getREAL Swim Tip

The last post was about working on drills that help with body position.  Well that is all well and good, you say, but what about the arms?? 

Here are a couple of drills that will get you going with the arms in the correct position and doing the correct thing. 

First of all, the shark fin drill or the stun gun drill (I'm not sure why it's called that??)  This drill focuses on keeping body position stable while breathing, and also working on a high elbow in the recovery portion of your stroke (that is that part where your arm is out of the water.)


The next drill is called Practice the Catch.  The "catch" is the part of the stroke where your arm is pulling you through the water.  It's sometimes called the pull.  I do this drill all the time!!  Two important things to remember during this drill are to keep your arms spread apart when they are in front...almost like they are on railroad tracks.  This keeps you from crossing your arm over the center to the other side of your body.  It makes for a more efficient stroke and places much less stress on your shoulder.  The other important thing is to let your arm drop down to the vertical position before you begin to pull back.  Remember what we are practicing is the catch, which is just the very first part of the pull phase of the stroke.



Here is a simple workout that can put these drills into practice.

Warm-up:  100-200 yards easy swim

Main Set:
50 yards shark fin drill, 50 yards swim - repeat 2-3 times
50 yards practice the catch drill, 50 yards swim - repeat 2-3 times

Cool-down:  100 yards easy swim

Total yards:  600 yards - 900 yards

If you have any questions about these drills, please email me or leave a question in the comments!!

Happy training!

getREAL Swim Tip

Hi all you endurance athletes!!  I hope the new year is treating you well.  I've been seeing a lot of you in the pool these days, and hearing lots of talk about swimming struggles.

One of the things I would like to emphasize to all of you is that swimming takes practice.  In order to get better at swimming, you must swim!!  And if swimming is not something that you feel comfortable doing, you should be swimming more than once a week, even if it's just 20 or 30 minutes each time!!

As you jump into the pool, it's good to remember a couple of things.  First of all, swimming requires technique that might not come as easily as, say, running or cycling!  It's not natural and can be very scary, you know, with the whole face in the water thing!!  One thing you should definitely avoid is swimming in a way that is not correct.  The problem with doing that is you will start to ingrain bad swimming habits into your muscles, and then it's really hard to break those habits. 

A great way to begin to work on swimming technique is drills.  I usually swim about 3 times a week, and at least two of those swims have a lot of drills, usually between 800-1000 yards.  I'm not saying you need to go to the pool today and swim 1000 yards of drills, I'm just showing you that even though I've been swimming for several years, I am still working on perfecting my technique through drills.

The beauty of swim drills is that they break down the stroke into tiny portions, so you can concentrate on just one part of the stroke without worrying about all the other stuff.  I have two drills for you today that are great for everyone, but especially beginners. Both of these drills focus on balance  and body position in the water.

The first drill is the side kick drill or side balance drill.  Here is a great video that explains how to do it.



Once you begin to feel comfortable swimming several lengths on each side, you can move on to the 6-kick switch, which is still focusing on body position, but starts to bring in the idea of rotating from side to side as you swim.  Here is another video of that one.



Feel free to use fins for each of these drills, as they tend to make them a little easier so you can really focus on the purpose of the drill, which is body position.

A workout I might suggest to incorporate these drills is:

Warm-up:  100-200 yards

Main Set: 
Drill #1 - Side Kick - 25 yards on right side, 25 yards on left side, 50 yards swim - repeat all 2-3 times.
Drill #2 - 6-Kick Switch - 50 yards drill, 50 yards swim - repeat all 2-3 times

Cool- Down:  Swim nice and easy 100-200 yards.

This workout would give you between 600 and 1000 yards total.

If you have any questions please shoot me a comment or an email.  Stay tuned for some more triathlon training news that the North Area Family YMCA is offering in the very near future!!