Cutting down on my 50 and 100 freestyle times?

Question

i want to cut down 10 or more seconds on both.

Answer 1

10 seconds is quite a bit of time so I am guessing you are a little younger. Here is a plan for you:

1. Practice Practice Practice: I know you already know this but there are some things you should work on in practice when you are younger

A. Stroke correction / stoke perfection: in swimming function follows form, by working on correcting small things like head position, hand position, and body alignment (keeping everything in a straight line) you will start to shave off time. IT IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT TO HAVE THE CORRECT FORM AS YOU TIRE OUT. This will train you to keep form at the end of the race.

B. Conditioning: get your body stronger and used to getting tired. When you rest you will be that much better.

C. Race strategy: for a 50 you should breathe maybe 1 or 2 the entire race. Breathing slows you down by taking your body out of alignment.

For the 100 practice going out strong with long strokes and coming back as hard as you can but keeping your form. When you get older this will be your 200 strategy, but for now swim smarter not harder.

D. Starts and turns: Most people ignore this, I was watching the World Championships the other day and actually saw a swimmer push off the wall superman style with their hands apart prior to breakout!! I couldn't believe it. Practice getting off the wall quickly, streamlined push off (not too deep), kick out to the flags and breaking the surface quickly on your first stroke. No breathing in or out of turns. For starts practice getting of the block quickly, diving into "one hole", getting parallel to the surface of the water ( === these equal signs are parallel, the top line is water the bottom line should be your body) kicking out, and quickly breaking the surface. AGAIN no breathing off the start, you just were on land and had plenty of air.

That is a start, your coach has already told you this, now I am just communicating it to you a second time.

Answer 2

Hey Katie, have you asked your coach for help? He or she will be your biggest source of information consider they see you on a daily basis in the pool and are most familiar with your training and times.

Outside of your coaches, I suggest doing intervals and plenty of sprints ot get your times down. Do countdown freestyle intervals where you have to take one less breath every 25 and still stick the interval.

Drill yourself until your stroke is as efficient as humanly possible! Have someone (coach, older teammate) do a stroke eval for you and work on the things they see that need improvement.

Finally, push yourself and don't lose heart! You can drop time, try setting slightly lower goals periodically, like dropping 5 seconds in two months and then 5 in the next two and see how it goes. Mark your milestones and be proud of your enthusiasm and drive!

Good luck!

Good luck!!!

Answer 3

it depends on how old you really if your like 13 and over then that would be really hard to do i barely take off 5 tenths of a second in the 50 free and im 15 after you get older taking that much time off in one season is pretty hard. if your 10 and under than it is a little easier because you are still learning and are try different ways of swimming a stroke.

Answer 4

That's a tough gig if you are an experienced competitive swimmer... but if you are not.. then a bit of stroke correction might put yu along the path.... but if you can realise 10 seconds less in the 50m why not try for like 18 seconds in the 100m?

Answer 5

10 seconds for older swimmers is Extremely difficult. Maybe u should shoot for a gradually increase and work on it from there.

Answer 6

10 seconds on both would be very difficult, but the best way to do it would be to find an interval running program and a weight lifting program tailored to swimmers. Running is far more effective cardiovascular exercise than swimming second for second and the lifting will increase your strength.

Answer 7

That's hard to answer not knowing what you already tried. Have you done your strength training? Weights? Cross-training? Have you tried zoomers? www.zoomers.net Zoomers website also has a lot of good swimming pointers.