Hey guys, I am still pretty new to swimming and started swimming laps last January with pretty much no swimming back ground. I took a few lessons, swam a few times per week from Jan to May and managed to get through a few short course races and one HIM over the summer. I am currently stuck around the 2:00/100yrd range and lately have been focusing on putting in harder sessions each time I swim. I have been told that my time is better spent focusing on intensity in sessions rather than doing drills.
I watch videos in between sessions and try to be mindful of my technique each time I swim but I know there is a bunch of things I am probably doing wrong and it is hard to focus on fixing the faults when I am trying to get through my hard interval sets. I donât know if my time would be better spent focusing on the foundational stuff to get my stroke more efficient or if I should be hammering through workouts and just building fitness. I am wondering what some of you think about this concept as there seems to be mixed opinions on this. How would you spend your 3-4 swims per week if you were in my position? I am not looking to be front of pack swimmer any time soon but I would like to get my swim times down a few mins on last season.
If you want to get better over the long term, then you absolutely need to work on technique. The fitness is important too, good technique is somewhat dependent on good technique, but your technical skills are and will be your limiter unless you work on them, irrespective of how much fitness you gain.
Also, just to clarify for you, technique work can include drills, but not necessarily.
As previously mentioned not all technique work comes from drills. I learned to swim 3 years ago and am a 1hr Ironman swimmer and I have never once done a drill. I have had people watch my technique and critique but also watch swimming tutorials and during my easy sets I focus on those. If you are doing a 3000yd swim, not all of that is hard intervals and during warm up, cool down and easy sets in-between focus on your form. Then there are your recovery swims where you may have 5x300yd focusing of straight body and technique etc and throwing some 100s in between the sets. There should definitely be a balance between both.
IââŹâ˘ll add to my previous thoughts that with where you are currently, literally everything needs to have a technique focus. That means even on those hard intervals, maintain the best form you can and work on improving one thing (just one at a time). If you feel like things are deteriorating, then stop, rest and regroup, then try again
If you are ever at a point in your workout where you know your technique is failing due to the effort then itâs probably time to back off and regroup. The danger as an adult learner is that you are promoting the wrong motor patterns which will become a hard limit in the future. The fitness part of the equation can be improved to itâs fullest extent no matter what your age - if you do the work and practice perfectly.
The only time Iâm not actively thinking about my form is when Iâm racing. At that point I can only hope my perfect practice is with me on race day and my job is to gauge the effort correctly.
IââŹâ˘ll add to my previous thoughts that with where you are currently, literally everything needs to have a technique focus. That means even on those hard intervals, maintain the best form you can and work on improving one thing (just one at a time). If you feel like things are deteriorating, then stop, rest and regroup, then try again
Agree. Thatâs how i approach training too. Iâm slow but without the little technique i have, iâm âdead in the waterâ. But without swim fitness , i canât finish an Ironman. So I need both and I guess you too.
Also, although i havent progressed much in terms of pure speed, I do find that it takes significantly less energy for me to complete an IM swim than two years ago. Difference between almost fainting when exiting the water and smiling to friends and fam on my way to T1. Thatâs improvement too!
Fellow adult onset swimmer here and definitely agree with the gist of all these posts. I am in the pool 3-5x a week and mix up shorter faster sets with moderate and easy longer sets, working my way up to faster somewhat longer sets. It has taken me 9 months minimum for technique improvements to ââŹĹsinkââŹÂ in- pardon the pun- I was such a sinker early on- coming from lots of powerlifting and being athletic but not a cyclist or swimmer. I am now starting to feel much more like I am chill in the water- IââŹâ˘m not fighting it, my legs are finally higher, I have less of a kind of looney tunes illusion when I am swimming. Feels smoother. Building fitness has happened in conjunction with major technique improvements. Now I have a LONG way to go. Your 2:00/100y is my strong pace :). But that no longer feels like IââŹâ˘m desperate to be finished. So yes- work on technique and work on speed ââŹâfor variation- because you wonââŹâ˘t leap forward in speed without technique improving. ItââŹâ˘s definitely a bigger limiter than fitness.
I go as hard as anyone in the pool, and I do drills EVERY SINGLE SESSION. There is no choice between technique work or fitness; it has to be both. I do drills in my warmup every. single. time. It improves my feel for the water/ body position early, then I can take that technique through the main set.
As others have also said, âtechnique workâ doesnât just have to be drills. It includes things like pull sets, kick sets (especially without a board) to work on body position, using an ankle band, sculling, etc. Doing those things will build swim-specific strength that will allow for better technique.
I go as hard as anyone in the pool, and I do drills EVERY SINGLE SESSION. There is no choice between technique work or fitness; it has to be both. I do drills in my warmup every. single. time. It improves my feel for the water/ body position early, then I can take that technique through the main set.
As others have also said, âtechnique workâ doesnât just have to be drills. It includes things like pull sets, kick sets (especially without a board) to work on body position, using an ankle band, sculling, etc. Doing those things will build swim-specific strength that will allow for better technique.
THIS^
My warmup is usually some variation on SKPS, but the first swim is usually actually a drill aimed at establishing good catch, trying to avoid crossover, and stretching out and getting some length in the stroke.
Same old false dichotomy. Looks like itâs been dispelled from this thread, but it will be back.
You only have so much awareness. It shifts back and forth between effort and technique, but very rarely should you focus 100% on effort. Effort can be put on semi-autopilot and awareness can be directed at technique.
Thanks guys, your replies have all been SUPER helpful. There are a lot of great points here and I will definitely take these on board with my training. I appreciate the feedback.
Same old false dichotomy. Looks like itâs been dispelled from this thread, but it will be back.
You only have so much awareness. It shifts back and forth between effort and technique, but very rarely should you focus 100% on effort. Effort can be put on semi-autopilot and awareness can be directed at technique.
This.
My competitiveness used to put âwinningâ and effort in practice ahead of form. In hindsight I think that was a big mistake. In my defense, people didnât know as much about proper technique way back when I was doing that. Now I always concentrate on technique, and sometimes I put as much load on that technique as I can.
@ OP - Agree with all above (re: technique + fitness), but for you, if youâre like most newish AG triathletes, youâre lucky to see even a single week of 10k yards in training, and probably average <7k per week.
At <7k/wk, you can still make real progress from the BOP, but itâs very tough for most AGers to get toward the top 20% without more than that at some point. The good part is that once youâve hit that higher level of performance, itâs a LOT easier to either maintain or get back there later on.
It would be helpful as a reference point to know how much you swam per week on avg before, and whatâ youâre shooting for realistically. And yes, itâs very hard for triathletes doing balanced training to get enough swim volume in - I swam probably only 6-7k/wk in my last race cycle (darn bike/run time commitments!), which unfortunately translated to a drop from my typical speed, so Iâm trying to refocus on a winter swim block to try and push up my swimming before race season.
IââŹâ˘ll add to my previous thoughts that with where you are currently, literally everything needs to have a technique focus. That means even on those hard intervals, maintain the best form you can and work on improving one thing (just one at a time). If you feel like things are deteriorating, then stop, rest and regroup, then try again
This. Work on both but not isolated. Technique is only good if you can keep it together at race paces.
I go as hard as anyone in the pool, and I do drills EVERY SINGLE SESSION. There is no choice between technique work or fitness; it has to be both. I do drills in my warmup every. single. time. It improves my feel for the water/ body position early, then I can take that technique through the main set.
As others have also said, âtechnique workâ doesnât just have to be drills. It includes things like pull sets, kick sets (especially without a board) to work on body position, using an ankle band, sculling, etc. Doing those things will build swim-specific strength that will allow for better technique.
This is a subtlety often overlooked. Of course, a swimmer needs to kick as well as pull, and most triers donât like to do much in the way of kicking, unless it is with fins.
