Swimming is highly technical.\u00a0 Swimming doesn\u2019t require great strength, it requires great technique.\u00a0 If you make mistakes, those mistakes compound upon themselves and suddenly, swimming is a tremendous challenge.<\/p>\n
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Swimming was my first athletic language.\u00a0 I started when I was eleven and swam competitively through college.\u00a0 I hung up my competitive Speedo shortly after the U.S. Olympic fiasco in 1980 and began eyeing this crazy new sport called Triathlon.\u00a0 In 1982, after Julie Moss made her epic crawl across the finish line, participation in the sport exploded.\u00a0 For 36-years, I\u2019ve watched as athletes have repeated the same swimming mistakes.<\/p>\n
You can improve your swimming by avoiding those same mistakes.\u00a0 In no particular order, the biggest mistakes I see age-group triathletes make surrounding their swimming \u2013<\/p>\n
Discounting the Importance of the Swim<\/strong> \u2013 There is rarely a week goes by I don\u2019t hear a triathlete say, \u201cThe swim is only 15% of my race so I\u2019m only going to spend 15% of my training time swimming.\u201d\u00a0 The fallacy of that argument becomes clear when you consider the swim impacts the swim\/bike\/run.\u00a0 The bike impacts the bike\/run, while the run impacts only the run.\u00a0 It\u2019s true you can\u2019t win a triathlon in the water; however, you can sabotage your entire day there.\u00a0 The goal of a triathlon swim is to remain aerobic in the water.\u00a0 Unless you have \u201cmeters-in-the-bank\u201d from a competitive swimming career, you aren\u2019t going to be able to remain aerobic in the water devoting only 10-15% of your training time to swimming.\u00a0 I encourage the athlete\u2019s I work with to build their typical main set to 1.5-2.0 times the race distance, a minimum of three times per week.\u00a0 If you\u2019re training for an Olympic triathlon, that would work out to 2,250-3,000 meters, three times a week.<\/p>\n Trying to \u201cDo it Yourself\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 There is simply no replacement for eyes on deck as you learn to swim properly.\u00a0 Yes, there are countless resources available on-line \u2013 YouTube videos, self-help books, expertly crafted instructional packages \u2013 none of those will replace eyes on deck in the form of a qualified coach\/instructor.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure right about now there is someone thinking, \u201cWell, I completed \u201cXYZ\u201d swim training and now I can do triathlons just fine.\u201d\u00a0 I submit that getting across the pool isn\u2019t the same as swimming.\u00a0 The biggest problem with teaching yourself to swim is that you don\u2019t know if you\u2019re \u201cdoing it right.\u201d\u00a0 When I video-tape an athlete and then review the video with them, universally I hear, \u201cI had no idea I was doing that.\u201d\u00a0 Remote video analysis can be helpful; however, it takes multiple sessions to make meaningful progress.\u00a0 One of the best things you can do for your swimming is to schedule a couple of one-hour lessons with a qualified coach\/instructor.<\/p>\n Over-Reliance on Drills<\/strong> \u2013 I regularly see the question here in the forums \u2013 \u201cWhat drills can I do to improve my swimming?\u201d\u00a0 Shortly after that question appears, there will often be multiple responses recommending various drills to \u201cfix their swimming.\u201d\u00a0 The problem is nobody has seen anybody in the water. \u00a0That makes all the suggestions to fix their swimming a wild guess.\u00a0 Unless a qualified coach\/instructor has prescribed a drill to correct a specific and identifiable stroke deficiency, you are better off swimming.\u00a0 Once you have been prescribed a drill, you should see near immediate results and likely not need to do the drill more than a couple of weeks.\u00a0 Spending a quarter to half of your valuable workout time doing pointless drills will quash your swimming as fast as not working out at all.\u00a0 If you want to become a better swimmer, then you need to swim.<\/p>\n Ignoring the Fundamentals<\/strong> \u2013 When children learn to swim, they start with simple things \u2013 putting their face in the water with no goggles, blowing bubbles; blowing bubbles from their nose; learning to float.\u00a0 For the kids, that\u2019s fun.\u00a0 When I ask an adult to do those same things, I often hear, \u201cI\u2019m not doing those childish things.\u201d\u00a0 Ironically, it\u2019s often those same adults that struggle in the water.\u00a0 Do you have a problem with your balance in the water as your legs drop creating drag?\u00a0 Learning to float teaches you to control your extremities.\u00a0 Do you find yourself struggling to get enough air when you breathe?\u00a0 Learning to blow bubbles goes directly towards this problem.\u00a0 Whenever I hear someone ask about a nose clip or see an athlete grab their nose as they enter the water, I think, \u201cThey didn\u2019t learn the fundamentals.\u201d\u00a0 Will learning the fundamentals suddenly make you a faster swimmer?\u00a0 Maybe not, but it will help you overcome basic problems that stem from not having a solid fundamental foundation.<\/p>\n Long Continuous Swims<\/strong> \u2013 How you use your time in the water is critical to your progress.\u00a0 Swimming is highly technical and reliant upon good stroke technique.\u00a0 One of the goals of any workout should be to store proper technique to muscle memory.\u00a0 Doing long continuous swims in training introduces fatigue.\u00a0 As you fatigue, your stroke technique degrades \u2013 resulting in poor technique being stored to muscle memory.\u00a0 A better approach is to do intervals \u2013 i.e. 15 x 100 w\/20 seconds rest.\u00a0 Doing that set gives you the benefit of a 1,500-meter main set, and it also gives you the added benefit of good technique during the entire workout.<\/p>\n Dislike Swimming<\/strong> \u2013 Is swimming a necessary evil, or do you truly look forward to getting in the water?\u00a0 If you despise swimming, that negative attitude will hold you back from reaching your full potential in the water.\u00a0 I get it, if you struggle with swimming, it can be difficult to look forward to more struggles.\u00a0 If what you are doing isn\u2019t working \u2013 change it.\u00a0 Hire a coach, hire a different coach, change your workout routine.\u00a0 Anything you can do to turn your struggles in the water into success in the water will help you learn to love swimming.<\/p>\n Insufficient Volume<\/strong> \u2013 I touched on this a little bit earlier but it\u2019s important enough to re-visit.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been asked, \u201cWhat\u2019s the minimum swim volume I can do to be prepared for my race?\u201d\u00a0 I invariably turn that question around and ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s the maximum volume you can achieve?\u201d\u00a0 1:30\/100y is a relatively easy benchmark to reach.\u00a0 1:30\/100 will yield a 1:03 Ironman swim.\u00a0 6,300 yards three times per week will get most triathletes to that pace.\u00a0 That\u2019s roughly two-hours, three times a week.\u00a0 Before you say that\u2019s too much time in the pool, consider that a typical training ratio is \u2013 Swim 25%: Bike 50%: Run 25%.\u00a0 If your maximum volume during an Ironman build is 20-hours per week, swimming six of those hours puts you nicely in the typical volume ratio.\u00a0 Instead of trying to minimize your time in the water, don\u2019t be afraid to increase your volume.\u00a0 Your swimming will thank you for it.<\/p>\n By no means is this a comprehensive list of the mistakes I have seen athletes make in the water \u2013 it\u2019s just the most common mistakes I see.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t talk about the details of swimming \u2013 i.e. proper hand entry, how to initiate the catch, etc.\u00a0 If you eliminate the mistakes I outlined about, all the details will largely take care of themselves.<\/p>\n Swimming doesn\u2019t have to be hard.\u00a0 Eliminating the most common mistakes will have you on a path to faster swimming.\u00a0 Who knows, you might even grow to love swimming!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Swimming is highly technical.\u00a0 Swimming doesn\u2019t require great strength, it requires great technique.\u00a0 If you make mistakes, those mistakes compound upon themselves and suddenly, swimming is a tremendous challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-swimming","tag-swimming"],"yoast_head":"\n