Ojays, might be there again on Sunday if my shoulder heals fast.
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oooohhhh you joined Masters again? I may have to come on Thursdays as I’m free. Ben is coaching now isn’t he! Works them hard I heard 
That’s Gold squad alongside, one below El Nino now. 11-14 year olds, ~6hrs a week at most and very few even county level…which shows how good the kids are in Kent really! Sundays Masters moved which is a shame as they used to swim alongside Platinum at BH Tues/Sun which meant i could swim, but now we are only at BH every other Tuesday and Sundays Top/Masters swapped so Top could have more time in a SCM pool.
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Swim training in hotel pools : can’t see the end walls !
I cannot be the only person who finds training in many hotel pools to be a bit perilous because the sides and bottom are often all white and, even worse, have a curved corner between them. Thus you cannot see the end of the pool…
What I do is place an object (usually a metal spoon) at the bottom of the pool in the corner so you can see where the end walls are…
Whilst I’m on about holiday hints…
Two single beds pushed together are not the same as one double bed as the soddin’ things keep pushing apart through the night.
Best answer is to take a flat lashing strap about 16 to 18ft long and lash the mattresses together. If you haven’t got one of them (we forgot ours on our latest holiday…) put the mattresses perpendicular to the bed bases and with the mattresses crossways to your bodies. It worked for us !
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Juan? Those crazy Brits are at it again. Half the cutlery drawer’s down the deep end.
Again? Those guys should stay out of the sun. And the Germans with our towels. If they didn’t spend so much at the bar, I’d ban the lot of them and just have Swedes.
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I thought the thread title related to Matt but apparently not. I can’t wait to find out where to place the hammer.
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A hammer would work well, even better than spoons…
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Swim cap last weekend… 4 hours in the pool per day for 2 days, but 100% focus on technique. I wish I had done something like this years ago, and every year. Lets see how much difference it makes, but I had some major ah ha moments.
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100m free race. I’m trying to gauge how much kicking I should do. Full beans? Sometimes I think it causes fatigue in the 3rd 25 but maybe just the overall higher intensity is the cause?
I just watched this which has some good tips. How to swim faster in 100 freestyle - YouTube
I know when I swim longer distances my kick pauses when I breath so I think I’ll try the drill kicking on my side with float.
1 session in pool after weekend swim camp… unbelievable difference. I am swimming around 12s/100m faster with far less fatigue in my shoulders.
Last Monday, my club Swim Session, 2100m, my pace was 1:57/100m (feeling like shit)
Yesterday, club session, very similar set, 2000m, my pace was 1:39/100m (feeling brilliant)
I had the feeling that I had hit a plateau, I could go faster by getting stronger, but technique really wasn’t changing. Early last year, I built my pace through strength, however, after my shoulder injury, I lost a lot of strength and pace dropped back.
At the swim camp, made some changes to rotation, breathing and kicking. On short sets of 50-100m I can do all 3 together, and pace is incredible, around 1:30/100m, however, on longer sets, I can only focus on 2 out of 3
Our swim coach suggested that on longer sets, I should try to take a 5s pause every 50m to focus on getting the technique right for the next 50m
Probably the biggest difference last night was the lack of fatigue in my shoulders. This has been an issue for me recently.
Changes I made:
Way more rotation, really focus on getting shoulder right out of the water with much higher recovery
Changing from early hand entry into the water (I think that this is total immersion) to a later hand entry, really improves my catch
Not starting catch until my face is back in the water when breathing (I was starting catch while still breathing)
Keeping my head touching my arm while breathing
Focus on timing my kick on the opposite leg to the catch, this seems to stabilise my position in the water. I tried different kicking techniques, but this seems to work best for me at this stage
Let’s see if I can maintain this improvement
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Whilst changing technique (which each part could take 6months to become “normal” ) there’s a good argument for doing more things like 100 x 25’s off say 30secs or 5sec rests as the short reset means you hold good form for longer. By doing longer reps and fatiguing you are undoing all the work as the body reverts to type (it’s inherently lazy). If you want to feel like you are doing longer reps do 100’s off x mins for instance but broken (5sec each length reset). Common in swimming to do broken 100’s at target race pace so you get the feeling of pb pace but with short reset. we did 4* 100 off ~5mins last week at > pb pace but broken (5s each length) to build into the Counties at the weekend
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I will definately be trying this. Agree it will take months to reinforce new technique - the coach said that the biggest challenge now is carry on practicing new technique and not revert, apparently next 6 weeks are critical
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i am always surprised by how long the head is turned to breath even in pretty good swimmers.
I am a fan of Chloe Sutton’s breathing…
Low stroke rate, especially when swimming every 3 as they try to suck oxygen in to cover the extra stroke.
yep, but often its not having sufficiently exhaled so are still breathing out when the head is turned as well as following the arm for next hand entry
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her you tube vids are really good, I’ve used the breaststroke one to try and teach the timing to novice swimmers (they always kick too early and forget the glide!)
I’m going to keep this in mind next session. I’m pretty sure that I exhale before. It takes me a while to fill my lungs and I need as much as possible because I feel light headed after a turn anyway! Maybe I breathe in too slowly and I need to suck in faster!
Chipped a few more seconds off 1500m time today, 23m19s
Went through 400m in 6m07, 800m in 12m21 and 1200m in 18m35. Found my mind wandering a bit in the middle, 23 minutes is a long time just to think about left right left right tumble. At one stage I was making a mental list of the songs of Lady GaGa 
Target is 23m07 (old PB from another lifetime). I’m optimistic, less than 1s per 100m to conjure up & if Lady GaGa can stay out of my head that will surely help. Today was 25th swim in 28 days.
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I think this alone is worth 5s/100m - I really need to concentrate hard to do it better, if I don’t concentrate I start my catch while breathing
400 in 6:07 in a 1500m set is a solid time. I’m making good progress but still only at 6:15 for 400 & targeting a sub 6m.
What’s your 400m TT time?
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@Doka best ever was 5m19s, that was in the Salisbury sprint tri in about 2006 when I was swimming twice per week including a 90 minute squad sess.
Last year I did 6m07 in a pool based sprint tri & was a bit disappointed to be over 6 mins, but really hadn’t been swimming much (understatement) & didn’t deserve any faster.
Has your swimming changed appreciably since your modification? I hope it’s ok to ask that. Really curious if it affects balance , propulsion, speed etc?
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