The freestyle – front crawl – catch may be the single most misunderstood thing in swimming. Arguably, the catch itself provides no actual propulsion and in many ways, the catch is nothing more than a brief transitional phase between the entry and the pull. Continue reading “The Catch and Elusive Vertical Forearm”
Tag: Swimming
Freestyle Kicking
I am going to start by making what many will consider to be a controversial statement. You are not looking to get much, if ANY propulsion from your kick. Continue reading “Freestyle Kicking”
Swimming Isn’t Hard
Swimming is highly technical. Swimming doesn’t require great strength, it requires great technique. If you make mistakes, those mistakes compound upon themselves and suddenly, swimming is a tremendous challenge. Continue reading “Swimming Isn’t Hard”
My Swimming Sucks
I love swimming. My first athletic language was swimming. Swimming opened doors and took me places I never could have imagined the first time I participated in a formal swim workout. So, I experience both a sadness and an excitement when I hear someone lament their poor swimming. Sadness because I would like that everyone shares my joy of swimming and swims proficiently; excitement because every person that asks me how they can swim faster is another opportunity to help someone improve their swimming. Continue reading “My Swimming Sucks”
Swim Threshold Pace – What is it?
After stroke technique, the next most important thing to improving your triathlon swim speed is understanding swim threshold pace (STP). You can swim hundreds of thousands of yards each month and if you don’t understand swim threshold pace, those training yards may not have been as effective as they could have been – and they may have been wasted time altogether. On race day, without an understanding of swim threshold pace, you will likely be swimming to fast – leading to lactic acidosis with the obvious negative effect; or swimming too slow – with the equally obvious negative effect. Continue reading “Swim Threshold Pace – What is it?”
How to Determine Your Swim Threshold Pace
Do your normal warm-up. Follow with a short build set to be ready to swim fast. Or you might consider our recommended warm-up.
Once you are thoroughly warmed up, you will do two time trials to establish your STP; one of 400 yards (or meters if you are in a long course pool) and one of 200 yards/meters. Continue reading “How to Determine Your Swim Threshold Pace”
Body Roll
In my opinion, body roll is the single most important aspect of the freestyle stoke, so much so that I call it the foundation on which the freestyle stroke is built. Continue reading “Body Roll”
Breathing
Acquiring good breathing technique may be one of the biggest challenges for newer swimmers. Poor breathing technique can easily have a negative influence on other parts of the stroke. Continue reading “Breathing”
A Better Swim Warm-Up
I have never made a secret of the fact that I despise those casual warm-ups many coaches give. You don’t have to look far to find one: 400 choice swim, 200 to 400 kick, 200 freestyle. That warm-up simply wastes precious training time in the water and it is an absolute disservice to a beginning swimmer. Continue reading “A Better Swim Warm-Up”
