A Swimming Question

[coldpacker]

So i'm back training again for the next tri.

My goal is to improve my swimming technique because out of 400 people i almost came last place in the swim portion.

So its really tough to swim by yourself. There's no one to correct you on your mistakes. I'm just drilling all day instead of swimming actual laps for cardio.

My question is:

I'm doing some research on wet suits to upgrade from my hurting Body Glove (used for surfing and body boards). A lot of suits claim to fix swimming posture, by exagerating a swimming at a downwards angle. I guess they do this by giving more boyency to the lower half of your body.

Can a any swimmer explain this to me? Should i pretend to swim w/ a downward angle? Will this help me at all?

I noticed improved lap times when i exagerated a full reach forward w/ my lead arms and leading w/ my elbows before i splash my arms in. I felt like my body was being stretched into a straight line. Is this what the wet suit design is referring to?

http://www.trisports.com/t1webydeso.html

Here is a link to what i'm talking about. The T1 DeSoto suit. The first bullet of a laundry list of features explains the following:

"Corrects Your Swimming Position: The T1 Wetsuit® was the first wetsuit to put you in the "swimming downhill" position. In fact, since we began talking about this position, other wetsuit companies have copied this concept."

[zoony]

there was a thread on this a while back.

The only suggestion I would offer is that if you finished last in a field of 400, I think you need to worry less about the fancy stuff and more about fundamentals.

Sounds silly, but most people forget all about kicking. And that's where you are going to get a hell of a lot of your speed from. Most people concentrate so much on their technique and on their crawl stroke, their breathing, and the angle of their hands, etc... the lower half of their body just kind of drags along.

I see that happen a lot. Next time you get in the water make a concerted mental effort to really kick... I betcha that will really help.

[coldpacker]

there was a thread on this a while back.

The only suggestion I would offer is that if you finished last in a field of 400, I think you need to worry less about the fancy stuff and more about fundamentals.

Sounds silly, but most people forget all about kicking. And that's where you are going to get a hell of a lot of your speed from. Most people concentrate so much on their technique and on their crawl stroke, their breathing, and the angle of their hands, etc... the lower half of their body just kind of drags along.

I see that happen a lot. Next time you get in the water make a concerted mental effort to really kick... I betcha that will really help.

I noticed that if i kick hard, i lose a lot of energy for the long distance swims. Which was my initial problem when i first hit the pool. Big kicks also prevents me from breathing 1-2-3-breath-1-2-3-breath rhythm.

The DVD i watched didn't emphasize anything about the kick really.. other than its merely there to balance ur body in the water. I shall do more reading i guess

or maybe my cardio isn't as good as i thought it was =))) i will try harder kicking next time

[zoony]

BTW, congratulations. Just finishing a triathalon is really something to be proud of.

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