Swimming: clues needed

[Too Tall]

A few years back V salon's wisdom fixed my running game thankyouverymuc.

I've been a lousy swimmer forever. I can swim gently almost any stroke for a long time however as soon as I put some effort into it my chest gets very tight and I have to revert to a rescue stroke or stop swimming for a few mins.

A huge help was getting some coaching to clean up my freestyle so that I'm better able to get full breaths. Still, the overarching issue remains. My chest gets wicked tight (as in I can barely breath) during hard swimming.

Talk to me V.

[murphy]

Can you elaborate on putting some effort into it? Like do you mean picking up your stroke pace and kicking, or are we talking race pace? Just wondering if your body is tensing up as I would recommend being fluid and flexible when swimming any stroke even if pace has been picked up; swimming tense is not an efficient way to get through the water.

It has been a while since I swam competitively, but I don't remember having any sensation like that. A video of you swimming might help too, just to help us see what we are working with since I would be interested in your head and chest position in the water.

[twowheels]

TT, swimming is a very technical activity. Form is very important to efficiently moving yourself forward. You need to essentially rotate your body around your spine so that you are hydrodynamic and activating the larger muscles in your chest and back.

I suggest you get some coaching. When I took up triathlons 30+ years ago, I was fortunate to be coached by a former national caliber high school swimmer.

Another thing to consider is swimming with pull buoys, which will float your legs and reduce or eliminate the need to kick. This will allow you to relax and focus on form.

Good luck. Swimming is a gas and can be very relaxing and meditative.

[caleb]

TT,

Does it happen when you're backstroking?

[guido]

A couple of classes and the videos from these folks helped my swim massively... Great Ideas about how to be more relaxed and fluid in the water.

The World's Top Swim Training Videos | Total Immersion Swimming

[rauce]

Focus on being relaxed and efficient. Instead of going hard focus on taking less strokes per length. Once you're getting more distance per stroke you can start upping the tempo and you'll be faster and more efficient.

Watching instructional videos is great but getting someone else to take a video of you is even better. What you think you're doing and where you think your limbs are while you swim is usually not what's actually happening.

[EightySixer]

Another thing to consider is swimming with pull buoys, which will float your legs and reduce or eliminate the need to kick. This will allow you to relax and focus on form.

Josh, this ^^^

I am not efficient enough to swim anything over a couple hundred meters at any effort, and that has nothing to do with strength. When I was racing long course the most valuable drills came from my tri coach when I raced for The Bike Boutique, more so than even the group swim practices when we did heavy effort workouts for 1.5-2hrs. Being able to relax and focus on my stroke and breathing helped the pace come down more than anything else and get me at least somewhat comfortable in the water.

- Two pool buoys (I use TYR) glued together to make a mega buoy to keep my dead weight hips from dragging on the floor.
- Old bike tube tied together to use around the ankles, wrapped in a figure eight.
- Paddles. I started with one size (color) smaller and the Yellow TYR paddles is as far as I got.

After I started doing these workouts and not being embarrassed by how I had to go about it I was able to become a bit smoother and a whole lot more comfortable over time. Kicking rhythm, hip rotation, elbow height, hand entry angle ect. was now actually something I could think about and work on when I was using the aforementioned props.

Don't get me wrong, I am still very much very fucking slow.. But I'm not on the verge of panic attack throughout a whole swim leg anymore either.

[EightySixer]

I forgot some links. This is the stuff I used:
TYR Pull Float at Sunplay
TYR Catalyst 2 Training Paddles at SwimOutlet.com

Forgot to mention the fins I would use for some effort sets: TYR Burner
TYR Burner EBP Floating Fin at SwimOutlet.com

I think aside from all the technical details and fretting over form, just getting somewhat comfortable in the water continuously swimming for a decent period of time is most important. It sure was for me.

[j44ke]

My uncle is a masters swimmer. Mel Goldstein. He once told me swimming is like your shoulders trying to run away from your hips while being chased by your feet. Or something like that. I can't remember the exact quote. Anyway, he wrote a book about his technique called Swimming Past 50. Check it out. I don't think it is in print, but I've been able to find a copy for others with a little searching. Supposed to be a good book but too advanced for me. No chapters on dog paddling or the perfect cannonball, which admittedly is sort of the antithesis of swimming.