More productive swimming practices through mathematical conceptualizations
Over approx the past week, I have practiced swimming approx every other day, so I have had about three swimming practices, this after not swimming for approx a couple of years. I realized when I returned to the water this time, that I though I could swim fast for 25 yards, I had to get to the point where I could swim fast for 50 yards. I decided that the drill I would use would be swim 50 yards at about 90% of top effort, then swim 50 yards breaststroke as slow as I want, and repeat this cycle for about an hour, sprinting the 50 yards 11 times in the hour.
I decided not to time myself at first lest I put myself into a negative hypnosis, or a state of hyper-exertion. I remember how the Olympic track athlete Edwin Moses said he never goes all out in practice. But after a while I discovered that about 1.5 seconds after pushing off the side of the pool, I started my stroke, breathing every 3 strokes alternatively from the left and from the right, and used about 8 of these 3-stroke stroke cycles to get the 25 yard length of the pool. I discovered these 3 stroke cycles each took approx 1.6 seconds. This comes out to a time of about 12.7 seconds for a 25 yards length of the pool.
I have'nt checked the stats recently but I figure that when the world record speeds are set the speed is approx 9 seconds the first length of the pool that involves a dive at the beginning, and 11 seconds the second length of the pool that does not involve a dive at the beginning, seeing how they say the dive at the beginning takes 2 seconds off the time for the length.
In the third practice I noticed that the big change compared to the first two practices, was, that for the first time I was able to get down to seven of the 3-stroke cycles both the first and the second 25 yard lengths of the pool, while moving at about 90% of maximum effort without gliding significantly between strokes.
I calculate that there are six factors that will reduce my time and increase my speed compared to what the times and speeds are in practice. These are: changing from a pool that is shallow on one side to a pool that is deep on both sides; changing to an all out maximum effort; improvement in my conditioning level; improvement in my diet that I have been paying too little attention to; improvement in my strength level, and improvement in my skill level (I am self-tought in the competition-style S-shaped crawl-stroke).
Therefore at 1.5 second glide after push-off plus 7 3-stroke 1.6 second cycles, I need to improve my speed over 25 yards, on average by 0.28 seconds improvement produced by each of the six factors that could make my time faster.
And at 1.5 second glide after push-off plus 6.5 3-stroke 1.6 second cycles, I need to improve my speed over 25 yards, on average by 0.15 seconds improvement produced by each of the six factors that could make my time faster.
Therefore at 1.5 second glide after push-off plus only 6 3-stroke 1.6 second cycles, I need to improve my speed over 25 yards, on average by only 0.02 seconds improvement produced by each of the six factors that could make my time faster.
The estimate of how many seconds it takes me to complete a 3-stroke cycle might be a little off, but still I find that this kind of mathematical conceptualizing inspires me, energizes me, makes me relaxed and optimistic. It inspires me to not just try to speed up the rate at which I stroke, but, also, to improve the amount of power I get out of each stroke.
I think I am clever, knowing myself as an individual, to not time myself for a length exactly and correctly, but rather to sort of slowly figure out how long I glide at the beginning and about how long each stroke cycle takes. No reason to shock yourself with a time that is morale-bustingly poor at an early stage, when you will be improving faster than you think you will. No reason not to think you are at world record speed when actually you are a little slower--slight inaccuracies can be thrilling, motivating, inspiring. The calculations might be a little optimistically off, but one can see how little speed improvements in each of the six speed producing areas have to add in order to bring me up to a world record type pace.
Swimming even only one 25 yard length of the pool at max speed used to be for me, a devastating frightening exhausting experience. This was because I did not count how many strokes it took me to get a length of the pool. Thus after the first 12 yards, I would psychologically be in a no-man's land, not knowing how many more strokes I would need to get to the end, feeling exhausted, feeling like a drowning sailor. (Let's face it, the anaerobic exhaustion in sprints can be relatively severe and extreme, worse than the moderate sense of fatigue felt for long periods in long distance training). Then I learned to count how many strokes or breaths a length took, this in and of itself relaxed me, made me feel confident, helped me to pace myself, helped me to endure the anaerobic exhaustion and stress. Now that I am swimming 50 yard segments non-stop, I feel the advantage of knowing how many strokes it takes to get a length even more.
@2005 David Virgil Hobbs
I decided not to time myself at first lest I put myself into a negative hypnosis, or a state of hyper-exertion. I remember how the Olympic track athlete Edwin Moses said he never goes all out in practice. But after a while I discovered that about 1.5 seconds after pushing off the side of the pool, I started my stroke, breathing every 3 strokes alternatively from the left and from the right, and used about 8 of these 3-stroke stroke cycles to get the 25 yard length of the pool. I discovered these 3 stroke cycles each took approx 1.6 seconds. This comes out to a time of about 12.7 seconds for a 25 yards length of the pool.
I have'nt checked the stats recently but I figure that when the world record speeds are set the speed is approx 9 seconds the first length of the pool that involves a dive at the beginning, and 11 seconds the second length of the pool that does not involve a dive at the beginning, seeing how they say the dive at the beginning takes 2 seconds off the time for the length.
In the third practice I noticed that the big change compared to the first two practices, was, that for the first time I was able to get down to seven of the 3-stroke cycles both the first and the second 25 yard lengths of the pool, while moving at about 90% of maximum effort without gliding significantly between strokes.
I calculate that there are six factors that will reduce my time and increase my speed compared to what the times and speeds are in practice. These are: changing from a pool that is shallow on one side to a pool that is deep on both sides; changing to an all out maximum effort; improvement in my conditioning level; improvement in my diet that I have been paying too little attention to; improvement in my strength level, and improvement in my skill level (I am self-tought in the competition-style S-shaped crawl-stroke).
Therefore at 1.5 second glide after push-off plus 7 3-stroke 1.6 second cycles, I need to improve my speed over 25 yards, on average by 0.28 seconds improvement produced by each of the six factors that could make my time faster.
And at 1.5 second glide after push-off plus 6.5 3-stroke 1.6 second cycles, I need to improve my speed over 25 yards, on average by 0.15 seconds improvement produced by each of the six factors that could make my time faster.
Therefore at 1.5 second glide after push-off plus only 6 3-stroke 1.6 second cycles, I need to improve my speed over 25 yards, on average by only 0.02 seconds improvement produced by each of the six factors that could make my time faster.
The estimate of how many seconds it takes me to complete a 3-stroke cycle might be a little off, but still I find that this kind of mathematical conceptualizing inspires me, energizes me, makes me relaxed and optimistic. It inspires me to not just try to speed up the rate at which I stroke, but, also, to improve the amount of power I get out of each stroke.
I think I am clever, knowing myself as an individual, to not time myself for a length exactly and correctly, but rather to sort of slowly figure out how long I glide at the beginning and about how long each stroke cycle takes. No reason to shock yourself with a time that is morale-bustingly poor at an early stage, when you will be improving faster than you think you will. No reason not to think you are at world record speed when actually you are a little slower--slight inaccuracies can be thrilling, motivating, inspiring. The calculations might be a little optimistically off, but one can see how little speed improvements in each of the six speed producing areas have to add in order to bring me up to a world record type pace.
Swimming even only one 25 yard length of the pool at max speed used to be for me, a devastating frightening exhausting experience. This was because I did not count how many strokes it took me to get a length of the pool. Thus after the first 12 yards, I would psychologically be in a no-man's land, not knowing how many more strokes I would need to get to the end, feeling exhausted, feeling like a drowning sailor. (Let's face it, the anaerobic exhaustion in sprints can be relatively severe and extreme, worse than the moderate sense of fatigue felt for long periods in long distance training). Then I learned to count how many strokes or breaths a length took, this in and of itself relaxed me, made me feel confident, helped me to pace myself, helped me to endure the anaerobic exhaustion and stress. Now that I am swimming 50 yard segments non-stop, I feel the advantage of knowing how many strokes it takes to get a length even more.
@2005 David Virgil Hobbs
posted by David Virgil at 12:05 AM
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