The lifeguard stopped me to tell me to calm down! I said the swimmers should give way and carried on my way! I’ve been in the pool before with 2 in the slow lane, 4 in the middle, and 6 in the fast. It should be flipped. I see public zig-sag swim sessions as practice for open-water triathlon starts without the pulling legs and dunking!
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That’s brilliant! I’ve never seen a lifeguard do anything beyond look disinterested 
ETA. You’re clearly a maniac in the pool 
fly, it was invented for this reason (well it was invented as someone tried to cheat at breaststroke but…well)
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I was going to ask Santa to bring me a set of paddles in my stocking. I’ve not used them before, does anyone have any recommendations for a good first pair to start off incorporating them into my sessions? There seems to be so many options I’m struggling to work out what the differences are (if any) between them and what might suit. Wiggle have lots under £20.
We (Tri club) use the Finis freestyler ones, they’re more of a technique thing than a power builder although they are bigger than your hand so you feel the extra resistance. They’re only attached by one finger and are pointed so if you get your hand entry, angle through the water or exit wrong they chuck a wobbly and you know about it
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I have TYR paddles and have changed the rubber tubing so they’re only attached to my middle finger, as described above by @JaRok2300 and they behave in the same way as the Finis freestyler when used like that IMHO. Looking at wiggle, it looks like the speedo biofuse and zoggs matrix paddles could be used in the same way.
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Thanks, they sound like they might be what I’m looking for if they help force you into better technique.
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Smallish ones, not much bigger than your hand. If they are 3 strap don’t use the wrist one. I do use the finis freestyler as well but they are for limited technique use, so if getting one pair buy normal ones first
My son has these :-
MARU Unisex’s AT7131 Hand Paddle,… https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07M5GKZ8D?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
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When doing drills, my technique seems to hold together ok.
My left hand enters where it should.
Elbows are reasonably high
However, when I then go to full stroke, it’s not as great.
Any mental cues or advice you could impart?
when you do a drill immediately follow it up with full stroke but just focus on the part that the drill is working on…ie doing something for high elbow catch and pull, then forget the rest of the stroke for the following length. Use fins or pull as well to make it easier to get a good body position when focusing on arms. A snorkel can help as it takes away the need to breath which means you can focus on the part of the stroke you are trying to improve. I can be known to do pull paddles snorkel so they can focus on arms and feel what is happening. It really is abut finding a way to do more strokes well, no matter what tools you need to use.
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Thanks for that 
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Did a CSS test last Saturday which came out at 1:40/100m (6:31 & 3:11).
Went to a different pool on Tuesday and tried to do a set of 100s at CSS pace with 10s RI. First one felt harder than it should and failed on the 2nd onwards. Was a bit disheartened to be honest, the CSS test was fair, wasn’t drafting or anything and that set shouldn’t be too bad.
Back at original pool tonight and hitting CSS pace no problem from 100s to 300s with the ability to speed up at the end of swims where directed.
Feeling better about it now and a couple of people have said the Tuesday pool is known to be slow. We’ve only just started using it so I was wondering what factors make a pool slow or us it a bit of an urban myth?
Cheers
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It’s not a myth. I read about it before. I think it was one of the Olympics where they were saying the pool was fast.
Depth and temperature can have big effects, as can the walls, old pools with side walls or gutters can cause turbulent waves. The lane ropes as well. My pool is a competition pool so the lane ropes are the proper ones that minimise waves. You get in a pool with crappy ropes and a small buoy after meter and you’ll notice the difference.
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Thanks, the pool was quite warm and the walls were a bit weird, not at the top but the bottom curved into the floor rather than a sharp right angle. It made it a bit tricky to spot the wall for turns as you didn’t have that reference point at the bottom to focus on. I guess it only takes a second or so per length to add up.
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Yeah and the differences were probably amplified because you were on a new CSS pace. I used to hate the CSS test. Not the test itself, that was fun. But if you improved the CSS speed you knew the next few training sessions were going to be fucking horrible.
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CSS - Crap Swim Set 
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Because you don’t like the need to call it something special and focus on only swimming that pace?
Or because you think that physiologically the speed/effort described as CSS is less useful?
Don’t @Chriswim, he just hates people swimming smoothly
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