Swimming 400 m in 10 mins.

[amc717]

Archman: This is for my Rescue class. And leading to my DM class. I'm taking the 2 courses via NAUI.

Simbrooks: Saw both sites, very useful info. Thanks.
I"m trying to re-learn my crawl. You're right in saying my stamina for the crawl has to improve. I have been doing my swim using breastroke. I am now integrating freestyle/crawl into my laps so as to improve the time.
I swam with someone in my MSD class who used to be a varsity swimmer, he swam the 300 meters in under 4 mins. I guess I'm a little too far with that time.

Far_X: As I said earlier with Simbrooks, I have integrated the freestyle with the breastroke. I did breastroke because it was recommended for "long haul" swimming. I swim every other day.

Thanks a lot guys for the help. Will try to get the books and start incorporating them in my training.

 

[simbrooks]

I have been doing my swim using breastroke. I am now integrating freestyle/crawl into my laps so as to improve the time.

Really suggest you go for the crawl, over a long haul it is far more efficient, in the rythmn you just pound off the laps with far less energy and far quicker than breaststroke - no wonder you are hardly touching 10 mins for 400m on breaststroke, i can only just do a 32 min mile on breaststroke so about 8 mins for 400m, but i am beat after doing that! Its not the easiest way to do it, however if you are doing well, ie. less than 35 seconds per lap (better yet 30 or even 25 seconds) - assuming a 25m pool, standard rec pool - then throw in the odd breaststroke lap to give your muscles a break.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Do the crawl, for us slower swimmers the only way to get there in time is to crawl the whole way and do it with the most efficient stroke you can. I was told to keep my fingers together and hands cupped the whole time, this helped me a lot. Hard to dig a hole with a fork, better to use a spoon.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[triton94949]

400 m in 10 mins is basically a very leisurly stroke simply swimming for 10 mins. Try jogging for 10 mins, rest, jog another 10 mins, rest, repeat. Then go to the pool and swim leisurly for 10 mins. Piece of cake.

400 m in 10 mins is 40 m in 1 min which is 2 ft per second. It is difficult to swim slower than that. I think you just need to get into shape and be able to swim for 10 mins.

 

[MB]

I concur with the recommendation for Total Immersion. I'm not a very good swimmer - oh I can swim all day, I just can't swim very fast, all day. A friend introduced me to TI, and after a few weeks to re-train myself so I could use better techniques, I completely changed the way I swim.

Premise: a long boat is faster than a short boat. Translated: Make your body long when you swim. Point two: Why are you dragging all that stuff (legs, butt, trunk) through the water? Translated: press your chest deeper and the lower 2/3 of your body will lift out of the water. And: Reach and use your arms wisely...

I know a bunch of folks who re-taught themselves how to swim using TI. Combined with moderate conditioning so you can atually work for 10 continuous minutes, better technique will make all the difference in the world. Buy the book - its worth it.

Good luck.

 

[archman]

Do the crawl, for us slower swimmers the only way to get there in time is to crawl the whole way and do it with the most efficient stroke you can.

This is how I do it, and most of my old lifeguard pals. Freestyle all the way. Just don't overdo it the first couple laps, take it nice and easy. I always wear a scuba mask, which gets a lot of strange looks. But hey, I can see better than anyone else!

 

[simbrooks]

I was told to keep my fingers together and hands cupped the whole time, this helped me a lot. Hard to dig a hole with a fork, better to use a spoon.

I have heard the opposite, but only to a degree, true having your fingers spread completely does nothing, but i have heard the drag from having a little gap between them is actually best (due to extra water entrained by turbulence - effectively increasing your scoop size), but to be safe making a regular cup is probably the easiest.

 

[archman]

I'll throw in some tips... I am a swimming instructor, albeit not a very active one. Diving's more fun, and my backstroke is atrocious.

For american crawl ("freestyle")
1. hands fully outstretched, fingers too. Keep your fingers as close to together as you can, but don't force them into a spasm or anything. You want to make them as flattened (paddle-shaped) as possible.
2. your stroke has two main focal points in generating maximum thrust, upstroke and downstroke.
Upstroke: STRETCH those arms as far forward as possible. You'll get a longer stroke for the effort. FEEL the arms stretching. When your arms finally come down, they should be pretty dang linear, and your fingers should be intersecting a point above but directly inline with your nose.
Downstroke: lots of folks abort their downstroke too early, around mid-torso. That's wasted effort. Continue a forceful push down and past your hip. Flick your wrist down at the end, to snap off the last bit of thrust. If you haven't done this before, you'll notice a marked increase in your stroke length. I've seen 20-30% performance boosts immediately in some swimmers.
3. Kicking: it's kinda useful. I only do it to maintain horizontal trim, but some folks can actually get a bit of power out of the things. Just don't lose focus on your arms in lieu of your legs. Arms are the true powerhouse of this stroke.
4. Head. Don't be flopping that thing around. Ideally it should only be rotating along the medial axis (spine), to catch breaths. Tilting it upwards tends to alter your body position (your butt drops), and increase drag. If you can't see where you're going, wear a scuba mask like me. All the laughter generated will cause the person keeping time to lose count, and err on your side.

 

[Far_X]

If you are doing all this breaststroke... I normally take 65 minutes to do 100 lengths (25m pool) using breastroke. That I believe works out to 416.666666666667m in ten minutes, roughly. I can't swim 100 lengths using front crawl which is why I swim breaststroke when I go for long term swimming and my brain is not that advanced to be able to manage two different strokes in a single session If you can swim 400m using front crawl, you should be within the 10 minute mark easily. Just gradually start increasing the number of lengths you do using the front crawl and you'll won't even hit the 10 minute mark whilst swimming.

 

[archman]

If you are doing all this breaststroke... I normally take 65 minutes to do 100 lengths (25m pool) using breastroke. That I believe works out to 416.666666666667m in ten minutes, roughly.

100, 25m lengths=2500m
2500m in 65 minutes=38.5 meters per minute
38.5 meters/minute for 10 minutes=385 meters.

You forgot to add the extra five minutes of swimming time. Either way, that's a pretty brisk breaststroke!