Of all the swim channels I follow, it seems like Brenton (sp?) has some of the best advice. I have not subscribed $ to any of his coaching, but is there anyone else out there that you have used & have had measurable improvements?
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If you follow some of the information paul newsome puts out there, he is quite open on his training methods and sets too. He posted on here back in the day too.
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I paid for a year about a year ago. You can post your own videos and a coach will usually review it. Also once a month Brenton reviews submitted videos post a video of the reviews. I can’t say it really made a big difference for me but it was something.
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I’m a fan of his training. After I did my first HIM I followed the 8-week faster freestyle since my swim was abysmally close to cutoff time. I cut myself down from a 2:15-20/100m average pace to 2:00. Most of the fixes were his explanations of body positioning and breathing that helped me a lot.
I think it’s a good program before you spend some $$$ on a coach. I then did 1:1 coaching for a month and fixed the small issues in body position to get to 1:50/100m. Then I tried out Effortless’ 5-day catch program which has gotten me down to around 1:45/100m on my pacing.
I think next for me is significantly more swim volume and another round of coaching to push down to 1:30-35/100m which is my goal for 2026. Brent also has a great video out on the common mistakes from 2:30 down to 1:15/100m, I think it is spot on and worth a watch.
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Doesn’t matter the name of the “program” swimming fast, and especially learning to swim fast IS anything but, effortless. It IS HARD WORK.
Same for anything in life where one wants to achieve mastery.
Sorry for the truth bomb
Agree. Triathletes tend to look at swimming the wrong way. I used to swim with various tri groups and also a masters swim group that focused on racing.
The tri groups would plod along endlessly with 200-800m intervals, a few half hearted drills nobody really knew why they were doing etc, and nobody really got faster. These people were already fit, but none of them made significant improvements in their swimming. They all thought they needed more miles.
The masters group swam the same mileage (honestly , often less) but rarely did intervals over 200m. They swam more hard sets, way more IM work, worked on turns, starts, breakouts etc. They were working on the art of swimming. After two years with that squad, I went back and would absolutely destroy the triathlon squad who were still plodding along their moderately paced 400s, 800s etc. I was a middling average fish with the swimmers, and basically Micheal phelps to the triathletes.
When you learn how to swim hard, swimming for triathlons does feel far more effortless.
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So you improved your pool based skills but how did this translate to race day performance? Was there a corresponding gain? I know I could save a few seconds per 50 by improving my tumble turns etc but do t bother as I figure i can’t tumble turn in a race? I’m sure this is probably the wrong mindset though
My race performance improved dramatically. I didn’t race a tri for those two years, just did masters 2x/week and ran. A month before my racing season, I did a few open water swims. Literally around 3, just to get used to the wetsuit.
My first race back was a half iron distance and I came out of the water in 27 minutes. I remember getting out of the water and seeing most of the bikes still in T1, I turned around and saw the pack still a fair distance out in the water and was legitimately confused, like I wondered if I accidentally cut the course. I later swam an hour in an IM with very little effort. Just felt like I was cruising. Before I joined masters, I was holding maybe 1:50/100m in the pool. I learned to swim as an adult.
The pool skills are basically all drills that help your overall swim performance. Flip turns, dolphin kicks etc help you gain a better feel for the water. Fly is a sculling and timing drill. Backstroke helps you focus on your body and head position, etc. Everything you learn practicing those skills, you can apply to freestyle.
Swimming is part art and learning how to move through water. Triathletes tend to skew towards analytical thinkers and need to quantify things and isolate metrics. You can’t really ask someone what physiological metrics they need to work on to become a better dancer, though, and I think the same partially applies to swimming. Until we are all swimming in full suites with thousands of sensors giving us real time feedback (like what CARV boots are trying to do with skiing) we will rely on feel for the water, and the more types of swimming you do, the better you will develop that skill.
Also, the short, hard intervals really helped build strength too.
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The first thing you need to do to improve your swim is get away from the idea that there is a big difference between pool and open water. The skills developed in the pool directly apply to open water. If you look at the best distance pool swimmers in the world and the best open water swimmers in the world (who also compete in the pool), there is no difference between what they are doing underwater. Swimming is swimming.
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