From Scared Sh*tless to “Feeling Like a Boss”.

Quick Facts

About Amin:

Amin was the last person out of the water in his first Olympic race. He also failed to finish his first 70.3. He has since completed 4 x 70.3’s and numerous Olympic & Sprint races.

How SwimFast Helped:

Using video analysis and targeted drills we’ve re-built Amins stroke from scratch and developed his swim fitness helping create “easy-speed” in the water.

Results:

Amin was a 3.16/100m swimmer, now he swims 1.58/100m! If you ask him, he’ll tell you his secret weapon is how fresh he feels heading out on the bike after the swim.

“When I first started working with Rory I wasn’t able to swim 1500m without breaking my stroke from freestyle to breaststroke.” 

The Starting Point in June 2015 

“It was my first ever 70.3, I was scared sh*tless” 

Amin’s heart was pounding out of his chest.

A 1000 “what ifs” running through his head.

Lined up on the edge of the Viehofner Lake in St Polten, Austria, moments before the start of his first ever 70.3, he was scared to death.

He had practiced his swimming in the lead up to the race, and yet he was still afraid he wouldn’t finish.

“My legs were shaking, I was breathing nervously. I wasn’t sure I could do it”. 

BOOM

The canon blasted, 2000 white caps surged forward into the water. Amin had no choice but to go with the crowd.

He started to swim… as best he could.

1 long hour and 3 minutes later Amin emerged, cold and desperate for solid ground.

“I came out of that water with no feeling in my legs. My heart rate was so high I couldn’t even run to my bike. It was miserable”. 

He did not finish that St Polten race. The energy spent on the swim and the hilly bike course left his tank too empty to even attempt the run.

Where did he go wrong?

Just like thousands of other triathletes, Amin swam 3 times per week in the lead up to 70.3 St Polten.

“I didn’t have a plan. I’d just head to the pool and swim. Looking back I was actually fooling myself into believing I could actually swim”

Swimming did not come naturally to Amin. He definitely didn’t feel comfortable in the water when he first started triathlon.

“I hated this discipline it hurt and abused me emotionally.” 

But he thought that if he just pushed himself out of his comfort zone… If he just tried harder and swum further each session, it would get better…

Amin’s problem; he couldn’t build any endurance. He lacked the technique necessary to be efficient and build fitness.

While he was powerful enough to swim a fast 50m, Amin would fall apart before he got to 100m. He simply wasn’t able to maintain his stroke or speed for any substantial period of time.

With his next race in Dublin just 8 weeks after St Polten, Amin and I began working together in June 2015.

Efficient Vs Effective

At first Amin’s goal was to swim faster.

Within a week he realized that in triathlon swimming, speed comes through efficiency. As he completed his initial set of workouts Amin’s focus shifted to moving through the water with control rather than fighting for speed.

A month after Amin started with SwimFast he finished 70.3 Dublin. His first ever 70.3 finish!

Ignoring speed and focusing on efficiency paid off. Amin exited the water in Dublin in 1 hour and 2 minutes. That’s only 1 minute faster than in St Polten BUT he felt comfortable coming out of the water. He still had the energy he would need to ride 90km and run the half marathon.

Over the following 6 months Armin’s training centered around re-building his stroke. We used video analysis and drill progressions to make sure we were building efficiency.

We corrected his balance position and stopped his legs from sinking. We fixed his alignment and got him swimming through a narrower path in the water. We worked on his breathing position making the breath quick and efficient. And we identified the sections of his pull cycle where he was losing out on propulsion.

By the time he lined up on the water’s edge of the Hardtsee for 70.3 Kraigchau in Germany, he knew he was ready to rock.

Confident as he strolls to the start in Kraichgau, Germany

“I felt confident enough to talk to other people and help calm their nerves and boost them up before the swim”. 

Amin’s improvements from 70.3 Dublin to 70.3 Kraigchau.

It’s Not Always An Easy Ride

Shortly after his Kraigchau race Amin had a terrible cycling accident. The crash derailed his hopes of racing at Challenge Roth in Germany. 30 stitches in his knee put him out of any training, including swimming for 3 full months!

The pain and frustration Amin felt was tangible to everyone he talked to. But he was optimistic he would be back and better than before.

Starting Again:

“If follow the plan, and I’m consistent I can achieve my goal”

Having laid the foundations of an efficient stroke prior to his accident, Amin quickly began making progress again.

When he returned, the fundamental elements of a good stroke were still present. Although he may have been a bit out of shape due to the time off he certainly wasn’t swimming at 3.16/100m pace!

Four months after coming back to training Amin broke the 2.00/100m barrier on a 70.3 swim.

Feeling “Like A Boss”

Amin recently raced the Dubai International Triathlon, a 70.3 race. He did the swim and the ride (he is still unable to run 21km because of his knee).

“I came out the water and looked at my watch, I couldn’t believe what it was telling me. I felt like a boss!”

Finishing the 1.9km swim in 37.39 (1.58/100m) Amin sprinted out of the water and up to his bike.

“I felt so damn good!”

Video Analysis:

Today I’m going to do a video analysis of Amin’s stroke. By watching you’ll  learn from some of the stroke issues Amin is still working on correcting. You will also pick up on some of the things Amin does really well. Watching this will help you improve your own stroke!

In This Analysis We Cover:

• Balance Position –  0:50
• Stability In The Core & Legs – 3:21
• Elbow & Finger Position – 4.52
• Rotation – 8:03
• Crossover – 11:06
• Pull Path –  12:53

Here’s The Analysis:

Would You Like Your Stroke Analyzed Like This?

Video analysis has been instrumental to the progress Amin has made so far.

If you are struggling to develop a smooth efficient stroke let me take the guess work out of how to swim faster. I’ll show you exactly what you need to do to improve your stroke technique.

No matter where in the world you are, film yourself swimming and I will do an analysis for you!

For only $97 here’s what you will get:

• A complete analysis of your stroke
• A specifically designed set of drills to fix your stroke faults
• Detailed drill explanation videos and descriptions for each drill
• A follow up 4 weeks after the analysis to see how things have improved and progressed!

You’ve heard the old saying, “Practice makes Permanent”.  Let me make sure that what you are practicing on your own each time you get in the pool is helping you learn to swim faster and not creating permanent bad habits.

“Rory immediately identified the weakness in my swim that requires improvement and made recommendations which has made very noticeable changes.” -Takamasa M

“Rory broke down my stroke into smaller chunks and then brought that back into the full stroke action. It’s had huge benefits for me in terms of developing efficiency and more importantly speed.” –  Enda D