Discover your life aquatic

Why do most triathletes list the swim as the worst part of a race and drag their heels when it comes to getting back into the pool?

Swimming is an utterly different beast. It is far more complex than running or biking. Our instincts fail us in the water because swimming faster and efficiently requires counter-intuitive body positions and mechanics – achieved with skills that take time and careful attention to learn and master. Unlike running or cycling, you can’t just “go for it” in the water. The water will push back even harder.

Have you worked hard for months on making your aerobic engine efficient on land and then flailed miserably in the water? You’re not alone.

So most of us just struggle through and hope for the best.    

If you want to prepare for success now for a season of fast, enjoyable and personal record races, you need to rethink your approach and plan early.
   
Rethink triathlon: Golf, Bike, Run.

Yes, that’s right, golf.  Swimming is as complex as golf.  Bizarre drills are as common to golf as shaved legs are to cycling. Drills are essential for breaking things down to smaller, easier-to-learn chunks. Otherwise, the simple act of hitting a golf ball in a straight line can make even the most placid person go ballistic.

The same is true for swimming. 

Water is more than eight hundred times denser than air. The penalty for a slight change in posture is extremely high. A slight, upward tilt of the head can slow you down by minutes.

Swimming is a finesse sport; you have to find the path of least resistance. That is why so many people find themselves gasping for breath even after only a few strokes. If you try to power your way through, as many, even some elites and Ironman veterans do, you simply end up creating more drag and sending your energy systems above the anaerobic threshold.

Once you “red line” in the swim, it becomes primarily about getting enough air and hanging on for dear life! When that happens, your technique goes out the window and with it any sense of enjoyment or fun. You become tense, tighten up and inevitably slow down.


Putting in Distance

By far the biggest misconception about how to improve your swim time is by adding training distance. If you can run 10k, you can certainly handle the aerobic demands of swimming 1500m. But, that is only if you swim it efficiently.

Remember the golf analogy: When you are swimming hard intervals or long laps, it is difficult to know what your body is doing in terms of movement and mechanics - this is something like swinging the golf club as hard as you can over and over again and hoping that you will get better.

However, if you spend time on drills, focus points, and short repeats while concentrating on form and feeling good, you will actually change and improve your stroke. Swimming at slower speeds first before adding distance or speed is a great way for improving your stroke.

And when you swim more easily, you will enjoy it more, practice more and improve! A nice positive feedback loop.

What Should Swimming Feel Like?

Imagine an easy walk or a light jog.  You let gravity do most of the work. Swinging your arms and legs naturally.  Swimming can be like this, too.

Most people I teach explain their swimming as being “exhausting,” “stressful,” and “tiring.” Once they learn the principles of efficient swimming, they feel more relaxed and “part of the water.”  Only with that sense of ease and relaxation can you shift your focus on learning how to swim with less effort. 

Another way to look at the swim leg of a triathlon, especially for those new to racing, is that it should serve as a light aerobic warm-up for the rest of the race. Start off with an easy pace and gradually build it while staying in control so that when you enter the first transition zone, you are ready to race on the bike instead of spending the first ten to fifteen minutes on the bike recovering from the swim.

When it comes to training, we need to think of swimming as a practice of skills, not a training of the body’s energy systems. If you are biking and running the distances you need to achieve, all that remains is to find the right technique to express your fitness base in the water. If you are inefficient, the energy requirement of the swim will exceed your fitness base. This is why swimming without a focus on technique first can be so discouraging.

Too often triathletes end up overtraining because their swim workout is too demanding and stressful. With so many workouts during the week, especially when swimming inefficiently, the body just can’t keep up. Staying healthy is the best way to have a good race.


Three Tips for Planning For Swimming Success

Here are three tips for planning for success for next season:

1. Allow yourself sufficient time to improve your technique before your training load increases. Fall, winter and early spring are perfect times to improve technique without worrying too much about how fast you are swimming.

Once good technique is in place, it will be much easier to swim faster over long distances. Avoid cramming at the last minute!  

2. Find a coach who can help you improve your stroke on a fundamental level. If he or she can teach you how to reduce drag and improve balance and coordination during your regular and breathing strokes, you will improve your swimming comfort and be far more likely to feel good when you get out of your wetsuit and jump on the bike.

3. Replace the idea of “hard” effort swim workouts with a commitment on focused skill practice. Developing concentration, trying out new techniques and drills, and looking to maintain good form can be very challenging in itself.

The challenging part of practice is developing body awareness and concentration on good form.  Instead of swimming harder, use your skill practice as active recovery and boost your training gains so that you can bike and run faster. Your personal record time will thank you!

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Peter Scott is a swim coach and founder of Sea Hiker Adventures, based in Vancouver, BC, a swim coaching and instruction company dedicated to helping people excel in triathlons and other open water pursuits. Peter has helped hundreds of triathletes and swimmers of all levels improve technique and enjoy the water more than ever before. He is an aquatic trainer at the YWCA Vancouver and teaches programs for swimmers and triathletes of all levels. For more tips, video clips and articles, visit www.seahiker.com.

Questions about this article? Email Peter at info@seahiker.com