The MAP Swimming and H2O conditioning thread

Because I spend a fair bit of time at the beach training myself and other people I've started to spend more and more time swimming. At the moment it's been a fair bit of open water swimming. Which in turn has led me back into the controlled and consistent environment of the pool to improve my swimming technique. The swimming has been great for really opening up my lungs - both in terms of aerobic and anaerobic fitness.

Swimming has a been a challenging and much needed change up from the standard roadwork conditioning that I'd been doing for boxing and Muay Thai for so long. It's a challenge both mentally, physically and emotionally. On top of this I've been combining my swimming with roadwork in a variations of the swim/run/swim format. Definitely had my ass kicked with this combination. I've got a new found respect for triathletes now after working on my entry, exit and transition skills. Coming out of the water and then right into your running shoes to hit the road for several kilometers has been a real wake up call.

From years of rock climbing and training I was never a stranger to using my lats... from crimping down on dime sized holds in the vertical realm to chin ups of every possible variation I've definitely worked my lats. Swimming has brought on a new type of soreness... awesome. My body is still going through the 'WTF' phase at the moment.

Does anyone else here at MAP use swimming as conditioning for their martial arts or overall health and fitness?

If so please list what sorts of strokes and distances/times you are hitting and what your purpose and goals are. Also please list if you in the pool or open water as well. I'd like the thread to be an on going repository of all info related to swimming and water as it's related to physical conditioning.

Below is roughly what I've been working on several times a week:

It's been awesome. My goals with this are:

1) Improve my stroke and body alignment in the water
2) Increase my comfort level in the water (eg. ability to breathe and think rationally)
3) Increase my speed in the water
4) Improve my transition from water/swim to land/run
5) Improve my mental fortitude by improving my pace increasing my distances and speed

The highlight so far has been completing a 250 meter swim followed by a 2.5k run right out of the water... transitioned into shoes and right onto the road. I don't have exact times down on it as at the moment I'm just working on the part of being able to get it done. I will start to post up times and workout sessions as I get them done.

Another awesome moment has been getting caught in the open water in a rain storm... your treading water and the entire surface for as far as you can see is dancing as rain pounds it. Some of mother nature at it's best!

 

Do you get a surf there Slip?

 

Sadly no not much. We get swells in just before typhoons. Luckily Indo is close we get down there once in a while for surf. Philippines as well. Though neither as often as I like. Even with all the years of surfing my swimming was never strong. So that's in part why I'm doing this type of training to change that.

 

I suspect there aren't going to be all that many people swimming here at MAP. With most peoples schedules having limited time they're most likely going to be using those free hours to train in whatever martial art they do.

If anyone feels like jumping in with swim related conditioning that they think will carry over towards martial arts then by all means jump right in.

 

Here is what I'm attempting in the pool today:

OR

Either one will be a tall order for me... I'll come back and post and let you know which one I chose and how I got on.

 

I love, love, love training in water. The other day, I went to new quay, swam across the harbour and pulled myself out using a chain. I also swim in the river regularly and practice kata and pullups on a friendly tree when I get out. Rocksorz.

 

I'd love to learn how to swim efficiently, No matter how hard i try i just seem to go no where fast and it knackers me out so quickly, yet the 86 year old grandma keeps doing her lengths with apparently no effort and whipping my **** every time.

 

The trick is to swim smoothly. You have to gradually learn to let the water support your weight and move forward only with your arms and legs. That's the problem with most 'splashers', anyway. It's hard, though. Personally, I had it down as a kid. It's something I feel should be taught to all children in school.

 

I swim occasionally at a small pool near my place. It's not really designed for swimming laps so when I want to train I usually stick with "pool PT" as we called it in the Corps. I freestyle swim the length of the pool, hop out, and perform a bodyweight exercise (10-20 reps depending on the exercise). You then hop back in, swim, get out, exercise, and repeat until your body calls you nasty names. Which often happens fast.

 

I live at the beach, so most of my swimming is just ocean swimming, no set distance, no laps. Just run out, swim for a while, catch waves, dive down into rock holes looking for fish or lobsters or things like that. There is a small rocky island about 100m out, so I often swim out to there, climb up the rock and jump back in, repeat lots. After swimming around it gets difficult to climb rocks. Running in the water and dolphining out is great for you fitness (ie run and dive under the water and repeat until good depth for swimming, gotta bring thos legs up)
But nothing like what Slip is talking about. I'm not a great swimmer, but I can swim as far as I need pretty much. Being winter here I haven't been doing any swimming lately, but once summer comes I will get out there.

 

We run swimming sessions as part of residential trips, the company that I work for offers. Its shocking how many 12 - 15 year old's are listed as not water confident (being able to swim the length of a pool unaided) on their medicals.

I've been swimming every morning after finishing night shift this last weekend and plan to do so for the next two months, as the center I'm now at has a massive water sports lake. One lap around the perimiter is enough to turn me blue even with wetsuit!

 

I'm a terrible swimmer! I've got fairly dense bones and I'm heavier than I look, even with a lungful of air I have no buoyancy and sink. I can swim enough that I won't drown but even half an hour of swimming completely exhausts me since I have to use extra energy to keep on the surface. It wasn't a CV issue since I was like this when I used to run long distance and cross country in competition.

Strangely I enjoy swimming, especially if the sea is salty enough that I can almost float and I can swim underwater really well.

 

So kids don't learn to swim now?!?
What!? Crazy stupid.

Back in the day I was a backstroke whizz but no longer. These days I just thrash about and get nowhere. Doesn't help that with a perforated ear drum I can't put my head under so can't do a pure stroke.
Last time I did that I got a nasty ear infection rafting in the river trent.

Props to those that swim regularly. Great exercise.

 

That really would depend, but I used to go for an hour in the pool before karate.

 

I used to swim like a fish when I was a kid. Couple of times a week as well as at school. Didn't go in a pool again until my mid twenties and nearly drowned. Just managed to scrabble to the side. I'm sure I was more buoyant as a kid. Scared the life out of me anyway. Only been in water once since.

I've got a playboat of my sons in the back garden. I think if I was to get in the water I'd rather be in one of these. The strength needed to paddle one of these on flat water must be comparable, if not better, for upper body strength. I'm sure someone as mad as Slip could find a variety of other exercises to do with it out the water as well.

 

Oh man I LOVE those things. Used to go to Llandysul paddlers.

 

Should be the national sport of Wales

 

definetly. Playboats are the best, though...