A Simple But Powerful Drill Sequence

Here in Perth we frequently use a simple drill sequence with the Swim Smooth squads, it's a progression that you can easily introduce into your technique sets or during the warm-up of any session. You may already be performing a similar drill and not truly appreciate the dramatic improvement it can make to your stroke with a different focus.

Your Stroke While Breathing

As you know, here at Swim Smooth we very much favour an individual approach to correcting someone's stroke. However, within our drill set we use several of our 'core' drills with nearly all swimmers as they tackle a wide range of stroke flaws. One such drill is kicking-on-your-side using a pair of flexible fins, it's a very powerful but often misunderstood drill.

Most swimmers (around 80%) lose stroke form when going to take a breath in. This is a critical point in your stroke for two reasons:

1. Most swimmers hold onto their breath underwater rather than exhaling smoothly and continuously whenever they are face down. As a result they feel a strong urgency (or even a desperation) for air, such that when they do go to breathe their focus is entirely on the breath, allowing stroke flaws to creep in elsewhere in the stroke.

2. Many swimmers breathe only to one side and as a result have developed a lop-sided stroke, twisting through the middle when they breathe and crossing the mid-line with the lead hand in front of their head.

You are really very likely to have one or both of these issues in your stroke and be losing a huge chunk of speed and efficiency as a result. If you are swimming in open water then a lop-sided stroke and crossover will make you swim off course and lose you even more time. In fact our work with GPS devices shows swimming 20% or more over-distance is very common for swimmers with a crossover, an incredible statistic.

The following drill sequence is designed to tackle these issues and help you improve your stroke while you are breathing.

Kicking On Your Side

Using a pair of flexible fins, kick on your side for 25m with your left arm extended out in front of your head with the palm of your hand facing the bottom of the pool. The other arm should be held by your side, as if it's resting in the front pocket of your trousers. Whilst on your side, kick relatively gently using the fins to provide propulsion so you can focus on what is happening in front of your head.

Hold good posture by drawing your shoulder blades together and back, which will straighten you out. This is a fundamentally important position in freestyle to avoid rolling the shoulders too far forward, which can be partly to blame for a crossover in front of the head in the first place.

If you are very flexible through the upper back and shoulders you may be able to over-do this and draw the lead arm wide. Think straighter, not wider!

Breathe to your right hand side whenever you need to and return your head to look down in the water, maintaining good exhalation. Feel smooth, rhythmical and calm but with a sense of poise about your body.

After 25m of this drill, transition straight into 25m of normal freestyle but still only breathe to the right side. Breathe comfortably every 2 or 4 strokes and maintain focus only on your lead arm spearing straight forwards as you breathe to the side. Try focusing on the middle finger of that lead hand and where it is pointing, aiming gun-barrel straight down the lane!

Now repeat on the other side as 25m kick with the right arm extended (breathing to your left) and then 25m normal freestyle only breathing left.

Same Drill Different Purpose?

You may have tried a similar drill many times before but perhaps focused on something else such as body rotation. This sequence provides a different meaning to the drill by focusing on your posture, holding yourself straight and aligned, even whilst breathing.

Try this sequence before a challenging main set and see if you can maintain a good focus on your posture and alignment when you turn up the speed dial. You could well swim a PB set right off the bat!

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Our New Swim Type Video Sequences

Firstly, a quick reminder that our new book is now on sale : www.swimsmooth.com/book

The book's been selling like hot cakes since we announced it on the blog last week with half of our stock sold in the last 7 days! Don't risk missing out, order now!

New Swim Type Sequences

Our Swim Types system eschews the 'one size fits all' approach to swim coaching and recognises the individual shapes, sizes and personalities that we all have and how that impacts on how we swim. We've pulled together some detailed video sequences showing you each of our six Swim Types in action. When you see these clips below you can really understand the common aspects between different swimmers of each type and how each stroke type fits together.

Identify your own Swim Type and we'll show you exactly what's holding you back. Then, by using one of our 20 page Swim Type Guides we'll give you detailed step-by-step instructions to improve your swimming.

Are you forever stuck as your swim type? Absolutely not. The types are the six classic ways that people swim given their current ability level. As you develop your swimming you will move away from your original type, ideally towards one of the two 'ideal' stroke styles: the Swinger or the Smooth.

Check out these new sequences, we think you'll find them fascinating :

Introduction To Swim Types

Arnies fight the water

Bambinos struggle with breathing

Kicktastics like to over-kick

Overgliders have introduced a deadspot to their timing

Swingers make amazing open water swimmers

Smooths are the envy of the pool

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Announcing Our New Book: The Complete Swim Smooth Coaching System!

Have you enjoyed our Swim Smooth website and this blog? If so, you'll simply love our new book, launching today! :

There's never been a swimming book like this before, it's packed with hundreds of photos, diagrams, descriptions, explanations and step by step instructions to take your swimming to the next level. All written in Swim Smooth's clear and easy to understand style. Full information here.

Published by one of the largest publishing companies in the world John Wiley & Sons, it's taken over a year for Paul Newsome and Adam Young to write and is based on all our work and experiences at Swim Smooth since our creation in 2004.

The book contains everything you need to understand your swimming and take it forwards:

• How to develop every aspect of your freestyle stroke technique with step by step methods.

• Our complete drill set with detailed descriptions and photos.

• How to take a truly individual approach to your swimming, so that you develop a stroke style that really works for you.

• Becoming a great open water swimmer, overcoming anxiety and developing those critical open water skills.

• Developing your specific swimming fitness, a much overlooked and misunderstood subject but one that can make a huge difference to your level of comfort and performances.

• Dry land strength and conditioning to improve your swimming.

• Combine our unique skeleton structure with detailed technique and training sets to transfer what you've learnt into practical swim sessions to follow. Using this structure you can create over 5000 unique sessions!

Here at Swim Smooth we're extremely proud of this new work. Whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced swimmer it is packed with the insight and methods you need to take your swimming to the next level.

The book is now on sale on our website, order today and we will ship to you on 15th June (next Friday) wherever you are in the world: www.swimsmooth.com/book

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The Corkscrew Open Water Turn

If you are looking to excel in open water races or triathlon swim legs then you need to regularly practise your turns. Every open water turn gives you the opportunity to save a few seconds and the possibility of dropping other swimmers who may be drafting off you.

In this post we're going to look at an advanced way of turning called a corkscrew turn. It's a fast and tight way to cut round a buoy and a very useful skill to have in your locker. Even if you are not an advanced swimmer give this a try in training, it's a lot of fun and makes turns a lot easier when you need to cut a tight line at a turn buoy.

The Corkscrew Turn

Take a look at the following image sequence of Paul Newsome demonstrating this turn:

Paul approaches at full speed (1) and slides his arm closest to the buoy (2) past it, note at this point he has his back to the buoy and can't see it. He then flips onto his back (3) and his recovering arm comes over the top as in backstroke, enters the water at the front (4) and continues the body rotation back onto his front again (5). Setting off on his new heading he quickly gets back up to speed using good stroke rhythm and a healthy burst of leg kick (6).

Turning left (as shown above) you slide your left hand past the buoy to rotate onto your back, whilst turning right you slide your right arm past. Make sure you practise both! In a particularly tight turn you might not be able to turn sufficiently in a single corkscrew, in which case perform two in a row, one immediately followed by another.

If you are relatively new to swimming then this may look like an advanced skill but it is not actually that hard when you get the feel and timing of it.

Turns And Strategy

A conventional turn bends you through a wide arc as you stay on your front and you gradually stroke around the turn (blue line below) :

That's fine but if the wider path is blocked by slow swimmers you are going to be held up without the ability to perform a corkscrew turn which is much tighter (red). In relation to other swimmers drafting you, if they can't perform a tight turn themselves then you have a golden opportunity to shake them off your toes.

Practise In Training

There's very little chance of turning up on race day and performing a good corkscrew turn without practising them beforehand. Get together with some friends in open water, or in an open area of your pool, and work on getting the feel and rhythm of them. It's a lot of fun and like all open water skills can make a huge difference to your performance on race day, so much so that you should practise these skills all year round either in open water or in the pool.

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SS Coach Education Courses & CSS iPhone/Pad App

A couple of announcements this week:

Swim Smooth Coach Education Courses In July / August

Paul Newsome and Adam Young are running a series of our Three Day Coach Education courses in the UK in July and August, in Loughborough and Cardiff. If you are an aspiring coach looking to seriously develop your swim coaching and video analysis skills then don't miss out on this opportunity.

This unique and hugely popular course is recommended and endorsed CPD by Triathlon England and Scotland. Coaches from the UK and around the world are encouraged to apply (see the Olympics while you're in the UK!). For more information and to apply: see here

CSS iPhone/Pad App: Simulator+

If you have a Finis Tempo Trainer or Wetronome Mk2 then Swim Smooth Coach Steve Casson has written a great app for your iPhone or iPad. Given your 200m and 400m times, the app will calculate your CSS pace and then tell you what time per lap to enter into your beeper to pace you out perfectly!

The app also includes a stroke rate stop watch, so you can measure strokes per minute accurately. Very neat and totally free! More more information see here, or search for Swimulator+ in the app store.

Find out more about CSS (Critical Swim Speed) training and how it can make a huge difference to your swimming performances on our website here: www.swimsmooth.com/css

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Two Quick Tips If You Struggle With Breathing

If you're quite new to swimming freestyle, you might well struggle with your breathing. You might be taking on water when you try to breathe or feel desperately out of breath and have to stop for a rest at the end of each length.

Don't worry that's perfectly normal, here are two quick tips to help:

The One-Two-Stretch Mantra

One of the biggest causes of breathing problems is if your lead arm is collapsing down into the water as you breathe, as we see with Clare's stroke here:

As you start to take a breath, your lead arm should still be out in front supporting you. If it sinks down in the water with little purchase then your mouth will sink below the surface and you'll take on water.

At this point of the stroke you're naturally thinking 'give me that air' and nothing else! The key is to let your breath take care of itself and keep your focus on the support of the lead arm instead.

To help with this, try repeating this mantra to yourself: 1-2-Stretch-1-2-Stretch where the 1 and 2 are on normal strokes and the stretch is on a breathing stroke, reminding you to keep that lead arm stretched forward for support.

If you have a tendency to pause and over-glide in your stroke then be wary of leaving this arm stationary for too long or you risk stalling. Just stretch and feel like the focus is on that lead arm and not on breathing in.

If you found this tip helped your breathing then take a look at our Bambino Swim Type and see if it rings any bells with your stroke. The Bambino Stroke Correction Guide (here) will give you plenty more tips to improve your swimming, all tailored to your specific stroke style!

Popeye Breathing

Our second tip is to remember to angle your mouth to the side as Paul is demonstrating here:

This looks a bit like Popeye chewing his spinach, which is where the technique gains its name from. Breathing in this way helps you keep your head lower without taking on water, which is important as lifting the head too far causes your legs to sink downwards.

Any Swim Type can benefit from Popeye breathing but particularly those new to swimming.

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HUUB Wetsuits Now On Sale

Now On Sale

Yes they're finally here, the new HUUB Wetsuit range is now on sale, just in time for the triathlon and open water swimming season!

Using our deep knowledge of individual stroke styles we designed suits to perfectly match your specific stroke whether you are a leg sinker, naturally buoyant, a strong kicker or experienced swimmer.

Select the right model and buoyancy profile, and you'll immediately feel at home, swimming quickly and efficiently with the suit complimenting (and even improving) your stroke technique.

The suits were co-designed by world leading Sports Science Professor Huub Toussaint using the very best materials and construction possible, guaranteeing you the slippierest suit possible. This man knows the secrets of what makes a suit really fast having worked with Olympic Gold medallists to study and select the speedsuits that have dominated the last few Olympiads.

Last by not least, the HUUB design triangle is completed by Dean Jackson, a man with 22 years of experience in the wetsuit and triathlon industry. He's the experienced and sensible one - making sure each design concept is well conceived, thought through and constructed using the very best methods and materials.

All the hard work is done and the result is an exceptional range of wetsuits packed with new design concepts that are set to revolutionise wetsuit design forever. For more information and to purchase, see here.


Swim Smooth!

HUUB prototype testing in open water with Swim Smooth's elite triathlon squad

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics / One to Ones:
Corby, UK - 27th May 2012	Richmond, UK - 24th June 2012	Salisbury, UK - 24th June 2012

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The Overglider Kickstart

If you have tried to make your stroke as long as possible you might well have introduced a pause-and-glide into your stroke timing, we call this sort of swimmer an Overglider for obvious reasons! We've covered the perils of Overgliding previously on the blog but let's look at a knock-on effect that pausing and gliding can have on another part of the stroke.

The Overglider Kickstart

Overgliders are very focused on their efficiency in the water and are trying to lower their level of effort, in doing so many adopt a 2-beat kick style. This means that for every full stroke cycle (two arm strokes) the swimmer performs two kicks rather than the traditional six kicks of a flutter kick, the idea being that two kicks takes less effort than six.

If you have a distinct pause-and-glide in your timing then you are faced with the problem of re-starting your stalled stroke at the end of the glide. With a two beat kick this is a greater problem because not only is your lead arm stationary during the glide but your legs are stationary too! In this situation the Overglider commonly uses a distinct kick-start action to restart their stalled stroke.

Above the water this is hard to spot but from below it is very obvious:

The irony is that while Overgliders are very focused on lowering drag, many have introduced a very large source of drag with such a large knee bend showing their thigh and back of the calf into the water flow (at its worst in the third frame above). This in turn lowers their body in the water adding even more drag.

Stroke Style And Kicking

A two beat kick looks simple but it is very hard to perform well because it requires that many other parts of the stroke are well developed. A swimmer must have an excellent catch technique and swim with great rhythm and timing to integrate the two beat kick action into their stroke.Without these elements in place the kick-start action is caused and/or the swimmer sinks lower in the water in the gap between kicks.

Our thoughts:

- Only consider switching to a two beat kick if you are an advanced level swimmer with a good catch, rhythm and timing, potentially seeking to develop economy in open water events over 2km. Head Coach Paul Newsome did exactly this to good effect in 2009 in preparation for his English Channel swim in September 2011, but it wasn't easy and his stroke style changed considerably in the process.

- A two beat kick is best suited to those with a shorter punchier style such as Swingers.

- For those aiming for a long smooth stroke style, a light flutter kick makes much more sense. The continuous action will help you avoid the kick-start and it will lift you up higher in the water (ultimately lowering effort, not increasing it). Try it the next time you swim, be objective and see how you go against the clock with it.

- If you can feel yourself kick-starting in your stroke it's also worth giving your kicking technique a tune up, see here.

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Paul Newsome Interview On IM Talk

If you are an Ironman triathlete you've probably listened to the excellent IMTalk podcast hosted by Bevan James Isles and coach John Newsom. This week's show features an in-depth interview with Swim Smooth's head coach Paul Newsome covering all things swimming.

Check out the show here: http://www.imtalk.me/home/2012/4/16/imtalk-episode-307-alan-couzens-and-paul-newsome.html

The interview starts at around 47 minutes into the podcast and kicks off with a discussion about modelling your fitness using the training metrics CSS and TSS. If you find this a little technical then skip forwards to around 53 minutes where things broaden out and Paul discusses Swim Smooth's coaching philosophy, the Swim Types system and how you can change your approach to swimming to get much better results.

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Choosing The Right Head Position For You

Many swimmers (and some coaches) believe that every swimmer should look straight down at the bottom of the pool when they swim, so as to improve their body position. Is this true? Let's look at some swimmers underwater to find out :

The Star Of The Pool

First up we have double Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington, showing us a mid head position, looking at the bottom of the pool 1-2 meters ahead of her:

(click images to enlarge)

As you can see Rebecca sits fantastically high in the water, a body position she can easily achieve despite looking slightly ahead. This is very typical of elite pool swimmers who rarely look straight down or very far forwards.

Key point: The very best pool swimmers in the world tend to use a mid head position, looking slightly ahead.

The Professional Triathlete

Fraser Cartmell is a star of the 70.3 world stage and a great swimmer to boot. Like all elite triathletes, Fraser's main concern is performing well in open water swims and so he uses a very forward looking head position:

Looking so far forwards helps him navigate effectively and find the toes of other swimmers to draft effectively. Note that he can do this while still maintaining a high body position in the water (despite being super-lean).

Key point: If you have good stroke technique, you can achieve a high body position despite looking forwards and for open water swimming this is a major tactical advantage.

The Buoyant Age Grouper

Marina is an age group swimmer with a naturally high body position in the water, she's been told to look straight down at the bottom of the pool when she swims but this was very bad advice for her:

By looking straight down she starts to rise up out of the water at the rear:

In a wetsuit, the extra buoyancy exacerbates this problem further, leaving her feeling very unstable. We coached Marina to look a little further forwards, rebalancing her in the water while still maintaining an excellent body position. Looking further forwards also helped her proprioception (body awareness) in front of her head so that she could develop a greater feel for the water during her catch.

The extreme version of this advice is to ask swimmers to 'swim downhill', which is a disaster when their natural body position is already very good :

Here Barbara has added huge frontal resistance after being asked to bury her head in the water. Returning to a higher head position and not pressing down with her chest allowed her to immediately swim more efficiently and be much more comfortable doing so.

Key point: For swimmers with a good natural body position, looking straight down harms their swimming. If you feel unbalanced when swimming (or in your wetsuit in open water) try looking further forwards and see if it helps gives you stability.

The Sinky Legged Swimmer

Glen is a former professional Aussie Rules football player and is relatively new to swimming and triathlon. He suffers greatly from low sinking legs in the water:

Much stronger on the bike and run, this athlete is massively held back by the drag from his low lying legs. To improve his body position there are numerous things he can work on in his stroke, such as:

- Removing hand-entry crossovers which cause scissor kicks and drop the legs downwards.

- Exhaling better into the water to remove excess buoyancy from the chest and make him feel more relaxed.

- Keeping his head low and using the bow wave trough when he breathes.

Once he's worked on these things he can also try a lower head position to help bring his legs up further.

Key point: Looking down can be a useful modification for those with sinky legs. However, it makes navigation and catch development harder so treat it as a last resort by working on other areas of the stroke to improve body position first.

Conclusion

You can see from the examples above that selecting a head position should be an individual thing for individual swimmers - there is no universal head position that is best for everyone.

Try swimming 100m yourself experimenting with your head position, looking in each of the directions below for 25m in turn :

Choose the one that feels best for your stroke and allows you to swim faster and more efficiently, then stick with it. When we try this exercises on our Swim Smooth Clinics we always receive a range of feedback with some swimmers feeling better looking forwards, while others improve when looking downwards, others feel best somewhere in between.

You can repeat this exercise in your wetsuit, you might well find you can look further forwards which can be a great advantage for open water navigation and drafting.

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Is Procrastination Killing Your Swimming?

Procrastination is a silent killer of swimming performance; it keeps us doing the safe and familiar things, and stops us making the changes that we need to improve. It keeps us on that frustrating plateau we're on, sometimes for years.

Do you recognise yourself in any of these statements?

I haven't been in the water in ages, when I do go back it's going to be a struggle.


When I'm at the pool I see slow swimmers fighting the water. At all costs I must
work on my stroke technique and focus on efficiency.

I don't feel ready to -  join a squad / swim in open water / do a race  - as I'm
not a strong enough swimmer yet.

I'm sure my stroke technique is fine, I've been swimming for years and it's
always stood me in good stead. What I need to do is train harder.

Procrastination can take other forms too, such as endlessly studying great swimmers on Youtube or debating technique to the nth degree on internet forums. The more intellectual the swimmer the more elaborate this analysis-paralysis becomes but more often than not people who do this are simply putting off going to the pool and actually swimming.

Our suggestion? Don't put it off another day. Commit to a period of six to eight weeks and make some major changes in your approach to swimming. Then focus on those changes every session and be objective about the outcome by measuring your swimming speed before and after. The worst thing that can happen is that you slow down slightly and need to revert to what you were doing before. But far more likely you'll finally get off that plateau and break through to a higher level of swimming.

What changes should you make? There are some ideas here and here but quite likely it's the thing you've been avoiding doing more than everything else.

If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always got. It's a cliché but so very true.

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Beautiful Weather (For Open Water Swimming?)

Over the last week or so Europe has been experiencing an amazing warm and sunny period that is scarcely believable for March. We've heard from many of you who are digging out your wetsuits and going for the first swim of the season at your local open water swimming venue. It's great to be able to do this so early in the year but watch out because the water's still very chilly and this can be a bit of a shock to the system.

If you're a little anxious in open water then the number one thing to remember to do is to exhale into the water continuously with a big long stream of bubbles 'brrrrrrr'! Our natural reaction is to hold our breath when feeling anxious, building up CO2 in the body. This further heightens feelings of anxiety and so creates a vicious circle leading to the possibility of a panic attack.

It's only March but swimmers are already enjoying
open water swimming in the Lake District in the UK

Splash some cold water on your face for 10-15 seconds before getting in and when you start swimming simply focus on blowing those bubbles into the water. If you're breathing every three strokes you can use our famous mantra bubble-bubble-breathe to help you tune into this technique.

This sounds like very basic advice but focusing your mind on something as simple as exhalation is powerful. Blowing bubbles is directly under your control so that you start to settle down and feel more relaxed after a few minutes. Worrying about things not under your control (e.g. waves, the cold, what else might be in the water) will make you more anxious, so focus on something that is under your control (blowing bubbles) and block everything else out.

Have fun out there and be sure to swim at a safe venue with other swimmers and proper life saving support.

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Better Wetsuit Design For Women

Most women's triathlon and open water swimming wetsuits are simply men's suits cut to the female form, which we think is a pretty underwhelming approach to their design. With the new Huub Aura we started from a clean sheet of paper and designed a bespoke suit for women that is getting rave reviews from all the girls who have tested it (e.g. here).

Most women feel unbalanced in their wetsuit. This is caused by too much buoyancy in the hips and legs, which lifts them out of the water at the rear and leaves them bobbing around like a cork with very little stability. This happens because women as a rule women are much more buoyant than men and this buoyancy is distributed differently around the body, with more in the hips and legs.

Many women also like to use their kick when they swim and being brought too high at the rear by their wetsuit means they start to kick into the air, which is very ineffective and disconcerting.

A third difference is that women find wetsuits more restricting around the shoulders than men and suffer to a far greater extent from shoulder fatigue than their male counterparts.

What's the solution? We sat down with the new team at Huub and designed a special low buoyancy suit that is ultra flexible, particularly in the chest, upper back and shoulders. We named it the 'Aura' and it is incredibly effective for women who have a naturally high body position in the water.

One additional benefit of this design is that the thinner neoprene creates a suit that is much easier to put on and take off, and because it is thinner it doesn't make your legs look like tree trunks!

So girls, when selecting a new wetsuit choose carefully and find a suit that matches your natural buoyancy and body position in the water. In doing so, make sure you take a good look at the new Huub Aura, you won't believe how nice it feels in the water and how well you swim in it. For more information see the Huub website and brochure.

For men reading this, if you are in the opposite situation and have sinky legs in the water then check out the Huub 3:5 profile suits - you will never have experienced a leg-lifting effect like it!

All Huub wetsuits have been designed by Swim Smooth and renowned sports science Professor Huub Toussaint to match the stroke characteristics of individual swimmers for maximum comfort and performance. The new range goes on sale in April.

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To Draft Or Not To Draft?

Drafting another swimmer (see the two ways here) can save you up to 38% of your energy expenditure. With such large savings on offer, swimming in a good draft can feel very easy despite you moving at a decent pace.

In a race situation this creates a common dilemma, should you stay in an easy draft or swim around and go on your own? In this situation how do you know what's right to do? At the moment we're half way through our clinic series in the UK and in the section on open water skills this is the most common question we've been asked by the swimmers. Here's our answer:

Pace Awareness When Drafting

To know whether you are really moving too slowly when drafting, you need to practise this in the controlled environment of the pool to learn how it feels. Grab a buddy who is a slightly better swimmer than you and have him or her swim at your target race pace for around 200-400m while you draft them. Settle into the draft and get into the rhythm of swimming - you'll soon gain an appreciation of how this target pace feels - it may surprise you how easy it is!

Pacing skills are a very important part of being a good swimmer but as a triathlete or open water swimmer you also need pace judgement when drafting so that you can make tactical decisions like this in a race. There's only one way to develop your drafting pace judgement and that's with practise. For that reason we strongly recommend you work on your drafting skills (and also your sighting and navigation skills) all year round in the pool. It's great fun and will really help you achieve your potential come the open water season.

Drafting skills are important for any swimmer
to master, whatever their ability level

In fact, Swim Smooth's philosophy is that stroke technique, swimming fitness and open water skills are equally important and should all be given equal priority in your training. Our new UK Certified Coaches follow this philosophy in their squad sessions by including regular open water skills sessions.

Don't Like Drafting?

Many swimmers say that they dislike drafting and that's only natural, the concentration required is higher and the hustle and bustle of swimming close to other swimmers can feel a little disconcerting at first. However, like with anything, with practise you can become familiar and comfortable with it and the performance improvements on offer are too large to ignore. Drafting well can easily be worth two minutes per km swum!

Always remember the number one rule of drafting: PRACTISE MAKES PERFECT

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Overgliding, Inefficiency And The Overgliderometer

You might have noticed on some of our recent videos how we've included a 'time between strokes' measurement in seconds. This is the time delay between one stroke finishing at the back and the next one starting at the front:

It turns out that this is a very interesting measurement because it's a good indication of how much someone glides within their stroke. Some swimmers have a slight overlap, with the front stroke starting before the rear finishes and we indicate this with a negative number.

We have some clever video analysis software that lets us easily measure the time between strokes from video clips of swimmers and we recently spent a happy Sunday afternoon analysing hundreds of swimmers of all ability levels. As we were just interested in studying the effect of gliding on speed as closely as possible, we removed all the swimmers who were fighting the water (e.g. those with a large crossover in front of the head or a large scissor kick) from the dataset. They would have been in Region A below:

Included on the graph are famous swimmers such as Ian Thorpe, Michael Phelps, Rebecca Adlington, Sun Yang (1), Alex Popov, Grant Hackett, Lotte Friis (2) and Ross Davenport. It also includes professional triathletes (3) and most of the popular swimming demonstration clips on Youtube, as well as data from normal swimmers of all ability levels.

The relationship between gliding and efficiency is really striking isn't it? Wherever you are on the graph, if you introduce too much glide to your stroke you will slide down the relationship and lose chunks of speed and efficiency. In fact once a swimmer is over 0.7 seconds of glide (we catagorise this as 'Extreme Overgliding') they have become so inefficient they normally have to stop and take a significant rest every 50m:

Notice that there is a complete absence of swimmers in Region B, a region where fast swimmers with a significant glide would sit if there were any :

Many swimmers (and some coaches) believe that elite swimmers do have a significant glide in their timing but this is an illusion caused by the sheer length of their strokes - when you study the footage and take the measurements you find that there is hardly any gap between strokes at all. Their freestyle is continuous, transitioning smoothly from one to the other without any dead-spots or pauses.

Even though elite swimmers have a very small gap between strokes or even a slight overlap between them, this still gives a front quadrant stroke with the arms passing in front of the head (one over the water, one underneath). This is because the recovering arm travels quickly forwards over the surface as the stroking arm catches and pulls relatively slowly under the water.

Note that if you are going to study footage in this manner yourself, it's best to study clips where the swimmer has already swum 50m or further before taking the measurements. All swimmers can sustain a lower stroke count and swim quicker for the first 25m or 50m swum before settling down. You may have noticed this drop-off yourself if you've ever counted your strokes over several lengths.

Introducing The Overgliderometer!

Our graphics team had a little fun here but we hope the Overgliderometer makes a serious point, highlighting the transitions between stroke styles for different lengths of glide:

The Smooth Swim Type (e.g. Ian Thorpe or Sun Yang) have a very small gap between strokes of 0.1 to 0.2 seconds. The Swinger (elite open water swimmers and triathletes) have an overlap or tiny gap between -0.1 and 0.1 seconds, this stroke style is ideal for open water swimming where rhythm and momentum are key. The Classic Overglider (already losing a lot of efficiency) is in the range 0.4 to 0.7 seconds and Extreme Overgliders (very slow and inefficient) glide for 0.7 seconds or more.

Overgliders

In an effort to make their stroke as long as is physically possible, many swimmers have placed a heavy emphasis on gliding with scant regard for the rhythm of their stroke. Just like we teach that short scrappy strokes can be inefficient as the swimmer fights the water, so too is an overly long freestyle stroke detrimental to performance.

Some swimmers say that they like this 'mini rest' between strokes but given that water is over 800 times more dense than air, pausing and gliding only results in deceleration. Each new stroke then has to re-accelerate the body in the water and this becomes very wasteful of your energy. It's also very common to see swimmers add a strange 'kick-start' action with the legs to re-start the stalled stroke. This adds drag and further harms your efficiency.

The term 'Glide' has long been used by swim coaches and is well meant to describe a smooth, efficient, unhurried freestyle stroke. Unfortunately it has also been misinterpreted to mean pause, stop and do nothing momentarily. At Swim Smooth we avoid using the term glide as it is so easily misinterpreted to mean pause and do nothing.

Long Stroke Styles

Many swimmers aspire to have a long smooth freestyle stroke and that is fine for pool swimming as long as you create it in the right way and it doesn't become overly long. There are three ways to make your stroke longer:

1) Reduce your drag so that you slip through the water more easily
2) Increase your propulsion so each stroke pushes you further
3) Artificially elongate the stroke by deliberately pausing and gliding between strokes

Reducing your drag and increasing your propulsion (1 & 2) are clearly good things and will make you faster and more efficient. But as we have seen in the data, trying to make your stroke longer by introducing a significant glide is putting the cart before the horse and only makes you less efficient. If you've tried Overgliding yourself, you'll know that it ultimately leads to frustration for this reason.

Be careful, there are still plenty of proponents of Overgliding on the internet today. If a long smooth stroke style appeals to you then like any swimmer you should work on reducing your drag, improving your propulsive technique and create a smooth rhythmical stroke without any dead-spots or pauses - just like elite swimmers do. This will naturally result in the optimal stroke length for you without chasing an artificially low stroke count by introducing a 'pause and glide' into your stroke.

If Long Doesn't Suit You

Depending on your individual make-up, a really long stroke style may simply not suit you. That's perfectly fine because a slightly shorter stroke can be just as efficient when drag is low and propulsive technique is good. However, what will make your stroke style unique is that you need a greater emphasis on stroke rhythm, perfect for punching through waves and chop in open water swimming. This is the refined Swinger style of stroke.

Swim Smooth!

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Introducing Five Swim Smooth Coaches (Permanently In The UK!)

Today we are very excited to announce the new SS Certified Coach Programme with five newly qualified Swim Smooth Coaches permanently coaching in the UK. Each coach has been hand picked by us, highly trained for over 12 months (including special intensive training with us in Perth, Australia) and are now ready and waiting to give you the very highest quality of swim coaching available in the world. Their services include:

Certified Coach Training In Perth, 2011

- One to one consultations including Advanced Video Analysis to transform your stroke technique

- Swim Smooth squad sessions for all ability levels featuring the perfect mix of technique work, training and open water skills sessions


- Open water skills sessions to make sure you transfer your pool abilities across to the open water (don't underestimate the importance of this)

- Swim Smooth's unique individual approach to swim coaching

Welcome to the Swim Smooth team Fiona Ford, Steve Casson, Steve Bailey, Martin Hill and Julian Nagi! For full information on the coaches and their locations, please visit: www.swimsmooth.com/certifiedcoaches

(Just like our clinics, these guys are going to be extremely popular - so please don't delay in booking your consultation with them or enquiring about joining their squad.)


The Triathlon Show This Weekend

Don't forget that Swim Smooth will be at the Triathlon Show in London this weekend. Paul Newsome will be there and we'll be running swimming seminars on both Saturday and Sunday (see here).

The newly certified coaches will also be there to meet you - please come and say hi. Also, if you bring along video of your stroke on a memory stick or DVD we'll take a look at your footage and give you an instant analysis of what you're doing wrong at the moment and how to improve your swimming!

Sorry For the Wait

Julian, Fiona and Paul Newsome share a joke with
our squad swimmers in Perth

We know that many of you have been frustrated that you could not get onto one of our International Clinics when we have travelled over from Australia. This has been a problem for us over the last two to three years as demand for our coaching has sky rocketed, in the last twelve months alone we've had over 1500 direct enquiries from swimmers about attending our clinics.

To meet this demand our intention has always been to seek out the very best coaching talent, carefully train and mentor each coach individually and give them huge experience in using Swim Smooth's methods. Thanks for being so patient while we went through this process, this is not something you can hurry or inevitably standards will slip. Rest assured, Julian, Martin, Steve, Steve and Fiona now represent the very best swim coaching available to you in the UK - and the world for that matter.

It only remains for us to congratulate the guys on the great achievement of becoming a full Swim Smooth coach. We've pushed you very hard over the last twelve months of your training but you've come through every test with flying colours. Paul Newsome, Adam Young and the rest of the SS team are very proud of you and your abilities.

Swim Smooth!

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HUUB: Stunning New Wetsuits, Designed By Swim Smooth

The team liked Professor Toussaint's first name so much, we stole it for the company! : (Huub means 'bright mind' in Dutch - the perfect embodiment of this vibrant new design partnership)

A sneak peak of the new suits:

Swim Smooth testing and development in Perth, Australia:

Testing and analysis at the hi-tech InnoSportNL facility in Eindhoven:

It makes sense when you think about it doesn't it? Wetsuits should be designed by people who really understand stroke technique and what is holding swimmers back. Coaches who understand how wetsuits should be tailored to different stroke styles to really optimise the swimmer's performance.

Shouldn't they also be designed by the world's leading sports scientist studying swimming and hydrodynamics? A man who has worked with Olympic Gold medallists to study and select speed suits designs that have dominated the last few Olympiads? Suits so fast they had to be banned!

This would be quite a combination, especially when their crazy ideas are diligently interpreted and implemented by a man with twenty two years of experience in the triathlon and wetsuit industry.

Introducing HUUB Wetsuits

Enter industry stalwart Dean Jackson (formerly of Blue Seventy, Orca and Quintana Roo) who realised this dream combination, assembling this unique design team including world leading swim coaches Swim Smooth and internationally renowned sports scientist Professor Huub Toussaint. The mission was simple: develop the fastest wetsuits imaginable, not just for top elite swimmers but suits that are devastatingly quick for age groupers too.

Working with Dean and Huub we redesigned the standard wetsuit from scratch, each new suit design focusing on a particular group of swimmers and their individual stroke characteristics. Be they leg sinkers, strong kickers, female or male, open water specialists or even overgliders - we developed a wetsuit perfectly complimenting and improving on that stroke style.

Each group of swimmers has unique needs and stroke faults that can assisted and even corrected by their wetsuit. This is why these new suits are so fast: thanks to Prof Toussaint they are super-slippery through the water and thanks to Swim Smooth they fit your individual stroke style like a glove and actively improve your technique as you swim!

Don't Miss Out

Want to know more? If you can come down to the Triathlon Show in London next weekend, we'll be there sharing a stand with Huub. Say hi and we'll show you round the suits, explain the unique features of each and how they will improve your open water performances. If you can't be at the show then make sure you sign up to get Huub's launch announcement instead with full details of each unique suit design:

http://www.huubdesign.com/

The suits go on sale in the UK and USA in April and the new Huub website will have Swim Smooth's full guide to selecting your suit based on your stroke style. If you already know your Swim Type then this will be especially easy for you.

Over the last six months we’ve had trouble containing our enthusiasm for these suits whilst working on them: We're extremely excited about their potential to improve your swimming performances in 2012, make sure you check them out!

Swim Smooth!

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We're Coming To The Triathlon Show, London!

Exciting news: Swim Smooth will be at the Triathlon Show (formerly TCR) at Sandown Park, Surrey, UK from March 2nd to 4th. Paul Newsome and the rest of the team are flying in from Australia and will be there to say hi and talk about your swimming. Bring a video clip of your stroke along too for us to look at (see below). If you missed out on a place on our clinic series, here's another opportunity to catch us in the flesh!

Don't miss:

Our Video Analysis Tables

Bring along video of your swim stroke on a USB memory stick or DVD and have it analysed by a full Swim Smooth Coach! We'll give you insight into what's holding you back at the moment and provide some simple but effective tips on how to improve your swimming going forward. Good quality footage is ideal but you will be amazed what we can glean from basic clips.

We should also have web access on the stand (although we can't guarantee this) so if your video is on You Tube or similar we can also pull it up from there.

Two Special Presentations

In the 220 Seminar Theatre we'll be giving two not-to-be-missed talks:

Swim Smooth: Your Stroke vs. The Pros, 2.30pm Saturday 3rd March

We're landing in to the UK in March.

Digging into Swim Smooth's extensive archive of video footage, understand the five classic undiagnosed technique faults and why they might be present in your own stroke. Using our insightful HD video analysis of some of the best swimmers and triathletes in the world, Head Coach Paul Newsome will show you how to fix those faults and explain the common misconceptions and pitfalls that may be holding you back with your swimming.

Swim Smooth: The Three Keys to Triathlon Swimming Success, 12.15pm Sunday 4th March
Taken from the Swim Smooth Age-Group & Elite Squads in Perth Australia, Paul Newsome shows you how to prepare perfectly for triathlon and open water swimming whatever your ability level. There are three essential elements (we call them 'The Keys') to perform at your best in the water - we'll show you how to maximise each to exit the swim higher than you ever thought you could.

All Our Products And DVDs Will Be There

Get a preview of our swimming DVDs on the big screen and take a look at our waterproof training plans. Ask one of our coaches about Wetronomes and Tempo Trainer Pros and we'll show you how they work and how they can benefit your swimming.

We can't wait to touch down on British soil and meet you in just a couple of weeks time - see you at the show!

Swim Smooth

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Getting In Some Weekly Discomfort

You're swimming a set of 8x 200m and you are on number three. Your heart rate is high and your breathing deep, and you're feeling some heaviness and burn from your muscles as they resist the effort. There's still another five reps to go, perhaps 15 or 20 minutes of hard work ahead of you, which right now seems like an eternity.

Sustained speed training is critical to reach your
potential as a distance swimmer.

What are your thought process in this situation? Are you longing to stop? Thinking of a good excuse to shorten the set? Or perhaps you avoid training sets completely knowing they are uncomfortable?

This 'discomfort time' is the critical period where your body's systems are challenged so that after the session they adapt and you gain fitness. Without reaching this point you won't gain the fitness improvements you are looking for. So this 'discomfort time' is not just unavoidable when fitness training, it should be something you are actively seeking out.

The psychology here is very important, don't think: "God, this is really tough."

Instead, replace that thought with: "OK, this is what it is all about. Swim it out, one stroke and one lap at a time."

Embrace the discomfort as a place you want to be and you will have fundamentally changed your thinking. From there on training sets start to feel much easier.

Staying In The Moment

It's a sporting cliché to tell someone to 'stay in the moment' but within a challenging fitness set it's absolutely critical that you do. Never think ahead but simply focus on your stroke movements and your breathing rhythm as the effort becomes challenging. It can be a good idea to monitor your technique but only ever think about one thing and keep it very simple, for instance you might choose to focus on:

- Exhaling smoothly into the water

- Lightly tapping your big toes together as they pass - 'tap tap tap'

- Keeping one goggle in the water and one out when you breathe

- Pressing the water backwards, not downwards

It's essential you keep these thoughts very simple as most of your focus will be required to maintain your effort and pace things out well.

Make Sure You Are Distance Training, Not Sprint Training

If you've been following Swim Smooth for a while you will know we are big fans of CSS / threshold training. This involves sustaining a strong pace for longer periods will short recoveries and is quite distinct from sprint training which is attacked at a faster pace but with longer recovery periods.

Swimming at this pace does not feel like sprint training and the effort progressively builds over the set while holding the same pace. Initially it may feel around 6 out of 10 for effort but progressively builds up to a 9 out of 10 by the end of the set. Pacing these sets well is essential (with the same pace for each repetition) even if you have to start a little slower, that way you will get the right fitness gains and can maintain your stroke technique throughout.

CSS / threshold pace targets the energy systems critical to distance swimming performance so that they adapt and improve. Sports scientists call this training principle 'specificity' and it really works - experience some consistent weekly discomfort in your CSS sets and your swimming will come on leaps and bounds. It could be just what you are lacking with your swimming.

Swim Smooth!

PS. We're very sorry if you couldn't get on our UK clinic series announced last week - the whole series filled up in just 30 minutes with over 200 people on the waiting lists. The level of interest is extremely high which is flattering for us but at the same time also stressful because we know a lot of you feel frustrated to miss out. We'll be back in the UK as soon as we can be, and yes also in the US hopefully towards the end of the year. :)

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Announcing SS UK Clinics March 2012

Swim Smooth are excited to announce four UK Clinics in Loughborough, Stirling and Corby in March. Each one day clinic features full video analysis and stroke correction, and is strictly limited to 12 swimmers -  perfect for any swimmer or triathlete looking to improve their speed and efficiency in the water.

For full information and to book your place, visit: www.swimsmooth.com/clinics-mar2012.php

Featuring HD Video Analysis Of Your Stroke

** The last clinic series in May filled up within 1½ hours (no that's not a typo!) - please don't hesitate to book your place! **

We may also have a clinic in Birmingham on the 6th of March but this is not yet confirmed. This series is quite short compared to previous series as we are mainly focusing on Coach Education on this trip over from Australia.

Swim Smooth!

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