Hi, I'm a New guy

Hello, glad to be here, lot's of good tips and drills.

I am 43, started swimming from scratch in July 2008 and have been swimming (freestyle) about every day since then. Even though I'm still very slow (esp longer swims), my goal is to shave at least one second every month or so for the 50M until it's 30 seconds (push-off). I might be able to make this happen, but I still have 5 - 6 seconds to go. If I don't reach this goal, at least I had fun trying.

Good talking to ya

Hi Steve, Enjoy your swim ^_^.

Hey there new guy....welkom and have fun.....we do!!!!!!!!

Did another SCY meet last weekend "Sunbelt Championships"

For 50 free 40 - 44, I was 12th out of 14 (27.74)
For 200 free, I was 7th out of 7 (2:38.84)

I want to shave 2 seconds off my 50 free so I can qualify for nationals. Several heats after mine I witnessed what it takes to do a 20 second 50, I recorded it too. It's very simple, it's about the start and not breathing until it's over.

So I've been practicing starts and hypoxics.

I can tell ya some tips to take ur times down a BUNCH!

You have a good pull and upper body position in the water. Your problem is your legs. If you do precisely what I say you should be able to get good at keeping your legs in the right place in a week or 2!

So there be a fast boat. Not the fastest but it proves my point. Imagine the curved part of the hull being your chest it has a slight curve to it just like that.

Here is a crude picture. Your current leg position in red. Desired position in blue.

To make the change start by floating on your belly (eyes looking down) and start kicking! (Note you can either have your arms in streamline or at your side it does not matter). As you are kicking make an effort to feel the heels of your feet clearly breaking the surface each kick. This will let you know your legs are staying high enough to be hidden behind your body! Next you must make sure you have a nice as flat as can be underside to your speed boat so you will need to attempt to keep your upper thighs about parallel to the surface while you are kicking. If you do this correctly your kick should feel very weird! If done correctly your calves may even break the surface at times. This will let you know your entire legs are now staying right at the surface and hidden behind your body image like the side view of that speed boat!

Some other feelings you might encounter are that your kicks may feel smaller and you might feel more resistance when doing each kick like you have to work harder! It is simply because your muscles are still weak and not trained to do this. As you get better you should feel more and more comfortable with it! In the end you want your entire body to feel like it is surfing at the surface of the water and you want to build your kicking and pulling technique around your surfboard/speed boat body!

So moral is start making some splash with ur legs and surf with your whole body!

I should point out that even if your using a 2 beat kick like in your 200 free it is JUST AS IMPORTANT to follow those guidelines I mentioned above. In fact the 2 beat kickers follow those guidelines I mentioned above even more so than 6 beat sprint kickers since you want your legs to be causing the least amount of drag as possible and you don't expect to get much propulsion from the legs. Where as in a sprint the propulsion you might get from letting your kick amplitude increase a bit outside of your body line might be the way to go... although not too likely.