What is your time for 100m

[TIJoe]

Thanks for all the replies. It is quite interesting to see all kinds of answers but very few direct answer to the what I thought was a straightforward question.

RobM77: 16/17 seconds for 25M is pretty fast for an amature. I can swim at a little over 2minute per 100M for long distance, but for now, cannot crack 20second for 25M (though pretty close 21-22). Your potential upside is a lot higher than mine once you solve your breathing issue.

Westy: I was talking about two different categories. Competitive swimmers speed is not in the same category as adult onset swimmers. I am just putting things in perspective. I am interested in knowing how competitive swimmers speed decline as they age. But I don't think I can ever achieve the speed of a competitive swimmer. For myself, I belong to adult onset swimmers, so I am interested in seeing how far I can go (at least set a realistic goal) if I know how that category of swimmers have achieved.

Alex: it was a straightforward question, in a 25 meter pool, what is your best effort time for 100 meters? I should add off the wall not block.

Kris: Thanks for sharing your time with us as a competitive swimmer. But don't take my question the wrong way.

My question is just a simple one not meant to convey any opion on how to train or what is important.

For long term, my swimming goal is to swim as efficiently as possible, to be able to swim like Terry, relaxed and enjoy every stroke. However, that takes a long time and it is fun to have a short term achievable goal to motivate myself. In fact, it does help in many ways to have a short term specific goal. For me, I found myself paying more attention to how I streamline when I push off, how I make turns (still not efficient open turns, but at least I am paying attention to small details which I would not otherwise). Also, I found 100 meters to be a very good distance in that it is not too short that you can get away with technical inefficiency by simply overpowering the water like you could in a 25meter dash. Yet, it is not too long that you lose concentration. If I swim 500 meters, I can never concentrate the whole time, which results in simply repeating my usual stroke without having any focus.

[RobM77]

Much the same as you, my long term goal is longer distances for triathlon etc, but speed is of course linked to drag, and as I've progressed with TI it's been interesting to measure my speed. As such, I think it's a perfectly relevant question to ask what people's times are for 100m, as well as being a bit of fun (swimming fast is great fun after all!). Thanks for the compliment on my speed by the way; as for the breathing, I just tried a swimming breathing pattern walking in to work and couldn't manage more than a minute, so something's clearly very wrong!

[Lawrence]

People theorise excessively about breathing. The best you can do is stay relaxed. If that doesn't get you enough air, take up another hobby. Life's too short to explore blind alleys.

[TIJoe]

Originally Posted by RobM77

Much the same as you, my long term goal is longer distances for triathlon etc, but speed is of course linked to drag, and as I've progressed with TI it's been interesting to measure my speed. As such, I think it's a perfectly relevant question to ask what people's times are for 100m, as well as being a bit of fun (swimming fast is great fun after all!). Thanks for the compliment on my speed by the way; as for the breathing, I just tried a swimming breathing pattern walking in to work and couldn't manage more than a minute, so something's clearly very wrong!

Rob, you are absolutely right, swimming fast is great fun. In addition, it is a measure stick as whether your technique has improved. Short of taking videos, speed is actually one fantastic and immediate feedback whether you have improved.

As for your breathing problem, have you tried breathing every stroke? Maybe after 75 meters just when you are almost completely out of breath and see whether you can go 100 meters with that. Breathing every stroke will be basically the same as when you are running.

See the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF5jO8sgkbE

at 2:20, they start breathing every stroke

[RobM77]

My TI coach advocates breathing every stroke, so that's what I've been doing. She says that it's been scientifically proven that the streamlining disadvantages are outweighed by the increased oxygenisation. I've yet to see proof of this, and I've asked Terry twice if he's heard of this (that's three times now ;)). Anyway, that's what I've been doing. I have tried all the other combinations (right down to once a length!) to see if it makes any difference though.

Tonight's expriment is to try a nose clip and just mouth breathing. I'll report back later!

Sorry for the thread hijack...

[ob3517]

I think it is a great question. Your 100 time is a good an easy measure of swimming progress. During practice a few months ago I swam a 1:28 for 100 meters and 3 weeks ago I swam a set of 10 averaging 1:34 on a 2:30 interval. Yes, plenty of rest on this set.
Last week during my warm down I decided to push it and swam 200 yards in 2:53.

I've been at TI for 9 months and have seen steady improvement despite being in my mid fifties and I think those times are not even close to my potential.

When I feel improvement I like to go to the pool and test it to see where I am. Time is the best measure.

[TIJoe]

Originally Posted by ob3517

I think it is a great question. Your 100 time is a good an easy measure of swimming progress. During practice a few months ago I swam a 1:28 for 100 meters and 3 weeks ago I swam a set of 10 averaging 1:34 on a 2:30 interval. Yes, plenty of rest on this set.
Last week during my warm down I decided to push it and swam 200 yards in 2:53.

I've been at TI for 9 months and have seen steady improvement despite being in my mid fifties and I think those times are not even close to my potential.

When I feel improvement I like to go to the pool and test it to see where I am. Time is the best measure.

OB, were you able to swim before TI? Regardless, your speed is pretty good which means you are surely doing a lot of things right.

[steve0732]

Coach kris I am with Rob. Yes with all the variations of diving turns etc. it is hard to compare, but us analytical types need a concrete comparison. And with enough different answers here you can get a sense of that.

I looked at TI because even though I was in reasonable shape I never found anyone slower in the pool than I. So sometimes I need to see my times improve an a measure of succes with TI. I can't be quite so zen like you and Terry seem to be not sucking still needs a measurement now and again.

[ob3517]

TIjoe, I had started swimming with a masters group about 1 1/2 years prior to starting to practice the TI method of learning. I was in great physical condition, but despite all the advise from the masters coaching, I just couldn't improve. One week I would follow one piece of advise with no results and the next week another piece advise with no improvement. I was getting to the point of thinking of quitting because of the frustration and the physical demand of trying to keep up. Now I can relax and enjoy my swimming and I'm swimming faster while relaxed than my hardest effort before I started TI.

I did take a TI workshop and a few months later a one hour tune up from a TI coach. After each of these instruction sessions, I saw a noticable improvement in my swimming(after practicing what I learned). I just couldn't get it from reading the book or watching the DVD.

One of my goals is to get smooth enough in th next year or two, so that I can cruise continuously at about a 1:30 pace for 100meters. I hope this helps a little. Good luck, keep working on it.

[CoachKris]

I wouldn't really call myself a competitive swimmer, my point is that it is important to remember that world records are being set by people who are swimming full-time (over 20h/week) so don't get frustrated if there are people that can swim twice as fast as you are. So if you want to compare your time it would be best idea to race against yourself ;) (same body composition same background etc ;P ) and remember to take amount of effort under consideration
I remember the time when I enjoyed TI the most was when I discovered that I don't have to do 20% of what I was doing before to swim, that allowed me to start swimming long distances, previously I would consider myself a sprinter as anything above 50m was just so damn hard and exhausting ;P that I couldn't stand it, now I enjoy 3km workouts far much more then sets of hard 50's