Swim Smooth Forum

Hello,

I downloaded the Arnie Swim Guide about 3 weeks ago and I'm a bit frustrated at my lack of progress.

I'll start with my swimming background: I took swimming lessons when I was 8yrs old. I only learnt the breaststroke however and now I want to learn the other strokes starting with freestyle. When I swim freestyle, I get tired/run out of breath at the 50m mark.
However I can swim 1500m breaststroke with ease. I can also swim a 600m freestyle if I use a pull buoy. No pull buoy and I can't go past 50m.

I bought the arnie guide but the 1st development session requires a 100m freestyle that I can't even complete. I've been doing the drills at 50m lengths instead of 100 but am not seeing any progress after 3 weeks. I know the problem is my body position but I'm just not seeing any improvement in this regard and am losing faith!

Any suggestions?

Well you may try the following medecine....

N times 5-10meters of what you believe your free style should be. Within this 5-10meters, take a breath. Only one. Switch side once in a whilst, but take time to at least become good at breathing on one side, before attacking the other side. Come back to the wall by your own means (breast I suppose )

The idea here, is that you can't, within a full length, compose yourself enough to get to apply what you think you should apply. I've just help an Arnie in this manner. Could barely perform a full 25m. Legs very very deep. He'd need at least 2 pull buoys to swim at the surface, or a pair of fins. His arms could barely recover over the water (lack of body rotation).

I put him on a 60x10meter. Simple, not threatening, lots of repeats could get him in the zone. He did this twice (on 2 different sessions with a full week off pool in between). And all of a sudden, he could then swim perpetually. No fins, no pull, legs are at the surface, body rotation is good enough to allow his arms to recover. A completely different swimmer now.

So try it. Leave the guide aside for a short while. Recompose. Cut the distance. The very little you do, do it perfectly. Enter in the zone. At one point, you will probably feel how you should feel in order to have success in the water. Then get back to your guide.

I think that my messge here, is that you have to learn to walk before learning to run. Walking can be done perpetually. Once you get to walk in the water, you'll be able to swim 100lengths if time permits. Only then will you be able to learn how to run. Right now, you can't walk. You're like a baby that can only run before tripping and crying

Are you frustrated with your swimming? Swimming is more than the physical elements such as your fitness, strength and endurance. Effective swimming is about learning how to work with the water and not fight against it. It's important to reduce your frontal resistance and not just increase your power.

Effective swimming is all about how well you can control your body in the water. The important key is to keep your body 'long' and 'relaxed' when swimming. This is achieved by implementing a simple but effective concept called 'Power Words'.

'Power Words' are words which you repeat to yourself during an exercise or activity which help you perform that activity faster, more effective or more efficient. The two most powerful words which a swimmer should repeat while they are swimming 'long' and 'relaxed'.

By picturing yourself swimming 'long' (long meaning to lengthen your body, arms and legs to make your body as long as possible) you will be focusing on reducing your frontal resistance in the water, which is the quickest way to drop seconds from your times.

By keeping your body 'relaxed' (relaxed meaning to swim without strain or any tenseness) you will be allowing your body to work with the water and not against it. Rather than tensing up when you increase your speed, the key to swimming faster is to relax more. This will not usually come naturally, but with practice you can learn to speed up by relaxing more.

Hi Chase, thank you for your words.....Adam the coach here has told me I am an Arnette even though swimming is my main sport for 11 years of competition...I am good at all out doors sports... I am middle aged now and was away from swimming for over 30 years...I have revamped my strokes...all of them...although I would say free is my fave.... I am not absolutely convinced I am an Arnette but I do tend to tense up at the mid back and go in attack mode because I was a sprinter. Lately, I find if i lengthen my stroke and go slower and roll...then I am working beautifully according to the other Master swimmers..but being an Arnette means I am not satisfied..and I hope to learn to swim longer distances which are harder for me..using a pull buoy is easy...when i was young..I had no arm strength and now I am better then than at kicking ( actually I was more of a Kictastic than anything..then). So, will focus on what you said..and it is a constant battle..every time I enter the pool...relax....funny enough I have swum drunk and I swam beautifully...heheheheheh.

I recently (a few months ago) conducted an experiment in which we organized (somehow) the development of swimmers' distance per stroke using the Tempo Trainer as our master tool (Wetronome, Tempo Trainer, the same). The experiment was simple: Start at a rate that is rather slowish. And do time trial at that rate on a steady basis (it was twice a week at minimum) expecting times to improve from time to time. Then when you feel there's no more improvement to achieve at that rate, boost it up by 2 tics.

Hi "Folarino"!

Am 100% in agreement with what "SolarEnergy" has recommended for you!

SolarEnergy wrote:... Leave the guide aside for a short while. Recompose. Cut the distance. The very little you do, do it perfectly. Enter in the zone. At one point, you will probably feel how you should feel in order to have success in the water. Then get back to your guide. I think that my messge here, is that you have to learn to walk before learning to run...

When I took up swimming seriously again at age 70, after a very long break, I came across the SwimSmooth website and did the diagnosis thing. It came out as an "Over-glider", so I read the introductory "guff" and thought that was my answer and got the relevant guide. Disaster! - at the time I could happily manage a 25m length, but couldn't string umpteen lengths together without a rest in between due to breathlessness and rocketing heart-rate. Found the guide made assumptions that I just could not achieve without the little "pit-stops" - so I put the guide aside and "did my own thing". In my case, It took me quite a few more years (when I was 77) for the "penny to drop" regarding the over-gliding - and am sure I have really overcome that fault (in fact going so far as to dabble with over-lapping UW propulsive arm action for FS). Now any FS clip showing a swimmer with a bit of a glide seems almost disgusting to me because of the inefficiency in propulsion that it produces.

"SolarEnergy" made various recommends to me to eliminate my frequent "pit-stops" (and trying buoyancy shorts to alleviate my poor buoyancy) - going extra-slow and relaxing completely etc,. For a while his ideas were a success for me and I could manage 100m without stopping. But now, at 79 (almost), have become more decrepit (it happens to most, so "It's just the way the cookie crumbles!") and it's all "down-hill" it seems - sadly am back to the old "pit-stops" at the end of each length. Most of my lengths are now sprints, since reckon am using the right technique - so why not do what little I can, as fast as I can! I get my swim FS "fun" now, by swimming 5 or so mini-sets of 4 lengths each, using some 5 different FS styles each with different arm/kicking/breathing action - so I'm still happy despite getting more decrepit!

Towards the end of each session I do a bit of fly stroke stuff - but am finding that very tiring, so that I tend to "nod off" while waiting in the bus station for a bus to get me home, or even worse, on the bus journey itself (going to go past my destination one day!). My wife is urging me not to swim so energetically - but that would spoil the fun!


For you - with hopefully a great many years ahead of swimming - improve your fitness, learn/try different techniques (especially concerning inhalation/exhalation) - and enjoy your swim "journey"!

Very best wishes for your progress!

Bye / Don

Being 200% Arnie i can relate to this.
It is mind over matter, you need to relax, thats where the sink downs help,
Then its Bi-lateral breathing, Bubble, Bubble, Breathe and Bubble Bubble stretch, most of the Arnie correction guide is to get you streamlined like a sailing ship and not like a battle ship.
Long and thin i take with a pinch of salt as there is more than one swim type and every one is different, as i was told repeatedly in my old club to swim like superman with outstretched arms to correct my crossover but how wide or narrow do you go .

Hello.... I totally agree with the first comment about that ....