It s my training partner, Tom Evans (4x ironman winner) that initiated me to the Band only swimming drill in 2004. He loved doing those and as we trained together...i had to get with the program! As i got back to my regular squad swims, my coach Joel Filliol decided to try a little experiment where i would swim with band only anytimes there is a pull set. So what ever the others do pulling..i would do with a band only. i believe the experiment lasted 6 months or so.
The interesting thing is, swimming with a band might sound hard...but it s highly technical and when you finally understand how to keep your body high on the water, it become rather easy to do so. I progressed to hold 1:20-25s/100m on longer sets of 400s and could swim 1500-2000m of it in practice with very little issue. Transferring those skill to my normal freestyle made a amazing difference in pace...it was definitely a precious tool for me as a athlete
Now standing on the pool deck as a coach, i have to say it s one of my favorite drill to use to teach triathlete to swim ''on top'' of the water, to kept a high turnover and be aware of any slippage in their catch.
I suggest you start with 50s at first as until you master the technical part... it can be a grueling effort. But remember... if you can apply those concept...the results can be spectacular for your every day swimming.
hope this video can help some of you! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg-GB2_lPyI
Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
Instargram
The interesting thing is, swimming with a band might sound hard...but it s highly technical and when you finally understand how to keep your body high on the water, it become rather easy to do so. I progressed to hold 1:20-25s/100m on longer sets of 400s and could swim 1500-2000m of it in practice with very little issue. Transferring those skill to my normal freestyle made a amazing difference in pace...it was definitely a precious tool for me as a athlete
Now standing on the pool deck as a coach, i have to say it s one of my favorite drill to use to teach triathlete to swim ''on top'' of the water, to kept a high turnover and be aware of any slippage in their catch.
I suggest you start with 50s at first as until you master the technical part... it can be a grueling effort. But remember... if you can apply those concept...the results can be spectacular for your every day swimming.
hope this video can help some of you! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg-GB2_lPyI
Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
Instargram