Gene465

Okay have about 6 weeks left before my first Sprint Tri in over 20 years. 600 yd swim, 18 mile Bike and 3.1 mile run. Been working hard 6 days a week to get ready for this. Right now I have only been swimming 2 X week for 45-60 mins a session. My freestyle is still horrible after watching videos and trying to get my form better. I can get around 100 yards before I am out of breath and trying to breathe as well as my arms getting tired. On the other hand I can breast stroke forever and it is comfortable, and I don't expend alot of energy doing it. Currently I will do a pair of laps freestyle and then rest 30 seconds before doing another lap. After few of those I work in my breast stroke for a breather for a few laps. This usually goes back and forth until I do 20-25 laps. My freestyle is only about 5 secs faster than my breaststroke so my question is do I keep trying to perfect my freestyle stroke for the sprint or just stick with what I can do and what allows me to conserve my energy for the bike and run? Should I add another swim day? My swim and run I consider my weaker disciplines at the moment. Really having a hard time with my freestyle. I am limited to certain swim times and due to work schedule I cannot go later in the day when the swim club meets there. Thanks Gene

Oysterboy

Gene, if your freestyle is only minimally faster than your breast stroke then 2 things: 1) Just do the breast stroke in the race as you really won't lose much time, 2) Either you have an awesome breast stroke or you need a coach to help you with your freestyle form. Honestly, freestyle should be at least 25% faster than breast stroke.

Maybe think about alternating your strokes? I have to do this a few times in a race to check on my swim line.

Loose Chain

I have coached some open water swimmers. I cannot tell you much here because I don't know exactly what issues you have. What is your mile time or some time for some X distance? If your breast stroke is as fast as your freestyle then there is definitely a problem.

I suspect you kick too much and don't use your arms effectively and as well, I suspect you do not breath correctly. Breathing is job number one. Forget all of the speed and racing freestyle methods, we are going for distance and speed over distance and we want to get out of the water feeling good so we can do the bike and run fresh--right? So you need to breath. I would suggest you breath every stroke or alternate side to side and you MUST exhaust underwater so that you can inhale a full breath. You need to learn to roll the head and body more than they recommend for competition swimming. Look back and up to get your mouth --yes mouth--high enough to inhale free of waves that exist in most real bodies of water. Put a clip on your nose if you need to.

Do not place your arms in front of you like a windmill and then place your hands into the water but instead bend your elbows and pick your arms up and then drive the leading hand into the and then upward and begin your rear sweep with your fingers and palm, think propeller, think wing, not a boat paddle. Pull your arms and hands back in a figure 8 sweeping close to the body pushing all the way back to the hips and then rolling them out, reach out with the leading hand, get long in the water.

Tie your legs together and use a swim float between your legs. Do not use your legs, I suspect it is your arm stroke that needs the work and I want you to quit thrashing your legs in huge energy/O2 eating kicks.

Like I said, this is not high school swim team, we want to go the distance and the distance is not measured in a few meters but possibly miles. As well, you simply are not spending enough time in the pool.

LC

Gene465

Thanks for the comments, My form is what is killing me I am not rolling side to side enough and my kicks are not that efficient. My breast stroke 25 yd time is 30 seconds and my freestyle is 25 seconds. I am going to continue to work on my swim and worst case scenario just alternate as needed to stay relatively fresh. I may add another swim day to my weekly training. Thanks Gene

kstephens

I am a swim coach - and swimming is one of those sports that is hard to self-analyze - almost all decent swimmers have been coached at some time. I would suggest finding a local USA team coach or Masters coach and ask about a private lesson or two, or maybe join a masters team if there is a local one. Most Masters teams are for fun, fitness, as well as refinement - and most of all they are fun oriented rather than competition oriented. You obviously need to work on freestyle stroke efficiency as well as effectiveness. Learning to swim distance free, is like learning a new stroke all together - everything is different from your typical sprint free (kick, catch, recovery, as well as full underwater stroke is different) - open water swims are an additional skill to master on top of that. You are all about efficiency on any distance much over 700 yards. A good coach will be able to quickly analyze your stroke, and give you ideas on how to improve.

HokuLoa

Not nearly as "qualified" as some but I do have a few thoughts:

Why freestyle and is breast OK?
Well, it is a sprint so not really a big deal if either. However, the beauty of freestyle is that with good form you really don't even need to use your legs to kick much. Since your legs eat up O2 the less you use them the better, more rested you (and they) will be in the bike/run. Breast is really heavy on the legs and will impact the rest of your race more. Since you are just going for a finish and it is a sprint, this may not matter to you.

So no legs in freestyle, how's that?
Practice allowing yourself to relax and float face down in the water. In the shallow end stretch out face down and play with your natural buoyancy (perhaps tell the lifeguard what you are doing, they tend to worry about floaters ;-) ). Press your chest out and down to the bottom of the pool in front of you, head down, while keeping your back straight and letting your hips and legs rise to the surface. After a while you should find a comfortable float to relax in and this usually helps weak swimmers realize that they don't actually need to fight to float (ie the "i sink like a rock and can't swim"). While actually swimming you can keep this position in mind and repeat the process of relaxing, pressing your chest toward the bottom, and maintaining a natural float. So, having achieved that position comfortably you can use your freestyle pulls to casually propel you while allowing your legs to more or less drag and act like rudders. This allows you to minimize your leg use over long, casual distances w/ MUCH less impact on your cardiovascular system. Takes some practice but well worth it for TRIs. FYI, it you want to go for time there is nothing wrong with a good kick...

So, should I swim more?
Absolutely. Comfort in the water comes from repetition IMHO. Personally, assuming your expressed swim level I would aim for a minimum of 3/week pool sessions. Really work on freestyle and good casual floating with leisurely stroke. Keep the kick to a minimum and stay calm on your rotation and breathing between pulls. It shouldn't be a fight to transition to the opposite pull. Relax and allow yourself to float through the glide/rotation while exhaling slowly underwater. Hopefully by practicing this 3/week you will find some comfort and be able to link laps. Ideally you should be linking up at least 500-700m w/o stopping. Oh, and don't worry so much about flip turns. Just rotate in the water but avoid touching the bottom or the wall with your hand.

Other?
- Don't be afraid to keep your head down. A lot of lousy freestylers I see have a root problem of trying to keep their face out of the water. If your head is up, everything behind it (your body) will sink and you will fight the water.

jschristian44

i will tell you what is working for me. my weak points were the run most of all and swimming second. running is getting easier, but its still the hardest for me. i thought swimming was the hardest but that is changing. its all about warming up and enjoying it. i can barely do the first 700m in swimming freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, etc without feeling tired. After that it is smooth sailing and I feel like I can literally go forever. i would just try to go at a pace that won't wear you out. it's harder to do than just reading about it, but it will develop over time. same with running. practice does make perfect though in anything you attempt. no one gets good at running or swimming overnight, its all about practice, practice, practice. don't lift your head up higher than you need to as well, this will save energy and keep you quick. its harder than it sounds though as well. just never give up, easy words to live by.

Loose Chain

I didn't say not to kick during freestyle, I said that I suspect that he needs work on his arms and that is done with a pull buoy and either locking the legs or slipping a rubber band over them (ankles) to isolate his arms. I can swim a mile, arms only, about 25 minutes, faster of course with my kick added but it is not a wild thrashing kick and I vary the type of kick considerably depending on what I need and want. He can add the kick back in and work on that (kick) with several other training methods, once he gets the arm strokes down and good breathing. The swim bouy will give his legs a little floatation and help him achieve a good position in the water, which I further suspect is another of his issues, having seen it many times. The large, thrashing legs strokes are compensation for poor form and lack of relaxed, horizontal position. It is a common problem even if I have not described it well. I would start with working my arms, breathing, body roll etc and then get back onto the legs once those things are mastered.

I have coached master and swim masters and swam competitively through HS, but frankly, they go for speed over shorter distances, in a tri, I just want to finish the swim well and get out of the water almost refreshed feeling.

HokuLoa

Actually I was playing the OP asking/referring to the beginning of my own post, not yours. Sorry for the confusion!

Good mention of the competitive swimmer goal as opposed to that of the TRI swimmer. It definitely took a bit for me to alter my own swim concepts and routines to develop a comfy technique that allowed me to exit the water with good legs and a low heart rate...

kstephens

Focus on the basics of distance freestyle. Do a search on you tube for a "2 beat kick." All good distance swimmers will go to a two beat kick for most of the event to conserve energy - and this carries over well to tri's.

Overworking your legs is the last thing you want to do in the first leg of a tri.

jbrow1

I have this problem bigtime! I just completed an olympic tri and the swim killed me! 45 minutes for 1500m. Granted my big goal for the event was not to drown or get boated back to shore, so I succeeded, and am happy. But can you give me some tips on how to keep my legs from being anchors? I've read a couple books, need to re-read and practice much much more. Of take lessons I suppose. I barely kicked the whole swim, my shoulders and chest were really feeling the effects during the second half of the run
If it matters, 6'1" and 164 pounds.
Thanks

LazyCyclist

Yeah i barely use my legs in a swim part of a tri, all arms, then then i just sit in my arrow bars until my arms recover lol

Loose Chain

This is often caused by being rigid. Let your back act as a hinge, not a 2X4. But, let me toss this out there, can you use a swimmers wetsuit, the neoprene will give you quite a bit of buoyancy. Kinda cheating really but----- it could help act as a training wheel.

I think as well, you are probably pushing down with your hands rather than rearward thus forcing your aft body/legs downward. You are probably trying to hold your head too high as well. Roll you head far to the side, do not lift it to breath. Sorry for the poor explanations

jbrow1

Everything I've read,... nothing has ever mentioned pushing down with your hands. Now it's obvious to me that I do that! Too funny. I need to go to the pool and work on some stuff. During the tri, you are correct I found myself bobbing my head up rather than turning to the side like I found best in the pool. I must say I was simply trying to survive the first half, and was able to speed up a bit after the turnaround and use a bit better form as well. The second half felt much better as I knew then that I would make it. First time I'd ever swam across a lake before! And the young girls on wakeboards or whatever didn't inspire alot of confidence if I were to get in trouble. This swim nobody was allowed wetsuits, I think most other places around here the lakes are never that warm so suits are allowed. I think I may take a swim class at the local community college this winter. I really would like to do more tri's, and be more competitive rather than give everything up on the first leg. Thanks for the tips

LazyCyclist

In Canada in the triathlon series' up here wetsuits are allowed most of the time and the majority of people seem to use them. there is a temperature cut off though which is should say on the triathlon's website, if the water is above a certain temperature then you can't use them.

jbrow1

80* was the cutoff here. It was cold outside, but the lake (damned up river) was waaarm! lol Most other places they do them are deeper, colder waters. I was certainly happy when they didn't allow them.. I knew I would be slow, I didn't have a suit, and the fast guys still cut my time in half so with a suit they'd have killed it even more! lol, one guy got out to the sprint distance and turned around b/c he got in his own head, then DQ'd. Seems like on the first long swim in the deep that is easy to do, I made sure to just plug along and think about my kids rather than what I was doing. Probably a reason I got so far off coarse and swam a bit extra.. But never got kicked in the head out in the boonies either ~