Ask The Expert
Great Swim April 2010 – Ask the Expert
Expert Advice to Help You Make a Big Splash
The British Gas Great Swim series’ resident outdoor swimming expert provides regular advice to help you negotiate your outdoor swimming training.
This month, he’s taken a look at three key issues raised in the
Great Swim Forum and come up with some tremendous advice – why not take a look at the forum (you’ll need to complete the quick registration process but you’ll not only get access to the lively Great Swim online community but also be able to utilise a whole host of brilliant tools to help with your swimming).
How to learn front crawl
Wildandhappy writes:
I have been swimming for general fitness and relaxation for years, on and off, but have never entered an event. The trouble is, even the beginners’ training plans would have me doing front crawl from the first day. I don't do front crawl! I probably only need a few pointers to get me doing front crawl, any idea how I can learn without a coach (and would it be all right to do breaststroke instead until I can learn?)
See the original post here
Great Swim Expert replies:
If you’re not confident at crawl and are happy doing breaststroke, then why change, you should stick with what you enjoy doing.
Front crawl is a faster stroke, as you have more resistance in the water when swimming breaststroke. But on the plus side, when you swim breaststroke you can see the buoys in front of you every time you breathe and it helps you to swim in a straight line around the course.
As for coaching, I’d recommend downloading ‘Mr Smooth’ from http://www.swimsmooth.com/, which shows the ‘perfect stroke’. YouTube has a few good swim coaches giving key pointers on swimming front crawl. Otherwise, if you have any good swimmers in your pool, ask them to watch your stroke and give you a few pointers – there are normally some basic tips they can give.
Keeping count of lengths
Moyse writes:
Any tips on how to remember how many lengths you have done? My mind wanders off and I forget which one I am on. I end up adding a few on for luck! Also, any tips on remembering what you are meant to be doing (from your Training Plan) once you are at the pool?
See the full post here
Great Swim Expert replies:
Really you should be thinking about your swimming technique rather than keeping count of your lengths. However, at the end of a session you’ll want to know how far you’ve managed to swim. There is a new watch on the market which has been tested out by one of our staff members called the ‘Pool-mate’ watch. It counts your lengths, stroke rate, average speed per 100mtrs and calorie count. Although we found that you had to stop swimming and look closely at your watch to see the number of lengths you have done, it did work and provided useful feedback. This watch doesn’t work in the open water and is designed for pools only. It retails at around the £69 mark.
If you are following a training session why not print out your plan and put in a waterproof pouch, on the poolside?
How important is it to swim outdoors?
Riskfactor writes:
I’m doing the London swim and am going to follow the swim planner and train at my local pool in Bexley Heath. How important is it to get some open water swimming done before the event? I assumed because it was in a dock it was not vital.
Read the full post here
Great Swim Expert replies:
Everyone reacts differently to their first time in open water – there are the obvious things, like no lines on the bottom of the pool to follow, no walls to push off from every so many meters. Also it can be strange just not seeing the bottom or the cold water on your face or waves to swim through if it’s windy. If you would like to get some experience swimming outdoors then why not visit Swim Map Tracker on the British Gas Great Swim website. It shows the recommended places to swim around the UK from Great Swimmers. An outdoor dip before the big day might just get rid of the unknown and you can enjoy the experience all the more.