Wow, so many good tips!

I think I'm going to concentrate on the following steps in this order:
- Breathing: probably try odd cycles (i.e. 3) first.
- Body position: keep my body parallel. I've also seen people swimming with those buoyancy things between their legs, I may try that as well.
- I'll work on upper body strokes then kicking.
- I may take a couple of professional lessons to nail some basics down.

PleasureImWallace

Canada45 Posts

April 06 2012 00:37 GMT

#22

I swam in high school,and was the EXACT same as you

I swam a 50m breast in ~39.5 seconds, which was enough to qualify for provincials, but my 50m freestyle was a ~37, more than 11 seconds above what you needed to make provincials

Just couldn't ever figure out the grove. Something about keeping your ass above the water that never really worked

XDJuicebox

United States593 Posts

April 06 2012 00:44 GMT

#23

One thing I've noticed among fast sprinters (I actually first noticed when I raced Vladimir Morozov

that was embarrassing he owned me) is that kind of like a ship, if your body rotates left and right, and this motion is in harmony with your reaching as far as you can per stroke, you get a lot more out of it. It's kind of like cheating in arm wrestling.

Watch Michael Phelps, he does this amazingly ^_^

vanskater

United States146 Posts

April 06 2012 01:14 GMT

#24

I may take a couple of professional lessons to nail some basics down.

do that first.

iv been doing swim training for triathlons, the odd breathing is a good tip to keep your stroke even, but what i like to do is breath every stroke, but what i do is i switch the side i breath on every 25yrds. so ill breath to the right for 25yrds, then on the way back i breath to the left. you see a lot of pro sprinters do this, watch a michael phelps vid

the key to fast efficient swimming is using your core and body rotation. the reason why baseball pitchers "wind up" is they engage their core to be able to whip their arm to throw 90mph. same effect happens with swimming. you kick will be stronger and you will be able to pull harder.

a strong core also helps keep your legs up, i like to practice this with back stroke as i wont have to worry about breathing, but try and swim slowly and see how much you need to kick to keep your feet just below the water. have your hands above your head in a stream line or at your side. try not to use them for balance.

as for head position, you should be looking down and letting the water support your head, this helps me stay relaxed. when you want to breath turn your body and not your head.

Omnipresent

United States871 Posts

April 06 2012 02:41 GMT

#25

On April 06 2012 09:25 Azzur wrote:
Wow, so many good tips!

I think I'm going to concentrate on the following steps in this order:
- Breathing: probably try odd cycles (i.e. 3) first.
- Body position: keep my body parallel. I've also seen people swimming with those buoyancy things between their legs, I may try that as well.
- I'll work on upper body strokes then kicking.
- I may take a couple of professional lessons to nail some basics down.

This looks like a fine plan. You may be overemphasizing the breathing rotation, but it's such an easy thing to get down that you might as well do it first.

I just wanted to clarify about the body position real quick. You should be keeping your body's axis (the line from head to toe) roughly parallel to the water. The plane of your body should not be parallel at all times. This is a common mistake for beginners. Instead, you should be rolling slightly from side to side with each stroke in order to extend your reach, strengthen your pull, and reinforce rhythm.

megapants

United States1314 Posts

April 06 2012 03:05 GMT

#26

mogwai has it right on the money, but i will simply be reiterating/adding my own perspective.

the key to freestyle is in your core and how well you are able to rotate your upper body while simultaneously keeping your legs straight and constantly kicking. you want to rotate your waist in unison with the stroke of your arms. this allows you to maximize the amount of power you get from the arm underwater while also setting up the arm that is above the water for the best possible stroke.

you also want to make sure that your arms are not CRASHING into the water with each stroke. this actually forces you to expend more energy with your legs. you want to make sure your arms glide smoothly into the water and pull the water past you, moving you forward.

my last tip is to make sure you are kicking strong and you do so by using your buttocks to lift your legs as opposed to bending your knees to kick. this promotes good stabilization so that your upper body has the freedom to properly rotate and also gets you the most power and speed out of your kicks.

gl in the pool. once you master your form you will start to see some great changes in your stamina and cardiovascular. now if only i could learn how to properly do butterfly...

run.at.me

Australia550 Posts

April 06 2012 03:40 GMT

#27

Gonna have a brag coz I want to, I was fastest in Australia when I was 13 in 50m freestyle broke national records like a boss. Now I'm just putting on weight n smokin cigs.

Beside the point, if you can't see what youre doing wrong you won't know how to fix it. Either record yourself swimming and fix technique problems or get a coach.

Breast stroke is a lot less taxing on the body the freestyle. You can choose the intensity obviously for each, but in long distances freestyle will tire you faster. It's all about technique with freestyle and then you need to be fit enough to maintain it (long arms and regular kicking is tiring but good technique for example. $

Durak

Canada3684 Posts

April 06 2012 04:33 GMT

#28

On April 06 2012 09:37 PleasureImWallace wrote:
I swam in high school,and was the EXACT same as you

I swam a 50m breast in ~39.5 seconds, which was enough to qualify for provincials, but my 50m freestyle was a ~37, more than 11 seconds above what you needed to make provincials

Just couldn't ever figure out the grove. Something about keeping your ass above the water that never really worked

Man, 37 seconds is ridiculously slow for 50m free. :D I think I was doing 27 seconds around the end of my swimming years but that was a long time ago so I can't remember any more precisely. I have always been astounded by the number of people I knew who were great at Breaststroke but couldn't swim anything else for the life of them. I swear it was some mental/comfort thing.

PleasureImWallace

Canada45 Posts

April 06 2012 09:19 GMT

#29

A) The hip floaters are awesome
B) Focus on kicking from the hip, you generate more power
C) I'm not certain what "keep my body parallel" means. When you reach with your right arm you should be reaching a little bit across and pulling under the center of your body