Improve in my swimming.
Question
I want to improve my strokes my current times are:
Free:34.16
Back:45.50
Breast:43.79
Fly:38.30
I am 17 male and I swim 4 times a week for 1:30 hours on a summer team.
Are my times good? I know they arent as good as they could be thats why I want to improve them. I know this really is a very large question sorry.
I also want to improve my dive when I dive I dont get very far off the block and most of the time I end up doing a half belly flop :( Also I dive with both feet on the front of the block NOT like a runner start.
Hope you can help and if you need more info let me know,
Ethan Steckmann
Answer
Ethan--
The easiest way to improve your times at this point is to really focus on your start and turns and the streamlines out of them. If you watched any of the US Olympic trials, you may have noticed how the swimmers streamlined out of their turns(hands together,head tucked and good dolphin kick out past the backstroke flags). No dolphin kick in breaststroke. Speed into a turn equals speed out. You can get a good second improvement with efficient turns.
As for your start, you don't want to dive straight out from the blocks. You should have a nice arc to your dive. If you have a pool with a deep section, that is the best place to work on this so you don't have to worry about hitting the bottom of the pool. There is nothing wrong with diving with both feet on the front of the blocks, it's just a different technique than the track start. Either way you need to work to get your body going through the same hole in the water(that's where the arc comes in). Talk to your coach with these hints and ask for some help. They should be able to help you with this.
Hope these ideas help,
George
flip turning & diving
Training