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"Is the swim your weakest link in
triathlons?" by Coach Celeste
St. Pierre
I always loved to swim. My brothers and I grew up with a pool in our backyard and we enjoyed “recreational swimming”, other wise known as playing. We jumped around, floated, played Marco Polo, and picked things up off the bottom of the pool. What we did was fun, but it also taught us invaluable swimming skills.
I was learning breath control and balance, how to dive down to the bottom and how to stand up from floating, how to move forward and backwards. Today as an adult teaching other adults how to swim, I see how the hand stands and summer salts helped me learn flip turns and how blowing bubbles helped me with breath control. But what I find most interesting in teaching swimming, is how almost none of us actually learned how to swim really well.
Maybe we had lessons at the local pool using the Red Cross method. I even spent a few summers teaching it to others. The method is fine in a pinch if you fall out of a boat and need to get back to the boat, but the efficiency and finesse of swimming isn’t taught.
It wasn’t until the early 90’s that I discovered there was more to swimming than just playing or doing endless laps. A triathlon was scheduled in my hometown; it sounded like fun. I was biking for transportation and exercise. I was running for fitness and calorie burning and I was swimming to cool off in the hot months. Why not?
The amazing thing about triathlons is not just the event itself but what you learn about yourself along the way. I thought I knew how to swim, but discovered that I didn’t. After having near panic attacks and lots of frustrating laps, I decided to set myself on the path to learn just what the swim component was all about.
I studied the Total Immersion method, which exposed me to proper swim mechanics and helped me develop a better feel for the water. I enjoyed it so much that I became a Total Immersion Teaching Professional. I now spend most of my days taking others from that darkness of struggle I experienced to the joyful light of flow. Sounds a bit corny, but it’s accurate. As both a triathlete and as a teaching professional, I’ll tell you that there is no reason to not swim well.
I hear many triathletes who, when standing on the start line of the swim, comment that their race starts after the swim. For many triathletes, it is too often true that their swim is their weakest link, just like it was with me. Instead, make your weakness a strength, so that your strong event does not look like your weakness. Whatever that event may be, it is important to work on the basic mechanics so that you are efficient and not wasting valuable energy to get through it.
When it comes to the swim, triathletes need a paradigm shift in thinking and a swim technique clinic to show them how. In the water, a good swim is all about mechanics. What you think you are doing may not be what I see from the pool deck. Swimming lap after lap with poor swim technique will not boost your swim times. It only makes sense: if you are imprinting poor stroke mechanics lap after lap, how can you improve?
A small change in your technique could make a big difference in whether you come out of the water feeling fresh or feeling like you “survived” it. After all it is a triathlon: the idea is you are proficient in all three sports.
It can be intimidating to move from the quiet safety of the pool, where you have been practicing alone or with 3-5 other swimmers, to the open water. The lake or ocean can have a wind that creates a “chop” and no line on the bottom to guide you in a straight line. A triathlon can have from 30 to 80 people or more in your wave all trying to swim in the same space! Add to that a lack of confidence in your ability to swim well and you have the makings for an unpleasant experience or a “survival” swim.
The first step to improving stroke mechanics is to develop balance in the water. Here are a few basic drills to help you achieve a relaxed and balanced position in the water.
Drill 1:
1. In the shallow end of the pool, face the wall, and push off onto your back. Kick from the hips in a relaxed way and “flick” your feet upward.
2. Try to develop a sense of floating or feeling “suspended” in the water, remembering to keep a horizontal position. If you feel your hips sinking, push your shoulders and upper back down until the water frames your face. Pushing down with the upper body creates a “see-saw” effect and helps raise up your hips and legs. Keep your shoulders and neck relaxed.
3. Continue to the end of the pool, then return. Practice this until you feel relaxed and comfortable.
Drill 2:
1. Repeat Drill 1, but this time, turn slightly onto one side and see if you can achieve a comfortable balance in this more streamlined position. This is called “sweet spot”.
2. Continue to the end of the pool and back, switching to the other side. Is one side more comfortable than the other? If so, work to make both feel the same.
Drill 3: 1. Get into “sweet spot” (see Drill 2), then stretch the lower arm out under your body, to lengthen and extend your body. Rest your head on that arm slightly. Keep your neck and shoulders relaxed and comfortable.
2. Continue to the end of the pool in this position, first on one side, then the other.
After you feel comfortable with your body in this balanced, streamlined, and long position, you can add breathing, then arm movements. Take some time in each swim session to rehearse and imprint these new movements and the sensations they create.
If you need help with your swim technique, make the time to take a swim workshop that focuses on technique. What you can gain in a weekend workshop may save you thousands of frustrating and lonely laps in the pool. After you begin developing the fundamentals of good stroke technique and you can maintain this technique over a length of time and distance, it is then a matter of conditioning yourself to swim faster.
In swim workshops, I focus on getting athletes to slow down long enough to tune in to what they are doing instead of tune out until the self-determined distance is covered.
About Coach Celeste St. Pierre
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