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Swim Clinic Notes
By Rich Strauss

Competitive/Masters Swimming:

1. Extensive culture of heavy training volume.

2. Technique was learned at a very early age, so very little attention paid to it now.

3. Huge base from years of training, so can handle huge volumes.

4. Remember that swimming, for these guys, is easier than walking. YOU still need to learn how to walk before you can run.

Triathlete inserted into this culture:

1. "Spinning their wheels." High volume, low attention to technique = very little progress. "Wall-Tag."

2. Injuries.

Triathlon Swimming:

1. Requires that the athlete develop skills and technique first, then acquire swimming fitness.

2. Requires an extensive period of laser-like focus applied to improving technique, at the expense of training volume.

3. This is counter-intuitive to bike and run, hard pill to swallow.

The Two Elements of Efficient Swimming:

1. Proper body position = reduced drag. Head is neutral. Body is long and streamlined, everything is "inside the tube" and horizontal. Spend as much time as possible on your side.

2. Effective Propulsion: all propulsive movements are directed towards the rear and propel the swimmer forward. Both power and non-power movements are relaxed and efficient, with no wasted energy or movement.

Body Position Progression

1. Perform these drills with fins. Fins will allow you to maintain good forward movement and a horizontal body position.

2. It is HIGHLY recommended that you master these drills before proceeding to propulsive drills.

1. Stomach Kick: Kick on your stomach, head first, arms are at your side. Try to achieve horizontal body position by using buoyancy to bring legs up.

   Head: Neutral to down. Experiment with head position to bring feet to surface.
   

   Arms: Both arms held loosely at your sides.
   

   Legs: Toes pointed, ankles relaxed. ÿBoil the water on the surface, no big splashes. Small kick.
   

   Breath: Roll head easily to side. This is the hard part. It helps to exhale slowly and smoothly while your head is underwater.
   

   Remarks: Imagine that you have a float in your chest. Push down on this float to bring your feet up. Use this downhill swimming technique and head position to bring feet up, NOT a harder kick. Buoyancy vs Power.

2. Right Side Kick (RSK): Kick on your right side, with right shoulder pointed to the sky.

   Head: Relaxed, underwater, look at the side of the pool. A variation to look at the bottom of the pool.

   Arms: Left arm extended, right hand rests on left thigh.

   Legs: Toes pointed, ankles relaxed. Keep width of kick within "tube" created by your body: relatively narrow.

   Breath: Slowly exhale, roll head to the side and breathe. All movements are relaxed and fluid.

   Remarks: Keep shoulders perpendicular to pool bottom. "Point belly to the side of the pool." Relatively narrow kick. Smooth breath by rolling your head up to the sky.

3. Left Side Kick (LSK): Kick on your left side, with left shoulder pointed to the sky.

   Head: Relaxed, underwater, look at the side of the pool.

   Arms: Right arm extended, left hand rests on right thigh.

   Legs: Toes pointed, ankles relaxed. Keep width of kick within "tube" created by your body: relatively narrow.

   Breath: Slowly exhale, roll head to the side and breathe. All movements are relaxed and fluid.

   Remarks: Keep shoulders perpendicular to pool bottom: "Point belly to the side of the pool." Relatively narrow kick. Smooth breath by rolling your head up to the sky.

4. 6 Kick Change: Start with Right Side Kick. 6-10 kicks, then pull and roll over to Left Side Kick. 6-10 kicks left side, roll, repeat.

   Head: Relaxed, underwater, look at the side of the pool.

   Arms: Left arm extended, right hand rests on left thigh. Pull with left arm to initiate roll, right arm return over the water to Left Side Kick position.

   Legs: Toes pointed, ankles relaxed. Keep width of kick within "tube" created by your body: relatively narrow.

   Breath: Breathe when you pull and roll to alternate side. Exhale slowly and smoothly.

   Remarks: Keep shoulders perpendicular to pool bottom. Relatively narrow kick. Smooth roll from right to left and back again. Roll from the hips, as well from the shoulders. Think "Point belly to the side of the pool."

5. 3 Strokes: Same as 6 Kick Change, except take 3 strokes to rotate over to the other side, instead of one. This drill is the start of "side-swimming."

   Head: Relaxed, underwater, look at the side of the pool.

   Arms: Left arm extended, right hand rests on left thigh. Pull with left arm to initiate roll, right arm return over the water to Left Side Kick position.

   Legs: Toes pointed, ankles relaxed. Keep width of kick within "tube" created by your body: relatively narrow.

   Breath: Breathe when you pull and roll to alternate side. Exhale slowly and smoothly.

   Remarks: Keep shoulders perpendicular to pool bottom. Relatively narrow kick. Smooth roll from right to left and back again. Roll from the hips too. Think "Point belly to the side of the pool." Focus on transferring "Side Kick" skill to "Side Swimming" skill.

Effective Propulsion

1. Pull is 95%, kick is 5%. Kick is for balance and a horizontal back end, NOT to move you forward.

2. Reach, Catch, Crank, Snap, Line.

• "Reach" refers to a full extension at the front of the stroke.
  
  
• "Catch." Bend the elbow as soon as possible after hand enters the water. This accomplishes two things:

  Sets you up to immediately direct force to the rear and thus propel you forward.

Gets the large lat muscles into your stroke, setting up for an effective next stage.

• "Crank." Grab the water and "crank" it back, using the lats.¾ Hand accelerates through the stroke.
  
  
• "Snap." At the same time, aggressively rotate or "snap" the hips. Hand exits the water, with the thumb brushing the thigh.
  
  
• "Line." Recover the arm with a bent elbow, palm facing the water to turned slightly outboard. Try to recover the arm along the "line" or plane of the body, as you are rotated on to your side. This helps you to set up an aggressive "side-swimming" position with the other arm, which is now starting it's pull.

HINT: when swimming, you may find it difficult to put all of these elements together at the same time. Instead, swim short intervals and concentrate on one element at a time.

Drill Demonstration by Instructor, then:

• 5 minute warm-up
• 2 x 50 Add-Up

Add-Up (Min-Max, Swim Golf): used to establish a baseline for your efficiency, measured as a function of distance per stroke and speed. Swim a 50 at moderate pace, counting your strokes. Add stroke count to time in seconds (40 strokes in 43 seconds = 83). Lower score is better. Of these two elements, stroke count is more important

• Stroke Count:

1. Helps you detect when your stroke is slipping, due to fatigue or lack of concentration.
2. Keeps your head in the game, helps you focus on your stroke.
3. Helps you focus on what you can control (technique) vs what you can't control (environment).
   
   
• Main Set:
  1. 3 x 150, done as 25 right side, 25 left side, 25 Six Kick Change, 25 Three Stroke Change, 50 swim. Take 20-30 secs rest between each 150.
  2. Repeat Add-Ups.

Propulsive Drills and Application Matrix

PROBLEM: Ineffective kick

DRILL: Vertical Kick Drill

• Kick a normal freestyle (flutter) kick, with your body in a vertical position. Keep hands at side and experiment with feet wide, narrow, slow, fast, bent knee, straight knee. Find the best way to keep your chin above the water. For swimmers with very weak kick, hold on to the side of the pool and experiment. Progress to letting go for a few seconds at a time.
• Once this is accomplished, practice rotating 90 degrees by using your core and kick to initiate the movement.

PROBLEM: Dropping Elbow on Catch

DRILL: Fist Drill

• Swim regular freestyle with a closed fist for a half length, then open your hand and feel the increase in power.
• Use normal to fast arm speed and do not use fins.¾ Concentrate on pulling with the forearms.

PROBLEM: General Stroke Mechanics

DRILL: Single Arm Drill

• Keep one arm extended out in front and use the other to stroke. "Reach, Catch, Crank, Snap, Line."
• Drill allows you to focus on the dynamics of pulling, on arm at a time. Use fins with this drill.

PROBLEM: General Stroke Mechanics

DRILL: Catch-Up Drill

• Each arm takes a full stroke, coming to rest in the forward position, before the other arm starts its pull.
• Good for working on rotation and timing of your stroke. Hold for 2 seconds, then 1, then touch and go.

PROBLEM: Short Finish

DRILL: Flicker Drill

• Aggressively accelerate the hand at the end of the stroke, brushing your thumb against your thigh. Hand exits explosively and "flicks" water behind you. Do half lap of Flicker, half lap swim. Keep the acceleration and thumb-to-thigh, lose the flicker.
• Finishing your stroke, every stroke is critical. When swimming, always brush your thumb against you thigh. This is adds 3-4 inches to every pull, but requires more tricep endurance.

PROBLEM: "Wind-milling"

DRILL: Finger Tip Drag Drill

• Drag your finger tips along the water during the arm recovery. Also, work on the "Line" portion of your stroke.
• Helps the "Line" and relaxation of your recovery.

Pool Toys

Essential

• Fins: help maintain speed and proper body position. Helps swimmer experience fast swimming and encourages streamlining. When used in a progression of large fin to smaller fin, to no fin, can be used to create the muscle memory of efficient kicking. Also increases ankle flexibility, which is a common problem among runners.
• Stretchcordz: these are bands of surgical tubing attached to paddles, very useful for sport specific strength training. Go here for an excellent training protocol by Coach Gordo Byrn.

Non-Essential

• Pull Bouy: useful for strength building sets. However, can also hide body position flaws and can become a crutch. Do no more than 25% of a workout pulling and pay close attention to maintaining proper body roll.
• Paddles: use paddles with holes drilled, to reduce resistance. Useful, when use during easy swimming, to develop feel for the water and the "catch" phase. For more advanced swimmers, paddles are useful to add resistance and build strength. However, new swimmers should avoid high intensity sets with paddles, as the risk of shoulder injury is greatly increased.
• Ankle band, small inner tube, drag suits:increase drag during pull sets, increasing resistance. Again, only for experienced swimmer.

Useless Gadgets

• Fistgloves: these are used to close your fist, for use during fist drill. It's better to perform this drill as half a length fistdrill, half length open hand, so you can feel the transition. This is not possible with fistgloves.
• Kickboard: should be used sparingly, if at all. Kickboards give the body unnatural support and do not allow the swimmer to incorporate rotation with the kick. It is an inefficient use of training time to improve kicking fitness, as the power of the kick should be deemphasized in distance swimming. Instead, do drills that produce an effective kick and then incorporate this kick into an efficient swimming stroke.

Considerations for Swim Workouts

1. Volume vs intensity: because swimming is non-impact and generally much less stressful than either running or cycling, think of swim training in terms of track sessions. The key difference is that once you have established a good base through a period of easy aerobic swimming, you can then perform swimming interval sessions at the same or higher intensity and with greater frequency than you can with track sessions. The common mistake that triathletes make is to equate run training with swim training. Swim training should be more intense, as there is less risk.
   
   
2. Importance of continued stroke work: swimming is a very technical sport. ALWAYS include drill sets in every workout, and count your strokes all the time. Continue to focus on technique, regardless of volume or intensity.
   
   
3. How do I structure a workout?
   • Warm-up: focus on relaxed breathing. Include Add-ups at the end to establish a baseline.
   • Drills: work on your weaknesses. Consult drills matrix for ideas.
   • Main set: interval based workout. Measure intensity by pace or PE. Can also use pulse at the neck, 10 seconds x 6 = HR.
   • Short sprints: 25's or 50's, to develop economy and speed.
   • Cool Down
   • Dryland Exercises: Core, cords, and stretch.
     
     
4. Do I need to do long swims? In my opinion, I think it is better to build your endurance with shorter intervals (5-10 min) at a pace slighly faster than race pace. It is good to do a long, continuous swim on occasion, to get you use to swimming for this length of time, but this should be the exception rather than the rule. Swimming long and slow makes you very good at swimming long and slow.
   
   
5. How should I fit in open water swimming? As stated above, quality pool sessions will build your endurance, technique, and speed. Maximize these adaptations by extending these sessions far into your season, saving the open water swimming for closer to race time. If, however, you have some anxiety about open water swimming, get familiar with it sooner rather than later.

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