Swimming 400 m in 10 mins.

[Far_X]

Oh yeah, looks like I worked it hour for an hour. Good job I am not going for his certification, I'd have failed!!! I thought it was pretty brisk till one morning some guy came flying by me. I thought he must have been doing butterfly but no, he was doing breaststroke!!!

 

[Stryker]

Ok, all of the advice so far is pretty good, but Far_X said it best. YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR TECHNIQUE....

I was a competititive swimmer for a large part of my life (although in the last few years been pretty damn lazy), and freestyle is the single quickest and efficient stroke. Endurance is a large part of it, because you need to train yourself NOT to breathe every stroke you take. It should be every 2nd or 3rd (if you can keep going like that hah) because you move slower the more of you that is out of the water.... Also despite the fact that unlike diving, when you kick it feels like you dont go anywhere, it DRASTICALLY increases your time... You should kick 3 or 4 times for EACH arm pull....

Now for the hard part... Even if you are EXTREMELY comfortable in the water (like I thought I was back in the day) this part is a little hard to get used to... When you take the arm stroke (face looking at the bottom of the pool) stretch your body all the way on its side so that your hand is stretched as far as you can go, but your hips should be perpendicular to the bottom of the pool... Yes I know it sounds VERY strange, but this rotating motion of your hips will cut a TREMENDOUS amount of time down with work.... When you need to take a breath, breathe with the stroke so that your whole body is on its side....

I know thats alot to work on all at once, but in the long run it could shave a few minutes off your time with practice... My time for the 450m is currently about 9 minutes, but then again I dont spend any time at the pool.... I used to be able to swim the 500 in about 7 minutes, but time makes fools of us all.... If you need any additional advice PM me and ill be more than willing to help....

 

[Far_X]

What people ought to remember is that the body slices through the water more easily if your body is on its side than if it is "flat" on the surface; it creates less drag. It feels weird as we, or at least me, are taught to swim with only your head moving, in the bad old days!! Rotation of the body is critical for efficient swimming.

 

[baitedstorm]

If you’re looking for good books on technique and training, I have a couple of suggestions:

Dr. Phillip Whitten “The Complete Book of Swimming”

Terry Laughlin “Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier”

I used the "Total Immersion" method and can now do the 400m swim in 12:09.... I'm still working on getting my time down, my goal is 10 minutes. I found his book very simple reading, you should check it out.

Cheers

 

[archman]

I used to work for a facility that for decades, has annually cranked out dozens of folks that make this timed swim, within the short span of a few weeks. Their methodology is simple: swim 400 yards twice a day, once in the morning , once in the afternoon. About every five days, you "try out" to pass the 10 minute test. For folks that fail the first time around, they get tips on improving their stroke. Over 90% of the folks gain enough stamina and endurance to pass the test within two weeks. Roughly half of the remaining 10% of folks pass within a month.

Just keep swimming! Swim Forrest, Swim!

 

[rje634]

Maybe I'm stating the obvious but, if your doing this 400m in a pool learn how to do a flip turn. This will drastically reduced your overall time if you can learn to do a flip turn effectively.
Just my .02

 

[simbrooks]

Maybe I'm stating the obvious but, if your doing this 400m in a pool learn how to do a flip turn. This will drastically reduced your overall time if you can learn to do a flip turn effectively.
Just my .02

In the case of most of the swim tests i have done, we werent allowed to have any kind of push offs, in a short course pool you can drastically improve your time with a great push off, nice 15-20yd start before breaking the surface - hence why i dont think they are allowed (or at least that was the way i have been told).

 

[archman]

By about 250 meters in a timed swim, I'm too pooped to manage a flip-turn. I just hit the edge of the pool, turn around, and push off. If push-offs aren't allowed, then you can't do flip turns anway, as sim said. Some facilites/judges circumvent this, by allowing push-offs at the expense of an extra 25-50 meters of swimming distance added. The hardcore competition swimmers often prefer this; I don't. Less is better in my book.

 

[simbrooks]

By about 250 meters in a timed swim, I'm too pooped to manage a flip-turn. I just hit the edge of the pool, turn around, and push off. If push-offs aren't allowed, then you can't do flip turns anway, as sim said. Some facilites/judges circumvent this, by allowing push-offs at the expense of an extra 25-50 meters of swimming distance added. The hardcore competition swimmers often prefer this; I don't. Less is better in my book.

I'm not talking events, i am talking timed swims for OW or DM type tests. I am fairly sure you cant do push off's with these - at least that was what i recalled from my DM training thus far (which has stopped recently due to scheduling).

 

[archman]

I'm not talking events, i am talking timed swims for OW or DM type tests. I am fairly sure you cant do push off's with these - at least that was what i recalled from my DM training thus far (which has stopped recently due to scheduling).

I'm not talking about events either. But you gotta have some dude timing your swim tests, and some of these folks call themselves "judges". Between all my water safety and scuba certs, I must've taken between 16-20 timed swims since '98. Everybody judges them differently... NAUI, PADI, AAUS, ARC, even instructors within the same agency teaching the same kind of class. The timed swims I really despise are the ones where you're required to do x number of lengths in various strokes. I'm a freestyle and sidestroke man!