22,07 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: Fernhurst Books Limited
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
Transform your technique in the water and become a better swimmer with this remarkable new approach to freestyle swimming, suitable for all levels - beginner, intermediate and advanced, as well as swimming coaches. Aimed at both fitness and competitive swimmers, it explains what makes a successful stroke and how to develop your own swimming style. _x000D_The Swim Smooth approach, developed by consultants to the gold medal winning British Triathlon team, helps you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your stroke and provides drill and training tips to make the most of your time in the water. It accepts differences in individual swimmers and shows you how to understand the fundamentals of swimming to find a style that works for you. Technique, fitness training, racing skills and open water swimming are all covered, with photographs and 3D graphics helping you to put theory into practice. _x000D_Swim efficiently. Swim fast. Swim Smooth.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012
Ähnliche
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Getting Started
Chapter 1: How to Use This Book
Chapter 2: Introduction to Freestyle Swimming
Chapter 3: Swimming Equipment
Chapter 4: The Three Keys to Better Freestyle Swimming
Key 1: Technique
Chapter 5: What Makes an Efficient Freestyle Stroke?
Chapter 6: Stroke Flaws – Cause and Effect
Chapter 7: Breathing
Chapter 8: Body Position
Chapter 9: Leg Kick
Chapter 10: Posture and Alignment
Chapter 11: Rotation and Arm Recovery
Chapter 12: Hand Entry
Chapter 13: Catch and Pull-Through
Chapter 14: Stroke Rate Development
Chapter 15: The Science Behind an Efficient Freestyle Stroke
Chapter 16: Performing Your Own Video Analysis Session
Chapter 17: The Swim Types System
Chapter 18: The Arnie
Chapter 19: The Bambino
Chapter 20: The Kicktastic
Chapter 21: The Overglider
Chapter 22: The Swinger
Chapter 23: The Smooth
Key 2: Training
Chapter 24: The Importance of Fitness Training
Chapter 25: Balancing the Different Types of Fitness Training
Chapter 26: A Simple Skeleton Structure for Your Swimming Month
Chapter 27: Finding Your Critical Swim Speed
Chapter 28: Pace Awareness in the Pool and Open Water
Chapter 29: Dry-Land Conditioning
Chapter 30: Prevention and Management of Shoulder Injuries
Chapter 31: Pool Skills
Chapter 32: Nutrition for Longer Sessions and Races
Key 3: Open Water
Chapter 33: The Importance of Open Water Skills
Chapter 34: Managing Anxiety
Chapter 35: Swimming Straighter
Chapter 36: Drafting Effectively
Chapter 37: Turning Around Buoys
Chapter 38: Better Wetsuit Swimming
Chapter 39: Adapting Your Stroke to a Variety of Conditions
Appendices
Appendix A: Swim Smooth Drills
Appendix B: Swim Type Stroke Correction Processes
Appendix C: Training Sessions
Index
All the images in this book are of genuine swimmers in action. Swim Smooth never show swimmers doing impressions or falsely modifying their strokes.
Published by Fernhurst Books Limited 62 Brandon Parade, Holly Walk, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 4JE, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1926 337488 | www.fernhurstbooks.com
Copyright © 2012 SwimSmooth
This edition first published in 2012 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
The right of Paul Newsome and Adam Young to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a license issued by The Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The Publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. The Publisher accepts no responsibilty for any errors or omissions, or for any accidents or mishaps which may arise from the use of this publication.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-119-96319-6 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-119-96805-4 (eBook) ISBN 978-1-119-96806-1 (eBook)
Page 44: © Nick Wilson/ALLSPORT Page 57: © Donald Miralle/Getty Images Page 217 top: © David Madison/Getty Images Page 217 bottom: © Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images Page 218 top: © Hector Vivas/LatinContent/Getty Images
Foreword
We were delighted to be asked to write the foreword for Swim Smooth. As the National Governing Body for the development of triathlon coaching and coaches in Great Britain, our mission is focused on developing a world-leading triathlon coaching system, and indeed world class coaches to support the development of triathletes at all levels, from grassroots to high performance. As part of a recent review of our coach education system, and supporting learning resources, we identified the need to bring in respected specialists in a variety of areas to help us provide the most up-to-date innovative thinking. Swim Smooth was identified to support us on the swim coaching aspect of our education programmes.
We didn’t just want a swim expert per se, we needed a company that understood triathlon swimming and, crucially, how to coach it in a real context. Swim Smooth has built an impressive international reputation and it is exciting that we can now utilise their experience and skills as part of our coaching programme. Swim Smooth will add significant value to our coaching delivery as the demand for coaches in the fast growing modern Olympic sport of triathlon continues to grow year on year.
Feedback from the coaches has always mentioned how the Swim Smooth section has improved their swim coaching. New and developing coaches have engaged with Swim Smooth coaching methods and new drills. One of Swim Smooth’s introductory breathing drills – ’breathe-bubble-bubble-breathe’ – is an excellent example of a simple but highly effective drill any coach can use to make an immediate improvement with any level of athlete. Swim Smooth’s methodical step-by-step approach to swim coaching helps remove the clutter which many swimmers report they feel when trying to improve their technique.
We look forward to a long and successful partnership with Swim Smooth, and seeing the benefits and added value for our coaches, athletes and the wider sport.
—Paul Moss, Coaching Development Manager, British Triathlon
—Giles O’Brien, Coach Education Officer, British Triathlon
Preface
The 11-Year-Old Girl
You are in the pool one day, enjoying being in the water and working on your freestyle swimming. You are pretty happy with the progress you have been making and swimming is definitely becoming easier and a little quicker too – which is really satisfying. You set off for a few more laps and then suddenly in the next lane over a young girl jumps in the water, probably about 11 years old, and comes flying past you like you are barely moving. Before you know it she has executed a perfect tumble turn and comes back past you the other way, a near blur of fast moving, perfectly synchronised arms and legs.
If you are an adult who has been swimming for a little while you have almost certainly had a similar experience to this. It can be quite a shock and even disheartening. ‘How can she do that? She is just a kid!’. Don’t worry, everyone has been passed by a much faster swimmer at some point in their lives and made to feel a little inadequate. Kids are not as physically strong as adults and don’t have the option of muscling their way through the water; instead they must use a good stroke technique – and high levels of aerobic fitness – to propel themselves quickly forwards. The fact that someone so small with very little strength can swim so quickly shows you what amazing potential each of us has in the water if we too can develop these areas of our swimming. Try not to be disheartened by the speed of fast swimmers but instead see them as an inspiration: how a child can swim so well and be so comfortable in the water is an amazing thing and there are many lessons the aspiring adult swimmer can learn from them.
This book is devoted to anyone looking to improve their freestyle swimming. You might be very new to swimming and are trying to become more comfortable in the water. Or perhaps you are a triathlete or open water swimmer looking to improve your speed and efficiency and move up through the field. Or you might be a top-age group or elite swimmer searching for a cutting edge in your races. Whatever your level, we have worked with hundreds of swimmers just like you, both in our coaching base in Perth, Australia and on our international clinic tours. We have developed and improved each and every one of those swimmers and as you will discover in this book, we know how to improve your individual swimming too.
A big hello from one of the Swim Smooth Squads in Perth!
Before we get started on that, let’s take a quick look at the background behind Swim Smooth and how our coaching system came into existence.
We Live Swimming
Swim Smooth are based in Perth, Western Australia, and if you’ve ever been here you’ll understand why! We are very lucky to have fantastic outdoor pools, a beautiful ocean and a warm sunny climate to train in. We run coached swim sessions for adult swimmers like you every day, with around 300 swimmers choosing from 15 weekly sessions. Whatever your current ability level you would fit in nicely if you were here! We have beginners starting out who struggle to swim a lap at the moment, intermediate triathletes looking to improve their performances, age-group swimmers challenging themselves with swims of 20 km or more and elite triathletes and swimmers dominating their races. We are very proud of our ability to coach and develop this huge range of swimmers.
Alongside these squads we use advanced video analysis above and below the water to help swimmers understand what is holding them back in their strokes and exactly how to improve their speed and efficiency. We have been at the forefront of this technology for the last twelve years and have conducted thousands of analysis sessions in that time – in fact many of the photos in this book are taken from these video analysis and stroke correction sessions. In Chapter 16 we will show you how to run your own video analysis session at your pool using your own camera in movie-mode. This will give you such a powerful insight into your swimming that we strongly recommend you film yourself if at all possible.
Developing coaches outside of Swim Smooth is also a real passion of ours and we regularly travel to North America and Europe to run advanced level training courses for swimming coaches to further their skills. In 2010 we were appointed by the British Triathlon as coaching consultants for swimming and have re-written the syllabus and training courses for their Coach Education system based on our methods.
Paul and Adam.
We run year-round open water skills sessions (great fun and our favourite sessions of the week) and regularly consult with elite triathletes and open water swimmers from around the world looking to improve their swimming. If that wasn’t enough to keep us busy, all of the Swim Smooth coaches are competitive swimmers or triathletes themselves and have been racing for many years.
Working with so many swimmers in such an in-depth way has created an insightful, innovative and unique programme for you to enjoy whatever your level of swimming. No other group in the world has immersed itself in these experiences simultaneously for over ten years – we really do ‘live swimming’ – and don’t we know it when the alarm goes off at 4:15am every morning for squad training!
Becoming 11 Again
Before we get into all the details of stroke technique and how to train, let’s consider something possibly even more important: your mental approach to swimming. This might be a key advantage that our 11- year-old swimmer has over you: she swims without inhibition or self-imposed limitation. She doesn’t over-analyse, she’s not self-conscious and she doesn’t doubt herself. She looks forward to getting out of school, jumping in the water and having fun. Fun is a key part of the Swim Smooth philosophy because enjoyment really does have the power to make you a better swimmer. With enjoyment comes motivation and the desire to practice the right things on a consistent basis that will ultimately result in improved performance.
If swimming is currently a bit of a frustrating experience for you, or even a ‘necessary evil’ for triathlon, then of course you need to improve your stroke technique and possibly your fitness preparation too, which we will show you how to do in this book. But over and above that, a positive ‘care-free’ mental approach is so important, it could literally make the difference between you achieving your goals in the water or not. From time to time we will challenge you with coordinating an area of your stroke or perhaps undertaking a tough training set. We can’t promise you that it will always be easy but if you are ever tempted to think ‘I can’t!’ then take a leaf out of that 11-year-old’s book: clear your mind and just go for it! You’ll soon be on the way to more comfortable, more efficient and faster swimming as a result. Who knows, you might even show some 11-year-olds a thing or two in the water!
Acknowledgements
Paul Newsome
Writing this book has been a dream come true and I guess my Grandma Rose was correct when she told me that one day I’d write a book. About what? I’m not sure she was able to predict given that she sadly passed away before I had even created Swim Smooth in 2004. Still, here we are, almost exactly seven years since we produced the very first Swim Smooth DVD and with a piece of work of which I am extremely proud. However, none of this work would have been possible without the help, guidance and inspiration of quite a few key people in my life.
I was always told by my mum (Linda) at swimming competitions to do my best and that no one else could ever ask any more from me than that. Given that I knew quite a lot of kids with very pushy parents when I was in my pre-teens, this advice certainly helped seal my love for the sport of swimming as a keen interest rather than something I was forced into. My mum’s devotion to taking me training every morning and every night and suspending her own interests out of commitment to my own passion was totally selfless and something I can only dream of aspiring to with my children. Thanks Mum – this book is for you.
Paul Newsome
I read two very inspiring and thought-provoking books just prior to commencing work on this project, which got me thinking about my own development as an athlete and now a coach. The first, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, says that to excel in any field, one must accumulate at least 10,000 hours of practical experience and sound application of those experiences. When I emigrated to Perth in Western Australia I was fortunate enough to find a hub of swimming activity for all levels, ages and backgrounds far surpassing anywhere else in the world. With more 50m pools per head of population than anywhere else on the planet, and a multitude of fantastic open water swimming venues, I found myself immersed in a swimming Mecca with the demand for professional coaching enough to support a thriving full-time business. Over the years I have been incredibly fortunate to work with such a massively diverse group of swimmers and triathletes. If it weren’t for them I would not have been able to formulate the ideas behind our unique Swim Types system. I owe thanks to each and every swimmer who I have ever coached in a 1-2-1, clinic or squad situation for allowing me to analyse their strokes and make sense of what efficiency means, not just scientifically, but on an applied basis in the real world. This book is also dedicated to you all in recognition of the need to sometimes go against convention and discover a more pragmatic way to coach a range of different swimmers.
The mighty Challenge Stadium, Perth as seen in our DVDs.
In the second book, Bounce by Matthew Syed, discussion is drawn to the fact that dedicated hard work rather than raw talent and chance encounters with the right people at the right time in your life helps nurture success and cultivate new ideas. Every coach that I have worked with as an athlete has always instilled this idea of hard work and dedication within me and fortunate liaisons, close friendships and training and racing experiences with some of the world’s best athletes have all helped form my coaching knowledge, persona and understanding of what it takes to achieve at a high level in both swimming and triathlon. To my coaches: Geoff Edmunds, Tony York, Mike Craven, Mrs Brown and Mrs Greenall who all played a role in getting me started in swimming at my first ever club in Bridlington, East Yorkshire; Eric Elbourne who first suggested to me at the age of ten that video analysis would be a good way to show me what I could be doing better in my own stroke, and Ben Pollard who showed me that swim coaching could be a professional pursuit at the Hull Olympic Club; Martin Mosey who encouraged me (at the time as a triathlete) to join his elite swim programme for solid early morning sessions, and to Maurice Pegg who showed so much passion and enthusiasm for swimming at the Borough of Kirklees Club; my running coach Brian Burgin at the Halifax Harriers who demonstrated how a no-nonsense mindset can drive an athlete far beyond his physical capabilities; David Lyles, Ian Turner and ‘Bernie’ at the University of Bath who again all encouraged me to swim within an elite programme witnessing first-hand how the best swimmers in the UK and Europe train even as a triathlete when many swim coaches might have scorned my triathlon interests; Richard Hobson who gave such support during my university days and Robin Brew who showed me the technicalities of an efficient open water swimming stroke in a language that could be easily applied; Chris Jones my long-term triathlon coach who took me to excellent results at the World Student Games and European Triathlon Championships whilst demonstrating the need to be analytical and scientific in his coaching approach; and to Billy-Jean Clarke, Roy Shepherdson, Jonathan Aspinall, Andrew Blow, Eliot Chaulifour, Nigel Leighton, Brian Squires, Duncan McKerracher, Simon Lessing, Craig Ball, Julian Jenkinson, Jodie Swallow, Mark Foster, Tim Don, Michelle Dillon, Stuart Hayes, Richard Allen, Peter Robertson, Bill Kirby, Shelley Taylor-Smith, Aaron and Warren Milward, Ceinwen Williams, Yann Rocheteau, Wayne Morris, Paul Downie, Lisa Delaurentis, James Forbes, Amanda Nitschke, Judi Clemie, Natalia Vollrath, Bae Hooper, Lawrence Stubbs, Andrew Hunt and Geoff Wilson I thank you all and hope this book does justice to the many, many training hours we have all invested over the years. I am sure I will have accidentally omitted someone’s name in this list, but rest assured, if I’ve trained with you for any reasonable time I owe something to you too – thanks!
Swimming coaching is notoriously ‘system’ oriented and the large majority of successful coaches tend to work for local, state or national governing bodies who are able to support and assist with funding and salaries. Unfortunately this approach has never been for me as I have always preferred to have the freedom to do things my way and in a manner that I believe in–devoid of politics and committee decisions. With freedom, though, comes risk as a self-employed coach, and without doubt I have to credit this entrepreneurial spirit to both my dad, Shaun, and my step-dad, Stephen, who have both shown me the organisation, mindful planning, tenacity, will to succeed and, above all, a love for their craft, which has been so important in my development as an independent coach. My dad and my sister Sheryl’s love of graphics, animations, text / fonts and visually stimulating displays of colour and motion in their line of work has also arguably had a massive impact on my desire to make Swim Smooth a visually attractive learning tool. After all, if a picture paints a thousand words, imagine what an animation can do!
Many things have led me to where I am at this point in my coaching career but none so interesting as how I came to meet my now business partner, Adam Young, on an internet site no less! Shortly after I released the original Swim Smooth website in December 2004, my attention was brought to a popular triathlon forum in the UK called TriTalk. People write in and discuss various matters pertaining to triathlon, with some of the more hotly ‘debated’ areas being that of correct swimming technique. Between 2005 and 2007 I had been a regular poster to the site under the ‘avatar’ of ‘Swim Smooth’, and aimed to help a wide range of swimmers and triathletes solve their swimming inefficiency woes. On the forum at the same time was someone going by the pseudonym ‘Younggun’ who posted some excellent advice about cycling and running. We struck up a few conversations via email about training philosophy and our shared interest in photography and after Younggun had attended one of our Swim Smooth Clinics in Windsor, I suggested he come over to Australia for six months and see how we do things ‘Oz style’. A great friendship was born and in early 2008 Adam officially became my business partner in Swim Smooth. For the next 15 months we worked feverishly hard building and developing the Mr Smooth animation and the website as we now know it, all with the single-minded goal of helping the world’s triathletes and pool and open water swimmers improve their knowledge and understanding of what makes an efficient freestyle stroke for them. Adam’s work ethic is incredibly fastidious and together we started releasing the ideas and methods that I had been generating for the last few years in a manner that could be accessed easily by all, most notably the Swim Types system. Without Adam many of these ideas would have stayed just that – thoughts without any substance or practical application. We now blog on a weekly basis to over 52,000 people worldwide (as of November 2011) and would like to believe that we have helped create a movement against there being just a ‘one size fits all’ approach to swim coaching. We hope that our recently appointed status as coaching consultants to the British Triathlon, and our work with the thousands of coaches worldwide who share our philosophy, will aid this effort further. The world needs better swimming.
Thanks also to Giles O’Brien and Paul Moss at the British Triathlon for seeking our help with the British Triathlon coaching programme and to Miles Kendall, Andrew Kennerley and all the publishing team at John Wiley & Sons Ltd. who have allowed this dream to come to fruition by approaching us to produce this body of work you have in your hands right now.
And, finally, a massive thanks to my wife Michelle and my children Jackson and Isla who have supported me through all of the hard work and devotion to my swim coaching career. I have to sacrifice much on a daily basis to do what I do and I often wonder if a nine-to-five job would be a better pursuit in this respect. However, this just wouldn’t be me and I have massive respect for Michelle recognising this within me. Michelle has been there from the very start of Swim Smooth: from the very early days travelling around the UK and Europe in our Swim Smooth camper van trying desperately hard to fill clinic places, to now selling out clinic places around the world within a couple of hours of date release. Michelle has witnessed the rapid growth that Swim Smooth has achieved in the last three years as I partnered with Adam, and, as a well-respected physiotherapist herself, is primarily responsible for my knowledge and desire to know more about the anatomy of the shoulder joint, which helps to prevent and cure shoulder pain in swimmers. Without Michelle, none of this would be possible and I thank her for the love and patience that she continually shows me.
Here’s to smoother swimming for everyone!
—Paul Newsome Perth, Western Australia, November 2011
Adam Young
Whilst trying to avoid this becoming a mutual back-slapping piece between us two authors, I simply have to say that Paul’s passion and extreme talent as a swimming coach were obvious to me the first time that I saw him at work on a Swim Smooth Clinic way back in 2007. A few months later when I came to visit his squads in Perth, the latent potential of his coaching methods were so apparent that I felt determined we should take them to the world. Paul, thanks for trusting me and my own ideas, the brilliant insight you offer into swimming, the laughs on the pool deck, the shared journey, and all the 4:15am alarm clocks! Most of all thanks for the chance to work on something important – I wouldn’t change anything for the world.
There are many great things about Australia but perhaps the best is how open and welcoming Aussies are to new arrivals. My time in Perth so far has been an absolute pleasure and I would like to extend a special thanks to all my Aussie friends including Jo, Lisa, Jo, Michelle, James, Nikki, Martin, Helen, Lindy, Therese, Mary, Judi and Janet. Thanks for making this Pom so welcome, extending your friendship, sharing many glasses of wine . . . oh, and the use of your spare rooms!
Adam Young
I would also like to thank Seth Godin for the huge difference he has made to my professional life and in many ways my personal life too. Your understanding of the present and vision of the future has been astounding and has given Paul and I the confidence and methods to take our ideas to the world. Thanks so very much for lighting the path for us.
—Adam Young Perth, Western Australia, November 2011
Getting Started
CHAPTER 1
How to Use This Book
The Swim Smooth Complete Coaching Programme for Swimmers and Triathletes covers the very best methods from the Swim Smooth coaching system and is used as a comprehensive resource to develop your swimming, or that of your swimmers if you are a coach. You can read it from cover to cover or use it as an ongoing reference as your swimming improves and as you work on different areas of your stroke technique and preparation.
As with everything Swim Smooth, we have tried to keep the technical jargon to a minimum and made our programme as easy to understand as possible, keeping things in a form you can easily apply to your stroke. The graphics and pictures have been selected to be engaging and insightful, and lead you through the topics as if we were coaching you face to face. If we start talking about ‘smiley faces painted on the palms of your hands’ or ‘kebab sticks running down the length of your spine’, we are doing so as a simple way of translating the complex biomechanics of an efficient freestyle stroke into something you can easily apply to your own swimming.
In the book we make extensive use of such ‘visualisations’ to simplify areas of the freestyle stroke that many swimmers have historically found quite hard to interpret. Swim Smooth has a very visual coaching style and we know that our swimmers love this approach and find it a refreshing way to learn. Even if you are at an advanced level in your swimming, you will find our approach motivating and you will really benefit from decluttering some of the thought processes involved so that you can become more focused and take your swimming to the next level.
From time to time we will recommend equipment and training aids that we find significantly benefit the swimmers and triathletes that we work with on a daily basis. We have been fortunate enough to have tried most of the swimming products on the market – some great and some not so great – and you can be assured that anything we feature gets our full seal of approval and is well worth considering for your own swimming – see Chapter 3. Please do not feel the need to rush out and buy every product we mention; the tips and techniques in this book will give you significant grounds for improvement in their own right without the assistance of these additional tools.
A Quick Overview
Let’s run you through the structure of the book:
We kick off in Chapter 2 with an introduction to freestyle swimming and cover some of the terminology and conventions we use in this book. If you are new to swimming you will find this extremely useful and it will help you make sense of how swimmers and coaches talk about swimming. We then go on in Chapter 3 and take a look at some of the training equipment you might use and how to select the right tools to assist you in the best way possible.
Next we will take a look at the Swim Smooth philosophy of ‘The Three Keys’, which are: 1) Stroke Technique; 2) Swim Specific Fitness Training; 3) Open Water Skills. These Three Keys form the outline structure of this book and as we will explain, working on all three elements of your preparation at the same time will give you the best improvements in your swimming. In fact if you have been swimming for a while and hit a speed and efficiency plateau it is likely you have the balance wrong between these three elements of your preparation.
Stroke Technique (Key 1) takes a close look at each area of the freestyle stroke and how it should be performed. We will clear up a lot of misconceptions or things you might have read on the internet that date back 15 or 20 years or even earlier! Within this chapter we will show you how to improve each area of your stroke so that you become more comfortable in the water and become faster and more efficient at the same time. If you have primarily focused on reducing drag up until now you will find the section on developing your catch and propulsion particularly fascinating.
Next we have a dedicated section on developing your stroke rate. This is an area that many intermediate swimmers struggle with and can be key to improving your stroke technique and performing well in open water. Even if you are a relative beginner, developing some rhythm in your stroke can be the key to improving your comfort levels and confidence swimming in the great outdoors.
Then we move on to our fascinating Swim Types system – showing you the six classic ways in which people swim freestyle, including the distinct personality that each Swim Type tends to have. This is a great way to bring all the sections of the book together into a simple step-by-step process for you to follow (Appendix B) that is highly tailored to your individual needs.
Before leaving Stroke Technique we will take you through a special feature showing you how to perform a video analysis on your own swimming and how to identify common flaws in your stroke. Referring you to the right section of this book we will highlight how to work on and fix those flaws, making your swimming more comfortable, more efficient and faster too. Very highly recommended!
Swim Specific Fitness Training (Key 2) shows you how you should best train for distance swimming events such as open water swims and triathlon. Fitness from other sports rarely carries over very well to swimming, and developing your aerobic fitness in the water will make a huge difference to your comfort and speed in the water. It will also help you to sustain a better stroke technique as you swim and so improve your efficiency too. This section works in tandem with Appendix C, which contains hundreds of combinations of training sessions for you to follow.
To complete the section on training, we examine specific flexibility and conditioning work to improve your swimming posture and also avoid injury. The exercises in this section perfectly complement everything we cover in Keys 1–3 and will be essential if you suffer from any pain or injury during or after swimming.
Open Water Skills (Key 3) explains how to prepare for open water swimming so as to have a confident, comfortable and fast race! Removing anxiety, drafting techniques, sighting and navigation are all included in detail. You can develop and practise these skills in the pool as well as the open water, in fact there are some advantages to doing so in the pool. Don’t leave this until near-race day, you should practise these skills year round, they are that important!
Key 3: Open Water Skills should form a key part of your swimming preparation.
Appendix A contains explanations and pictures of the Swim Smooth drills – showing you exactly how to perform them and which areas of the stroke they develop. You will find this very useful as an ongoing resource as you develop your swimming.
Appendix B covers the stroke correction process for each of the Swim Types in turn. These consolidate all of the information from this book for you into a simple step by step process to follow for your individual Swim Type.
Appendix C contains a library of training sessions for you to follow in the pool as recommended in Key 3. Need a technique session or want to train your aerobic system? No problem – there’s 5,100 possible combinations of sessions to follow so you will never get bored!
Other Swim Smooth Resources
This book stands alone as a great resource to develop your swimming, however, it becomes even more effective when used in tandem with Swim Smooth’s other coaching resources, many of which are free:
Our Stroke Technique Website: www.swimsmooth.com
The Swim Smooth website contains a wealth of interesting articles about developing your swimming. In relation to this book you will find the animations and video clips very insightful – in fact in some chapters we have given you links to the website to follow for just this reason.
Mr Smooth and Miss Swinger Animations
Our animated swimmers ‘Mr Smooth’ and ‘Miss Swinger’ show you two ideal freestyle strokes in action. They demonstrate one of the two ideal Swim Types each: Swinger and Smooth. These animations are extremely powerful visualisation tools and we highly recommend downloading the iOS or Android app from:
iOS (iPhone / iPad): www.swimsmooth.com/ios Android: www.swimsmooth.com/android
Watch them just before you go for a swim and jump in the water and reproduce their strokes. Many swimmers have taken minutes off their times just by doing that!
The Swim Types Website: www.swimtypes.com
Our dedicated website explaining the Swim Type system is well worth viewing in relation to Chapters 17 to 23 of this book as it shows you video clips of each of the Swim Types in action. We hope you benefit from the Swim Type development processes in Appendix B; if you do, consider going on and purchasing the Swim Type Development Guide for your type. This is supplied as a PDF digital download to your computer and contains an even more detailed development process over and above that contained in this book.
Our animated swimmer ‘Mr Smooth’ shows us the classic ‘Smooth’ stroke style in action. You can view him from any angle to gain great insight and understanding.
Swim Smooth Certified Coaches
At the time of writing Swim Smooth is training hand-picked coaches around the world to pass on our methods and help you to swim faster and more efficiently than ever before. Our network of certified coaches will develop over time – find out if we already have a Certified Coach in your area at: www.swimsmooth.com/certifiedcoaches.
If you are a coach and would like to explore the possibility of becoming a Swim Smooth Certified Coach, then please do so from that webpage. Becoming a Swim Smooth Certified Coach involves a rigorous training process and candidates are selected based upon their education, experience, skill, passion and approach to coaching swimming.
Give Us Direct Feedback
As well as posting on our forum, feel free to send us an email at [email protected]. Tell us how you are getting on with this book or suggest an idea you have that would help you and other swimmers. We get inspired by hearing your stories so please let us know!
The Swim Smooth Guru
If you have enjoyed this book then an excellent next step would be a subscription to the Swim Smooth Guru - our easy to use online ‘Virtual Coach’ giving you everything that Swim Smooth has to offer on your phone, tablet or computer!
The Guru has two levels of subscription:
The low cost STANDARD version is an excellent accompaniment to this book, featuring all of our coaching videos, drill videos and elite swimmer footage to study. But really that’s just the beginning: we’ve included step by step fault fixers to correct your stroke flaws and for beginners our inspiring Learn To Swim Program, teaching you the basics of the freestyle stroke step by step!
The extensive PRO version includes all the features of the standard version plus our full Swim Type development processes and the amazing Catch Masterclass program to transform your catch and feel the water. To develop your swim fitness and prepare you perfectly for events, we’ve included an extensive training system. Start by using the intelligent Goal Setting Engine to lay out a time-line from now until your next triathlon or open water race. The Guru will pick out the perfect training plan for you (there are 13 available in total!) and take you through every session step by step. The Guru tracks your fitness over time and tells you exactly what to programme into a Tempo Trainer Pro to accurately set your training paces, giving you maximum return from your training.
The Guru is truly a next generation coaching tool to take your swimming to the next level. For more information and to subscribe, visit: www.swimsmooth.guru
Our online ‘Virtual Coach’ – the Swim Smooth Guru – gives you everything that Swim Smooth has to offer on your phone, tablet or computer.
CHAPTER 2
Introduction to Freestyle Swimming
The Freestyle swim stroke, often called Front Crawl in many parts of the world, is the fastest of the four competitive strokes and also the one best suited to long distance events. In the elite swimming world it is the only stroke that is raced for distances of 400 m and longer.
Freestyle is unique in that the swimmer has their face in the water for most of the stroke before rotating to the side to breathe very low to the surface. Breathing is a significant challenge when learning freestyle and the struggle to get enough air, without taking on water, is a dominant feature of many beginners’ experiences.
Freestyle is the fastest of the four competition strokes.
The body rotates along the long axis of the spine during the stroke, which helps the swimmer engage their chest, back and core muscles effectively on every stroke. The lack of vertical movement in comparison to butterfly or breaststroke allows good swimmers to sit very high in the water minimising their drag profile. In comparison to backstroke, freestyle has biomechanical advantages, allowing a better propulsive technique in the water. For triathlon and open water swimming, freestyle is a much more compact and ‘narrow’ stroke than butterfly and breaststroke making it ideal for swimming in close confines to other swimmers and obviously has significant sighting advantages for holding a straight line between points over swimming on your back in backstroke.
ADAM:If you can swim breaststroke comfortably but are new to freestyle you’ll find it a revelation when you get the hang of it. With practice you will be able to feel a real sense of rhythm in the stroke without the stop-go action of breaststroke. It’s a bit like breaking out into a run after walking.
As we will see in this book, the exact freestyle technique used by great swimmers varies depending on the race distance, the race environment (e.g. pool vs. open water) and to some extent personal preference. However, the key elements of a great stroke are common between all these great swimmers.
Swimming Terminology
As coaches and swimmers we have names for each area of the stroke and conventions we use for elements like your swimming speed and the length of your stroke as you swim. Don’t be put off by this, this ‘jargon’ is pretty simple and makes a lot of sense when you get the hang of it. The good news is that, for the large part, the terminology used in this book is common all over the world which means you should be able to understand most things written on the internet about swimming and coaching after reading this section.
First, let’s take a look at each part of the freestyle stroke cycle and the names we use for each in Figures 2.1 and 2.2. Broadly speaking the arm stroke cycle can be split into two halves: below the water the ‘catch’, ‘pull’ and ‘push’ phases create propulsion to push the swimmer forwards; above the water the arm carries over the surface during the ‘recovery’ before returning to the front of the stroke with ‘hand entry’ and ‘extension’.
FIGURE 2.1 Freestyle stroke terminology.
FIGURE 2.2 More freestyle stroke terminology.
‘Body rotation’ (or ‘Body Roll’) is also shown in Figure 2.2. This is the rotation movement of the swimmer along the long axis of their spine as they swim, a little like being skewered on a kebab stick (as crude as that sounds!). This roll helps the swimmer generate more power, reduces drag and assists the arms in recovering over the surface. Find out how to develop good rotation in Chapter 11.
‘Body Position’ refers to how high a swimmer sits in the water, particularly the level of the hips and legs. A low-lying body position creates lots of drag as the frontal profile is much larger. You can find out more about this area of stroke technique in Chapter 8.
‘Bilateral Breathing’ refers to breathing to both sides when you swim, if not in turn then regularly swapping sides. ‘Unilateral Breathing’ means the swimmer only ever breathes to a preferred side, either the left or right. Swim Smooth strongly recommend the ability to be able to breathe equally well to both sides, for the benefits of doing so see Chapter 7 and Key 3: Open Water Adaptation.
‘The Bow Wave’ is the wave formed by your body as you pass through the water; it’s a term taken from boating where the wave shape is seen against a boat’s bow. The bow wave forms as your head passes through the water with a slight rise in the water’s surface in front of the head followed by a dip past the head and neck area, known as the ‘trough’. A good freestyle breathing technique takes advantage of the bow wave as the swimmer can keep their head lower and breathe into the trough by their head. This is known as ‘Bow-Wave Breathing’.
The bow wave is formed by the head and body passing through the water.
‘Feel For The Water’ is a term used to describe the sensation of the water on your hands and arms as you swim. When a swimmer is feeling the water well they are timing their stroke movements to create good propulsion resulting in a good feeling of connection with the water. We use drills and visualisations to help you develop this in your own stroke, see Chapter 13.
‘Stroke Length’ is a commonly discussed area of swimming as we shall see in this book. The normal way to measure it is to count how many strokes you take to swim a length of the pool counting both arms. A lower number indicates a longer stroke. When quoting this figure you should always mention the length of the pool too – e.g. 25 yd, 25 m, 33 m, 50 yd, 50 m. Typical stroke counts in a 25 m pool are between 11 and 30 strokes per length – which you will often see abbreviated to SPL.
‘Stroke Rate’ (not to be confused with stroke length) is how many strokes you take per minute, counting both arms. This is like cadence on a bicycle except with cadence you only count one leg, not both! The higher your stroke rate, the faster you are turning your arms over. Typical numbers are in the range of 35 to 110 strokes per minute (SPM) with most non-elite swimmers in the 50–65 SPM range.
Traditionally it was very difficult for swimmers to control their stroke rates but with the invention of stroke beepers such as the Wetronome and the Finis Tempo Trainer Pro (see Chapter 3) this has become much easier. These beepers can be set to a given number of strokes per minute and you simply coordinate your strokes to the beep as you swim – controlling your stroke rate in this manner can be extremely beneficial to your stroke technique as we shall see in Chapter 14.
Unlike stroke length, stroke rate can be easily measured in open water and this makes it the key reference for open water swimmers to monitor their strokes. Generally speaking open water swimmers use higher stroke rates with a slightly shorter stroke length than pool swimmers. This helps them punch through waves, chop and the wake from other swimmers. As we will discuss in Chapters 14 and 39 this may be a worthwhile modification to make in your stroke in this environment.
Some references to stroke rate on the internet and in academic papers might refer to stroke cycles per minute – one cycle being the combination of a left and right arm stroke. In this situation 30 cycles per minute is equivalent to 60 strokes per minute. Some sources also refer to cycle time in seconds (a stroke cycle taking 2.0 seconds to complete would also be the equivalent of 60 SPM). What we really like about strokes per minute is a) we are always dealing with whole numbers and not decimals and b) when using a stroke rate beeper the swimmer can coordinate each hand entry into the water with the beep which helps identify issues in symmetry between left and right.
Swimming Speed is normally quoted as the time taken to cover a given distance. This could be time per 400 m or 1000 m but most commonly speed is quoted in time per 100 m swum in minutes and seconds. So 1:30/100 m means every 100 m swum is taking you one and a half minutes to complete.
An elite swimmer might sprint at 0:50/100 m and slow down to 1:00–1:05/100 m over longer distances (if you can call that slow!). What we call ‘advanced’ swimmers will fall in the range of 1:10–1:30/100 m for continuous swims. ‘Intermediate’ age-group swimmers will be in the range of 1:30–2:10/100 m with beginners taking up to 3:00/100 m.
The Pool Pace Clock is a special swimming clock that is well worth learning to use. It does not have a minute hand, just a double second hand coloured red in one direction and black in the other. Elite swimmers do not wear a watch when they swim, instead they use the pace clock to time all their sets – with practice you can learn to time any distance of swim using just the second hands of this clock.
The key to doing this is knowing approximately what time you will swim for any distance. For instance, you might know that you can swim 400 m in close to eight minutes. If you set off when the red hand reaches the 12 o’clock position (jargon ‘going on the red top’) then you should finish when the red hand is near the top again. So, if you finish with the red hand on 10 seconds you swam 8:10, or on the 45 seconds, you swam 7:45.
This is beneficial because many swimmers find that wearing a standard watch disrupts their ‘feel for the water’ by disturbing the water flow on your arm. Also, when swimming repetitions you can use the pace clock to set you off. For instance you could swim 100 m repetitions starting every 2:15 and so start the first on ‘black top’, the second on ‘black 15’, the third on ‘black 30’ etc. This is a simple way of swimming sets without having to look at your watch and do lots of mental arithmetic!
A ‘Torpedo Push-Off’ or ‘Streamline’ is a position adopted by swimmers as they push off from the wall. This position has a very low level of drag, lower than when swimming normally. The quickest way to swim is to push off from the wall and hold this streamlined position until the speed drops to normal swimming speed and then ‘break-out’ into full stroke. The length of this push-off is normally around 5 m (15 feet) but some elite swimmers can hold the position up to the maximum FINA-legal limit of 15 m (45 feet) and accompany it with a powerful kick. See Chapters 9 and 10 for a discussion of the other benefits of using a good torpedo push-off when you swim.
A pace clock has two opposite second hands – with practice you can time yourself over any distance using it.
In open water swimmers gain an advantage from swimming behind or to the side of other swimmers, a technique known as ‘drafting’.
‘Short Course’ and ‘Long Course’ pools are technical terms to describe 25 m and 50 m (or yards) pools respectively. The Olympic Games always uses a long course pool and generally they are slightly slower to swim in than a short course pool as the swimmer turns less often and so loses the speed benefit from a strong push-off from the wall. FINA world championships are swum in both long course and short course pools. Two separate sets of world records are kept for long and short course pools. The Wikipedia page at www.swimsmooth.com/worldrecords has a full and up-to-date listing of these complete records and makes for fascinating reading when comparing it to your own times!
‘Hypoxic Breathing’ is the process of swimming whilst limiting your supply of oxygen by breathing less frequently than normal, typically every five, seven or nine strokes. Many coaches state that this helps to build lung capacity and aerobic endurance but definitive studies demonstrating this are lacking. At Swim Smooth we use sets of restricted breathing frequency to allow the swimmer to focus on a deeper exhalation in the water rather than holding your breath. When breathing less frequently you should aim to stay calm and to allow yourself time to focus on the symmetry of your stroke.
‘Drafting’ is the act of swimming behind or to the side of another swimmer to gain an advantage. This is perfectly legal in open water swimming and triathlon and viewed as fair-play with swimmers looking to maximise the benefit they gain when racing. As we shall see in Chapter 36, there are two positions to draft in, either directly behind or to the side and slightly behind another swimmer.
‘Sighting’ is the act of raising the head above the water’s surface to look forward and navigate in open water whilst swimming. Lifting the head places downward pressure on the legs as the body pivots around its centre and this creates extra drag. As we shall see in Chapter 35, a good sighting technique minimises the head lift to minimise additional drag.
Training Session Terminology
Please see Appendix C for special abbreviations and terminology relating to training sessions.
CHAPTER 3
Swimming Equipment
There is a wide variety of swimming equipment and training aids available on the market, which are designed to target specific areas within the freestyle stroke. Whilst some swimmers prefer to train without the use of any pool equipment, at Swim Smooth we are very passionate about using the right tools for your stroke and incorporating them into your programme in the most effective way.
PAUL:There will be those swimmers who prefer to keep swimming as simple and pure as they can and will choose to swim with as little gadgetry as possible, but there are those who prefer to use all the latest gear and find this approach to be very enjoyable and in sync with their analytical personalities – each to their own we say! Personally, I’m a bit of a gadget guy but I also love swimming totally free, especially when in the open water.
In this review we have categorised a wide range of training aids into ‘essentials’, ‘highly recommended’, ‘not-essential but nice to have’ and ‘not recommended’ and we aim to show you how each might help you with your swimming. Whilst this is not an exhaustive list of all the pool toys you will find out there, it will give you a very good idea of what to look out for.
Californian swimming technology company Finis is one of the most innovative companies in this area and for this reason we have tried and tested all of its products, our favourite ones of which feature prominently below. Other manufacturers making good swim gear and training aids are Speedo, TYR, Aqua Sphere, and Arena. Depending upon your location, you may see that some of these brands are more prominent than others.
Essential Equipment
Goggle clarity in the open water is essential and will make you feel much more comfortable in this environment.
There are many training tools you can use to assist you with your swimming, some useful, some not so useful. For a review of each see the main text.
A mid-length rubber fin (left) is much better for performing drills than a shorter zoomer-style fin (right) due to the extra propulsion and flexibility it offers.
FIGURE 3.3 There is a huge variety of paddles on the market.
Highly Recommended
Stroke rate and lap interval beepers by Wetronome and Finis sit under your swimming cap and beep to you a lap-pace or stroke rate as you swim.
