Is this a good time for 25m?

nodgienodge

I'm 29 years old, and I've only started swimming regularly in the last month. I could always swim since I was a kid but never too far or fast. Anyway I've been swimming more and more lately and I timed myself today and swam the 25m length of the pool in 20 seconds. I thought this was pretty good personally, so I looked up the world records for the 50m sprint and found it's 20.91 seconds. Ok so I' m half the speed of the world record holder. But.. theres 1 distinct advantage of the world record holder- He's allowed to dive into the pool. (diving is forbidden at the pool I use).

So I guess my question is aimed at the experienced swimmers here- With a good trainer and developing a better technique is there much room for improvement in swimming? I've never really been properly fit in my life (I was a smoker for many years and overweight). Now I'm going to the gym and running/swimming more and more and I'm still getting out of breath fairly quickly in the poool so I know my breathing needs to improve. In fact I still sometimes pace myself too fast and run out of breath and have to stop but I'm definetly getting better slowly but surely. I plan to try the 50 meter pool in the National Aquatic Centre just to see what of time I can achieve with a dive and copying the technique of Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe and all the other olympic legends.

Appreciate any advice.

mad m

Are you holding your breath for the whole 25m or 3/4 of it? This will put strain on your muscles plus you will get tired quicker.

There is always room for improvement, but you do realise you won't be a Phelps or Thorpe. I wish I was but there you go...

Try 50m and see what time you do....

nodgienodge

I hold my breath for the first about 10m , then take a breath every 2 strokes or so. I'm going to keep in the 25m pool for now but if I can get my time down to 15 secs I'll try the 50m pool. I haven't been giving it 100% effort cause I'm not fully fit and when I put in this much effort I can feel my heart beating very intensely which doesn't feel cool.

I know I'm not a phelps or thorpe but jesus Ive been swimming for 1 month .. gimme a chance

mad m

nodgienodge wrote: »

I know I'm not a phelps or thorpe but jesus Ive been swimming for 1 month .. gimme a chance

I know, I didnt mean it like that. But try and not hold your breath too long as it will tire you out...I think your trying to run first than walk if you know what I mean.

nodgienodge

But try and not hold your breath too long as it will tire you out.

I hear you. I went again today, didn't really have much energy but I tried anyway. but still could only cross the pool in 20secs. :rolleyes:

My main problem is with breathing, when I turn my head for a breath and put my head down again I notice my speed significantly drops.

I think for now I'll just concentrate on building up my strength and stamina rather than trying to break any world records

Enygma

For now you'd be better off concentrating on technique, strength and stamina will come automatically but technique has to be learnt. It's worth getting a few lessons, or at least a few pointers off a good swimmer.

sock puppet

nodgienodge wrote: »

I hold my breath for the first about 10m , then take a breath every 2 strokes or so. I'm going to keep in the 25m pool for now but if I can get my time down to 15 secs I'll try the 50m pool. I haven't been giving it 100% effort cause I'm not fully fit and when I put in this much effort I can feel my heart beating very intensely which doesn't feel cool.

I know I'm not a phelps or thorpe but jesus Ive been swimming for 1 month .. gimme a chance

Going from 20 seconds down to 15 could take years of hard work, and if you have a full time job, social life etc, you might never even hit that. Not to get you down or anything but with such ambitious goals you might start to get frustrated if you're not achieving them quickly. Just do as others said - get some lessons from a coach, work on technique and stamina and you'll get better

edit: enygma is right though. The technique is most important. The rest comes naturally but no amount of strength or fitness will compensate for poor technique.

nodgienodge

sock puppet wrote: »

Going from 20 seconds down to 15 could take years of hard work, and if you have a full time job, social life etc, you might never even hit that. Not to get you down or anything but with such ambitious goals you might start to get frustrated if you're not achieving them quickly. Just do as others said - get some lessons from a coach, work on technique and stamina and you'll get better

edit: enygma is right though. The technique is most important. The rest comes naturally but no amount of strength or fitness will compensate for poor technique.

You're right. Going from 25 to 20 wasn't too hard but from 20 to 15 is a different ball game.

I'm finally beginning to improve my technique, I'm taking 1 breath every stroke and turning my head so my forehead stays low, I'm able to do 10 lengths without stopping or getting out of breath. It takes a lot of practice. Getting my time down to 15 or even 16 or 17 would be sweet though. I still think it's achievable

lonestargirl

I don't think a 2m sprint is a good way to measure your progress, I'm a pretty decent swimmer and I'd probably only manage 16 secs without a dive - I just can't sprint to save my life.

In my opinion a better metric would be 'how far you can swim in 5 mins'. As you get fitter you'll be able to swim further and as your stroke improves you'll get more distance per stroke for the same amount of effort.

sock puppet

lonestargirl wrote: »

I don't think a 2m sprint is a good way to measure your progress, I'm a pretty decent swimmer and I'd probably only manage 16 secs without a dive - I just can't sprint to save my life.

In my opinion a better metric would be 'how far you can swim in 5 mins'. As you get fitter you'll be able to swim further and as your stroke improves you'll get more distance per stroke for the same amount of effort.

I wouldn't do the swimming for 5 minutes. Most people go by distance and then take their time for it. You're right 25m a very short swim but if the OP's just measuring his/her speed it's a good metric.

edit: also I forgot to mention it the last post. That world record is for long course (50m pool). The short course record is a good half second faster (the tumble turn shaves off a little time). You'll have to double your efforts OP

okane1

Swimming is all technique. Strength and fitness will get you so far but at the end of the day technique will win. Best thing is to get some lesson and use what you learn in those lessons to improve your speed/endurance. However in terms of swimming a 25m timed swim doesn’t tell the whole story. Double that distance and your time will triple. I've been swimming & playing water polo for years (Irish squads) but my time for 25m has never really changed, focus more on 50m-5km!!

Main thing is, ENJOY IT!

sock puppet

okane1 wrote: »

Swimming is all technique. Strength and fitness will get you so far but at the end of the day technique will win. Best thing is to get some lesson and use what you learn in those lessons to improve your speed/endurance. However in terms of swimming a 25m timed swim doesn’t tell the whole story. Double that distance and your time will triple. I've been swimming & playing water polo for years (Irish squads) but my time for 25m has never really changed, focus more on 50m-5km!!

Main thing is, ENJOY IT!

Only if you're unfit. There's no way to translate a time up a distance but a rough guess is to double your time and add 10% to that figure. A beginner might be more than that but I really doubt their time would triple. If it does then fitness is a big problem.

Also if your time for 50m has come down then I can't see how your time for 25m has stayed the same, barring improvements in your dive and turn.

okane1

sock puppet wrote: »

Only if you're unfit. There's no way to translate a time up a distance but a rough guess is to double your time and add 10% to that figure. A beginner might be more than that but I really doubt their time would triple. If it does then fitness is a big problem.

Also if your time for 50m has come down then I can't see how your time for 25m has stayed the same, barring improvements in your dive and turn.

I was stating the OP time will triple. For a good swimmer yes add 10% for the return leg. The initial 25m has stated pretty constant, it’s the return leg you work on, where fitness and technique comes more into play. As you become tired your you tend to tighten up and hence your stroke doesn’t become as fluid. Yes over a short distance, 50-100m, shouldn’t really affect. The times I was on, your talking mili seconds of improvement. Yes a lot of this is on the dive (reaction to the beep) and turn.

sock puppet

okane1 wrote: »

I was stating the OP time will triple. For a good swimmer yes add 10% for the return leg. The initial 25m has stated pretty constant, it’s the return leg you work on, where fitness and technique comes more into play. As you become tired your you tend to tighten up and hence your stroke doesn’t become as fluid. Yes over a short distance, 50-100m, shouldn’t really affect. The times I was on, your talking mili seconds of improvement. Yes a lot of this is on the dive (reaction to the beep) and turn.

Suppose you're right now that I think of it. I remember my last few times swimming when I'd more or less stopped training. Could always hit near my best over a 50, less so over 100. Anything above was a disaster:rolleyes:.

mad m

Oh I just love those 200m..... not...

lonestargirl

mad m wrote: »

Oh I just love those 200m..... not...

I'm the opposite, I was the only one smiling in my lane this morning when the coach said 8 x 250 on 3.40 - I love these kinds of sets.

In terms of the OPs 25 sprint, you can hide a lot of bad technique over a single length but pick something a little longer as your reference distance and you'll be better able to judge your improvement.

mad m

lonestargirl wrote: »

I'm the opposite, I was the only one smiling in my lane this morning when the coach said 8 x 250 on 3.40 - I love these kinds of sets.

In terms of the OPs 25 sprint, you can hide a lot of bad technique over a single length but pick something a little longer as your reference distance and you'll be better able to judge your improvement.

Ah its ok during the week, but mondays can be a killer especially after a couple of sea races.

Is that you Ms Galloway?

lonestargirl

mad m wrote: »

Is that you Ms Galloway?

Lol, I'm not JGal, she's way faster than me. She's a friend of mine (we taught swimming in the same place for a year). We joke that we've swapped lives now, her from UT -> UCD and me in the opposite direction.

mad m

Well I was nearly right so ....You going to swim this weekend? 2k race tomorrow from windsurfer to blackrock....

Edit: Sorry just seen your across the bigger pond now....

Anyway I'm sure JG will be there tomorrow, going off scratch as usual....

nodgienodge

Thaks for taking over my thread people anyway..

Going from 20 seconds down to 15 could take years of hard work

Not quite. I did it today in (more or less) 15 seconds. It was a bit of a fluke and my stamina is still pretty low but hey, hell of a good start.

Ok so now I'm gonna try the 50m pool with a dive and see what happens. I'll probably go fast enough till I'm halfway then slow down drastically.

Whoever said technique was key was right. Problem is it's very hit-and-miss. Sometimes the technique just "happens" and sometimes it doesn't. I'm still not fit (nowhere close) so the only way is up.

I'm surprised and pleased with my progress today

KA123

Hi

to build up the sprint just follow some short programe
10 lenghts warm up- any style
100 metres front slow
100 metres breast slow
100 metres back slow
100 metres butterfly slow
few sec break, and blows up , resting under the water, min 20 blows before next set starts
50 metres - front fastest
100 metres front slow
50 metres- breast fastest
100 metres slow breast
50 metres back fastest
100 metres back slow
50 metres butterfly fastest
finish with 200 metres slow any style
time yourself on fastest sets
repeat sets every time you swim having in mind times, gradualy with good distance your breathing techinque will omprova along with strength and repeating programme will allow body to build sprint techniques, with repetetive method everyone will build a strength
good luck

Michael Phelps

nodgienodge wrote: »

I'm 29 years old, and I've only started swimming regularly in the last month. I could always swim since I was a kid but never too far or fast. Anyway I've been swimming more and more lately and I timed myself today and swam the 25m length of the pool in 20 seconds. I thought this was pretty good personally, so I looked up the world records for the 50m sprint and found it's 20.91 seconds. Ok so I' m half the speed of the world record holder. But.. theres 1 distinct advantage of the world record holder- He's allowed to dive into the pool. (diving is forbidden at the pool I use).

So I guess my question is aimed at the experienced swimmers here- With a good trainer and developing a better technique is there much room for improvement in swimming? I've never really been properly fit in my life (I was a smoker for many years and overweight). Now I'm going to the gym and running/swimming more and more and I'm still getting out of breath fairly quickly in the poool so I know my breathing needs to improve. In fact I still sometimes pace myself too fast and run out of breath and have to stop but I'm definetly getting better slowly but surely. I plan to try the 50 meter pool in the National Aquatic Centre just to see what of time I can achieve with a dive and copying the technique of Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe and all the other olympic legends.

Appreciate any advice.

Yes there is room for improvment, you probably need to work on your kick a bit so try get a kickboard, (ask the lifeguard for one?) and try maybe 10x50m kick on 2 mins and then slowley try to decrease the time to maybe 1:45 ,1:30 etc.

You might ant to ring up the NAC to see if they have the full 50m setup, ive been there a few times and it was set up as 2 , 25m pools

Hope I helped

conno16

KA123 wrote: »

Hi

to build up the sprint just follow some short programe
10 lenghts warm up- any style
100 metres front slow
100 metres breast slow
100 metres back slow
100 metres butterfly slow
few sec break, and blows up , resting under the water, min 20 blows before next set starts
50 metres - front fastest
100 metres front slow
50 metres- breast fastest
100 metres slow breast
50 metres back fastest
100 metres back slow
50 metres butterfly fastest
finish with 200 metres slow any style
time yourself on fastest sets
repeat sets every time you swim having in mind times, gradualy with good distance your breathing techinque will omprova along with strength and repeating programme will allow body to build sprint techniques, with repetetive method everyone will build a strength
good luck

why not just concentrate on getting one stroke right
then perfect it
when racing, its unlikely you'll roll over on your back and finish the race using a backstroke isn't it?