Swimmers? Whats a good aim to have?

smurfgirl - taht is just silly! 50 lenghts is great - Ishould know as I used to swim for my county many moons ago. 50 lenghts was what we swam on a training day and as someone else sugested doing a sprint every few lenghts is also good.

you go girl - you're doing good!!!

And fwiw i did nt' really swim again for about 20 yrs and have now very very recently taken it up agian expecting to cruise my 30 or so lenghts effortlessly and struggle with 15!

really glad you found it helpful sazzles, it's great to see it quantified like that, i'm not good at counting and timing but it certainly felt better to me when i used some of the techniques. i'm glad this thread has prompted me to get the book out again actually, i'll give it another go next time too.

sounds like you are doing pretty well: I do 50 lenghts as well ( sometimes a few more ) and I have been swimming for years! it is true that technique is more important than speed - if you keep your head and neck up all the time it plays havoc with your muscles as I recall. Try to get your body as flat as poss. Breathe on both sides during freestyle.

I alternate my styles as this makes it more difficlut - 10 breast/10 freestyle/10 breast/10 freestyle, then a mixture of 10 - 15 more with a couple of backstroke thrown in for good measure! It takes me around 40 mins and I am not interested in getting faster - you sound like you are doing really well!

It sounds like you're doing really well. I find the first 20 knackering, and then drift off during the next 30 or 40 and it's fine. I did the Swimathon last year - did 100 in 61 minutes, but I couldn't do that again. Could barely move for a week.

So much is down to good technique - my comparative speed is down the the fact I was a competitive swimmer as a child and was very well trained. I swim faster than DH, for example, and he's a lot fitter than I am. Could you get a few adult lessons to improve your style?

I used to train a lot (swimming) when I was younger, swam in London youth games, represented my Borough etc. We used to do about 70 lengths in an hours training session. I would have to say, even at the peak of my fitness I would have struggled to do an entire session of just freestyle. It's a good idea to alternate your strokes. Have you thought about having some adult lessons to improve your technique, learn butterfly? Butterfly is very strenuous and good exercise.

There really are lots of ways of improving your technique, things like

-making sure your hands are cupped -fingers tightly together,

• in Freestyle, when you're bringing your arms through the water back down to your sides, try doing a slight S shape with your hands, this gives you more pull through the water

• stretch as far forward as you can for each stroke

• try to learn to breathe both sides.

• breaststroke, allow your head to almost go completely under water, stretch arms out as far as you can ahead of you, then pull with your arms bent at a right angle and pull your elbows hard into your sides

• breaststroke, you can do a butterfly type movement also, bit like a dolphin.

there are loads more!

Good on you, I couldn't do 50 lengths in an hour now!!

oh and without going completely off topic i found that when i was doing a lot of yoga my swimming improved significantly. a mixture of increased body and breathing awareness and stronger core muscles i reckon.

i've never had lessons but i love swimming and i think i swim fairly fluently (i'm generally one of the faster people in the pool but i've no idea time/lengths, i never count). i love this book: swimming made easy and found it really refined my stroke when i was concentrating on it (haven't had much time to swim since dd2, but getting back into it again now). the method is called total immersion swimming you can google it for websites, videos etc.

If you feel like you're working really hard and not going as fast as you'd like it could well be that you're 'fighting' the water. Really good swimmers look completely relaxed and as if they're not trying at all - if you're tense, you'll end up working much harder but going slower. It might be worth having a couple of one-to-one lessons to sort out your technique and once you've got your technique really nailed down then start upping the distance again. Just to give you an idea of what's possible, my 11 year old (who's fast but not exceptional) does 60 lengths in just under 20 minutes and is barely out of breath at the end - swimming is ALL about technique

I'm not an expert but someone told me that your technique is more important than your speed - you'll get a better workout if your stroke is good and those who swim with their head in the air won't be getting the most benefit out of it...
If you go onto the zoggs website here they do a swim 4 fitness thing where you can download progammes which are easy to follow - sort of swim 2 lengths breastroke, lengths crawl etc.. I find it varies my 'routine' and I feel i get a better workout hth
Not that I've been swimming in awhile as I have limpet (aka dd2) who plays up everytime I try to go..

i love to swim but look like a muppet - water gets up my nose if i put my face in water so i paddle along, head well up, looking like lassie of to rescue womseone...

did 42 lengths in 30 mins last week though so was well chuffed

Hi smurf that is fine and dont worry about speed.

I sometimes use gloves with weights in to tone my arms and get more strength. I also do sprints every so many lengths.

I just thought it was difficult for lens wearers. I dont but that is my sisters excuse when she wont go swimming! obviously I have been conned.

I found it was a revelation to wear googles, and much better

I think your three times a week is tons.

hi Smurf

I have to confess that i am one of those swimmers who can 'glide' and not get out of breath.

I did an awful lot of swimming as a teenager for my local club and the best bit of advice that my trainer gave me was that you are at your fastest when you are gliding (I am talking breatstroke now) so I try and glide (head under water always) for as long as poss.

I also use my legs rather than my arms to get most of the power behind teh glide. HTH

I meant goggles!

Yes, just a really fast length, I think its possible to improve performance that way and perhaps not worry about getting your 50 lengths so strictly. You might go back to that goal after getting faster.?

Why no googles if contact lense wearer???

Sorry to threadbutt but I wear contacts and goggles when I swim and didn't realise I shouldn't!

How often do you go ?