Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Swimming fatigue
Options
-
30-06-2019 2:11am#1
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
Ankle flexibility is very important when it comes to kicking, if you can't point your toes back towards the wall while you are swimming away from it, you need to improve it.
Also work on sculling, lying on you back, just using your hands and wrists moving in a figure of 8. Move feet first, then move head first.
Sculling is like the 5th stroke, it will increase your feel of the water, cause you to relax more in the water if you want to improve it.
Also practice backcrawl and breaststroke, all will help increase your watermanship and improve your frontcrawl.
That's step 2 material there to be fair.
Sculling will help you with the "catch" phase of your stroke and with your arm, shoulder and back LME, It does also help with body stability but if you are getting gassed, its the big muscles and inefficient movement that are holding you back.
Step 1 is Body position and stability. They are key to the entire operation.
If your legs are sinking, it takes 3-4 times as much effort to move forwards in the water.
If your body is rolling around or unstable, it's impossible to get proper breaths out and in leaving you fighting CO2 all the time and your HR redlining from very little progress.
A set of pool fins will cost the same as two or three lessons. The leg work intensity will increase your aerobic fitness and ensure the lungs and heart are up to the workrate. The fins themselves will provide you with a feedback mechanism from the feet. If you aren't planter-flexing your feet and pointing your toes
you will still go nowhere with fins on. Once you get them used to being permanently pointed and get a small knee flex going and kick from the hip you'll be zipping along in no time.
Work with the rhythm of the kick to get a feel for shoulder roll and timing of your breathing.
Out of curiosity, I presume you have been swimming freestlye/Front Crawl, How many strokes have you been taking per breath ?
As an aside, I'd be careful with breaststroke, particularly if you have had any back, knee or hip issues or injuries in the past.
Even perfectly executed technique applies a lot of stress to those joints, mediocre or poor technique can run the risk of RSI and/or sprains. It's easy to overdo it.
Backstroke is a good fall back, if you are lucky enough to have a lane to yourself and want to do some serious fin-work, blasting through some pyramid sets of backstroke allows you to breath as heavily as you need to and pump in some big work. Don't do it in a crowded pool though, you'll clatter backwards into someone and take their teeth out. (that's how fast you can go with fins and good technique)0 -
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
I really find it hard to stop my head looking up to the ceiling when breathing, but do make a effort to have my eyes locked straight down while head is in the water. I know I also have a pinched nerve in my neck and one shoulder is very stiff as a result.
Sorry for the rambling post, but would appreciate any feedback.
There is a difference between being bike-fit, running-fit and being swim-fit. Have a look at the training balance for triathletes that have come from bike or run backgrounds to see the amount of ground they need to make up on swimming background triathletes.
There are a few drills that can help with this breathing and body position issue for freestyle/crawl.
The principle behind it is a basic balance beam. When you lie flat in the water facing the bottom with your legs at the surface, you are streamlined for forward movement in the glide position. Once you lift your head, your legs will automatically sink. It takes a good deal of leg kicking to counterbalance that effect.
Efficient breathing occurs through shoulder and head rotation to the side requiring only the mouth (sometimes only part of it) to clear the water in order to pull in air. This occurs between the end of the arm pull and during some of the arm recovery phase (on that side).
A good starting point is to push off the wall, do three strokes and try breathing on the 3rd stroke a few times. Your face should never look forward or up during this.
High-Elbow Drill forces your shoulders to rotate and improves core stability during rotation to improve control, minimizing the neck movement by allowing the shoulders to roll naturally will definitely help with nerve in your neck. It would probably be worth getting that looked at, as it may be best to get it loosened out a bit through massage or Physio.
High Elbow also forces the natural breathing position for the head and promotes correct timing of the breath, as your hand passes your chin, your head should be rotating back down, breath complete.
Catch-up won't help with the breathing phase, but may help with the timing and balance coming from your legs.
Both of these drills can be done with fins on.
On the subject of fin-work, I can't recommend it enough as a feedback mechanism for those learning to swim off their own bats.
On the Breathing itself, I have always found Explosive breathing to be a bit detrimental to development as its not a natural way to breathe during continual exercise. Try holding your breath for 10 strides while running, then to an explosive breath in and out and repeating it. It gases you, CO2 levels build up and your unconscious brain takes over and things get rushed and panicky.
Trickle breathing on the other hand allows a small steady flow of air out during the strokes, allowing you to scrub out some CO2 from the system as well as reducing the number of actions to be undertaken when your face is out of the water.
Try them both, find which is most comfortable for you.
Keep in mind the above contains about 20 different teaching points and technique points that would be dished out over the course of several weeks after a stroke analysis, so they are all shots in the dark, one of them will probably work, but the best remedy is to have a reputable coach or experienced instructor have a look and point to which one specifically to focus on first. They are in roughly order of likelihood from top to bottom.
0
Advertisement