be great!!!!

Andrewf20

I did my 1st triathlon in May (Tri Athy olympic). I only started training (swimming) around late February. I could barely do 6 lengths in Feb before being totally exhausted, but I did what you are doing (checking youtube for correct technique, especially looking at the olympic guys), and a 1 hour session in the swimming pool a week saw me get better and better. I was nervous about the fact that in the river in the triathlon, you dont have that microbreak like when you get to the wall in the swimming pool. Turns out that by starting out at a cautious pace and gradually getting up to a cruising speed, the 1500m in the river was no problem at all. Ended up being 5 mins faster in the triathlon than in the pool, despite almost no current. Alot of people overtook me at the start (I was very near the back), but I remember overtaking a good few people towards the middle and end of the swim. Try not to stay with the pack if you dont feel comfortable with it. Alot of people may be going to fast too early anyway. The wetsuit seems to help move preceedings along. I came 417th out of about 480 competitors on the swim!

Thru self learning I got down to 36mins for 1500m in the pool. This was after about 10 weeks of 1 hour in the pool. Not great, but I found this grand for the slow waive come race day.

If you's have never swam in a river before, id recommend giving it a go for 5 mins before the event. Im a relative newbie to all this competition stuff and i found swimming in the river a little unnerving for the very 1st time.

Redjeep!

In a simialr position myself. I'm thinking about doing a sprint tri early next year and reckon that the running and cycling will be easy, but am worried about the swim, mainly because if you get tired you can't exactly stop for a minute or two.

I've been going down my local pool 2 or 3 times a week for the past 6 weeks and my crawl has definetely improved a lot. I've also checked out youTube and watched other peoples technique and bought the Total Immersion book and am thinking about buying the DVD. If you've not heard of these books then it's a different swimming technique that's meant to be much less tiring.

I think that I'll probably end up taking lessons down the pool. They do group coaching sessions that are meant to be quite good and cater for all levels of ability (as long as you can actually swim). By the way, I'd say that you'd clearly rate as an improver as beginners tend to mean that you can't swim at all.

Rainy Day

Redjeep! wrote: »

By the way, I'd say that you'd clearly rate as an improver as beginners tend to mean that you can't swim at all.

Spot on. I'm doing the lessons up there at the moment. Started in the improvers and after 3 weeks was moved to advanced. If you can front crawl/backstroke/breastsroke for 50m (2x25) you would probably be better off in the advanced class. You can always change after the first/second week if you felt you were out of your depth.

You could say it to the instructor that you just want to focus on front crawl and see what they say but I think I remeber reading somewhere that's it's better for you to do a few different strokes. Better all round muscle development. I think!

tunney

Andrewf20 wrote: »

I was nervous about the fact that in the river in the triathlon, you dont have that microbreak like when you get to the wall in the swimming pool.

Most river swims are downstream, particularly Athy. River swims can be a good way to start. Carrick-on-Suir sprint tri was always very popular with the non-swimmers in tri because of the strong currnt behind you. Athy seems to be this way too.

Regarding the TI books and DVDs, the concept is good for beginners swimmers. Some things don't hold true when you improve but to get going they are good. The problem is that there is no one there to tell you you are doing the drills wrong - so try to swim in groups.

Lessons can be expensive - a cheap way is to get an quality swimmer to check your stroke out once a week or fortnight, someone you know in tri who is swimming < 20 minutes per 1500 (without a current )

griffin100

In a simialr position myself. I'm thinking about doing a sprint tri early next year and reckon that the running and cycling will be easy, but am worried about the swim, mainly because if you get tired you can't exactly stop for a minute or two.

If you are wearing a wetsuit you can actually stop for a rest as the suit will keep you fairly buoyant with minimal effort. Has worked for me anyway, although if there are swimmers behind you they might not be too happy.

KinhQuez, i was in the same position earlier this year and I found that a couple of one on one lessons plus getting into the pool regularly when I was beginning (3 times per week) so that I could get a feel for the water and be comfortable was a big help.

MCOS

Hi Guys, I'm also going to do my first triathlon next year and have the same reservations about swimming. I've been plodding up and down the pool by myself and reading up on technique etc... I've brought my times down a bit but seem to have made no progress lately.

1-1 lessons are expensive and the likelihood of knowing someone who swims sub 20mins for 1.5k and is willing to spot you is slim for most (good suggestion nonetheless Tunney ).

I went to a group session last week for the first time and I can tell you it really made a difference. Between learning new drills and having to push off a wall 5 seconds after the next guy (even in the beginner lane!) the session flew by!

So, if you can suss out a Club that has an organised swim session, go along and check it out!

pgibbo

Hi Guys,
I was in a similair position last December. I could not swim 1 length of a pool. I took some group lessons which were only 1 euro per session dearer than the price of a swim. Found them great value. As people progressed they were re-allocated to different lanes, etc. I comfortably did 2 Sprint triathlons this year - 1 river and 1 lake.
Once I got comfortable enough to do a few hundred metres I joined a local Masters Swim Club. Best thing ever. 2 instructors on the deck and the hour flies by. So, to re-iterate what MCOS pointed out - check with your local pools for swim clubs or a Masters group. Nothing like a trying to catch someone or stay ahead of someone to push you along.