Swimming-Will it ever get better?

For many triathletes swimming is their achilles heal. With running and cycling more miles will typically lead to faster times. Unfortunately, more laps at the pool do not necessarily yield a faster swim. This is compounded by the fact that we do our swim training in a setting totaly different than what we experience on race day.  I was never on a swim team while growing up and although I was comfortable in the water I really did not know how to swim well enough to actually get from one place to another. I've made slow but steady progress over the last four years but it has been frustrating.  Fortunately, I've made what feels like real progress over the last two months. There are two things that have helped:

1. I'm swimming more and working harder during my sessions. Essentially, I have gone from 3 sessions of around 2500 yards to 4 sessions in the 3000-3500 yard range.

2. I have taken to heart much of the advice that Gerry Rodrigues provides in the seminar linked below. The video is a little shaky through the first two to three segments but gets better. Each video segment is about 9 minutes long. The content is outstanding focusing on several specific ways to improve your swim as well as open water swim tips. Some of Gerry's suggestions are contrary to much of what you hear about improving your swim stroke. No one thing works for everyone.  I have not incorporated every suggestion but have made real gains focusing on a few.

Tower-26 Swim Lecture, Swimming for Triathlon: A 90 minute talk given at Trilabs in Santa Monica, CA.  Recorded February 2012.

• Video 1: Gerry's Bio, 6 things to make you a better swimmer
• Video 2: 5 Coaches to Follow, Swimming Technique
• Video 3: Secrets to Triathlon Swimming; Tautness, Alignment
• Video 4: Strength Training and Swim Equipment
• Video 5: Technical Aspects: Stroke Rate, Stroke Length, Elbow Position.  Opinion on Paddles.
• Video 6: Swimming Drills for triathletes, Guidance for workout structure, benefits of short course pools 
• Video 7:  Keys to success, Triathlon season overview: i.e the percentage of time that should be dedicated to swimming
• Video 8: Swim mechanics, Front Quadrant Swimming, Breathing, Swimming Fast.
• Video 9: Foundational Swims, Summary.

I would encourage everyone to watch the entire seminar but the main points that I have incorporated into my swim workouts are listed below:

1. Body "taughtness"-engage your midsection and core. A tight, streamlined body will move through the water with less effort. Keeping your midsection taught also leads to better body rotation.

2. Swimming with an ankle band-Gerry emphasizes that the band needs to be tight to keep the ankles together. Initially you may want to use the band during pull sets to get the feel for the band then try to do some 25's without the buoy. I had used a band off and on over the years so this wasn't totally new. Its tough but can really help with balance, body position and stroke turnover. In the month or so that I have been using the band during every workout I have gone from struggling to do 25's to 6X100scy on 2:00 coming in around 1:41-43. Don't do too much too fast as it does put added stress on your shoulders and lats.

3. Swim more, swim harder and minimize the drills-As with any increase in frequency and intensity you want to avoid injury so be smart.  Gerry recommends incorporating hard sets into every session. My workouts vary but will typically have a main set that includes hard 50's or 100's on short rest. They hurt like hell but I'm doing sets now that I would have thought impossible two months ago. I've dropped the drill work and substituted ankle band work. I even use the ankle band during sets with the pull buoy to reinforce the feeling of keeping my legs/feet in a streamlined position.

4. Don't worry about strokes per length-Yes its important to be an efficient swimmer but maximizing your glide is not really practical in open water swimming. I still have a bit of a catch up stroke and it is tough to change something I've been doing for 3 years but I'm working on it.

5. Ditch the paddles-unless you are a top notch swimmer...I think Gerry said that unless you are swimming a mile in under 20 minutes then its technique issues rather than a strength or power issues that need improvement . If you must use paddles they should be no bigger than your hand.

Here's a link to my training log if you want to get an idea of the swim workouts I have been doing  Training Log.  I am not a fast swimmer but hopefully some of these ideas will resonate with you and help you improve. I've definitely enjoyed seeing some more speed in the pool! Good Luck!