Thanks for listening to me chat to Roger on the Endurance Hour Podcast! I hope you learned at least three tangible ideas that you can implement into your swim workouts today to improve your efficiency and speed. Swimming faster doesn’t have to be complicated or frustrating. Here are the bonuses I was talking about.Stroke Correction:
How To Reduce ResistancePractice Balance DrillPurpose of the Drill:
- Establishes alignment of head, hips and heels.
- Allows you to feel the buoyancy of your body in the water.
- Teaches you to relax and let the water hold you up instead of fighting to stay afloat.
- Promotes a longer, taller body with good posture
How To Do It:Body Position:
- Laying face down in the water
- Arms should be extended out in front of you in the “Number 11 Position”
- Legs should be extended out behind you
- Head and neck into a neutral position
- Make your body as long as you can
The Movement:
- Kick across the pool maintaining your body position
- When you need to breathe raise your head (so only your mouth comes out the water) breath in through your mouth and place your head back down in the water.
- Allow your hips to sink on the breath, then reestablish your balance position as quickly as possible.
Things To Focus On:
- Float as high as you can in the water
- Keep your head, hips and heels all in one straight line with each other.
- Keep the kick light and just strong enough to keep you moving forward
- Don’t rush through the length
Workout Tweaks:
How to make a swim workout triathlon specificIf you train with a masters group or follow a generic swim program on your own, here are 3 adjustments you can add to any pool workout to help you better prepare for race day:
- Increase the tempo of your kick in the last 100-200 of any main set. It will help you prep your legs for the feeling of running into T1.
- Add 3 sighting strokes to every 25 in your main set. Sighting is a skill. If you practice it enough while you’re in the pool you’ll be a lot more comfortable with it in open water on race day.
- Do 100-200 during your warm up where you limit the number of breaths you take each length. There is no physiological adaption that will take place by doing this, but learning to be in control of your thoughts and maintain a consistent stroke while under high stress will help you if you get kicked in the face at the start or swum over at the first turn buoy.
