December 2009
Swimming. Why settle for anything less than the best technique you can achieve? This has been in my head for a while so late in October I took action and tried a 1-on-1 60 minute session in an endless pool and received excellent feedback on my swim technique. I left that session armed with a knowledge of how I could improve my technique by being better co-ordinated in the water. I then managed to swim 40 times over the next 8 weeks. All sessions were early morning and mostly after waking up 30-40 minutes earlier than an already early start(!), biking to the pool, doing the swim session and then biking to work. Exactly the same routine every morning up to the point at which I arrived at my desk at work - I found that swimming at the same time every day made it a lot easier to 'show up' at the pool and after a few weeks of this it became very normal to slip into the pool at 6.30am, a little like being on auto-pilot. The auto-pilot part stopped once I had gotten wet as my aim in this '5 times a week for 8 weeks' block was improved technique. The sessions were approximately 50% drills (wearing flippers) and 50% 100m/50m intervals.
During this swim focus period, the above picture of the sailfish was in my mind during every session. A magnificent creature and the fastest fish in the sea (speeds of 110km/hr or 68 mph recorded). Unlike the sailfish which has undergone millions of years of genetic evolution we humans of course have a lot less time! At the start of my swimming evolution at the age of 30 I struggled to swim 1 length of front-crawl ending up in a hyper-ventilated state on completion. 9 years later I swim in the top 10% in Ironman swims but although I now have the engine my swim technique has some way to go. I have long marvelled at how swimmers like Phelps, Thorpe etc and front pack Ironman swimmers move in the water. Their ease of movement and resultant forward motion is highly impressive.
The technique elements that I have really worked on over the last few months are whole body positioning and body rotation, both aimed at reducing resistive drag and reducing the amount of deceleration during deceleration periods of the stroke cycle. The drills I performed were focused on these elements and in addition explosive breathing. I noticed almost daily improvements in technique, measured mainly by a progressive decrease in the number of strokes per length and the ease with which I attained the lower strokes per length count. I found that when you swim that much your feel for the water improves significantly. Focusing on every single stroke for approximately an hour, 5 times a week, for 8 weeks is a lot(!) of focus on training the nervous system. Whilst in the pool I tried to maintain a very 'quiet' frame of mind in order that my concentration did not drift from 'the next stroke'. Training the muscles/aerobic system was not therefore the primary focus and so I didn't time interval splits.
The result of the swim block is that I now swim each 25 metre length using on average 2 strokes per length less than before I started the block - am now approaching 3 strokes per length less towards the end of each session. Importantly I now have significantly better feel for the water and better positioning/balance in the water. I still feel that there is huge scope for improvement but am now some way further along the journey. That level of focus on technique has given me an increased appreciation of how starting with a conscious focus on learning the method eventually leads to performing the method with excellence without consciously thinking about how you are performing that method.
Although it felt fairly extreme to be biking to the pool that early in darkness in all weathers I looked forward to the moment when I was in the pool - 'how many centimetres will I gain today using the same stroke count?'. Key to any improvement is enjoyment of the process no matter how tedious it can get. During those periods of tediousness, remaining alert and ready to absorb small iterative improvements is important.
I'll continue to strive for further improvements in swimming technique - whilst I'll never swim like a sailfish, there ain't no harm in trying!
