Author Topic: Learning to swim/improving swimming (Read 83135 times)

hellymedic · « **Reply #275 on:** 17 January, 2014, 08:35:30 pm »

Ærobic vs anærobic exercise, innit?

mattc · « **Reply #276 on:** 18 January, 2014, 07:29:16 am »

You went 3 times faster?

That's like going from a 12mph pootle on the bike to a 36mph sprint. Doable, but pretty extreme!

L CC · « **Reply #277 on:** 18 January, 2014, 09:10:43 am »

Quote from: mattc on 18 January, 2014, 07:29:16 am

You went 3 times faster?

That's like going from a 12mph pootle on the bike to a 36mph sprint. Doable, but pretty extreme!

Two times faster. Her steady lengths are 50m lengths as she's lucky enough to have a big pool.
I just looked up swimming times as they're a bit meaningless to me, and she's going from 25% olympic pace to 50%.
So maybe from 12mph pootle to 24mph. I think I'd still notice that.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #278 on:** 18 January, 2014, 10:53:54 am »

Maybe the pool was downhill.

hellymedic · « **Reply #279 on:** 18 January, 2014, 12:14:54 pm »

Push-off/post dive speed is faster than steady swimming speed so a shorter pool is 'faster' as a greater proportion of swimming distance is covered pushing off from the edge.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #280 on:** 18 January, 2014, 03:24:52 pm »

Well yes, I know, and I'm always faster doing 50 as 2x25 instead of a straight 50, but if my time for a straight 50 is 84 seconds, and my time for 25 is 27 seconds, that's a big difference. I'm losing around 30 seconds per length. If I pan it as hard as I can over a 50m length, I can do it in about 72s, so I'm still losing 20s per length.

I did a km of 40x25 today and my average was about 80s per 50m, which is about normal.

mattc · « **Reply #281 on:** 18 January, 2014, 04:06:08 pm »

Quote from: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 18 January, 2014, 10:53:54 am

Maybe the pool was downhill.

That would explain it. Far more likely than me not actually reading your post properly ...

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #282 on:** 18 January, 2014, 05:44:51 pm »

Also far more likely than me swimming fast.

essexian · « **Reply #283 on:** 23 January, 2014, 11:09:50 am »

I know its not brilliant in the scheme of things, but I broke 9 mins for a 200m split for the first time ever this morning. Indeed, the first three 200m splits I did were all faster than my previous personal best while my overall time for 800m was the best ever at just over 36m 30s.

Now I know that this is ssssslllllooooowwwww by "normal" standard I am pleased as the first 800m swim I have logged (9 months ago) was 8 mins slower than this so if I continue to improve, I might get down to sub 30 mins by the end of the year.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #284 on:** 07 February, 2014, 08:56:36 pm »

Tonight at swimming we did tumbleturns, and lengths of butterfly legs. I fear that much of the pool is now inside us.

CrinklyLion · « **Reply #285 on:** 08 February, 2014, 10:30:19 am »

I never mastered a tumble turn, but used to love the butterfly leg drill and once managed to do two whole lengths of full stroke butterfly. This was particularly cool, for me, since I managed it before I got competent enough to do two full lengths of full stroke crawl, and was about 6 or 7 months pregnant at the time.

*works out that means it was over 6 years ago*

*thinks about how few swimming sessions there have been since quitting lessons 6 months after SmallestCub was born*

*thinks that she really ought to try to start swimming again*

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #286 on:** 14 February, 2014, 09:27:31 pm »

Attempted some lengths of full-stroke butterfly tonight. I was as much like a butterfly as Giant Haystacks was like Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #287 on:** 28 March, 2014, 08:50:43 pm »

Tonight we did push and glides, handstands (managed to get my legs collapsing right over the lane ropes and into the next lane), sitting dives in, standing dives in (bellyflopsplashtastic) and a relay race to finish.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #288 on:** 14 June, 2014, 03:18:42 pm »

Last week I found I could do a length of almost competent butterfly kick, as long as I wear pool fins and have float under each arm.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #289 on:** 21 June, 2014, 04:15:06 pm »

We did porpoising last night, as it was the last week of term and we're allowed to have fun. Porpoising is a sort of duck dive, upending to the bottom of the pool, head down, then hands on the bottom, pull your body down and through, feet down, push off and up a bit, and go straight into the next one, ideally remembering to breathe in at some point. I'd never done it before, but I was so good at it, teacher asked me to demonstrate for the rest of the class.

#teacher'spet #lotofwaterupthenose

I think she missed the bit where I got so carried away I did three in a row without breathing in, turned purple and nearly died.

The Commie is closed now until mid-August for the Commonwealth Games. Bah and grumble.

JJ · « **Reply #290 on:** 24 June, 2014, 06:05:17 pm »

Quote from: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 01 September, 2012, 05:04:33 pm

I just tried 50m front crawl and nearly drowned twice. I need to see the swimming coach, I think.

What a difference a couple (not quite) of years makes!

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #291 on:** 22 August, 2014, 09:48:15 pm »

The Commie's 50 metres feels very long after a summer of Warrender's 25 yards!

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #292 on:** 10 October, 2014, 08:41:04 pm »

Tonight, wearing pool fins, I managed 2x25m of very bad butterfly.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #293 on:** 07 November, 2014, 08:34:23 pm »

Great hilarity as we practised backstroke arms one arm at a time. First length, everybody veering into opposite lane. Second length, everybody crashing into the lane rope.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #294 on:** 19 December, 2014, 11:09:52 pm »

I'm having a 1-1 lesson the Monday after Christmas to try and learn butterfly.

LEE · « **Reply #295 on:** 20 December, 2014, 12:07:34 am »

Why are you learning Butterfly?

It's just that I don't understand it as a stroke (unless you are competing in a Butterfly event). It's not as fast as freestyle and yet it's the most energy-intense stroke. Nobody swam to safety using Butterfly.

I don't particularly understand why swimming competitions insist on different strokes, in the same way I don't understand the 50km walk event (when people can run it faster).

Sub-dividing a mode of locomotion into sub-categories just involves a whole raft of unnecessary judges to check everyone is conforming to the rules that make them slower.

Peter · « **Reply #296 on:** 20 December, 2014, 10:23:44 am »

As a means of getting somewhere fast, you are proabably right, though I don't know about efficiency; I would have thought most people cand swim breaststroke for far longer than they can swim crawl. Being on your back is easily the most comfortable and effortless way of staying afloat. Can't find a point to butterfly, I must admit. I wonder if the different disciplines can be traced back to gambling; most things can!

I suppose it's a bit like the difference between Newcastle (or Stockport) and Barcelona: they both have the same aim, to get the ball into the net but the methods bear no resemblance to each other, though Barcelona are improving.....

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #297 on:** 20 December, 2014, 11:07:39 am »

Because it's difficult and I want to see if I can learn it. Also because our director can do it, and he's a tosser.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #298 on:** 29 December, 2014, 12:47:55 pm »

45 mins butterfly coaching has left me so tired I could cry, but it now feels like something I might be able to do one day in the very distant future, instead of feeling completely impossible.

hellymedic · « **Reply #299 on:** 29 December, 2014, 01:48:20 pm »

Your perseverance impresses me greatly.
Keep going; you will get there!
Eventually.

I never managed butterfly myself.

Author Topic: Learning to swim/improving swimming (Read 83135 times)

essexian