Swimming Done Right

Triathlon Forum
1

So, I’m sitting here watching my 13YO daughter’s club swim and getting a lesson in swim drills done right.

Coach assigns drill, tells kids to swim 1x25
Coach eyeballs one swimmer, walks beside them on the deck for the 25
Arrives at opposite wall, loudly corrects swimmer he’d been watching:
“Drills are a contest to see who has the prettiest stroke, not a contest to see who is the fastest. Your stroke was ugly, slow down and do it right”
Explains something to the group
“Go!”
Repeats eyeball walk
Arrives at opposite wall, loudly complements swimmer he’d been watching: “Beautiful”
Explains something to the group
“Go!”
Repeats eyeball walk with another swimmer
Rips them apart at the wall
“Go!”

This continues for a full 90’ session. A lane, B lane, front of the group, back of the group. No one is spared, everyone is relentlessly critiqued. No wonder these kids can swim (and they can really move, trust me).

How do you manage your drills?

Scott

2

How do you manage your drills?

poorly.

seriously though, when I do a drill I’m usually thinking about just one thing, and making sure I do that one thing as right as I can without having a coach standing over me correcting. Every so often (not that much, but on occasion), I’ll point out something to one of the other guys/girls in my lane that they’re not doing well. For example, last night I showed the other guy in my lane how to scull, what he should be feeling. (we were doing 8 25’s alternating scull with another dril). After the next scull repeat has said to me “wow, I really feel that in my forearms”. “Yup, that’s what you should feel. You’re moving water, not giving it a backrub”…

but seriously, in masters we don’t get the same degree of oversight as an AG team would. Sometimes we share the pool with a small swim / water polo club coached by a guy from the former Soviet Union. He only has 2 lanes of swimmers, and he watches those kids like a hawk. And when he tells those kids to do something, you can be damned sure they listen…

3

Kids gotta learn what the competition is about. Sometimes it’s not about speed.

Additionally, what I like about this is that there was very little ‘fixing’ of the drill. It was, “That was ugly,” followed with, “That was beautiful.” Many times, people think that coaches provide lots of minor details to a swimmer’s stroke. Most of the time, the swimmers have to use their brain and figure it out.

4

So, I’m sitting here watching my 13YO daughter’s club swim and getting a lesson in swim drills done right.

Coach assigns drill, tells kids to swim 1x25
Coach eyeballs one swimmer, walks beside them on the deck for the 25
Arrives at opposite wall, loudly corrects swimmer he’d been watching:
“Drills are a contest to see who has the prettiest stroke, not a contest to see who is the fastest. Your stroke was ugly, slow down and do it right”
Explains something to the group
“Go!”
Repeats eyeball walk
Arrives at opposite wall, loudly complements swimmer he’d been watching: “Beautiful”
Explains something to the group
“Go!”
Repeats eyeball walk with another swimmer
Rips them apart at the wall
“Go!”

This continues for a full 90’ session. A lane, B lane, front of the group, back of the group. No one is spared, everyone is relentlessly critiqued. No wonder these kids can swim (and they can really move, trust me).

How do you manage your drills?

Scott

I use the same method when coaching our youth team. Lots of 25’s for the drills with commentary at both ends of the pool. 13 y/o’s are a good group. They do great making corrections and taking in praise to keep doing something correctly. 10 and under (boys in particular) are another story. They are very capable of taking me down a peg. In any given practice, half of those boys have their heads under water (not listening) for half the time. Argggh!!! Serenity now. Sometimes I get to sub in and coach the masters, and they’re closer in behavior to the 10 and under’s than the 13 y/o’s for listening and implementation.

5

How do you manage your drills?
Scott

Oh man that write up takes me back to cutting my teeth in the coaching world as an AG swim coach nearly 25yrs ago. Great write up!

For adult triathletes…hmmm…IDK if they should even bother with unsupervised drills if they are an adult onset swimmer. If they are going to do anything they should do things that force them to change their stroke mechanics instead of trying to change them via a random drill.

Do they even understand what they are doing wrong? Most triathletes have a very poor understanding, at best, of what drills to do to fix X or Y in their swim strokes.

They’d be better off sprinting with fins, using a variety of paddles that are smaller compared to what they normally use and with only the finger strap - no wrist straps. Then when the paddle falls/slips off their hand trying to change things to keep the water pressure on it.

Using fingertip paddles, swimming with fins/paddles, swimming other strokes, playing sharks & minnows or blindsman with the kids in the pool would be a good idea.

Although my guess is if you’re a 45yo AOS trying to play sharks with the kids that’s creepy. _O_/

I’ve seen so many triathletes get in the water and do drills poorly making themselves no better at best and worse at worst. These triathletes outnumber the one’s I’ve seen get in and be able to figure it out by themselves at least 10 to 1.

6

I did a USMS stroke clinic. It was 3 hours of pretty much exactly this. After being stuck on a plateau for a couple years, I found ~ a second a hundred in my freestyle in that clinic. Came out a better swimmer in all 4 strokes, really.

7

This makes me think of a recent interview of Kathleen Baker’s coach. When asked for one thing that makes a great swimmer, he answered “it’s no one thing, it’s every thing”. All the little details count, and swimming well is the pursuit of perfecting a million little things.

Most triathletes don’t get this, but that is because most triathletes haven’t seen an environment like I described above. I’m grateful for my daughter’s experience and find myself influenced by these motivated kids and the club’s commitment to their potential.

Referenced interview follows (lots of fantastic insight on the athlete/coach dynamic highly recommended view for all).

Scott

https://youtu.be/Hcd27lXO0nc

8

13 y/o’s are a good group. They do great making corrections and taking in praise to keep doing something correctly. 10 and under (boys in particular) are another story. They are very capable of taking me down a peg. In any given practice, half of those boys have their heads under water (not listening) for half the time. Argggh!!!

These must be universal truths. The 13/14 girls on this squad are dominant and absolutely go.to.work. They just bury themselves for recognition by the coach (which really puts the safe sport initiative in a new perspective).

Any submariners end up sitting on the pool deck for instruction (outdoor pool, generally chilly on deck), then demonstrate the drill for the group. If memory serves, it is a younger (10ish) boy every time!

Scott

9

If you are not a lifelong swimmer with good mechanics and know what you are looking to correct in your stroke, unsupervised drills are a complete waste of time in my opinion.

Watched my wife (1 year of swim training under her cap) do drills prescribed by her excellent coach. He coaches in an endless pool and can immediately correct, and in general, does an excellent job. She has gone from not being able to swim at all to 1900m in under a year. BUT…when I watched her do the drills, I could not figure out even what she was trying to do. What she thought her body was doing and what it was actually doing were WORLDS apart!

She seems to progress better by just swimming, trying to make her body long, and be conscious of how/where her hands enter the water. Anything more and the brain is overwhelmed and everything falls apart. When the coach is there, drills are obviously the way to try to make some of these things more automatic when she is swimming.

10

I’m an adult onset swimmer. I can read all the drills in the world and they don’t do much of anything for me because I don’t have anyone to give me feedback if I’m even doing the damn things right. Last year I made a big leap in training, and when I thought swimming was coming along ok, I took some video with an underwater camera. It was shocking. I thought I was so smooth and proficient in the water. It was a disaster.

Maybe one day I will get real one on one coaching, I think i would like that. Until then, i will just keep pushing my intervals so I can at least go faster with my crap technique.

11

…
They’d be better off** sprinting with fins**, using a variety of paddles that are smaller compared to what they normally use and with only the finger strap - no wrist straps. Then when the paddle falls/slips off their hand trying to change things to keep the water pressure on it.
…

So I’ve seen this mentioned a few times here. What is the benefit of swimming/sprinting with fins? That seems like an easy enough thing for me to incorporate, but I never really knew why I’d want to.

12

…
They’d be better off** sprinting with fins**, using a variety of paddles that are smaller compared to what they normally use and with only the finger strap - no wrist straps. Then when the paddle falls/slips off their hand trying to change things to keep the water pressure on it.
…

So I’ve seen this mentioned a few times here. What is the benefit of swimming/sprinting with fins? That seems like an easy enough thing for me to incorporate, but I never really knew why I’d want to.

Swimming (as opposed to kicking) gets you moving quicker in the water, so you can get your turnover rate a little higher and also magnifies the sensation of body position errors.

13

So is the idea that I’ll be able to “feel” the drag and theoretically correct my position because of it?

ETA: And so you just swim (or sprint) normally, but with fins?

14

So is the idea that I’ll be able to “feel” the drag and theoretically correct my position because of it?

ETA: And so you just swim (or sprint) normally, but with fins?

partly, yeah. they’ll also get your legs higher when you kick.

15

The opposite end of this: a coach prescribes a drill, gives general advise to the entire group creates 3-4 things for the swimmers to concentrate (which is 2-3 too many) and then after each 25 spends 2 minutes reexplaining. The coach is simply trying too hard and the feedback loop is completely useless.

yesterday I was leading some intermediate level swimmers ages 8-10 and we were doing 25s backstroke drill of 6 kicks and a two pulls. I told them that the goal was going to keep their hips up and that I would be grading them on a scale of 1-10 based on where their hips sat in the water. I pretty much didn’t have to tell them that a small steady kick was going to lead to better results and that raising their head would sink their hips. They figured that out on their own simply by understanding what we were trying to accomplish and then being objectively evaluated so that they know if they are doing it right.

16

…
They’d be better off** sprinting with fins**, using a variety of paddles that are smaller compared to what they normally use and with only the finger strap - no wrist straps. Then when the paddle falls/slips off their hand trying to change things to keep the water pressure on it.
…

So I’ve seen this mentioned a few times here. What is the benefit of swimming/sprinting with fins? That seems like an easy enough thing for me to incorporate, but I never really knew why I’d want to.

Kids today swim with fins a lot. Sometimes just to get the feel of swimming fast. You can really feel the affect of head position, hand entry and body position when the water flow increases from swimming at faster speeds. They will also teach you what your kick should feel like and build leg/core strength.

All the cool kids have these: https://dmcfins.com/...tions/dmc-elite-fins

Scott

17

So is the idea that I’ll be able to “feel” the drag and theoretically correct my position because of it?

ETA: And so you just swim (or sprint) normally, but with fins?

Swim normally, just let the fins do the work. For example, say you normally swim 10x100 on 1:30. Put your fins on and swim 10x100 on 1:15. The effort should be the same (or less). And you’ll begin to learn what 1:15 feels like.

Of course, you’ll need a coach on deck to get the stroke right!

Scott

18

If I put the volume in that the cool kids are doing, I’d definitely be using fins more. But on 2-3 swims per week, there are so many things that come before that.

Cats. So many ways to skin those things…

19

Whelp, fins don’t cost that much. I guess I’m going to have to give it a try.

Thanks guys for the excellent answers and advice.

20

How do you manage your drills?
Scott

Oh man that write up takes me back to cutting my teeth in the coaching world as an AG swim coach nearly 25yrs ago. Great write up!

For adult triathletes…hmmm…IDK if they should even bother with unsupervised drills if they are an adult onset swimmer. If they are going to do anything they should do things that force them to change their stroke mechanics instead of trying to change them via a random drill.

Do they even understand what they are doing wrong? Most triathletes have a very poor understanding, at best, of what drills to do to fix X or Y in their swim strokes.

They’d be better off sprinting with fins, using a variety of paddles that are smaller compared to what they normally use and with only the finger strap - no wrist straps. Then when the paddle falls/slips off their hand trying to change things to keep the water pressure on it.

Using fingertip paddles, swimming with fins/paddles, swimming other strokes, playing sharks & minnows or blindsman with the kids in the pool would be a good idea.

Although my guess is if you’re a 45yo AOS trying to play sharks with the kids that’s creepy. _O_/

I’ve seen so many triathletes get in the water and do drills poorly making themselves no better at best and worse at worst. These triathletes outnumber the one’s I’ve seen get in and be able to figure it out by themselves at least 10 to 1.

For AOS triathlete swimmer…this^^^

I suck and I know I suck. I sometimes do drills because my coach prescribes them and I’ve watched/read every swimming treatise on the internet. I find catch-up and fist are the only two that impact my stroke.

I’ve had two masters coaches who just wrote workouts and gave zero feedback and I’ve tried to hire the coach at the Y to give me personal lessons. He couldn’t, but whenever I swim there if he’s there, he’ll give me a tip.

I’d love to have feedback real-time on drills, but until then, I really feel like I’m better off just swimming.

Point of order: The next time you fish want to make fun of an AOS triathlete who has 200 “toys” at the end of their lane, it’s probably just somebody who knows their stroke sucks but has no capacity to fix it or to know how to fix it. Their only recourse is to buy stuff that they feel gives them the proper feedback.