Lonely swim tonight. Many of the club still in or recovering from Roth and the footie on.
Only three in the lane to start with. Killed the other two off and had to finish the main set on my own. Three weeks on the bounce now!
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Great little video, title is a bit click baity, but apart from that, particularly the rotation section, which is often misunderstood in triathlon circles (spoiler; its not from the hips)
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I’m in the office today and we were talking swimming. One lady’s son sounds pretty fast but said there is a lad at her son’s club (Lock Heath?) that is 10 yrs old and going 35sec for 50 free.
I’m not sure how that compares but sounds bloody fast to me 
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If true in competition that’s probably just about top 50 in Britain this year, maybe county medals level although 11AG is first counties year (11 on 31st Dec that year)
If you know the club/name ASA rankings will tell you 
He’s number one on your second pic
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11 AG then yer its good for a 50, but his other times are reasonable club swimmer level. times sound mental to most of us though! His times suggest he is a big lad for his age as his 50free is not replicated at 100/200 (suggesting technique breakdown and a strength advantage at 50) but times can show a lot of things
WRT swimming, 50’s don’t really count until they are 18. they do them at regionals (12 and up), 11 is first counties year although it doesnt look like he qualified this year. (everything is findable on ASA Rankings including full swim history of every event!) (safeguarding much )
Nationals the 15 AG is first time you have 50’s, but you are only invited via your 100 time until 18. 13 is first time 100’s are swum and that’s based off your 200 time at that age!
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Cheers mate
I’ve turned into a swim nerd lol
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So I’ve got a confession, I cannot tumble turn! Never really needed to and have never been in a situation where I’ve been taught how to. Anyway, at Thursdays club swim, our coach (probably for his own amusement) insisted that open turns were banned and that we had to tumble. He’d got the next next lane down doing them and the next two ‘higher’ lanes tumble anyway
So I am absolutely terrible at this. From comfortably sitting at the front of the lane I sheepishly move myself to the back of the line and to be honest, the actual ‘swim’ session went out of the window and all my efforts went into trying and failing to flip turn.
Spoke to the coach and we checked I can actually roll over / spin whatever you want to call it in the water which is ok, I can spin around several times with no issue. But, every time I get to the wall and try to go over I seem to spin at an angle and end up all over the place and definitely not pointing in the right direction to get off swimming again.
I’ve done some googling and come across this video: https://youtu.be/xlwY4TnU6rY?si=ARLxQ_Ue1cF-hQ5U
Seems ok and I’m prepared to see this through and get these turns in my locker. Anything else the TT collective think I should focus on? What helped you learn? Or, was it super straight forward and you instantly got it?
I’m not actually at the next club swim but will see if I can get to the pool next week and solely concentrate on tumbles - I’m sure I’ll get some funny looks…
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I’m a new tumbler from a year or so, you’ve just got to stick at it & it sucks for quite a while. The worst is you just never get that breath back that you take on the open turn so even when the tumble is reasonable you’ll feel out of breath. Same as anything, practice & more practice.
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Looking forward to hearing how you progress.
Whenever I try them it screws up my sense of balance & I end up fighting down the sick which doesn’t make me want to practice much more.
Perhaps I’ll give it another go this winter.
The lass on that video has a beautiful dolphin kick off the wall 
.
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With kids, somersaults to start, then its practice them at half way, swim half length somersault without putting feet down and keep swimming to end.
Finish one stroke, leave arm back, finish next stroke and one thing to help palm down to initiate flip. Maybe do it with paddles to start also. focus on tucking chin and throwing legs over! Land legs on wall, one foot above other on your back and push off. Practice just pushing off on back and then add in corkscrew once youve got that. Breathe out through nose so water doesnt go up it 
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I have the world’s ugliest tumble
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I can do them when fresh but then find the lack of that extra breath does for me. I reckon it is mostly in my head that I really need that breath.
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Just seen your post from a few weeks back about masters swimming records
23 minute 1500m for M75-79 
Currently might just be able to keep up with the 80-85:years olds at 26 minutes
Do you think these people are generally lifelong swimmers who would have been troubling 16 or 17 minutes as young uns? Or are there ever any late bloomers in swimming?
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Tumble turns- i learned them with the uni Tri club back in the day & can do them ok. Perhaps as was young and impressionable.
I remember the coach teaching us in 1 session.
The first stage was to swim up to the end of the length, but just before reaching it do a normal somersault in the water, ending up facing the wall and close enough to hold onto it. That was about understanding the position to start the turn.
Then the second stage started exactly the same, however halfway through the somersault you extend your legs and “find” the wall with your feet (or foot I guess ). When you push off, you are now doing backstroke, but hopefully you are pointing back down the pool. That was about finding the wall and completing the turn, and heading off at the right pitch rather than down to Atlantis.
Once you could do this without too many misfires, the third stage was to add a 90 degree rotation so that your feet hit the wall pointing horizontally. Then as you push off, continue the rotation another 90 degrees so that you are face down for the next length.
That’s how I recall the lesson going anyway, and it was pretty effective - we all seemed to learn it in a single session.
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A lot of the retirees are late bloomers, theres one women in her 90s competeing that didn’t swim until she was 60 odd (i believe she learnt to swim then!)
Then you have a friend of a friend, swam NCAA’s was 4IM champion, swam WCs for GB but enjoyed his excesses, drink, recreational drugs, smoking, which effectively ended his “career” back then. Started back swimming last year at 52, 6 months later was a regional champion (won overall also) and then national silver medallist in the OW 2km. He thinks its hilarious when all this really fit young “triathletes” rocked up to regionals flexing pre race, and were lapped by the fat old bloke
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Land on your back is the way taught now, watch the video posted above from Fares post by @Adam , brilliant demo.
Copied again, too good to miss
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A guy I knew about 10 years ago hadn’t done much swimming and was teaching stroke patients how to relearn things like walking and I think swimming.
Kind of applied some of that knowledge as it’s largely down to repetitive movements and he was something like 5:30/400 in his 50’s
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Tried tumble turns today… nearly died.
I have an intolerance for chlorine so all that water up my nose probably means a poor night sleep. (I did try to breathe out through my nose, didnt get it right though)
Plus I was almost looking at the side of the pool after… disorientated lots.
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