SS Coach Education Courses & CSS iPhone/Pad App

A couple of announcements this week:

Swim Smooth Coach Education Courses In July / August

Paul Newsome and Adam Young are running a series of our Three Day Coach Education courses in the UK in July and August, in Loughborough and Cardiff. If you are an aspiring coach looking to seriously develop your swim coaching and video analysis skills then don't miss out on this opportunity.

This unique and hugely popular course is recommended and endorsed CPD by Triathlon England and Scotland. Coaches from the UK and around the world are encouraged to apply (see the Olympics while you're in the UK!). For more information and to apply: see here

CSS iPhone/Pad App: Simulator+

If you have a Finis Tempo Trainer or Wetronome Mk2 then Swim Smooth Coach Steve Casson has written a great app for your iPhone or iPad. Given your 200m and 400m times, the app will calculate your CSS pace and then tell you what time per lap to enter into your beeper to pace you out perfectly!

The app also includes a stroke rate stop watch, so you can measure strokes per minute accurately. Very neat and totally free! More more information see here, or search for Swimulator+ in the app store.

Find out more about CSS (Critical Swim Speed) training and how it can make a huge difference to your swimming performances on our website here: www.swimsmooth.com/css

Swim Smooth!

Two Quick Tips If You Struggle With Breathing

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics / One to Ones: Corby, UK - 27th May 2012 Full information: here Oxford, UK - 17th June 2012 Full information here Richmond, UK - 24th June 2012 Full information: here Majorca Camp, 1-8th July 2012 Full information here

If you're quite new to swimming freestyle, you might well struggle with your breathing. You might be taking on water when you try to breathe or feel desperately out of breath and have to stop for a rest at the end of each length.

Don't worry that's perfectly normal, here are two quick tips to help:

The One-Two-Stretch Mantra

One of the biggest causes of breathing problems is if your lead arm is collapsing down into the water as you breathe, as we see with Clare's stroke here:

As you start to take a breath, your lead arm should still be out in front supporting you. If it sinks down in the water with little purchase then your mouth will sink below the surface and you'll take on water.

At this point of the stroke you're naturally thinking 'give me that air' and nothing else! The key is to let your breath take care of itself and keep your focus on the support of the lead arm instead instead.

To help with this, try repeating this mantra to yourself: 1-2-Stretch-1-2-Stretch where the 1 and 2 are on normal strokes and the stretch is on a breathing stroke, reminding you to keep that lead arm stretched forward for support.

If you have a tendency to pause and over-glide in your stroke then be wary of leaving this arm stationary for too long or you risk stalling. Just stretch and feel like the focus is on that lead arm and not on breathing in.

If you found this tip helped your breathing then take a look at our Bambino Swim Type and see if it rings any bells with your stroke. The Bambino Stroke Correction Guide (here) will give you plenty more tips to improve your swimming, all tailored to your specific stroke style!

Popeye Breathing

Our second tip is to remember to angle your mouth to the side as Paul is demonstrating here:

This looks a bit like Popeye chewing his spinach, which is where the technique gains its name from. Breathing in this way helps you keep your head lower without taking on water, which is important as lifting the head too far causes your legs to sink downwards.

Any Swim Type can benefit from Popeye breathing but particularly those new to swimming.

Swim Smooth!

HUUB Wetsuits Now On Sale

Now On Sale

Yes they're finally here, the new HUUB Wetsuit range is now on sale, just in time for the triathlon and open water swimming season!

Using our deep knowledge of individual stroke styles we designed suits to perfectly match your specific stroke whether you are a leg sinker, naturally buoyant, a strong kicker or experienced swimmer.

Select the right model and buoyancy profile, and you'll immediately feel at home, swimming quickly and efficiently with the suit complimenting (and even improving) your stroke technique.

The suits were co-designed by world leading Sports Science Professor Huub Toussaint using the very best materials and construction possible, guaranteeing you the slippierest suit possible. This man knows the secrets of what makes a suit really fast having worked with Olympic Gold medallists to study and select the speedsuits that have dominated the last few Olympiads.

Last by not least, the HUUB design triangle is completed by Dean Jackson, a man with 22 years of experience in the wetsuit and triathlon industry. He's the experienced and sensible one - making sure each design concept is well conceived, thought through and constructed using the very best methods and materials.

All the hard work is done and the result is an exceptional range of wetsuits packed with new design concepts that are set to revolutionise wetsuit design forever. For more information and to purchase, see here.


Swim Smooth!

HUUB prototype testing in open water with Swim Smooth's elite triathlon squad

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics / One to Ones:
Corby, UK - 27th May 2012	Richmond, UK - 24th June 2012	Salisbury, UK - 24th June 2012

Sweet Uncertainty Is A Powerful Motivator

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics / One to Ones: Corby, UK - 27th May 2012 Full information: here Salisbury, UK - 24th June 2012 Full information here Richmond, UK - 24th June 2012 Full information: here

What makes a great training session from a psychological point of view? A coach we work with closely in Montréal, Charles Gaston-Couturier, describes the challenge of a good training set using something he calls 'Sweet Uncertainty', based on work by Brunelle in 1988 [1].

Visually it looks a little like this:

To the left side of the graph we have a goal that is so far within your capabilities it is too easy and boring. On the right side is a goal so hard you know it is impossible to complete, to attempt it would be futile. Somewhere in-between lies a tough challenge, one you're not sure whether it's possible to complete or not, a challenge that once set becomes very motivating.

The most common example of this form of motivation is when you set yourself a race or event goal, for instance "Next year I want to swim that hard 10km race" or "I want to complete an Olympic Distance Triathlon in 2:30".

The Flow State

Psychology Professor Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi describes how the motivation of a challenge leads to the 'flow state' [2] where all our emotions and our entire focus are aligned to help us achieve the goal:

"The flow state is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one... Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."

In the sporting world we know the flow state as 'the zone'. Attempt something too easy and we become bored but try something too hard or beyond our skill level and we become anxious and demotivated by the futility of trying. Both extremes make it impossible for us to enter the zone, instead we need that point of uncertainty somewhere in-between.

Setting Yourself Regular Challenges

What is interesting to note is that this form of goal setting motivation (known technically as 'extrinsic self determined') doesn't just exist for mid and long term goals, it works session by session too.

So if you are bored or lacking motivation, try setting yourself regular mini-challenges in your training. This could be a set you haven't tried before or times and distances you are not sure you can complete. It might be leading your lane in the squad through a CSS set or matching a training partner who is slightly quicker than you.

Such challenges don't need to be set in every session because looking forward to them will motivate you in other sessions building up to them. But find that point of sweet uncertainty and motivation (and flow) will be yours.

Swim Smooth!


[1] "La supervision de l'intervention en activité physique" by Brunelle, Drouin, Godbout et Tousignant
[2] "Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play" by Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi

The Overglider Kickstart

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics / One to Ones: Corby, UK - 27th May 2012 Full information: here Richmond, UK - 24th June 2012 Full information: here More info on SS Certified Coaches here

If you have tried to make your stroke as long as possible you might well have introduced a pause-and-glide into your stroke timing, we call this sort of swimmer an Overglider for obvious reasons! We've covered the perils of Overgliding previously on the blog but let's look at a knock-on effect that pausing and gliding can have on another part of the stroke.

The Overglider Kickstart

Overgliders are very focused on their efficiency in the water and are trying to lower their level of effort, in doing so many adopt a 2-beat kick style. This means that for every full stroke cycle (two arm strokes) the swimmer performs two kicks rather than the traditional six kicks of a flutter kick, the idea being that two kicks takes less effort than six.

If you have a distinct pause-and-glide in your timing then you are faced with the problem of re-starting your stalled stroke at the end of the glide. With a two beat kick this is a greater problem because not only is your lead arm stationary during the glide but your legs are stationary too! In this situation the Overglider commonly uses a distinct kick-start action to restart their stalled stroke.

Above the water this is hard to spot but from below it is very obvious:

The irony is that while Overgliders are very focused on lowering drag, many have introduced a very large source of drag with such a large knee bend showing their thigh and back of the calf into the water flow (at its worst in the third frame above). This in turn lowers their body in the water adding even more drag.

Stroke Style And Kicking

A two beat kick looks simple but it is very hard to perform well because it requires that many other parts of the stroke are well developed. A swimmer must have an excellent catch technique and swim with great rhythm and timing to integrate the two beat kick action into their stroke.Without these elements in place the kick-start action is caused and/or the swimmer sinks lower in the water in the gap between kicks.

Our thoughts:

- Only consider switching to a two beat kick if you are an advanced level swimmer with a good catch, rhythm and timing, potentially seeking to develop economy in open water events over 2km. Head Coach Paul Newsome did exactly this to good effect in 2009 in preparation for his English Channel swim in September 2011, but it wasn't easy and his stroke style changed considerably in the process.

- A two beat kick is best suited to those with a shorter punchier style such as Swingers.

- For those aiming for a long smooth stroke style, a light flutter kick makes much more sense. The continuous action will help you avoid the kick-start and it will lift you up higher in the water (ultimately lowering effort, not increasing it). Try it the next time you swim, be objective and see how you go against the clock with it.

- If you can feel yourself kick-starting in your stroke it's also worth giving your kicking technique a tune up, see here.

Swim Smooth!

Paul Newsome Interview On IM Talk

If you are an Ironman triathlete you've probably listened to the excellent IMTalk podcast hosted by Bevan James Isles and coach John Newsom. This week's show features an in-depth interview with Swim Smooth's head coach Paul Newsome covering all things swimming.

Check out the show here: http://www.imtalk.me/home/2012/4/16/imtalk-episode-307-alan-couzens-and-paul-newsome.html

The interview starts at around 47 minutes into the podcast and kicks off with a discussion about modelling your fitness using the training metrics CSS and TSS. If you find this a little technical then skip forwards to around 53 minutes where things broaden out and Paul discusses Swim Smooth's coaching philosophy, the Swim Types system and how you can change your approach to swimming to get much better results.

Swim Smooth!

Choosing The Right Head Position For You

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics: Yeovil, UK – Sunday 20th May 2012 Plymouth, UK – Sunday 27th May 2012 Full information: here More info on SS Certified Coaches here Other Events: Swim Smooth coaches Fiona Ford and Steve Casson will be presenting on how to improve your swimming at the H2Open Day on April 28th in Reading (UK). Bring along a video clip of your swimming on a memory stick and they will provide you with a quick analysis of your technique! Find out more here - and bring your wetsuit for a swim!

Many swimmers (and some coaches) believe that every swimmer should look straight down at the bottom of the pool when they swim, so as to improve their body position. Is this true? Let's look at some swimmers underwater to find out :

The Star Of The Pool

First up we have double Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington, showing us a mid head position, looking at the bottom of the pool 1-2 meters ahead of her:

(click images to enlarge)

As you can see Rebecca sits fantastically high in the water, a body position she can easily achieve despite looking slightly ahead. This is very typical of elite pool swimmers who rarely look straight down or very far forwards.

Key point: The very best pool swimmers in the world tend to use a mid head position, looking slightly ahead.

The Professional Triathlete

Fraser Cartmell is a star of the 70.3 world stage and a great swimmer to boot. Like all elite triathletes, Fraser's main concern is performing well in open water swims and so he uses a very forward looking head position:

Looking so far forwards helps him navigate effectively and find the toes of other swimmers to draft effectively. Note that he can do this while still maintaining a high body position in the water (despite being super-lean).

Key point: If you have good stroke technique, you can achieve a high body position despite looking forwards and for open water swimming this is a major tactical advantage.

The Buoyant Age Grouper


Marina is an age group swimmer with a naturally high body position in the water, she's been told to look straight down at the bottom of the pool when she swims but this was very bad advice for her:

By looking straight down she starts to rise up out of the water at the rear:

In a wetsuit, the extra buoyancy exacerbates this problem further, leaving her feeling very unstable. We coached Marina to look a little further forwards, rebalancing her in the water while still maintaining an excellent body position. Looking further forwards also helped her proprioception (body awareness) in front of her head so that she could develop a greater feel for the water during her catch.

The extreme version of this advice is to ask swimmers to 'swim downhill', which is a disaster when their natural body position is already very good :

Here Barbara has added huge frontal resistance after being asked to bury her head in the water. Returning to a higher head position and not pressing down with her chest allowed her to immediately swim more efficiently and be much more comfortable doing so.

Key point: For swimmers with a good natural body position, looking straight down harms their swimming. If you feel unbalanced when swimming (or in your wetsuit in open water) try looking further forwards and see if it helps gives you stability.


The Sinky Legged Swimmer

Glen is a former professional Aussie Rules football player and is relatively new to swimming and triathlon. He suffers greatly from low sinking legs in the water:

Much stronger on the bike and run, this athlete is massively held back by the drag from his low lying legs. To improve his body position there are numerous things he can work on in his stroke, such as:

- Removing hand-entry crossovers which cause scissor kicks and drop the legs downwards.

- Exhaling better into the water to remove excess buoyancy from the chest and make him feel more relaxed.

- Keeping his head low and using the bow wave trough when he breathes.

Once he's worked on these things he can also try a lower head position to help bring his legs up further.

Key point: Looking down can be a useful modification for those with sinky legs. However, it makes navigation and catch development harder so treat it as a last resort by working on other areas of the stroke to improve body position first.


Conclusion

You can see from the examples above that selecting a head position should be an individual thing for individual swimmers - there is no universal head position that is best for everyone.

Try swimming 100m yourself experimenting with your head position, looking in each of the directions below for 25m in turn :

Choose the one that feels best for your stroke and allows you to swim faster and more efficiently, then stick with it. When we try this exercises on our Swim Smooth Clinics we always receive a range of feedback with some swimmers feeling better looking forwards, while others improve when looking downwards, others feel best somewhere in between.

You can repeat this exercise in your wetsuit, you might well find you can look further forwards which can be a great advantage for open water navigation and drafting.

Swim Smooth!

Is Procrastination Killing Your Swimming?

Procrastination is a silent killer of swimming performance; it keeps us doing the safe and familiar things, and stops us making the changes that we need to improve. It keeps us on that frustrating plateau we're on, sometimes for years.

Do you recognise yourself in any of these statements?

I haven't been in the water in ages, when I do go back it's going to be a struggle.


When I'm at the pool I see slow swimmers fighting the water. At all costs I must
work on my stroke technique and focus on efficiency.

I don't feel ready to -  join a squad / swim in open water / do a race  - as I'm
not a strong enough swimmer yet.

I'm sure my stroke technique is fine, I've been swimming for years and it's
always stood me in good stead. What I need to do is train harder.

Procrastination can take other forms too, such as endlessly studying great swimmers on Youtube or debating technique to the nth degree on internet forums. The more intellectual the swimmer the more elaborate this analysis-paralysis becomes but more often than not people who do this are simply putting off going to the pool and actually swimming.

Our suggestion? Don't put it off another day. Commit to a period of six to eight weeks and make some major changes in your approach to swimming. Then focus on those changes every session and be objective about the outcome by measuring your swimming speed before and after. The worst thing that can happen is that you slow down slightly and need to revert to what you were doing before. But far more likely you'll finally get off that plateau and break through to a higher level of swimming.

What changes should you make? There are some ideas here and here but quite likely it's the thing you've been avoiding doing more than everything else.

If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always got. It's a cliché but so very true.

Swim Smooth!

Beautiful Weather (For Open Water Swimming?)

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics / One to Ones: Cardiff, UK - 11-15th April 2012 Full information: here Corby, UK - 18th April 2012 Full information: here Richmond, UK - 24th June 2012 Full information: here More info on SS Certified Coaches here

Over the last week or so Europe has been experiencing an amazing warm and sunny period that is scarcely believable for March. We've heard from many of you who are digging out your wetsuits and going for the first swim of the season at your local open water swimming venue. It's great to be able to do this so early in the year but watch out because the water's still very chilly and this can be a bit of a shock to the system.

If you're a little anxious in open water then the number one thing to remember to do is to exhale into the water continuously with a big long stream of bubbles 'brrrrrrr'! Our natural reaction is to hold our breath when feeling anxious, building up CO2 in the body. This further heightens feelings of anxiety and so creates a vicious circle leading to the possibility of a panic attack.

It's only March but swimmers are already enjoying
open water swimming in the Lake District in the UK

Splash some cold water on your face for 10-15 seconds before getting in and when you start swimming simply focus on blowing those bubbles into the water. If you're breathing every three strokes you can use our famous mantra bubble-bubble-breathe to help you tune into this technique.

This sounds like very basic advice but focusing your mind on something as simple as exhalation is powerful. Blowing bubbles is directly under your control so that you start to settle down and feel more relaxed after a few minutes. Worrying about things not under your control (e.g. waves, the cold, what else might be in the water) will make you more anxious, so focus on something that is under your control (blowing bubbles) and block everything else out.

Have fun out there and be sure to swim at a safe venue with other swimmers and proper life saving support.

Swim Smooth!

Better Wetsuit Design For Women

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics / One to Ones: Cardiff, UK - 11-15th April 2012 Full information: here Corby, UK - 18th April 2012 Full information: here Richmond, UK - 24th June 2012 Full information: here

Most women's triathlon and open water swimming wetsuits are simply men's suits cut to the female form, which we think is a pretty underwhelming approach to their design. With the new Huub Aura we started from a clean sheet of paper and designed a bespoke suit for women that is getting rave reviews from all the girls who have tested it (e.g. here).

Most women feel unbalanced in their wetsuit. This is caused by too much buoyancy in the hips and legs, which lifts them out of the water at the rear and leaves them bobbing around like a cork with very little stability. This happens because women as a rule women are much more buoyant than men and this buoyancy is distributed differently around the body, with more in the hips and legs.

Many women also like to use their kick when they swim and being brought too high at the rear by their wetsuit means they start to kick into the air, which is very ineffective and disconcerting.

A third difference is that women find wetsuits more restricting around the shoulders than men and suffer to a far greater extent from shoulder fatigue than their male counterparts.

What's the solution? We sat down with the new team at Huub and designed a special low buoyancy suit that is ultra flexible, particularly in the chest, upper back and shoulders. We named it the 'Aura' and it is incredibly effective for women who have a naturally high body position in the water.

One additional benefit of this design is that the thinner neoprene creates a suit that is much easier to put on and take off, and because it is thinner it doesn't make your legs look like tree trunks!

So girls, when selecting a new wetsuit choose carefully and find a suit that matches your natural buoyancy and body position in the water. In doing so, make sure you take a good look at the new Huub Aura, you won't believe how nice it feels in the water and how well you swim in it. For more information see the Huub website and brochure.

For men reading this, if you are in the opposite situation and have sinky legs in the water then check out the Huub 3:5 profile suits - you will never have experienced a leg-lifting effect like it!

All Huub wetsuits have been designed by Swim Smooth and renowned sports science Professor Huub Toussaint to match the stroke characteristics of individual swimmers for maximum comfort and performance. The new range goes on sale in April.

Swim Smooth!

To Draft Or Not To Draft?

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics: Corby, UK - 18th April 2012 Full information: here

Drafting another swimmer (see the two ways here) can save you up to 38% of your energy expenditure. With such large savings on offer, swimming in a good draft can feel very easy despite you moving at a decent pace.

In a race situation this creates a common dilemma, should you stay in an easy draft or swim around and go on your own? In this situation how do you know what's right to do? At the moment we're half way through our clinic series in the UK and in the section on open water skills this is the most common question we've been asked by the swimmers. Here's our answer:

Pace Awareness When Drafting

To know whether you are really moving too slowly when drafting, you need to practise this in the controlled environment of the pool to learn how it feels. Grab a buddy who is a slightly better swimmer than you and have him or her swim at your target race pace for around 200-400m while you draft them. Settle into the draft and get into the rhythm of swimming - you'll soon gain an appreciation of how this target pace feels - it may surprise you how easy it is!

Pacing skills are a very important part of being a good swimmer but as a triathlete or open water swimmer you also need pace judgement when drafting so that you can make tactical decisions like this in a race. There's only one way to develop your drafting pace judgement and that's with practise. For that reason we strongly recommend you work on your drafting skills (and also your sighting and navigation skills) all year round in the pool. It's great fun and will really help you achieve your potential come the open water season.

Drafting skills are important for any swimmer
to master, whatever their ability level

In fact, Swim Smooth's philosophy is that stroke technique, swimming fitness and open water skills are equally important and should all be given equal priority in your training. Our new UK Certified Coaches follow this philosophy in their squad sessions by including regular open water skills sessions.

Don't Like Drafting?

Many swimmers say that they dislike drafting and that's only natural, the concentration required is higher and the hustle and bustle of swimming close to other swimmers can feel a little disconcerting at first. However, like with anything, with practise you can become familiar and comfortable with it and the performance improvements on offer are too large to ignore. Drafting well can easily be worth two minutes per km swum!

Always remember the number one rule of drafting: PRACTISE MAKES PERFECT

Swim Smooth!

Overgliding, Inefficiency And The Overgliderometer

You might have noticed on some of our recent videos how we've included a 'time between strokes' measurement in seconds. This is the time delay between one stroke finishing at the back and the next one starting at the front:

It turns out that this is a very interesting measurement because it's a good indication of how much someone glides within their stroke. Some swimmers have a slight overlap, with the front stroke starting before the rear finishes and we indicate this with a negative number.

We have some clever video analysis software that lets us easily measure the time between strokes from video clips of swimmers and we recently spent a happy Sunday afternoon analysing hundreds of swimmers of all ability levels. As we were just interested in studying the effect of gliding on speed as closely as possible, we removed all the swimmers who were fighting the water (e.g. those with a large crossover in front of the head or a large scissor kick) from the dataset. They would have been in Region A below:

Included on the graph are famous swimmers such as Ian Thorpe, Michael Phelps, Rebecca Adlington, Sun Yang (1), Alex Popov, Grant Hackett, Lotte Friis (2) and Ross Davenport. It also includes professional triathletes (3) and most of the popular swimming demonstration clips on Youtube, as well as data from normal swimmers of all ability levels.

The relationship between gliding and efficiency is really striking isn't it? Wherever you are on the graph, if you introduce too much glide to your stroke you will slide down the relationship and lose chunks of speed and efficiency. In fact once a swimmer is over 0.7 seconds of glide (we catagorise this as 'Extreme Overgliding') they have become so inefficient they normally have to stop and take a significant rest every 50m:

Notice that there is a complete absence of swimmers in Region B, a region where fast swimmers with a significant glide would sit if there were any :

Many swimmers (and some coaches) believe that elite swimmers do have a significant glide in their timing but this is an illusion caused by the sheer length of their strokes - when you study the footage and take the measurements you find that there is hardly any gap between strokes at all. Their freestyle is continuous, transitioning smoothly from one to the other without any dead-spots or pauses.

Even though elite swimmers have a very small gap between strokes or even a slight overlap between them, this still gives a front quadrant stroke with the arms passing in front of the head (one over the water, one underneath). This is because the recovering arm travels quickly forwards over the surface as the stroking arm catches and pulls relatively slowly under the water.

Note that if you are going to study footage in this manner yourself, it's best to study clips where the swimmer has already swum 50m or further before taking the measurements. All swimmers can sustain a lower stroke count and swim quicker for the first 25m or 50m swum before settling down. You may have noticed this drop-off yourself if you've ever counted your strokes over several lengths.

Introducing The Overgliderometer!

Our graphics team had a little fun here but we hope the Overgliderometer makes a serious point, highlighting the transitions between stroke styles for different lengths of glide:

The Smooth Swim Type (e.g. Ian Thorpe or Sun Yang) have a very small gap between strokes of 0.1 to 0.2 seconds. The Swinger (elite open water swimmers and triathletes) have an overlap or tiny gap between -0.1 and 0.1 seconds, this stroke style is ideal for open water swimming where rhythm and momentum are key. The Classic Overglider (already losing a lot of efficiency) is in the range 0.4 to 0.7 seconds and Extreme Overgliders (very slow and inefficient) glide for 0.7 seconds or more.

Overgliders

In an effort to make their stroke as long as is physically possible, many swimmers have placed a heavy emphasis on gliding with scant regard for the rhythm of their stroke. Just like we teach that short scrappy strokes can be inefficient as the swimmer fights the water, so too is an overly long freestyle stroke detrimental to performance.

Some swimmers say that they like this 'mini rest' between strokes but given that water is over 800 times more dense than air, pausing and gliding only results in deceleration. Each new stroke then has to re-accelerate the body in the water and this becomes very wasteful of your energy. It's also very common to see swimmers add a strange 'kick-start' action with the legs to re-start the stalled stroke. This adds drag and further harms your efficiency.

The term 'Glide' has long been used by swim coaches and is well meant to describe a smooth, efficient, unhurried freestyle stroke. Unfortunately it has also been misinterpreted to mean pause, stop and do nothing momentarily. At Swim Smooth we avoid using the term glide as it is so easily misinterpreted to mean pause and do nothing.

Long Stroke Styles

Many swimmers aspire to have a long smooth freestyle stroke and that is fine for pool swimming as long as you create it in the right way and it doesn't become overly long. There are three ways to make your stroke longer:

1) Reduce your drag so that you slip through the water more easily
2) Increase your propulsion so each stroke pushes you further
3) Artificially elongate the stroke by deliberately pausing and gliding between strokes

Reducing your drag and increasing your propulsion (1 & 2) are clearly good things and will make you faster and more efficient. But as we have seen in the data, trying to make your stroke longer by introducing a significant glide is putting the cart before the horse and only makes you less efficient. If you've tried Overgliding yourself, you'll know that it ultimately leads to frustration for this reason.

Be careful, there are still plenty of proponents of Overgliding on the internet today. If a long smooth stroke style appeals to you then like any swimmer you should work on reducing your drag, improving your propulsive technique and create a smooth rhythmical stroke without any dead-spots or pauses - just like elite swimmers do. This will naturally result in the optimal stroke length for you without chasing an artificially low stroke count by introducing a 'pause and glide' into your stroke.

If Long Doesn't Suit You

Depending on your individual make-up, a really long stroke style may simply not suit you. That's perfectly fine because a slightly shorter stroke can be just as efficient when drag is low and propulsive technique is good. However, what will make your stroke style unique is that you need a greater emphasis on stroke rhythm, perfect for punching through waves and chop in open water swimming. This is the refined Swinger style of stroke.

Swim Smooth!

Introducing Five Swim Smooth Coaches (Permanently In The UK!)

Today we are very excited to announce the new SS Certified Coach Programme with five newly qualified Swim Smooth Coaches permanently coaching in the UK. Each coach has been hand picked by us, highly trained for over 12 months (including special intensive training with us in Perth, Australia) and are now ready and waiting to give you the very highest quality of swim coaching available in the world. Their services include:

Certified Coach Training In Perth, 2011

- One to one consultations including Advanced Video Analysis to transform your stroke technique

- Swim Smooth squad sessions for all ability levels featuring the perfect mix of technique work, training and open water skills sessions


- Open water skills sessions to make sure you transfer your pool abilities across to the open water (don't underestimate the importance of this)

- Swim Smooth's unique individual approach to swim coaching

Welcome to the Swim Smooth team Fiona Ford, Steve Casson, Steve Bailey, Martin Hill and Julian Nagi! For full information on the coaches and their locations, please visit: www.swimsmooth.com/certifiedcoaches

(Just like our clinics, these guys are going to be extremely popular - so please don't delay in booking your consultation with them or enquiring about joining their squad.)


The Triathlon Show This Weekend

Don't forget that Swim Smooth will be at the Triathlon Show in London this weekend. Paul Newsome will be there and we'll be running swimming seminars on both Saturday and Sunday (see here).

The newly certified coaches will also be there to meet you - please come and say hi. Also, if you bring along video of your stroke on a memory stick or DVD we'll take a look at your footage and give you an instant analysis of what you're doing wrong at the moment and how to improve your swimming!

Sorry For the Wait

Julian, Fiona and Paul Newsome share a joke with
our squad swimmers in Perth

We know that many of you have been frustrated that you could not get onto one of our International Clinics when we have travelled over from Australia. This has been a problem for us over the last two to three years as demand for our coaching has sky rocketed, in the last twelve months alone we've had over 1500 direct enquiries from swimmers about attending our clinics.

To meet this demand our intention has always been to seek out the very best coaching talent, carefully train and mentor each coach individually and give them huge experience in using Swim Smooth's methods. Thanks for being so patient while we went through this process, this is not something you can hurry or inevitably standards will slip. Rest assured, Julian, Martin, Steve, Steve and Fiona now represent the very best swim coaching available to you in the UK - and the world for that matter.

It only remains for us to congratulate the guys on the great achievement of becoming a full Swim Smooth coach. We've pushed you very hard over the last twelve months of your training but you've come through every test with flying colours. Paul Newsome, Adam Young and the rest of the SS team are very proud of you and your abilities.

Swim Smooth!

HUUB: Stunning New Wetsuits, Designed By Swim Smooth

The team liked Professor Toussaint's first name so much, we stole it for the company! : (Huub means 'bright mind' in Dutch - the perfect embodiment of this vibrant new design partnership)

A sneak peak of the new suits:

Swim Smooth testing and development in Perth, Australia:

Testing and analysis at the hi-tech InnoSportNL facility in Eindhoven:

It makes sense when you think about it doesn't it? Wetsuits should be designed by people who really understand stroke technique and what is holding swimmers back. Coaches who understand how wetsuits should be tailored to different stroke styles to really optimise the swimmer's performance.

Shouldn't they also be designed by the world's leading sports scientist studying swimming and hydrodynamics? A man who has worked with Olympic Gold medallists to study and select speed suits designs that have dominated the last few Olympiads? Suits so fast they had to be banned!

This would be quite a combination, especially when their crazy ideas are diligently interpreted and implemented by a man with twenty two years of experience in the triathlon and wetsuit industry.

Introducing HUUB Wetsuits

Enter industry stalwart Dean Jackson (formerly of Blue Seventy, Orca and Quintana Roo) who realised this dream combination, assembling this unique design team including world leading swim coaches Swim Smooth and internationally renowned sports scientist Professor Huub Toussaint. The mission was simple: develop the fastest wetsuits imaginable, not just for top elite swimmers but suits that are devastatingly quick for age groupers too.

Working with Dean and Huub we redesigned the standard wetsuit from scratch, each new suit design focusing on a particular group of swimmers and their individual stroke characteristics. Be they leg sinkers, strong kickers, female or male, open water specialists or even overgliders - we developed a wetsuit perfectly complimenting and improving on that stroke style.

Each group of swimmers has unique needs and stroke faults that can assisted and even corrected by their wetsuit. This is why these new suits are so fast: thanks to Prof Toussaint they are super-slippery through the water and thanks to Swim Smooth they fit your individual stroke style like a glove and actively improve your technique as you swim!

Don't Miss Out

Want to know more? If you can come down to the Triathlon Show in London next weekend, we'll be there sharing a stand with Huub. Say hi and we'll show you round the suits, explain the unique features of each and how they will improve your open water performances. If you can't be at the show then make sure you sign up to get Huub's launch announcement instead with full details of each unique suit design:

http://www.huubdesign.com/

The suits go on sale in the UK and USA in April and the new Huub website will have Swim Smooth's full guide to selecting your suit based on your stroke style. If you already know your Swim Type then this will be especially easy for you.

Over the last six months we’ve had trouble containing our enthusiasm for these suits whilst working on them: We're extremely excited about their potential to improve your swimming performances in 2012, make sure you check them out!

Swim Smooth!

We're Coming To The Triathlon Show, London!

Exciting news: Swim Smooth will be at the Triathlon Show (formerly TCR) at Sandown Park, Surrey, UK from March 2nd to 4th. Paul Newsome and the rest of the team are flying in from Australia and will be there to say hi and talk about your swimming. Bring a video clip of your stroke along too for us to look at (see below). If you missed out on a place on our clinic series, here's another opportunity to catch us in the flesh!

Don't miss:

Our Video Analysis Tables

Bring along video of your swim stroke on a USB memory stick or DVD and have it analysed by a full Swim Smooth Coach! We'll give you insight into what's holding you back at the moment and provide some simple but effective tips on how to improve your swimming going forward. Good quality footage is ideal but you will be amazed what we can glean from basic clips.

We should also have web access on the stand (although we can't guarantee this) so if your video is on You Tube or similar we can also pull it up from there.

Two Special Presentations

In the 220 Seminar Theatre we'll be giving two not-to-be-missed talks:

Swim Smooth: Your Stroke vs. The Pros, 2.30pm Saturday 3rd March

We're landing in to the UK in March.

Digging into Swim Smooth's extensive archive of video footage, understand the five classic undiagnosed technique faults and why they might be present in your own stroke. Using our insightful HD video analysis of some of the best swimmers and triathletes in the world, Head Coach Paul Newsome will show you how to fix those faults and explain the common misconceptions and pitfalls that may be holding you back with your swimming.

Swim Smooth: The Three Keys to Triathlon Swimming Success, 12.15pm Sunday 4th March
Taken from the Swim Smooth Age-Group & Elite Squads in Perth Australia, Paul Newsome shows you how to prepare perfectly for triathlon and open water swimming whatever your ability level. There are three essential elements (we call them 'The Keys') to perform at your best in the water - we'll show you how to maximise each to exit the swim higher than you ever thought you could.

All Our Products And DVDs Will Be There

Get a preview of our swimming DVDs on the big screen and take a look at our waterproof training plans. Ask one of our coaches about Wetronomes and Tempo Trainer Pros and we'll show you how they work and how they can benefit your swimming.

We can't wait to touch down on British soil and meet you in just a couple of weeks time - see you at the show!

Swim Smooth

Getting In Some Weekly Discomfort

You're swimming a set of 8x 200m and you are on number three. Your heart rate is high and your breathing deep, and you're feeling some heaviness and burn from your muscles as they resist the effort. There's still another five reps to go, perhaps 15 or 20 minutes of hard work ahead of you, which right now seems like an eternity.

Sustained speed training is critical to reach your
potential as a distance swimmer.

What are your thought process in this situation? Are you longing to stop? Thinking of a good excuse to shorten the set? Or perhaps you avoid training sets completely knowing they are uncomfortable?

This 'discomfort time' is the critical period where your body's systems are challenged so that after the session they adapt and you gain fitness. Without reaching this point you won't gain the fitness improvements you are looking for. So this 'discomfort time' is not just unavoidable when fitness training, it should be something you are actively seeking out.

The psychology here is very important, don't think: "God, this is really tough."

Instead, replace that thought with: "OK, this is what it is all about. Swim it out, one stroke and one lap at a time."

Embrace the discomfort as a place you want to be and you will have fundamentally changed your thinking. From there on training sets start to feel much easier.

Staying In The Moment

It's a sporting cliché to tell someone to 'stay in the moment' but within a challenging fitness set it's absolutely critical that you do. Never think ahead but simply focus on your stroke movements and your breathing rhythm as the effort becomes challenging. It can be a good idea to monitor your technique but only ever think about one thing and keep it very simple, for instance you might choose to focus on:

- Exhaling smoothly into the water

- Lightly tapping your big toes together as they pass - 'tap tap tap'

- Keeping one goggle in the water and one out when you breathe

- Pressing the water backwards, not downwards

It's essential you keep these thoughts very simple as most of your focus will be required to maintain your effort and pace things out well.

Make Sure You Are Distance Training, Not Sprint Training

If you've been following Swim Smooth for a while you will know we are big fans of CSS / threshold training. This involves sustaining a strong pace for longer periods will short recoveries and is quite distinct from sprint training which is attacked at a faster pace but with longer recovery periods.

Swimming at this pace does not feel like sprint training and the effort progressively builds over the set while holding the same pace. Initially it may feel around 6 out of 10 for effort but progressively builds up to a 9 out of 10 by the end of the set. Pacing these sets well is essential (with the same pace for each repetition) even if you have to start a little slower, that way you will get the right fitness gains and can maintain your stroke technique throughout.

CSS / threshold pace targets the energy systems critical to distance swimming performance so that they adapt and improve. Sports scientists call this training principle 'specificity' and it really works - experience some consistent weekly discomfort in your CSS sets and your swimming will come on leaps and bounds. It could be just what you are lacking with your swimming.

Swim Smooth!

PS. We're very sorry if you couldn't get on our UK clinic series announced last week - the whole series filled up in just 30 minutes with over 200 people on the waiting lists. The level of interest is extremely high which is flattering for us but at the same time also stressful because we know a lot of you feel frustrated to miss out. We'll be back in the UK as soon as we can be, and yes also in the US hopefully towards the end of the year. :)

Announcing SS UK Clinics March 2012

Swim Smooth are excited to announce four UK Clinics in Loughborough, Stirling and Corby in March. Each one day clinic features full video analysis and stroke correction, and is strictly limited to 12 swimmers -  perfect for any swimmer or triathlete looking to improve their speed and efficiency in the water.

For full information and to book your place, visit: www.swimsmooth.com/clinics-mar2012.php

Featuring HD Video Analysis Of Your Stroke

** The last clinic series in May filled up within 1½ hours (no that's not a typo!) - please don't hesitate to book your place! **

We may also have a clinic in Birmingham on the 6th of March but this is not yet confirmed. This series is quite short compared to previous series as we are mainly focusing on Coach Education on this trip over from Australia.

Swim Smooth!

Performance = Technique + Fitness + OW Skills

Are you getting a feeling of deja-vu with your swimming? Doing the same things every year and getting the same old results? In this situation you need to shake things up both from a physical and psychological perspective.

In order to improve, a key thing to get right is the balance of your preparation between fitness training, stroke technique work and open water skills. Over a 1500m swim each of these elements is worth several minutes to you (or more) and so if you've been focusing exclusively on one you are leaving large chunks of time on the table. They literally add up:

Swimming Performance = Technique + Fitness + OW Skills

To maximise your performance you need to have all three elements in your training every week and the best way is to devote a session to each. This is the structure used by our 5:30am and 6:30am squads in Perth:

Tuesday: 60 minute session with stroke technique and endurance economy focus
Friday: 60 minute session with threshold training sets (also called CSS training, see here)
Saturday: 60 minute open water skills session in the pool

Regularly practising your drafting skills
is essential to become comfortable
swimming close to other swimmers.

This combination of three different training stimuli is so powerful because each area impacts on the other - e.g. you need good fitness to sustain good technique and your technique needs to be suitable for open water conditions. The three sessions work with each other to produce a better overall swimmer.

We have around 300 swimmers in the squads and each follow this basic structure. All swimmers make excellent progress with this three-way mix, whether they are a relative beginner, an intermediate or an advanced level swimmer.

Mental Skills

An important strength of this approach to swimming preparation is that the three session types have different challenges and so require specific mental skills:

- Technique elements such as exhalation, alignment, kicking technique and feel for the water require constant re-enforcement during your training week which requires discipline, self awareness and concentration.

- Threshold sessions require a sustained high level of effort. Many swimmers shy away from hard work but the ability to sustain a high level of intensity is a mental skill and needs to be practised regularly. As you develop this important skill it actually feels easier to sustain a strong race pace.

- Open water technique sessions require you to swim in close proximity to other swimmers so that you can enjoy the huge benefit of drafting effectively in races. The ability to cope whilst being buffeted or occasionally knocked by other swimmers, all the time holding your stroke technique and swimming accurately around the course, is critical to performing well in open water swimming. The key here is familiarity - if you practise this once a week you will feel comfortable during open water races when everyone around you is flustered.

Summary

Combining these three elements in your training is great fun and adds so much variety to your preparation that you'll never become bored. You'll probably always have a favourite session type but as you get into the other sessions you'll grow to enjoy and appreciate them. Even more importantly, you'll move off that plateau and your swimming will start to move forwards again towards your ultimate potential in the water.

If you're wondering how to combine these three elements into your training sessions, check out our Waterproof Training Plans, they make this very easy.

Swim Smooth!

A Simple Exercise To Make Your Breathing Easier

(If you missed Jono Van Hazel's amazing stroke from last week, see it here.)

Many swimmers struggle with their breathing when swimming freestyle, feeling short of breath and in some cases desperate for air. Let's take a look at an exercise to help your breathing technique become much more effective. Even if you are a more advanced level swimmer this can make a surprising difference so give it a try yourself.

Breathing 3-5-7-3

Push off from the wall and swim freestyle at a steady pace, taking your first breath after three strokes. Then take five more strokes before breathing and then seven more before breathing. Then return to three strokes, carrying on through the 3-5-7-3-5-7 cycle.

When swimming freestyle, whenever
your face is in the water you should be
exhaling smoothly through your
mouth or nose.

Try this for 100m continuously and make sure you are exhaling smoothly into the water on every stroke between breaths. This shouldn't be forced, relax into your exhalation as if you are sighing into the water.

Don't think of the five and seven as longer to hold your breath, instead turn the psychology around and think of it as giving you longer to breathe: specifically longer to exhale!

This exercise is a very powerful way to develop a good exhalation technique because it demonstrates to you how much air you have in your lungs and how it feels to exhale properly (during the five and seven).

Try the following sequence, it's perfect as part of a warm-up or drill set :

100m breathing 3-5-7-3
100m breathing every 3 strokes
100m breathing 3-5-7-3
100m breathing every 3 strokes

(take 10 seconds rest between each 100m)

The magic happens when returning to breathing every three strokes: suddenly it feels much easier and more relaxed because you have improved your exhalation during the 3-5-7-3.

If you struggle to breathe 3-5-7-3 for 100m, trying using a pull buoy to give you some extra support and reduce the oxygen demand from your kick. Conversely, if you find the exercise very easy try 5-7-9-5!

The Importance Of Exhalation

Improving your exhalation technique feels so good because:

- It rids the lungs and blood stream of CO2, the build-up of which is what leads to feelings of tension or even panic. Blow the CO2 out into the water and your swimming will feel much more relaxed.
- It makes swimming more aerobic by improving the gas exchange in your lungs.
- It means that when you do go to breathe you only have to inhale, not exhale and inhale in the short window available to you.
- It reduces the buoyancy in your chest which helps keep your buoyancy balanced, bringing your legs up higher towards the surface.

Exhaling into the water sounds very basic but many swimming coaches (even some illustrious ones) have overlooked how important it is for good swimming technique. If you are a triathlete, try holding your breath for a few seconds whilst running or cycling and see just how bad it feels!

Note: This Isn't A Hypoxic Exercise

Swim coaches have traditionally asked swimmers to take fewer breaths believing that the oxygen deprivation improved their aerobic fitness; this was known as 'hypoxic training'. That isn't the purpose of the 3-5-7-3 exercise, instead we're using fewer breaths over short distances to give you enough time to exhale fully and get the feel of doing so.

Give it a go in your next session, you will be surprised what a huge difference it makes to how you feel in the water.

Swim Smooth!

Is This The World's Smoothest Freestyle Stroke?

A special treat this week: we've edited together a high quality video sequence for you of an amazing swimmer called Jono Van Hazel. Jono epitomises the Smooth Stroke Style used by many elite swimmers. In fact he's so smooth we used his stroke as the basis for our Mr Smooth animation!

Watch this sequence just before you next go for a swim and imagine in your mind swimming like that, visualise his movements and the rhythm of his stroke. Visualising a great freestyle stroke is a very powerful way to improve your swimming:

http://youtu.be/s3HhNlysFDs

Jono is a 50m and 100m freestyle specialist from Perth who raced at the Athens Olympics; if you've been on one of our Swim Smooth Clinics you'll have seen his awesome stroke before. We're lucky enough to count Jono as a good friend of Swim Smooth and from time to time he makes guest appearances in our squads (giving the guys in the top lane a very tough workout in the process!). You can see a lot more of Jono swimming (including full underwater footage) and our complete analysis of his stroke in our Catch Masterclass DVD.

Swim Smooth!

Turn Off The Brain And Press The Go Button

(Stop press: Two new Swim Smooth Coach Education Courses announced in the UK, apply here.)

Once I'm a little bit fitter, then I'll be ready to swim a continuous 1000m...

Once I'm a little bit fitter, then I'll be ready to think about doing a race...

Once I'm a little bit fitter, then I'll be ready to come back to a squad session...

Once I'm a little bit fitter, then I'll be ready to set some new goals...

I've just had a sensational holiday in Esperance, Western Australia with my lovely wife Michelle and our two children. We spent a lot of time on the beach and in the surrounding forests, all without a single ounce of exercise. It was so relaxing and just what we needed after an exceptionally busy year.

Paul and Michelle (after today's blog, Paul might be sleeping on the sofa tonight!)

Michelle is a great swimmer and is preparing for a Rottnest Channel duo in February (20km swum in a relay of two) and after our holiday, to motivate us both back into shape I proposed we do some swimming together. I have just started a new Swim Smooth 'elite squad' in Perth with some of Western Australia's best athletes and suggested that she joins us. Her initial reaction? Once I'm a little bit fitter...

Is this a thought holding you back too? I've been overwhelmed by emails recently from people saying that they are a little scared to get back into swimming for fear of not being able to keep up with their old training buddies or excel as they would hope. This 'pride in performance' is a completely natural response in all of us but the thing is that whilst you might not be Michael Phelps, I absolutely guarantee that when you return to the pool it won't be as bad as you're telling yourself. Have a read through my "Six Sessions Kickstart" experience back in July 2010 here. This is what you can expect to go through when you return and guess what... it's really not that bad.

If you've been using the 'once' word in your head, I think this is one of those situations where it is so important to turn off the brain and just start. Once you're out of the door of your house and actually in the water the rest is easy and you'll soon wonder what all the fuss was about.

Paul Newsome
(Swim Smooth Head Coach)

Setting Yourself Some Goals For 2012

We hope you had a peaceful and rewarding Christmas with your family and friends! After a pleasant break and with the new year coming, now is the perfect time to reflect on 2011 and set yourself some goals for 2012. Here are our five tips on goal setting:

Swim Smooth Waterproof Training Plans! Everything you need to achieve your goal in 2012 - 35 sessions with the perfect blend of training, technique work and optional open water skills sessions! find out more here

1) Make your goal something real and measurable, for instance successfully completing a certain event or swimming a certain distance or split. This helps highlight how far you have come and gives you an actual 'Yes I've done it!' moment. More vague goals such as 'I want to become a more efficient swimmer' never give you a finish line to celebrate on.

2) Make sure your goal is something important to you, something you would love to achieve and are excited about. This positive emotion will help you ride through the inevitable bad session along the way.

3) If your goal is too easy you won't be motivated to achieve it but if it is too hard it will feel completely out of reach. Set your goal right between these two points so it will be a real challenge but is still something you feel your can just achieve, this will keep you motivated and on your toes. (This is the "Sweet Uncertainty Principle" - more in a future post.)

4) Give yourself a target date long enough to make some good improvements but not so long that you become stale or risk burnout. A period of four to eight months ahead is about right. If you have an important target further away then set yourself one or two sub-goals along the way and get focused on those first.

5) Tell someone else your goal to help commit you to it. In fact, why not tell us yours in this post's comments here?

Happy New Year and Swim Smooth!

Wishing You A Very Smooth Christmas!

Merry Christmas From Us!

No technique tip this week, the Swim Smooth team are taking a well deserved week off after a very busy year. To be honest we're a bit worn out after beavering away on some very exciting projects which will really help you take your swimming to the next level - we can't wait to launch them to you in 2012!

Also a quick thank you from us to you for sending in your many hundreds of stories, experiences, suggestions and questions throughout 2011 - you guys are a huge inspiration for all the coaches and staff here at Swim Smooth. Please keep them coming!

From all the SS team in Australia and the UK, here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic 2012 full of personal bests!

Swim Smooth!

What Is A Good Time For My Age?

What is a good time for my age? is one of the most common questions we are asked at Swim Smooth and, to be honest, it's a question we find uncomfortable to answer. That's because it's a bit of a loaded question.

L-R: Suzi, Barry, Brian, John, Emmie

One of the most important duties of a coach (of any type) is to help remove barriers from someone's progress and absolutely never introduce new barriers that were not there to begin with. Normally a swimmer asking this question is looking for an easily achievable target, perhaps one slightly quicker than their current speed, that they can achieve and be happy with. On the face of it this may seem virtuous but such an answer creates a very self limiting mental state that can stay with the swimmer forever: I can't be any better because of my age.

Whether you are 40, 50, 60, 70 or 80 by looking at the age-group world records you will see some scarily quick times. As one quick example, the men's 75-79 100m record is a 1:06 - amazing! The records show us that there really isn't much of a slow-down as the years go by, at least not nearly as much as you might be hoping for. Your stroke technique, consistency of training and mental approach are much bigger factors at play here than your age. Just like the average 25 year old swimmer looking at Michael Phelp's personal bests, there is huge headroom for nearly any swimmer to improve, regardless of age.

We are lucky enough in Perth to have some very good age group swimmers training within the Swim Smooth squads. We conducted an impromptu interview with three of them - Brian, John and Barry (63, 63 and 75 years young respectively) after this Monday's 9:30am squad session. Take a listen, you might find some of their experiences and perspectives quite inspiring as they are still looking for PBs. These guys train very hard and very consistently but you can certainly tell from the interview that they have a lot of fun along the way which is the real secret to great age-group swimming. Take a listen here: www.swimsmooth.com/senior-swimmers-interview.html

So how do we answer the question what is a good time for my age? We strongly suggest you forget your age and just think just of yourself and your current swimming. Where are you at now and what's a good target for for the next six months? Once you achieve that goal then set yourself a new target. You might be very surprised just how far you can progress - perhaps showing some of those twenty year olds a clean pair of heals along the way!

Swim Smooth!

Going A Little Deeper

Frustratingly and despite their best intentions, good catch mechanics are very elusive for the vast majority of swimmers and triathletes. A good catch on the water is one of the things that separate elite and advanced swimmers from the masses and allow them to move quickly and efficiently through the water - but why do so many swimmers struggle to improve their catch?

Let's take a look at a common problem that might be holding you back. Here is a typical sequence from one such swimmer Anna showing her entering the water and extending forward:

In the final position (3) her elbow has dropped down lower than the wrist with the hand facing forward. This is a problem because from there it is impossible to initiate a high-elbow catch on the water. Instead Anna starts to pull through with the elbow dropped losing her a lot of propulsion:

The interesting thing here is that Anna knows she should not be dropping her elbow in position 3 and yet is unable to stop it happening. Why? Because she is trying to keep her hand too near the surface at this point in the stroke and despite her best intentions, as she rotates her body onto her left side she has to drop her elbow to keep it near the surface. In comparison, take a look at Australian elite swimmer Rhys Mainstone:


Comparing 3 and 5, notice that Rhys' hand is deeper in the water, which allows him to keep his elbow higher than the wrist and the wrist higher than the fingertips. He can then bend his elbow and start pressing water backward effectively (6), generating good propulsion.

As you swim, try entering the water and extending forward slightly deeper so that you are able to keep your elbow high. Experiment with different depths to see what feels best - somewhere between 20 and 30 cm (8 and 12 inches) is best, the exact depth will depend on how broad you are and the level of flexibility in your upper back and shoulders. Of course you don't want to go too deep as this will send your hand down towards the bottom of the pool, it's a matter of finding the sweet spot between the two.

A quick warning here: As you improve your catch you may feel your stroke rhythm lifting and your catch and pull through feels 'too easy'. These are good signs that you are getting things right - don't be put off! Whenever you are making changes to your stroke be objective and monitor how fast you are swimming versus your level of effort, don't just use your judgement of what feels immediately right and wrong, doing so can be very misleading at times.

This tip is taken from our five star-reviewed Catch Masterclass DVD, showing you exactly how elite swimmers generate so much propulsion, how to make these changes in your stroke and many of the other reasons why a good catch can be so elusive. If you haven't seen it already don't miss out!

Swim Smooth!