(Part 3) Best swimming training equipment according to redditors

I'm not a triathlete (yet!), but I am a nationally ranked college swimmer. If you have 57 days, that gives you just under two months of swimming. I don't know how you're currently training for the swimming piece, could you elaborate?

Some of this advice probably won't be helpful in two months, but I hope it can help you in the long term.

(If this comes across as too basic, I sincerely apologize. I just don't know your swimming experience).

Swimming needs to come from all parts of your body. Running and cycling use your legs, but swimming will need to focus on a bunch of different muscles, as I'm sure you already know.

The forumla for speed in swimming is (distance per cycle) x (tempo). The farther you go with each stroke and the faster you take them will determine how fast you go. We'll focus on the first half of the equation first.

The front crawl emphasizes a six beat kick per one cycle. A cycle is two arm strokes. So every you pull your left arm and then your right arm, you need to have kicked six times (optimally). Some high quality swimmers can use a four-beat kick, but let's not do that. To raise your distance-per-cycle (DPC) you're going to have to work on your kicking and your arm strength. As I'm sure you know, the swimming kick is a straight leg press from the hip. Keep your core engaged and tight throughout the entire kick. Swimming is completely centered around the core and the kick. If you want to be a successful swimmer, you need to have a strong core. This will keep the muscular connection between each cycle, meaning you won't lose energy as you recover your arms.

To strengthen your core:

Grab a med ball of 8-12 pounds. Do each exercise for 50 seconds on, 10 off for 2-4 (whatever you're comfortable with) rounds.

Russian Twists w/ ball

Flutter kick toss ups (lay on your back, kick your legs in a flutter kick pattern, and toss the med ball up vertically from your chest)

Bikes w/o ball

Plank on front

Plank on left and right sides, holding ball in off arms

Seated rows w/o ball

Then do leg lifts. Lift to 6in off the ground, hold for 20 seconds, Then lift to 90 degrees, break for five, back to 6in to hold for twenty. Repeat.

Crunches w/o ball

Full sit ups w/ ball.

Bridges w/ ball (basically a sit-up where you lift the ball over your head)

We will do these exercises before every swim practice without fail. They suck, I know, but your six-pack abs will thank you for it.

Now kick-ass abs are great, but how do they help swimming? Swimming is primarily a core-driven sport, which is something a lot of people don't realize. You need to have a tense core (my coach likes to say engaged) through the entire swim. You cannot falter in this. The tense core allows you to rotate your hips on each arm pull (which you absolutely should be doing!) As your arm enters the water, your corresponding hip should be down towards the bottom of the pool/lake/whatever. To elaborate: say your right arm is entering the water above your head. At that same moment, your right hip should be down towards the bottom. As your right arm pulls down along your body, you need to snap your hips. This will involve pushing your left hip down towards the bottom as your left arm begins to enter. How does one do this? Well with an engaged core of course!!

Now this is all a lot, I know. But bear with me. If I'm rambling, tell me, and I can give some more succinct advice!

You'll need to strengthen your legs and your arms. Buy yourself a kickboard and a pull bouy. (I don't know where you're training, but for simplicity's sake, I'm going to assume it's a 25 meter pool). You'll want to use that gear by itself in order to strengthen your individual body parts. Paddles will help, but are certainly optional.

Now two months certainly isn't long enough for you to become Phelps, but you can greatly improve! I'm going to assume that a 150 meter distance is difficult for you. Well, you're going to have to get over that obstacle simply by swimming more. I don't know how else to do. I know that swimming at times just sucks, but I promise you that it does get easier!!


Try this: (If this is too hard, tell me)

(focus on good technique and feeling the water)

3x50 m swim on 2:00.

2x25 m swim on :45 (try to swim these faster, work up your aerobic base. You should not be at an anaerobic pace)

2:00 break to grab your kickboard and grab some water.

3x25 m kick on 1:30 (focus on keeping your toes pointed, your core engaged, and make sure you're kicking from the hips)

1x50m swim on 2:00. (focus on adding what you worked on during the kick back into the swim)

2:00 break to grab your bouy (optional: and paddles)

3x25 m pull on 1:15 (focus on high elbows, smooth entry of your hands, and good hip rotation! )

1x100 m swim on 3:00 (add everything together)

1x200 m swim on 6:00 (Just keep your head down, and push through this. It'll be over soon)

2:00 break.

(Go back to the top and repeat all of that three times, or as many as you're comfortable with).

1x50 m swim ALL OUT on no interval. Just finish and be breathing hard.

2x50 m swim on 2:00 to warm down.


Repeat all of this at least three times a week. Feel free to adjust the intervals to fit your ability level. If you give me more information on what you can do, I can taylor this more accurately to you.

Now that will help your arm and leg strength, and get you more comfortable with swimming for longer distances. If there is something you don't like tell me, and I can work with it.

Now there's one more thing you should get to address the second half of the swimming equation. You should pick up a tempo trainer. It'll beep on an interval. You should be breathing on every third arm pull, and you should be taking roughly 1.3-1.5 seconds per cycle. Set the beep to that time, and just swim with it in. Wear a cap, and let it beep over and over. It's terrible, I hate them, but they work and that's what makes them good. You can time your pulls with them, time your kicks with them, whatever. But the main point is to get consistent . You need to maintain a constant tempo throughout the swim. As you get better and stronger, you can increase this tempo. I'm a short distance sprinter, and I pull at about .9-1.1. You shouldn't be that fast, it'll only serve to tire you out earlier than you need to.


Alright I know that was a wall of text, and since it's one in the morning, it might be a bit difficult to sort through. I hope that it helps! Best of luck to you in your first triathlon!! If you have any more swimming questions, I probably can answer them, and I would be more than happy to help! Cheers!

This is just a shitty advertisement for their equipment, but it's a good subject to discuss.

Former lifeguard/swim teacher here. Water wings and life vests don't promote good body position. For younger students, I always used floatie blackpacks (like this) and sometimes a noodle under their arms until they had a some confidence and relaxed. The important thing is to strap the backpack tight so it's near their lower back rather than upper back. This will encourage them to swim more horizontally, not vertically.

Honestly, 90% of swimming at that stage is confidence and relaxation. Kids are pretty buoyant on their own. If you take them to the pool on a regular basis (and make it a good experience!), they'll swim. Maybe not with good form, but they'll swim.

That's crazy. Water wings are incredibly dangerous and like everyone else has been saying, life jackets can disorient kids in the water. I guarded at a YMCA and we only allowed Coast Guard approved life jackets and "bubbles". I don't know the real name of the "bubble" swim aids I linked, but maybe you could use that to comfort the lifeguards. It gives your young child some extra buoyancy, but doesn't get in their way as they learn to swim.

EDIT: Changed my link. I found the product my pool actually used on Amazon. It's multi-layered to allow adjustment as swimmer progresses (or for different sized children) and it's Prime eligible.

you will get what you need there when you get there. Anything else is for your own PT and you can't take it with you.

Your pack choice is meh. I never used it but I would get used to rucking with an old shitty alice pack since worst case that's what you'd use. The fin choice is good though that's actually what I used for PT back in the day. Make sure you get lots of practice with fins and without and doing a fuck ton of pushups and and pull ups after doing a lot of CSS. For funsies.

This is the exact model I used so yours is basically the same

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014F4RJ0/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

check out this collection of workouts that is not hosted by /r/military and I just found laying around

https://www.reddit.com/r/navyseals/comments/3s5lep/compiled_exercise_programs/

Drills:

2 kicks per pull

butterfly kick w/breast pull

Both should keep you mindful of the butterfly-like motion your body should be doing through the course of the stroke and break you out of the "gonna stick my head up and breath" mold that you're probably stuck in.

Kick:
Breaststroke fins - http://www.amazon.com/Speedo-Breaststroke-Training-Green-Small/dp/B000MFEZL8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464907086&sr=8-1

Nothing makes your kick honest like those fins. You'll get out of the "sideways scissor" in a hurry.

As far as racing, /u/DuskytheHusky has it right. Deep water is fast water, and you're never faster than when you've pushed off the wall, so maximize it, and keep your profile low and tight with respect to the direction you're moving.

Fuck it, who cares if its childish! :P

They make them for adults too, not as mermaidy but heres one. Just search for like "monofin". Theres a guy here with a big expensive one that uses it for scuba diving...I am infinitely jealous of him.

If you want to build up some arm/should muscle quickly in the pool, spend $10 on a nice set of paddles, I like these and do some pulling sets. If you're working out at any kind of a decent facility, odds are good they have pull buoys for public use, but it is still worth getting your own. Put the pull buoy between your thighs, just above your kness and (protip) cross your legs loosely at the ankle. Now do this set (I call it a 1/1-5/5): Swim one 25 easy and one 25 fast, then two 25s easy and two 25s fast... all the way up to 5/5. That's a 750 meter set and you WILL feel it and it will feel amazing and get you jacked quick.

Note: I see your are swimming in a 50 meter pool, so adjust the set for that or else you will end up with a 1500 meter pull set (which is totally fine, but will likely be your entire workout). Also, my definition of jacked may not be your own- I've been a swimmer forever and a day but I'm a girl, so our definitions of big shoulders probably differ. Also, I wrote this like you are a less-than-competitive level swimmer, apologies if you aren't.