Tips for short swimmers? (5 foot 7)

5' 7" is not that short if you get a good pair of Cuban heels. :-)

[WFEGb]

Hello liolio,

When I feel down with my progress the thing keeps me going is the "feel" of water, experimenting with water reactionto pressures, working on proprioception in the water. Swimming in another person turbulences (and make it into a smooth ride), etc.
Putting the chronometers down 10 minutes (or more) and rediscovering "water", keep the experience fresh, an on going discovery of the medium which we are travelling through: time... I mean water :=)

Think we all should have that in mind (at least down on the floor of our "Mind-Toolbox"), when going for swim.

Best regards,
Werner

[CoachStuartMcDougal]

Originally Posted by hercusg@yahoo.com

Full disclosure, I am new to swimming. I swam a little at school and then did nothing for 20 odd years. I started doing biathlons two years ago at the age of 39. My running is very strong and I managed a 1:09 over 100m sprint in the pool. I do think you get away with bad technique in the sprints when you are really fit (which I am).

I am 5 foot 7. I had a swim analysis done as I need to get closer to 1:05 to be competitive at national level.

The annalist told me that I need to build my swim stroke from scratch. (Yes it is that bad). He mentioned that since I am short, I have to swim with a higher stroke rate and avoid gliding to much as I will loose speed. He did mention that my balance is bad when I swim at "cruising" pace.

Do you think I am being unrealistic with my goal to drop by a further 4 seconds?

Hi hercusg,

Your primary issue is imbalance. If you are imbalanced at slower tempo (rate of turnover) then you're imbalanced at faster tempos too. It just not as noticeable since the the imbalance is being solved with faster hands and kicking feet - primal human impulse to stabilize the body.

What is your rate of turnover and number of strokes at 1:09 pace? If you don't know your tempo, have someone use a stop watch and count hand entries, i.e. 12 strokes in 10 secs is .833 secs per stroke or 72 strokes per minute.

There are far more opportunities to go faster by slowing tempo and increasing stroke length, but that requires exceptional balance. I suspect stabilizing your platform from the middle (not with busy hands and feet), slower rate and increasing stroke length you will easily drop that 4 secs or more on 100 sprint. Faster hands and feet doesn't mean you will go faster, it's the shape and position of the vessel, lower drag profile that matters more.

If you have or can get some metrics, stroke rate and stroke length, that would help us help you discover some choices to get to the speed you desire.

Stu

[bx]

Hey Coach Stuart, is there any video on YT or Vimeo etc. of you swimming? I recall you have a typical SR of about 1.0s? It would be interesting to see TI swimmers, especially coaches, in normal swimming (and not slowed-down), and even more so, those who don't have ultra-long slow strokes.

For example, there is still currently a clip of Terry on YT from Pace Mastery, and it's normal speed, so you get a much more realistic view of TI swimming.

Anyway, I'm into butterfly now :)

Cheers
Ant

[CoachStuartMcDougal]

Hi Ant!

Great idea actually. Although I'm usually the coach behind the camera never getting any footage. Tracey who heads up TI UK and US put this video together of all six of us TI coaches before our relay across the English Channel in 2014. So you have six examples and tempos. I'm in at 00:45 or so swimming at 1.05 (ish) tempo, roughly 1:20/100 pace. TI Coaches Dave, Mandy, Todd, Rachel. Jai and me ranging from 6'5" (Dave) to 5'3" (Jai) and range of styles and tempos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAFli6CVFCg

Stu

[bx]

Cheers Stu,

I've never come across that video before. There's one disparaging comment on it, but it is actually really useful to know the swimmers' heights, and see how they adapt their stroke.

In my personal opinion, it would be to TI's benefit to make it a rule that from now on, TI footage must not be slowed-down! When you see it at nomal speed, you get no impression of over-long glides whatsoever.

So now we just need some footage of Master Coach Tracey Bauman(n?)! We need more footage of all you coaches, ja?

-A

PS Obv, Stuart is a master Coach too!

PPS Vid has Jai at 5'1''. He seems to have an amazing glide despite not being a 6-footer.

[CoachStuartMcDougal]

Hi Ant,

Lol - any video posted on youtube, there's always gonna be that one (or few) with something disparaging to say.

Coach Dave Cameron is now heading up TI training and coaching and working on content. I will bring this to his attention, more coach demo videos and full speed. This will bring perception and reality closer together too. Great idea - thanks.

Re: Jai. Right! Jai's 5'1" and he swims like he's 6'5". Jai and Dave were the fastest swimmers in our group of six coaches. Jai swims around a 1.0 sec per stroke tempo (60 spm) at 1:10/100 pace, comfortably long distance - incredible. One day I may be able to keep up with him (and Dave) - well maybe in my next lifetime :-)

Thanks for the suggestions on demo videos, sending that idea to the top!

Cheers,

Stu

[Danny]

There's no end to the statistics that would be interesting to put in for each coach. Examples:
(1) is this long distance pace or sprint?
(2) SPL, stroke rate, and time/100 m. how do these correlate with height? The interesting answer seems to be not at all, considering Dave and Jai.

[sclim]

I was wondering about Rachel Vanscoy doing the 6 beat kick. Was this just for the demo, or is this her habitual kick during long distance too?

[WFEGb]

Hello Ant,

In my personal opinion, it would be to TI's benefit to make it a rule that from now on, TI footage must not be slowed-down! When you see it at nomal speed, you get no impression of over-long glides whatsoever.

Think you're right to have something against the prejudice, TI is another word for Swimming Slow (Although the acronym SS belongs to an other company, sorry couldn't resist...) And fast TI-swimmers will doubtless be a good figurehead for TI.

On the other side TI as system has not only been built for performance-oriented competitors but for everyone interested in swimming. (Started myself with 60 years and would have derelict, when I had not stumbled over the "smooth" parts of TI (again a problem with my ability to resist)).

Something I heard quite often from other swimmers: You're swimming so slowly, but you're so fast... And to see the objective times, even in his most popular demo Shinji in his no-slow-motion-parts swims a pace around 1:20, which (imho) is fast for many mortals, although most YT-observers would see him as swimming slowly.

When coaching I have to slow down my students very often, not because slow-motion is an immanent TI-internal, but simply to help me to be able to help with hands on. Surely they'll know. (And being in the water with the students, not shouting from deck, for me is a typical strength of TI's teaching system...)

Coach David Shen once posted: ...but 1.5km in 30 minutes should be possible for most of us. That's very slow for competitive swimmers, but a handy target, many in swimming interested will have to work for a long time to reach.

But nevertheless I'm looking forward too, to see some (more) videos of "fast" TI-swimmers. (No matter how tall they are... to get a relation to the thread...)

Best regards,
Werner

PS: The best way to handle temptations might be, when you give into it...