| In
the last 5 months I have been providing swim coaching to
a small group of my clients. This has been 80% stroke technique
work. During this time I have had to radically realign
my perception of what is efficient, fast swimming and how
to best teach these skills to triathletes, not to full-time
swimmers. In short, triathlon swimming is about efficiency,
then fitness and speed. For full-time swimmers, technique
was learned at a very early age and so swimming is much
more about fitness, power and speed. These differences
demand radically different approaches to all aspects of
swimming. Please start by reading my article, Improving
your swim technique. This article is meant to give
the essence of what I'm talking about here, and to give
you a few very valuable measurement tools. I will explain
common swim technique errors and the drills used to fix
them. The first section delves into the subject of Balance
and Side Swimming, the second section will be devoted to
explaining some common drills, and then provide a matrix
of common swim problems and associated drill fixes.
So
Many Problems, So Many Drills.
Where do I begin?
Just
as our fitness training follows a logical progression,
our skills training does as well. It's difficult to fix
C if A and B are also jacked up. My progression is as
follows:
1. Proper
Balance: this refers to a swimmers ability
to perform all movements fluidly around a natural point
of buoyancy. This skill is reflected in a proper horizontal
body position and smooth transition from side to side
while swimming. For some athletes, improper balance
can be caused by an ineffective kick. I have included
a Fin Progression below to help you fix this.
2. Side
Swimming: It's my term, I don't know if someone
else has already claimed it. By this I mean that the
swimmer should try to spend as much time as possible
swimming on his side. This accomplishes at least two
things:
a)
Reduces frontal area exposed to the water, thus reducing
drag
b)
Gets the large lat and shoulder muscles into the pull
of your stroke. A flat shoulder style of swimming recruits
the smaller delt muscles.
3. Propulsive
movements: this refers to the stuff that
makes you go forward. These are drills that teach
you how to catch and pull the water more efficiently
and effectively.
Balance
and Side Swimming You will hear "Balance" a
lot these days in triathlon circles. I suspect it's because
some very smart folks realized that they had to teach
something to non-swimmers that swimmers could already
do instinctively from years of practice: maintain a horizontal
and streamlined position in the water. Fortunately, the
most common drills that solve balance problems also develop
side swimming skills.
You
swim in a tube. Anything sticking outside of this tube
creates drag. Drag slows you down. The most common source
of drag is your legs. We have all seen people that swim
with their legs 12-18 inches below the water line. This
is a huge source of drag and must be fixed before we
can move on to anything else.
|
