Ask Ande

[geo123]

Hey Geo,

sorry to hear you are discouraged and unmotivated
address this by changing your internal & external dialog, write a new script of what you want to be and start repeating it

the problem with feeling depressed is it's a loop:
because you feel depressed you act depressed and
because you act depressed you feel depressed

You must begin a new loop
because you feel motivated you act motivated and
because you act motivated you feel motivated and
because you're busy pursuing your goal you've got no time or need to feel or act depressed.



Excuses are useless. Decide what you want and go for it. Make what you think and say more important and acted upon than the doubters and discouragers around you. It ALL begins with you. Change your thoughts, change your actions and those around you will start talking about what they see you doing and hear you saying.

"big things can still be done."
If this guy can do it then so can you

your event is the 50 free
"I am kind of a late starter and have terrible aerobic capacity."
you don't need aerobic capacity for the 50 free
you need technique, strength, speed and proper body proportions

you were 24.8, you're now 26+
start swimming again
make your goal to get faster in the 50 free
don't worry about a time, focus on the process and journey and times will take care of themselves

can't watch your vids now but will later
Get someone to video you

how should you train for your 50?
Swim 5 - 6x per week
Lift weights 3x per week

you asked: "should i also train for the 100 and 200?"
is it your goal? is it important to you?

should i do big yardage?
NO

do i need to do doubles
NO

what about weights?
ABSOLUTELY

in the pool, warm up then do short fast stuff with rest
train to improve your swimming speed and kicking speed.

Swim Faster Faster will help you.

Improve your kicking speed with
Help my flutter kick is horrible

Improve your swimming speed with
help my speed is horrible

For Work out ideas Here's my old blog from 2008 when I was focused on sprinting
read my work outs starting on that page and follow them to mid June 2008

Act as if you already are what you most want to be.
Stick with it when people say stupid stuff.
Most importantly, change and improve what you
+ say to yourself and
+ do each day

Your problem is, you tried for a while, you hit a little frustration and negativity, then you quit trying.
You've formed new habits, lazy habits and they don't serve you, they don't make you happy.
So you MUST FORM new habits.
Do it.
Begin with your self talk.
Then move to your daily choices and actions, chosing new choices making new actions willl give you new results.
Get upset with yourself if you don't train, not if you train and do a fast swim and your time isn't what you hoped it would be.
Do that work and your times will improve.
Make it easy to feel good and hard to feel bad.
HAVE FUN!!!

pursue your passion with purpose and find out where it takes you.
Train with passionate positive people.
Change your tune
from "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)
to If it's ever gonna be it's completely up to me

Hope this helps,
Keep us posted.
good Luck

Ande

Hey ande,
thanks a tonnnnnnnnnnnn for your reply man. It was truly inspiring. However I am still struggling a bit but at least my motivation level got a little boost and I believe it will only get better. By the way I am thinking about training for the 50 fly and 100 free also as my secondary events to help the 50 free. I have done doubles last couple of days (swim in the morn & lift in the evening then some easy swim). Will doing doubles (2 swim workouts or 1 swim, 1 gym) help me swim faster in these events? (The main focus will be 50 free and fly). What type of work should I do in these double swim sessions to get super fast in 3 -4 months. In the past when I did too many sprints (almost everyday I would get in the water and do just fast swims and kicks) for two three weeks continuously I got extremely tired and thats why I am little concerned about sprinting too much. So how many sessions a week should I focus on sprinting and how many sessions should I do easy or moderate aerobic work ? Also I seem to have a problem in coordinating my kick and arm pull properly. If you look at my without board kicking and my faster than moderate effort swims I posted above you can see that. In the swims I was forcing my legs out of the water as much as I could and I can tell you that it was not giving me much propulsion. When I try to use maximum stroke rate my legs also drop a little ( I cant seem to kick out of the water). When I just kick the legs act just fine (SFK, with board, arms on the side to work on body position). But when I start using my arms that's when my legs start to drop (the kick doesn't stop. my legs I think drop but the kick continues under the water). How can I learn to coordinate my legs with the whole stroke ? Sorry to ask you so many questions man but hey I don't have anyone else (qualified enough) to help me. Thanx a tonnnnnnn again for your last reply. It was truly INSPIRING. I actually read it everyday cause it makes me feel like I CAN DO GREAT THINGS. Here is the link to my youtube channel :

http://www.youtube.com/user/1992mish...e=results_main

You can watch my swim videos there and give me tips on improving.
I would DEFINITELY love to hear your opinion about my stroke technique and what I should do to get better technically.................

[ande]

Ande,

I am interested in your thoughts regarding the information below. Most people/coaches have always told me to take the first 50 of my 100 free out HARD. When I take it out too hard, I tie up at the end and my performance suffers. I have always maintained that for ME, I should take it out easier in order to be able to take it all the way to the wall. It is the worst feeling to see someone next to you go past you in the last 10 meters and you can do nothing about it!

I have created two charts below. One is for LCM and the second is for SCY. I have listed my fastest 9 swims in the last eight years and assigned points for each. Nine points is for the fastest time or smallest difference in the two 50 splits, while one point is for the slowest time or the biggest difference in the 50 splits. Nine points goes to the fastest time overall, the fastest first split, fastest second split and nine points to the smallest difference between the two splits.

Nats meets would be tapered, regional meets would have a very short taper and regular meets would not have any taper.

I am 63 in 2012 and workout 5 - 6 times a week. I have been doing weight training for about one year and for the eight weeks prior to my latest LCM swim, I was doing very heavy weight training (I stopped 10 days before the meet).

'09 and prior Nats and Regionals would have been in full body textile suits, '10 in the rubber suit and '11 and '12 in a jammer.

What assumptions, if any, can you make from this info? I thought it was going to confirm that taking it out easier is a better strategy for me. However, it does not appear that that is necessarily the case. My highest point total in LCM is a tie between the swim that was evenly split with one with a 3.07 difference. My SCY swim that was an even split, is only my 3rd best time (although '10 had the rubber suit).

Your thoughts please.

Thank you so much for your time!

Glenn Gruber (Ventura County Masters)

(I tried to get these into better columns, but couldn't figure out how)


LCM 100 free

Yr. Meet Time 1st 50 2nd 50 Diff Points

'04 Nats 1:03.01 29.60 33.41 3.81 26

'07 Regnl 1:03.09 31.45 31.64 .19 27

'12 Regnl 1:03.37 30.15 33.22 3.07 27

'09 Nats 1:03.46 30.02 33.44 3.42 21

'08 Nats 1:03.70 30.20 33.50 3.30 18

'10 Regnl 1:03.94 30.67 33.27 2.60 24

'05 Nats 1:04.25 30.82 33.43 2.61 19

'09 Meet- SB 1:05.14 31.17 33.97 2.80 12

'10 Meet - SB 1:06.17 31.16 35.01 3.85 6


SCY100 free

'10 Regnl 53.70 25.61 28.09 2.48 27

'10 Nats 54.03 25.99 28.04 2.05 28

'07 Nats 54.31 27.12 27.19 .07 26

'10 Meet-UCLA 54.40 26.43 27.97 1.54 25

'12 Nats 54.48 26.12 28.36 2.24 20

'05 Nats 54.80 26.13 28.67 2.54 15

'09 Meet -SC 54.83 26.78 28.05 1.27 19

'09 Meet-MV 54.83 25.86 28.97 3.11 14

'11 Nats 56.05 26.70 29.35 2.65 7

Hey Glenn,

I moved your question over to ASK Ande since it's more of an ASK Ande type question than Swim Faster Faster tip.

It's impressive that you're 63 still able to go 1:03 & 54 in the 100 LCM & SCM 100's. I wanted to see your 50 times & your 200 times to see how they relate to your 50 splits in your 100 & your 100.

So I dropped by:
USMS Top Ten Swims by Glenn A Gruber (98)

in 2012 SCY you were
5 M60-64 50 Free Glenn A Gruber 62 VCM Southern Pacific 24.50
5 M60-64 100 Free Glenn A Gruber 62 VCM Southern Pacific 54.48
9 M60-64 200 Free Glenn A Gruber 62 VCM Southern Pacific 2:05.15

your 100 time = double your 50 time + 5.5
your 200 time = double your 100 + 16.2
so you're a sprinter


The way elite swimmers split their 100's is:
their 50 split tends to be around 1 second slower than their flat start 50 time and their 2nd 50 tends to be 1.5 to 2.5 seconds slower than their 50 split.

You can also see that the times you decided to go out real easy you'd come roaring home and even split your races. The best 100 swimmers have some fade. They go out fast and bring it home pretty fast.


So I suggest your:

50 split on the way to your 100 should be
1.0 to 1.5 seconds slower than your flat start all out 50 and
2nd 50 split in your 100 should be 1.5 to 2.5 slower than your 1st 50
so probably 1.5 & 2.0 would be good splits to shoot for
so you went 24.5 in your 50
go out in 26.0 come home in 28.0 for a 54.00
but try to shave a little off each so you go under 54

So you want to go out pretty fast but not all out drop dead fast. easy speed fast, save your legs fast. you want to be able to finish strong.


My suggestions for you to improve your 100 are:

1) GET FASTER, focus on improving your 15, 25, & 50 speed
have someone time you in practice

2) Get stronger, lift weights 2 or 3 times a week
GET ACTUALLY PHYSICALLY STRONGER

3) IMPROVE YOUR flutter KICKING SPEED and speed endurance
do fast 15, 25, 50, 75 & 100's kick WITH PLENTY OF REST
what are your best times?

4) work on racing and splitting in practice
what ever you give up on the front end,
You will GAIN on the back end
so experiment and find your sweet spot.

5) you might also consider layering,
at the beginning of the season,
train for the 100, 200 & 500 then when you're
2 months away from your big meet
train for the 50, 100 & 200, then when you're a month away
train for 25's, 50's & 100's

6) hows your weight and shape?
if you're heavy, consider getting lean.

hope you figure out splitting, get stronger and faster and have an awesome SCM season. Let me know how you do.

Ande

2012 Olympics Men's 100 Free Final

1 05 ADRIAN Nathan 47.52
22.64 24.88 2.24 diff

2 04 MAGNUSSEN James 47.53
22.83 24.70 1.87 diff

3 07 HAYDEN Brent 47.80
22.61 25.19 2.58 diff

4 01 AGNEL Yannick 47.84
22.78 25.06 2.28 diff

5 06 VERSCHUREN Sebastiaan 47.88
23.17 24.71 1.54 diff

6 02 CIELO Cesar 47.92
22.60 25.32 2.72 diff

7 03 GARCIA Hanser 48.04
23.42 24.62 1.20 diff

8 08 LOBINTSEV Nikita 48.44
23.03 25.41 2.38 diff

Ave Split Diff was 2.10

[Glenn]

Ande,

Thanks for your suggestions, particularly regarding strength. I have dramatically increased my weight training and strength as a result. Ten weeks ago, my max leg press was 600 lbs and my max now is 900 lbs. Also, my max bench press started at 165 and it is now 205. So I have gained much strength. I think that is the reason my 100 LCM time this weekend was as good as it was even though I did not reach my goal time of 1:02. I am weight training 3 x's per week.

I believe if I continue weights I will see my 50 and 100 times continue to decrease especially in SCY since there are more walls.

I like the suggestion about 15's 25's & 50's. And kicking is something I can always improve on.

The concept of layering never occured to me before. I would like to try that.

I'm 5' 10" and 179, so yes, I could lose a few.

I still have best times in me. I need to coax them out.

[joel schmaltz]

Ande,

During a descend set, would it be better to start out "slow" enough to drop 4-5 sec. per rep or 2-3 seconds.

Example.
If the set was 4 x 200 @ 3:00 and 2:30 was a fast practice time for me, would it be better to start out around 2:50 down to 2:30 or 2:40 down to 2:30?

Does it depend on what part of your training season you are in?

[ande]

Ande,

During a descend set, would it be better to start out "slow" enough to drop 4-5 sec. per rep or 2-3 seconds.

Example.
If the set was 4 x 200 @ 3:00 and 2:30 was a fast practice time for me, would it be better to start out around 2:50 down to 2:30 or 2:40 down to 2:30?

Does it depende on what part of your training season you are in?

Depends on your goal & your coaches instructions
You get a better work out if you start out faster then slightly desc
Your last swim will be faster if you start out easier & do larger drops
So it really depends on the training effect you want from the set

[joel schmaltz]

Thanks Ande. I appreciate your input.

[knelson]

So it really depends on the training effect you want from the set

I agree with this. If your goal is for the last swim to be a max effort then start out slower. If your goal is aerobic conditioning then start out faster and just drop down a couple seconds each swim.

[joel schmaltz]

I agree with this. If your goal is for the last swim to be a max effort then start out slower. If your goal is aerobic conditioning then start out faster and just drop down a couple seconds each swim.

I think I will stick with the aerobic drops until we get coser to a taper meet. Our coach rarely specifies the amount of drop. Sometimes I can figure out were to start by the intervals given.

Thanks!

[ande]

Glenn,

Your legs are quite strong
How's your vertical jump?

Work to improve your kicking speed
What are your times for 15, 25, 50, 75, & 100?
How's your SDK? 15 & 25 times
How many SDKs your in 50 & 100

Do speed work in the pool 3 or 4X per week
Both swimming & kicking

You don't need to do single rep max tests in any exercise
Keep your reps between 12 to 4
Know if you can do 5 reps with a weight that's around 90% of your max and 8 to 10 is around 80% of max

It might help you to weigh 5, 10, or 15 lbs less
What suit did you race in

Ande,

Thanks for your suggestions, particularly regarding strength. I have dramatically increased my weight training and strength as a result. Ten weeks ago, my max leg press was 600 lbs and my max now is 900 lbs. Also, my max bench press started at 165 and it is now 205. So I have gained much strength. I think that is the reason my 100 LCM time this weekend was as good as it was even though I did not reach my goal time of 1:02. I am weight training 3 x's per week.

I believe if I continue weights I will see my 50 and 100 times continue to decrease especially in SCY since there are more walls.

I like the suggestion about 15's 25's & 50's. And kicking is something I can always improve on.

The concept of layering never occured to me before. I would like to try that.

I'm 5' 10" and 179, so yes, I could lose a few.

I still have best times in me. I need to coax them out.

[Glenn]

Ande,

Not sure of the vertical jump. Before I started the weight training 11 weeks ago, I did a jump and put a chalk mark on the outside garage wall. When I went to redo the jump last week, the mark was nowhere to be found (and we haven't had any rain).

Not sure of my current kicking or SDK times. Will get a baseline.

I do try to do three SDK's off of every wall in practice. Not sure if I do it in races though. I think I need to go a bit deeper on my turns in a race as I am pretty sure that I come up too quickly and don't use the full length of my SDK.

Here's why I have been doing max sets on weight training. Eleven weeks ago I became involved in a PhD study at USC which was designed for men 60 - 80 years old and to find out their hormonal response to a 12 week weight training regimen. The pre test involved max lifts in leg press, bench press, lat pull and a few others. Every four weeks we re-do the test. As of today I have four more sessions and a final test with my (personal) goal being 1000 lbs of leg press (worked up to 3 sets of 3 at 800 today) and 225 bench press.

Once I am done, I will not be doing max lifts anymore, but it has been a wonderful challenge for me. I have never lifted like this before. We are doing some speed work as well as power. I never knew weight training could be not only aerobic but anaerobic. One day I put my heart rate monitor on and got my HR up to 160!

So yes, when I am done I will be able to do 5 reps at 90% and 8 - 10 reps at 80%.

I used the new Blue Seventy jammer. This is a very good suit for a jammer. It is tight and certainly compresses from waist to knee.

Again, thanks for your responses. Good thoughts and suggestions!

Glenn

[ElaineK]

Hey Ande! I was Elaine-iaK again this weekend, racing 400 IM and 200 fly and three other events; this time, in a small SCY developmental one-day meet. It turns out I was the only one who signed up for 200 fly, so I had to "race" it on my own. (Hmmm, was all the cheering because I survived without or was it because I was finally finished???)

Anyway, I would appreciate it very much, since you are the IM king, if you could spare 6:51.08 minutes and take a look at my 400yd IM and critique my strokes. (On back and free turns, don't forget, I can't do flips, due to my inner ear disorder.)

The bad news is it took 6:51.08 to complete it. But, the good news is that it was 12 seconds faster than my best push-off time and a lot faster than my 400m IM (8:10) from a few weeks ago. Converted from LCM to SCY, it looks like I took about 18 seconds off that first race attempt (this was my second). My splits here are +/- 1:46, 1:50, 1:45, 1:30.

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbhFt...YtclOJAW-i-gpw

Thanks, Ande!


P.S. I passed your message on to Bruce, but, he said that no matter what you say, I will always be his "Aqua Dog".

[ande]

Elaine-ia-K,

That's a lot of swimming.

if you want to have a good 400 IM,
train for the 500 fr & swim all the strokes in practice
flipping your turns should make you faster
wearing a speedy suit and racing fewer events at a meet or making sure your most important events are 1st, 2nd, or 3rd with plenty of rest between races. Multiple race Fatigue is a killer.

I hope to watch your vid later, youtube and many other sites are blocked on this PC

[ElaineK]

Elaine-ia-K,

That's a lot of swimming.

if you want to have a good 400 IM,
train for the 500 fr & swim all the strokes in practice
flipping your turns should make you faster
wearing a speedy suit and racing fewer events at a meet or making sure your most important events are 1st, 2nd, or 3rd with plenty of rest between races. Multiple race Fatigue is a killer.

I hope to watch your vid later, youtube and many other sites are blocked on this PC

Ande, you missed that part in message (again ) that I can no longer do flip turns, due to having Meniere's, an inner ear disorder that makes me disoriented (and seasick) when I flip! So, open turns is ALL I can do.

The 400 IM was the first heat of the meet, so it worked out well, since that was the race I wanted to do my best on. In the future, when I am looking to get my best times in all of my events, I will drop my event schedule back down. Since this meet was a developmental meet, I decided to for the max and have fun.

Thanks for the advice. I have joined the animal lane, so I am training for the 500 free and brute squad events!

[ande]

Ande, you missed that part in message (again ) that I can no longer do flip turns, due to having Meniere's, an inner ear disorder that makes me disoriented (and seasick) when I flip! So, open turns is ALL I can do.

The 400 IM was the first heat of the meet, so it worked out well, since that was the race I wanted to do my best on. In the future, when I am looking to get my best times in all of my events, I will drop my event schedule back down. Since this meet was a developmental meet, I decided to for the max and have fun.

Thanks for the advice. I have joined the animal lane, so I am training for the 500 free and brute squad events!

learn how to do super fast open turns

[ande]

anyone got any questions?

[Why Not]

anyone got any questions?

Tricks and tips how to keep my butt high during freestyle. I noticed that with a pullbuoy between my legs I swim easier and with less effort, then I do without.

[__steve__]

Tricks and tips how to keep my butt high during freestyle. I noticed that with a pullbuoy between my legs I swim easier and with less effort, then I do without.

I have this problem too. I've exhausted all possible causes and concluded that my legs will always sink no matter what, so I accepted this fact and only race short distances.

There was a thread about this a couple years back, it had numerous pages. I tried to link it here but I am having trouble searching properly on my computer with this newebsite version (BTW, I cant even spell check either).

[TomK3]

Ditto. A 2 beat kick holding legs streamlined when not kicking seems to help some.

Before I joined my current masters team I swam with a group where everyone used a pull buoy, even for 50!

[ande]

Tricks and tips how to keep my butt high during freestyle. I noticed that with a pullbuoy between my legs I swim easier and with less effort, then I do without.

Why Not KEEP your Hips & thighs high. Without actually seeing you swim, I'm just guessing. Maybe you are keeping your head too high. Maybe you need to swim with ease. Usually low hips are a body position issue and not soved by kicking harder.

watch & copy this video:
Total Immersion Swimming Freestyle Demo by Shinji ... - YouTube


This might help you too
Total Immersion: How I Learned to Swim Effortlessly in 10 Days and You Can Too

Get One on One swimming lessons focused on correcting that issue.
Once you start doing it correctly, remember how it feels, then you have to do it right every time you swim until you grind it in.
You have to concentrate and actually do it right.
Correcting technique is HARD because when ever your concentration lapses, you tend to go straight back to your old habit.

[Syd]

Ande, do have any drills/tips for improving body rotation in freestyle? I rotate enough to the right (which is the side I breathe to) but not enough to the left. Sometimes, when I get tired, my left hand struggles to clear the surface of the water and I am pretty sure this is because of poor body rotation. Another clue is that I always seem to get left shoulder pain but not right shoulder pain. I suspect this is from trying to rotate my elbow into a high catch position with my body very flat.

I have tried bilateral breathing (and I am not giving up on it yet) but it throws my rhythm out completely. For some reason I seem to lift my head when I breathe to the left. That of course causes my hips to drop and in the space of 50m I feel quite out of breath.
Many thanks,
Syd