The Ultimate Swim Gadget? The Brand New Finis SwimSense

A product review this week: Over the last couple of months here in Perth, the Swim Smooth team have been putting a new swimming gadget through its paces. After extensive testing we have found it extremely beneficial in improving a swimmer's stroke technique, pacing skills and get the most out of their fitness training. Suffice to say we're very impressed!

Find out more about the
SwimSense on our website here.

The Finis SwimSense is a new design of swimming watch (called a 'Performance Monitor' by Finis) which measures how far you swim, your speed, your stroke count and your stroke rate too. The watch uses motion sensors to record data accurately for every lap you swim and makes this easily available for analysis both on the watch screen and by downloading to your computer.

We love the SwimSense so much that we've started using two units within our training squads in Perth. Our swimmers are finding them invaluable as they provide very precise and detailed feedback on their swimming, even more so than we can provide as coaches from the pool deck.

We've tested every similar device on the market and the SwimSense is more accurate and much easier to use than anything else out there. Check out Paul Newsome's in depth look at the watch here.

What It Lets You Do:

- The SwimSense records your total training distance, training load and calories burnt every session. It captures the structure of every session exactly as you swim it so you get a complete record of every workout in the pool.

- Monitor your stroke rate (strokes per minute) as you swim and study how this varies with distance, training pace and fatigue. If you're an Arnie, use this to spot if you start to fight the water during your training sets. Or as an Overglider, watch out for that deadspot returning to your stroke during longer swims.

- Monitor your stroke count on every lap. Whilst the absolute number of strokes you take per lap bears little relation to your efficiency, if your stroke count consistently increases whilst you swim this shows your stroke is deteriorating, often as a result of starting too quickly.

The SwimSense's software is very easy to use.

- Monitor your pacing skills with the split times taken on every lap. As you'll know from this blog, good pacing skills are absolutely essential to train effectively and increase your swim fitness. Most swimmers start every swim or interval too quickly and then fade, this greatly harms the effectiveness of their training.  If you are on a performance plateau then your pacing in training and races is the first thing to look into.

- Assess your pool performances accurately. If you've swam in a race or training swim and not performed as expected, the data from the SwimSense will help you diagnose what went wrong and point out where to improve your performance next time.

- Very easy to use data-transfer and analysis software including a full on-line training log / diary to record your training sessions and data.

- Full integration with Training Peaks and WKO+. If you are triathlete using a power meter on the bike, and a GPS or Footpod when running, then the SwimSense completes the picture allowing you to measure your complete training load in all three disciplines. For the first time you can now accurately include your swim training in WKO+'s Peformance Manager.

- Automatically detects all four strokes - perfect for masters swimmers tracking their medley training and stroke technique.

- Boosts you motivation! Our swimmers here in Perth have found that being able to record and track improvements in their sessions is very motivating, particularly for those that train outside of a squad or training group. They are even able to see small incremental improvements in performance that they would have otherwise missed.

Testing the SwimSense here in Perth

We like the SwimSense so much we're now using them every day with our swim squads here in Perth and have started stocking them on our website. For a short period only we're extending our free worldwide shipping offer to the Swimsense. Don't miss out on this great offer, pick up yours from our Swim Shop.

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

How To Keep Your Swim Sessions Interesting And Motivating

As a swimmer or triathlete it's easy for your training sessions to become a little repetitive and for you to end up feeling a little stale. Equally as a coach it can be hard to keep your swimmers as engaged as possible during your sessions. The key to staying fresh and stimulated is to constantly challenge yourself with new experiences. There are a huge variety of ways you can do this, here's some ideas:

- Run through a contrast set where you deliberately alter your stroke to experiment with how it feels. You'll be surprised what you learn and how different it feels from normal drill work.

- Try swimming 400m at 90% effort (you might just set a PB).

- Seek out conditions you would normally avoid, for instance when it's windy and choppy at the local lake. See how you need to alter your stroke to cope effectively in various conditions.

 introducing a variety of training environments could be just what you need

- Equip some of your less experienced swimmers with fins and move some of your fastest swimmers to their lane to lead them through a high speed set. It's great experience for the novice swimmers and your top lane athletes will love the leadership role.

- Practice open water skills in the pool with friends. Include drafting and sighting practice, and short sprints to surge and get on the feet of a drafting partner. Wear some fins if your friends are a bit quicker than you - this isn't cheating, it's a way of giving you the experience of drafting that you'd otherwise miss out on.

- Experiment with changes to your stroke technique in your wetsuit. For instance looking further forwards, using less kick, trying a higher stroke rate and employing a straighter arm recovery.

- Swim some longer distances without thinking about technique - perhaps to music from a waterproof MP3 player. Your body may settle into a more efficient swimming rhythm all by itself.

- Try drafting close to the side and slightly behind a friend - breathe in towards them to judge the distance accurately. Get this right and you might get a bigger draft than when sitting on their feet.

- Experiment with different breathing patterns, for instance try breathing every 3 strokes then every 5 strokes then every 7 strokes. It's amazing how much air you can exhale into the water during these longer durations (there's more in there than you might think) and how easy breathing every 3 feels afterwards.

- Use a Wetronome to run through a variety of stroke rates over a set of 50m repetitions. See how they feel and experience different elite athlete's stroke rates along the way - e.g. Ian Thorpe's 76 Strokes Per Minute (SPM) and Emma Snowsill's 86 SPM. You might even like to give Laure Manadou's amazing 110 SPM a crack! Also try 45 SPM to see what Overgliding feels like (you'll feel the loss of speed and efficiency).

give your swimmers an interesting experience and they'll become really engaged 

- Focus on perfect pacing rather than outright times during training sets. How consistent can you be with your times over the course of a set and also for each lap within each repetition? Elite distance swimmers have amazing pace judgement in races and training which lets them achieve peak performance. Try The Goldilocks Set, it'll test your pacing skills to the full!

- Keep your brain engaged by training in a different length pool or an open water venue with different conditions and challenges.

Squad Training

As a coach try putting your whole squad through some of the experiences above and see what each swimmer individually learns about their swimming. Because of their differing body types, skill and experience levels they'll each learn something different that's useful to them as an individual. Don't enter into too much technical explanation, instead throw in a few thought starting questions and relevant facts. At the end of the session your swimmers will be open and happy to share what they have learnt, which is the perfect opportunity for you to help them interpret their experiences.

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

Two Great Half Ironman Swims: How They Did It

Our local Half Ironman here in Western Australia is the Busselton 70.3 which burst into life with another exciting day of racing last weekend. A big congrats from us to all those who raced at this fantastic event! Here's the inside line on two very different triathletes in the race who made some tweaks to their stroke in their build up and had brilliant swim performances as a result:

Guy Crawford

Our first story comes from the pointy end of the field. Pro Triathlete Guy Crawford produced the fastest swim split of the day, gapping the entire field with fellow pro Bryan Rhodes sat on his toes.

Guy Leads Out The Field At Busso
Melbourne Photography, Blinq Photography

A few weeks ago we did some work with Guy in the pool giving his stroke a little tune-up. Guy is a very accomplished swimmer and as you can see here, he is very tall with long arms. However, he had recently become a little reliant on kicking hard and had a tendency to over-reach at the front of this stroke which dropped his stroke rate. In training his performances had become a little inconsistent, fluctuating between good and bad sessions.

In the pool we worked on tuning up Guy's catch technique to remove the over-reaching and lifted his stroke rate a touch using a Wetronome, improving the rhythm and timing of his stroke. We also raised his head position to make him more balanced when swimming in a wetsuit as Guy has a naturally strong six beat kick.

If you're an analytical person yourself (perhaps an Overglider) it's worth noting here that Guy didn't over-think this, he kept it very simple in his mind and focused on the improved rhythm it gave him. Because of this he took the changes on board very quickly giving him an immediate benefit to take into the race.

This is what Guy had to say after leading out the field:

"I lifted my head heaps so my feet were a bit lower in the water, tried to increase my stroke rate and concentrated on my hands. 3 things: hands, feet, stroke rate and I felt awesome... I was swimming hard but ready to go if some-one came round me... just had that extra gear... Bryan Rhodes sat on my feet for the whole swim."

Awesome job Guy!

Age Group Triathlete Stuart Murray

Our second story comes from age group triathlete Stuart Murray who is a strong cyclist and runner but in the water has those Arnie tendencies to overly shorten his stroke and fight things. Being a good athlete he's understandably been a bit frustrated with his swimming!

Stuart enjoying the scenic run at Busselton

In our recent video analysis session with Stuart we worked on removing the crossover from his stroke and increasing his body rotation to both sides. To help him do this we used a Wetronome to reduce his stroke rate, slowing him down from around 69 SPM (strokes per minute) to 63 SPM. This gave him a little more time on every stroke to extend forwards properly and avoid crossing over. With this improved alignment Stuart felt much better in the water and he's started to get a much better feel for his catch at the front of his stroke.

It is important to note that we avoided dropping Stuart's stroke rate so low that he added a glide or pause as that would have have harmed his efficiency again. Instead we found Stuart's stroke rate "sweet spot" between fighting the water and adding a deadspot. After around 4 weeks of working on his stroke technique at this lower stroke rate we were able to raise him up slightly to 66 SPM to add a touch more rhythm for the race but still keep his better alignment and catch technique in place.

Stuart had a great swim setting a 36:30 PB for the 1.9km distance, exiting right on the heels of many other athletes who would normally beat him out of the water by several minutes, and was still fresh for the bike leg.

Great work Stu!

Your Swimming

Making accurate adjustments to your own stroke rate can be very hit and miss without a gadget to help you. By simply timing your strokes to the perfectly timed beep-beep-beep of a Wetronome it becomes straightforward to adjust your stroke rate up or down depending on your individual needs and so develop a more efficient stroke.

Use a Wetronome to find the right rhythm for your stroke

As an age group swimmer or triathlete you're likely to be in the 50 to 60 strokes per minute range at the moment. You will normally only need a change of between 3 and 5 strokes per minute in the right direction to find your sweet spot where your stroke starts to click and you experience an increase in your speed and efficiency. This stroke rate will be individual to you but the point here is that you're not looking for a radical change in your stroke rate at any given point in time.

In fact, you might not need to change your stroke rate at all. If you feel lopsided, perhaps as the result of only breathing to one side, then a Wetronome can help even out your quick-slow-quick-slow stroke rhythm to develop a more symmetrical, efficient stroke.

Find out more about the Wetronome stroke rate tool here and for further reading about stroke rate see here.

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

How Fast Can You Swim Over Longer Distances?

All around the world, long distance open water swimming races are growing in popularity. Swimmers are taking on the challenge of events from 1000m through 5km and 10km, right up to marathon swimming events such as the 34km English Channel and Catalina Channel swims.

Far and away the most popular question we're asked by swimmers training for these long distance events is how fast we think they can swim them. In fact H2Open magazine asked us to write an article exploring how to train and prepare for these events which will feature in the next edition of the magazine. Here's an interesting snippet from the article:

Swim Smooth Race Pace Estimator

The table below is our estimation of your race pace over different distances. The figures are relative to your CSS pace which you can find using the test set here. CSS stands for Critical Swim Speed, which is very similar to lactate threshold or the concept of Functional Threshold Power (FTP) if you're used to training with a power meter on the bike.

1500m = CSS pace ± 2 sec per 100m
5km = CSS pace + 2-4 sec per 100m
10km = CSS pace + 6-10 sec per 100m
20km = CSS pace + 10-20 sec per 100m
English Channel (34km) = CSS pace + 20-30 sec per 100m

As you can see, CSS is approximately your 1500m race pace. In fact if you know your current speed over a very recent 1500m then you can use this as CSS in the table above instead of performing the CSS test.

The figures in the table are only a rough guide as your ability to sustain a pace relative to your CSS depends on how fit you are, your fueling strategy and your physiological makeup. Those with a very good aerobic base will not see as much drop off in their pace over increasing distances as those with more of an anaerobic, sprint background.

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

The Forgotten Way To Improve Your Body Position In The Water

The easiest way to improve your body position in the water and lift up your legs is, ironically enough, the one most overlooked by swimming coaches.

Your body acts a little bit like a see-saw in the water, pivoting around your centre of mass which is just above your hips:

If you lift up at the front end then your legs will sink down low in the water creating lots of drag. For a large number of swimmers, particularly you Arnies and Arnettes out there, this is a huge limiting factor. You're putting out lots of power but it’s mostly lost to drag meaning you travel much more slowly through the water than you should for your fitness and level of effort.

Coaches: The temptation when trying to improve a swimmer’s body position is to look at their core control, leg kick technique or catch technique. These are certainly important factors that might need addressing but here at Swim Smooth we always start by looking at a swimmer’s exhalation into the water. Most swimmers hold their breath when they swim and this gives them excess buoyancy in the chest and so puts downward pressure on their legs. By learning a smooth exhalation into the water they shed this excess buoyancy in the chest which helps bring their legs up.

Here are two quick tips on developing your exhalation technique:

- It may seem like a childish exercise but first perform some sink-downs in the deep end of your pool to tune into the feeling and technique of exhaling (see here). Don't worry, it's normal for exhaling to feel strange or even hard to do at first!

- When transferring this exhalation into your swimming, try breathing every three strokes ("bilaterally") straight away. This will give you sufficient time to shed air and buoyancy since breathing every two strokes is not normally enough time. Getting rid of the CO2 by exhaling makes bilateral breathing much easier too, a win-win!

On a related subject, we’ve been working with Blue Seventy on their wetsuit design for a while now and one of their design concepts that we’re a big fan of is something they call ‘balanced buoyancy’. This isn’t a marketing gimmick, it’s a concept that really works by making the upper body of the wetsuit less buoyant and the lower body more buoyant. If you are a ‘leg sinker’ then their Axis suit will be much faster for you as it lets your upper body sit a little lower, which lets the suit pull your legs up to the surface. On the other hand if you are someone with very good natural body position (such as a Kicktastic or a Smooth) then this suit would feel very unbalanced for you as it would bring your legs too high. You would be much more suited to a natural buoyancy suit such as a Helix.

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

Curing The Overglider

Last week on Feel For The Water we took a look at the very different arm length and stroke styles of two Elite Triathletes, Kate Bevilaqua and Guy Crawford. If you missed this post first time around, it's here. We know from all the feedback we've had that this video clip really brought home how important it is to develop a stroke style that suits you as an individual.

But what if you have already gone down the path of trying to maximise your stroke length by introducing a glide into your stroke? How do you now go about improving your swimming? We affectionately call this group of swimmers 'Overgliders' and you can read a bit more about them here. Personality wise they are an intelligent bunch and have a diligent, thoughtful approach to their swimming, they've normally read all the books on stroke technique and studied lots of clips of swimmers on YouTube.

If you're an Overglider this blog post is for you. It's a little in-depth and slightly technical but with your analytical approach to swimming we doubt you'll mind!

Overgliders

Here in Perth we are inundated with Overgliders who are all visiting us for video analysis and stroke correction to try and understand why they have hit such a distinct plateau with their swimming speed. Over the last 20 years this group of swimmers has grown larger and larger, in fact amongst competitive triathletes and swimmers it's become the largest single group with 44% of our Swim Type Guide sales going to Overgliders. Overgliders now dwarf every other group with the next largest being the Arnies at 25%, who are the swimmers who have low sinking legs and tend to fight the water.

There are a huge number of frustrated Overgliders out there and this is the reason why we devote quite a bit of time on the blog to the dangers of actively gliding in your stroke and losing touch with your stroke rhythm.

Why Gliding Is Inefficient

Overgliders tend to hit a speed plateau between 2:10 and 1:40 per 100m depending on their height and arm length. This plateau is caused by three big inefficiencies:

1) The large deadspot in your timing causes you to decelerate heavily between strokes. This accelerate-decelerate-accelerate-decelerate stroke style is very inefficient and it tends to overload the shoulder muscles. Many Overgliders say that their "stroke falls apart" after a few laps of swimming, this is actually an issue of fatigue from poor stroke efficiency rather than a coordination problem.

2) By over-gliding you harm your propulsive efficiency. The catch is the point right at the front of the stroke when you begin to get a purchase on the water and press is backwards. A good catch starts early in the stroke timing and engages gently and continuously with the water, pressing it backwards to the wall behind you. By introducing a large pause to the stroke you start your catch late and then have to hurry it to make up for lost time. A hurried catch slips through the water and so becomes inefficient.

3) Whilst trying to maximise stroke length most Overgliders drop their wrists and show the palm of their hand forwards as they over-extend. We call this 'putting on the brakes', slowing you down directly through extra drag but also dropping your elbow which severely harms your catch mechanics:

Showing your palm forward like this can easily be misinterpreted as a good catch because of the pressure on the palm of your hand as the water strikes it. Read our post explaining why this is here.

A continuous flowing catch phase without a pause is the key difference between a true Smooth's stroke such as Jono Van Hazel and an Overglider's stroke. The absence of acceleration-deceleration and superior catch mechanics and timing explains how Smooth's can be so incredibly efficient in the water. A top level Smooth like Jono swims around 1:05 per 100m at a steady pace, just as an Overglider might swim 1:50 for 100m. They're not using fitness to do this, it's just great stroke technique and efficiency. Of course when these guys do press the gas pedal and unleash their fitness they are devastatingly quick and clock sub 50 seconds for that same 100m.

A long stroke is a good thing and in a truly efficient stroke it is the result of low drag and good propulsive efficiency, not glide. We're encouraging you to remove deadspots and pauses from your stroke but this doesn't mean we're asking you to artificially rush things, quite the opposite. The freestyle stroke should be naturally rhythmical and fluid without hitches or pauses, working with the water not against it.

Jono Van Hazel mid catch. At this point in the stroke an Overglider's arm will still be extended out in front gliding.

Curing The Overglider

Obviously the goal here is to remove the over-glide or pause in your stroke. After last week's post we received many emails and comments on the blog from Overgliders asking how to go about doing this. Here's our overview:

Don't!
Don't think of this as being about reducing your stroke length, you may end up with a slightly shorter stroke but that's not the object of the exercise. In fact many Overgliders find that by improving their catch and propulsion (see below) their stroke actually lengthens despite removing the glide phase.

Don't!
Don't try and actively increase your stroke rate (stroke cadence), at least not at first. Overgliders who set about this directly find that the deadspot is so heavily imprinted in their stroke timing that it stays in place and that every other part of the stroke speeds up instead, which will prove to be extremely hard work! The goal here is to keep the stroke movements at about the same speed but remove the deadspot.

Do!
Work on your catch technique by developing a continuous flowing catching action, engaging the water and pressing it backwards with a bent elbow. A poor catch technique presses the water downwards, to the side or even forwards with a dropped wrist. This adds a delay into your stroke because water is 800 times more dense than air and changing its direction takes time. By improving your catch you start to press the water backwards, helping it on its way, this takes less time and naturally lifts your stroke rate.

A quick numerical example of this: if you improve your catch technique and remove just 0.2 second from the deadspot in your stroke this will lift your stroke rate by around five strokes per minute. A very significant improvement which you'll immediately notice in your speed and efficiency.

Shameless Plugs

Our full stroke development guide for Overgliders is here. It's just US$20 and includes Swim Smooth's process, drills, visualisations and training sessions to remove the glide from your stroke and take your swimming to the next level.

You'd also benefit greatly from our new Catch Masterclass DVD, not only does it take a detailed and insightful look at the process of improving your catch technique but it shows Jono's and two other elite swimmers' catch technique in incredible detail.

Making The Change

Stroke timing changes are perhaps the hardest thing to change in swimming as they involve coordinating multiple movements at once. If you have a heavily imprinted glide and pause in your stroke this is a habit that will take some time to break. You may find this frustrating at first but bear in mind that as an Overglider there are many good things already in place in your stroke such as good alignment in the water and good body position. Other swimmers have multiple problems holding them back, you have one big one (pause and glide) so it makes sense that it will take a little time and persistence to overcome this in your stroke.

How should your stroke style evolve? By working on your stroke flaws you will naturally gravitate towards either the classic Smooth Style or a refined Swinger Style, this is true whatever your Swim Type. Which style you evolve into depends on your individual make-up, build and personality. Both are extremely fast and efficient strokes and are used by elite swimmers and triathletes at the very highest level of competition.

One final thought which runs to the very heart of the Swim Smooth philosophy. When developing your swimming it's simply not necessary to compromise your stroke in any way. Many Overgliders have been told that by swimming with anything other than their minimum stroke count they are imprinting bad habits and losing efficiency. As we have seen above this is simply not true, by introducing an active glide you are compromising your stroke and imprinting a large deadspot into your timing. As any Overglider who's worked on this aspect of their stroke will tell you, glide can be extremely challenging to undo once imprinted. For the beginner level swimmer Overgliding is best avoided in the first place, after all prevention is better than cure.

Whatever your Swim Type, have a fantastic Easter holiday.

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

Arm Length And Swimming (Ape Index, Part Deux)

Whilst working with professional triathletes Guy Crawford and Kate Bevilaqua, Paul Newsome takes a few minutes out to highlight why they swim with very different stroke styles. Check out the video clip:

(don't miss the last minute of this clip showing Kate and Guy's swim strokes)

This is a great example of the importance of an individual approach to swim coaching. Many swimmers are told that they need to swim with a very long stroke to be efficient and whilst this suits someone with very long arms like Guy it does not suit swimmers with shorter arms such as Kate. If Kate tried imitating Guy's stroke style she would become a much slower, less efficient swimmer.

Here in Australia 40 strokes per 50m is commonly used as a 'benchmark of efficiency' and swimmers are told they must take 40 strokes per lap or less to swim well regardless of their individual make-up or experience level. Frankly, we find this a bit ridiculous and are working hard to change this attitude. The right strokes per 50m lap could be anywhere between 35 and 60 depending on your height, arm length and also the size of your hands.

If you have shorter arms than Guy then don't despair, it's perfectly possible for you to swim quickly and efficiently like Kate. You will find that a slightly shorter stroke with a faster stroke rate works best for you and you can do this without fighting the water.

If you are tall with long arms then a long stroke style can work well but don't over do it and be prepared to adapt your stroke depending on conditions. For instance, in open water Guy shortens his stroke and lifts his stroke rate to help him punch through chop and the wake from other swimmers. This is something that comes naturally to Kate with her faster stroke rate.

A big thanks to Kate and Guy for letting us share this with you, find out more about them on their websites:

www.katebevilaqua.com           www.guycrawfords.blogspot.com

Also see: our original post on Ape Index

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

Have You Taken A Look Right In Front Of You?

Have you ever lifted your head a little to take a look at your freestyle hand entry, extension forwards and catch? It's so simple it's amazing we don't do it more often:

You might never have tried this before but it can be very revealing about your stroke. First, check that you are not crossing the centre line in front of your head, a stroke fault known as a 'crossover'. Aim for a nice straight hand entry and extension forwards without crossing the centre line:

It's best to try this exercise whilst swimming with fins on to keep your body position high in the water, bring your head up so your goggles are just underneath the surface and you'll get a great view of the action right in front of you. You can also check that you're entering the water fingertips first, not thumb first:

A thumb first entry is very bad for your shoulders and harms your catch.

Also check you are not dropping your wrist and elbow as you extend forwards, if you've worked on lengthening out your stroke this often happens and introduces a dead-spot to your stroke:

Finally look for what happens when you start catching the water. Are you pressing downwards? Or using a much better technique by pressing the water backwards with a bent elbow? :

This is just an exercise and will probably feel quite strange to look this far forwards but believe it or not there's quite a few swimmers who need this head position when they swim. The legendary Ian Thorpe looked straight forwards with his goggles just beneath the surface:

Ian had such a powerful kick he would literally start kicking air without lifting his head to look straight forwards. To see his amazing kick in action, watch the last 10 seconds of this clip with Ian swimming at race speed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDpxZyUYvqU

You might not have an incredibly powerful kick like Thorpie but if you are naturally buoyant in your lower body you too may feel very unbalanced with a low head position. Try a mid-head position, looking at the bottom of the pool about 1½ meters in front of you.

Or if you have very sinky legs, which the Arnie Swim Type tends to suffer from, then it may be necessary to look straight down towards the bottom of the pool to bring your legs up.

When looking at swimmers in the pool, always remember that head position is very much 'horses for courses', experiment with yours to see what feels best for your stroke. If you can maintain your body position then a higher head position is advantageous for your swimming posture, coordination of your stroke and for open water navigation.

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

Sorry! We Hope Our Free Worldwide Shipping Offer Eases Your Frustration

** Coaches - still time to apply for our Coach Education Courses in Loughborough and Stirling here **

Wow! After the announcement on the blog last week, demand for our May 2011 UK Clinic Series has once again been overwhelming with all the clinics filling up in just a few hours and over a hundred people sitting on the waiting lists. We've received a flood of frustrated emails from people that missed out and countless requests from around the world - particularly the US and Canada - for us to visit your shores as soon as possible. We've replied to you all by email but for everyone else, please accept a big apology from us, we know it's very frustrating missing out.

We've had a team meeting here in Perth and decided that the least we could do for you is run a special period of free-worldwide shipping on all our coaching DVDs and Waterproof Training Plans. That way your swimming will still experience a sprinkling of Swim Smooth magic this season!

To receive your free shipping, order from our website as normal and select your shipping destination in the cart, it will show at zero cost: www.swimsmooth.com/swimshop

Here's our quick guide on each of the products included in this special offer:

	Swim Smooth's Waterproof Training Plans 35 Session Training Plans for any swimmer looking to develop their stroke technique and swimming fitness. buy here
These training plans are fully waterproof and designed to be taken poolside to follow as you swim. We wrote them to focus on getting your swimming into top shape for Olympic Distance triathlon, Half Ironman and Ironman races but can be used by any swimmer lacking a little focus in their swim sessions and looking to improve. Three plan levels, one for every abililty.

Swim Smooth's Catch Masterclass - Our Amazing New DVD! For those swimmers who have worked on their stroke technique but hit a performance ceiling they can't break through - until now! buy here

Developing a good catch technique and feel for the water is extremely elusive for most swimmers but is the key to improving your speed and efficiency in the water. In this detailed coaching program we show you exactly how elite swimmers develop efficient and powerful propulsion, and how to make these changes in your stroke too. Features footage of incredible clarity from our new Hi-Def filming rig.

Swim Smooth's DVD Boxset - Clean Up Your Stroke! For those who can swim freestyle - no matter how badly - but need to improve their stroke technique. buy here

The gold standard Stroke Correction DVD program on the market. Three discs to improve all aspects of your stroke including breathing, body position, rotation, kicking technique, hand entry, arm recovery and catch and pull. The second DVD contains everything you need to prepare for open water including techniques and strategies for starts, turns, drafting, pacing, sighting and swim exits. Features footage of Olympic Gold Medallist Bill Kirby and includes a full training program to follow in the pool.

	Swim Smooth's Learn To Swim Program Can't swim freestyle at all? Get off on the right foot with our inspiration Learn To Swim Program. buy here
Swim Smooth's Learn To Swim Program is DVD based and built around a simple to follow 10 Step process. The 10 steps start by getting you used to the water and show you how to become comfortable swimming (and breathing!) when face down. We build up the stroke step by step, helping you get the feel and timing of it. Includes waterproof session cards to take to the pool and follow.

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

Announcing SS UK Clinics & Coaches Education Courses, May 2011

UK Clinic Series May 2011

Swim Smooth are excited to announce six UK Clinics in Loughborough, Coventry, Bolton, Stirling and Hillingdon in May. Each one day clinic features full video analysis 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

** The last clinic series in November filled up within 2 hours (no that's not a typo!) - please don't hesitate to book your place! **

SS Coach Education Courses May 2011

Swim Smooth are also announcing our third and fourth Coach Education Courses in the UK following the extremely successful events last year. These three day courses will run at Loughborough University from 5-7th May and Stirling University from 14-16th May.

The Coach Education Course is an intense program for ambitious swimming and triathlon coaches of any experience or level and will teach all of Swim Smooth's coaching methods including advanced stroke correction. The three day course will be delivered to twelve selected coaches by Swim Smooth's Paul Newsome and Adam Young.

These courses are endorsed by Triathlon England and Triathlon Scotland as recommended CPD for triathlon coaches looking to take their swim coaching skills to the next level. The BTF have requested Swim Smooth's expertise to develop their swimming coaching resources and deliver coach training and this course is a key component of that role.

For full details and to apply, visit: www.swimsmooth.com/coacheseducation.html

Paul Newsome and I very much look forward to working with you in person in May.

Adam Young
Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

Free Swim Smooth Articles For *Your* Website

Yes you can now make your personal, club, event or business website (or blog) that little bit smoother! We've written six fully featured articles about how to improve your swimming looking at subjects such as stroke correction, triathlon training, injury prevention, feel for the water and individual body types. These are fully featured Swim Smooth articles written in our clear style and beautifully presented with images and graphics. Rather than publish them on our website or blog we've decided to give them away to you for free to publish on your site instead! Find out more here: free swimming articles

It's simple: Pick the article that suits your site best, apply to use it and we'll approve your usage by email. You agree not to modify the article and we retain the copyright. Deal? It's very easy to recreate the article on your website, we'll send you all the code and images you need, you or your web designer will be able to get the feature live in minutes.

Find out more here.

We haven't heard of anyone doing this before but we thought it was a neat idea! We know how hard it can be to find interesting content for your website visitors. From our side it helps us reach as many swimmers as possible so we can help them improve their swimming.

Thanks and Swim Smooth!

PS. If we haven't written the perfect article for you yet, write to feedback@swimsmooth.com and tell us what you'd like to know or what you need help with. The more specific your question the better.

Share:

Read More

What Gets Measured Gets Swum

'What gets measured gets done' is a famous quote from business management and applies in all walks of life. It refers to the tendency to overly focus on things we can easily measure. What's easy to measure in swimming? Here are two examples :

- Your strokes per length.

- Your time over a distance.

In your swimming or coaching, do you give these two numbers too much attention just because they're easy to measure? Quite possibly and here's why:

- Rather than continually focusing on minimising your strokes per lap, would it better to find the right trade off between stroke length and stroke rate for you as an individual? Here at Swim Smooth we know so: get this balance right and you'll be swimming more quickly and efficiently. Once you're in this sweet-spot who cares what your stroke count is and how it compares to anyone else's?

- By focusing on your PB time for 400m, do you completely neglect your ability to swim straight in open water or develop your drafting skills? Swimming off-line or missing out on a great draft can lose you many minutes over 1500 or 3800m, much more time than you'll gain from taking 10 seconds off your 400m pool time. Your open water skills are difficult to put a number on but don't neglect them for that reason, they are still incredibly important.

If you have been swimming for a while then be wary of focusing on the same things time and time again in your swim sessions. A different approach might be the key to getting yourself of that plateau - even if there's no obvious metric or target for it.

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

Rottnest Channel Swim Report & Photos

** WE NEED YOUR VOTE FOR THE SECOND TIME! Votes from round one of the illustrious About Swimming Blog Of The Year have been reset. If you enjoy Feel For The Water please vote again in the second round here - cheers! **

---

The Rottnest Channel Swim is an iconic 19.7km open water race in Perth, Western Australia - Swim Smooth's coaching homebase. It's our favourite event anywhere in the world and every year we train a large group of solo and team swimmers for this fantastic race. If you plan a trip over to Australia and feel like a real challenge, why not aim to do the race yourself in 2012?

Last Saturday was the 21st edition of the event and we thought you might enjoy some of our team pictures from this great race and enjoy reading Paul Newsome's race report from his solo crossing and his thoughts on racing in open water. Warning - it's a bit of a monster post so grab a brew and enjoy the read! Click on the pictures to see them larger.

Swim Smooth!

---

Dear swimmers,

Congratulations to all of you who successfully completed the 21st Rottnest Channel Swim on Saturday! We had 29 soloists complete the race and another 64 swimmers in duos and teams - a record for the Swim Smooth Squad. You can see our team results here. As usual it was an awesome event and this year we had seemingly perfect conditions - the recent heatwave giving us warm flat water and only a light north easterly wind. The expectation in the build up was extraordinarily high with many of you expecting some very fast times.

Ceinwen Williams proved for the second year in a row that she's got what it takes by finishing 3rd lady again to two top-class swimmers - we're all very proud of you Ceinwen - you did awesome:

Ceinwen finishes:

As you'll see from the results, we had real depth this year within the squad with ten solo swimmers from the squad finishing together in highly commendable times between 6h20 and 7h00 which is just fantastic. It is the shared goal and camaraderie that was inspired during all the hard training sessions that made this squad so successful this year, so hats off to you guys!

Some of the SS squad finishers! :

The stand-out performance this year for me has to be that of Paul Downie who first attempted the swim back in 2009 when we first ran our Solo squad with just 13 swimmers in total. That year Paul went through a very rough patch and suffered with very sore shoulders with about 4km to go to record and eventual time of 9h16. This year he absolutely smashed it and recorded 6h51 - nearly 2.5 hours quicker! Truly brilliant. This will give Paul great confidence going into our English Channel Swim attempts in six months time.

The two Pauls outside the pub after the race :

Also smashing his PB with a very well deserved time of 6h37 was Wayne Morris who strung together the perfect race finishing superbly with a massive sprint to the finish - nice job!

Andrew, Ceinwen, Wayne and Paul. All four are training for English Channel solos this summer :

Sadly, Susanjane Morrison was pulled from the water with just a few kilometres to go after having inhaled quite a bit of seawater. We wish her a speedy recovery and hope that she can bounce back next year in a similar manner to Paul Downie from two years ago.

Well done to all our Solo swimmers who took part in the event - your commitment and hard work over the course of the program has been truly inspirational to me and I thank you for the great times we've shared together...it's going to seem like a quiet few weeks ahead!

After his great race Lawrence took the opportunity to hug every girl he could find! :

The awards ceremony :

All the soloists who completed the 19.7km crossing :

I know from talking to you at the pub afterwards that many of you were disappointed with your times. Me too. Looking back now the conditions were far less favourable than they seemed with the race winners finishing at least 30 minutes slower than they are capable of swimming. The reason for this seems to be the northerly current that materialised on the day and although not super-strong it was present throughout the race, not just when we got close to Rottnest as it normally is.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to share with you a few thoughts of my own about this year's race. You know me, I love my numbers and this objective feedback as you just can't hide from the reality of what they tell you - good or bad. The key is in learning how and where you can be better next time.

A quick bit of history: prior to Saturday's swim I have done three Rottnest Duo crossings and my first Solo swim in 2009 just 6 days before we had our first child, Jackson. In 2009 I was really hoping to get close to breaking 5h00 and trained very diligently for it, averaging around 40km per week in training. That year I felt I executed my best possible race and got my nutrition spot on. However, I exited the water in 5h24 and was immediately dissatisfied with my result based purely on my time. In retrospect though, conditions that year saw a strong North to South current in the last few kilometres really slowing progress with the winner only doing 4h40. Like this year it looked set to be a great day for fast times as well but sadly this proved not to be the case and most people left feeling a little deflated. That's what open water swimming is about though, it's a sport totally open to the elements and good planning and strategy is critical to a successful swim.

Roll on to 2011 and I had assembled a brilliant crew for my second attempt at getting close to that magic 5h00 boundary. Nathan Thompson was to be my official skipper and key organiser as per 2009, Jan Kolbusz was to be my driver and boat owner, Adam Young was to be my coach and faithful photographer, Aaron Milward my brilliant paddler, friend and motivator, and Andrew Hunt my key GPS / Navigator. All of the crew worked seamlessly during the event and without doubt, it was Andrew's superb navigation skills which got us over there in a near-perfectly straight line. If you take a look at the plot from my GPS (worn on Aaron's wrist), you'll see just how straight that line is, particularly from 3.5km into the event once through the melee of the start:

If you're really geeky like me, you might want to have a look at the file in Google Earth :

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/70313546?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4d6a71be6a7fcfbd,0

However, you'll never be a true swim geek unless you can download the file into Training Peaks and extract all the data to give you a graph of your speed :

Looking at the speed curve we see:

• 0 to 50 mins : approx 14'00" per km (my goal pace, but when I was feeling particularly sluggish)
• 50 mins to 3 hrs : approx 15'30" per km (when things started to pick up and I was holding good form)
• 3 hrs to 4 hrs : approx 14'30" per km (when I started to peg other swimmers back)
• 4 hrs to 5 hrs 23 mins : approx 17'00" per km (when I was powering at my best)

The significant drop off of 90 seconds per km after 50 minutes is very interesting, especially as it happens so quickly and at a time when I was just starting to find my groove too. Could it have been an early current? Who knows. The crew started to feedback to me where I was in the field and who I was chasing at around the 3 hour mark, so maybe this spurred me into action at that point.

So, why show you all this? Well, I think it's always interesting to know exactly how far you've swum in open water. My paddler was wearing the GPS watch and correcting for the 400m I swam at the start without him and a little more for the finishing shoot, we believe we did a total of 20.6km. 900m longer than the point to point distance of 19.7km, which sounds way off course but I think the general plot on the map indicates this is not the case. I spoke to many swimmers yesterday who claimed to have swum over 25km due to being pushed south by the current!

The speed curve is interesting. I am definitely swimming the fastest I ever have going into this event, having recorded some significant recent PBs over 1500m (18'28"), 5km (65'15") and 10km (2'19") in the last three weeks and was confident I could swim at about 14 minutes per km which would see me averaging around 14'30" per km with feed stops - good enough to break 5 hours for the crossing. If anything was lacking from my training it was a bit of mileage, I had only been able to consistently swimming 22-24km per week due to work and family commitments, with my peak week being 30km. My 10km result a few weeks back suggested I was well on target with things though. However, as soon as I hit the water I just felt flat and wasn't able to find a good rhythm until about 7km into the swim. This may, or may not, have helped me as normally I set off too quick and tend to blow up.

After the 7km mark I felt like I was getting stronger and stronger and as reported by my crew was making up good ground and passing a good number of swimmers after my relatively poor start to the race.

The crew started to feedback to me where I was in the field and who I was chasing at around the 3 hour mark. I was hammering in the last 90 minutes of the swim and made up five places in that time but was only swimming at 17 minutes per km. I think it's a safe bet to say that the current at this point was particularly strong for those of you a little demoralised by your times.

Was I happy this year? Physically I don't feel like I had my best swim this year but mentally I felt like I was able to really tough it out which will be very important for when I attempt the English Channel on the 5th September (twice the distance). I've always felt this has been a weak side to my preparation and racing in the past so it's a good feeling to think that this is maybe getting better as I'm getting older. At the end of the day I didn't get close to the 5 hour marker but placings-wise I did finish exactly where I thought I should and I did manage a 65 second P.B. in the process, so it's not all bad.

I'm sure many of you might be feeling the same way about your swim if you were off pace with where you expected to be this year. I'd encourage you to go through and spend 15 minutes or so simply jotting down where you could improve for next time. This will be really useful. Looking at my notes after my 2009 race my goal was to see if we could improve my navigation as I felt everything else that year was pretty much spot on for a first attempt. Whilst I don't have the records to prove this was the case though (no GPS in 2009 to compare against), I do feel this was achieved and without my crew's awesome support on the day I'm sure I'd still be out there swimming to India! Thanks guys, you were great!

OK crew, have some nice recovery time after the race and see you all over the next couple of weeks at the pool and on the beach.

Paul

P.S anyone got any tricks to overcome that horrible salty / swollen tongue problem?

Share:

Read More

How Your Personality Might Affect Your Swimming

** The second round of voting for the About Swimming Blog Of The Year is open here. Votes have been reset from round one so if you enjoy our blog please vote again - thanks! **

---

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about our Swim Type system is that it highlights the link between personality and stroke style. Here are some classic personality traits you might recognise in yourself that may affect how you swim:

- You're self confident, goal driven and impatient! This is a classic trait of the Arnie / Arnette - your desire to take control and get on with things results in a short scrappy stroke with a tendency to fight the water. Work harder on land and you go faster, but work harder in the water without a good stroke technique and much of that effort goes to waste. Many Arnie / Arnettes feel frustrated about their swimming, especially when comparing themselves to other swimmers seemingly less fit but swimming much faster. By taking the time to relax a little and control what you're doing you'll develop your body roll and lengthen out your stroke. Here at Swim Smooth we jokingly call this 'taming the inner Arnie'! This driven personality will really serve you well so long as you are doing things right for your stroke and not pushing too hard.

- "Don't talk too much, just let me get on with it and swim fast!" If you feel this way when you swim then you're likely to be a Swinger. Classic Swingers are often the first on the pool deck for squad training and can't wait to get in the water and get on with it. They're well suited to distance swimming and love long sets with as little recovery as possible please! If you recognise this in yourself then try and be disciplined and take a little time out from hard swimming to do some stroke development work. You won't lose any fitness from doing so and you'll greatly benefit from some small tweaks to your stroke. Your get-on-with-it mentality is the source of the momentum and rhythm you have within your stroke which is often well suited to swimming in rough open water. When asked what they think about when swimming, Swingers rarely mention the stroke movements themselves (unlike the Overglider who thinks of nothing else!), instead they tend to focus on rhythm or use distraction methods to take their mind off the effort of swimming fast for long periods. This is a highly admirable trait and can give a real competitive advantage.

- You're analytical and enjoy working things out for yourself. Perhaps the strongest correlation of all here: nearly all engineers and mathematicians gravitate towards the Overglider stroke type! That desire to be technically correct and swim with a long stroke may have been taken a little too far and introduced a deadspot to your stroke rhythm. There are many good things about your stroke in place but developing your catch is likely to be a priority, doing so will help remove that deadspot and get you get back in touch with the natural rhythm of your stroke. Overgliders can be guilty of over-complicating the freestyle stroke by thinking about too many things at once. Of course you should look to develop your stroke technique but obsessing about this can be detrimental to your progress as a swimmer. Your dedication to analysing and trying to correct your stroke probably served you well during the early stages of your development but as you start adding more and more things to think about it becomes impossible to juggle everything at the same time and removes focus from the importance of rhythm and momentum in your stroke.

- You look to swimming for achievement and to feel good about yourself. These are fantastic reasons to swim and sum up the motivations of many Bambinos who perhaps lack natural confidence in the water. In fact when we meet a Bambino for the first time they often tell us immediately that "I'm not very good at all!". Of course we'd all like to be better swimmers than we are but sometimes this focus on what you can't do, rather than what you can, will really hold you back. Many Bambinos have been told to swim the same way as the fastest swimmers in the squad but often this is simply not appropriate, either because of body type and build or from limited swimming experience. Developing basic water confidence and breathing will serve you much better than more advanced stroke technique - which can leave you feeling quite overwhelmed and disheartened. Don't panic though! Turn your thought processes around and tackle the true areas of your swimming holding you back and you will feel a lot more positive about your stroke and your swimming as a whole.

- You need a big event to motivate you. This is a common trait of the Smooth - as a talented swimmer it can be hard to get motivated after so many years of swimming. You know you can perform at a very high level but do you have the motivation? The key for you might be to introduce some changes to your swimming, perhaps taking on a fresh challenge by racing in open water or keeping a lot of variety in your training sessions.

- You need variety to keep you interested. From the pool deck the Kicktastic is easiest type to spot with their lack of body rotation and over-kicking style. If you are a Kicktastic this style will feel 'normal' to you but use a pull buoy and it can be frustrating and confusing to lose ground to your fellow swimmers. Psychologically, Kicktastics find long training sets or repetitive drills very boring and need a variety of stimuli and focuses to keep things interesting. Bear this in mind when designing your training sets and improving your stroke - variety is the spice of life!

For coaches, the personality aspect of the Swim Type system is incredibly useful. Getting your message across clearly and concisely to a range of swimmers is of paramount importance - a 'one rule fits all' approach simply won't do this. We all learn in different ways: some from verbal instruction, some from demonstration, some from hands on doing, some from technical explanation and some from story telling. Adjusting your delivery to the personality of each swimmer will really help you engage more directly with a broader range of athletes and improve the speed and effectiveness of your coaching.

Can you see any of these character traits in yourself? Or perhaps see some correlation between personality and stroke style in your swimmers? Let us know on the comments section: here

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

Tips To Improve Your Freestyle Breathing

** Stop Press: SS Head Coach Paul Newsome interviewed about our Swim Type System on Ben Greenfield's excellent podcast. Listen: here - starts at 53mins. **

---

Do you struggle with your breathing when swimming freestyle? Perhaps you take on water or feel like you have to crane your head up high to reach air? This year we've received more questions and forum posts about this problem than perhaps any other. It can even be a problem for advanced level swimmers when they become tired. Here's our advice:

When your head travels through the water it creates a bow-wave around it, with a slight increase in the water height in front of your head but a large drop in height as it passes your head and neck:

When we breathe in freestyle we need to keep our head as low as possible because lifting your head causes your legs to sink. Great breathing technique involves breathing into the trough by the side of your head to keep it as low as possible:

Take a close look at the shape of the bow wave and how it's dropping quite steeply as it passes your head:

The correct place to aim your mouth is into position A but swimmers who struggle with their breathing are often trying to breathe slightly forwards into position B. The bow wave isn't very deep or well formed there and it will be a real struggle to reliably take on air:

To get the position of your breathing right it may feel like you're breathing very slightly behind you - you should just be able to see your arm-pit as you do this. This will only feel like a slight adjustment - you don't want to breathe too far backwards (position C) as this will twist your body and drag your lead arm across the centre line:

The next time you swim, experiment a little with your breathing position and try and find that sweet-spot where you can reliably find the bow wave trough but not breathe too far behind you and lose your alignment in the water.

Two other quick tips: Aim to keep your lower goggle underwater when you breathe and experiment with angling your mouth towards the surface like Popeye chews his spinach:

(image taken from our DVD Boxset)

Do you struggle with your breathing when swimming? Have you tried this tip? Let us know how it works for you on the comments section: here

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

Do You Ever Get Shoulder Pain When Swimming?

Research says that as many as eight out of ten swimmers suffer from some level of shoulder pain or injury during their swimming careers. If you ever get shoulder pain before or after swimming, the very first thing to check is how your hand enters into the water.

A thumb first entry, with the palm facing outwards causes internal rotation of the shoulder and impingement of the joint. This action, repeated thousands of times in training, is the leading cause of shoulder injury in swimmers:

When we're swimming we are often unaware of how our hands enter into the water so ask a friend or coach to take a look at your hand entry on both sides, particularly as you get tired when bad habits creep in. You should be entering with a near horizontal hand, with the fingertips angled slightly down to spear smoothly into the water:

This is much safer way to enter the water for your shoulders and is also better swimming technique as it immediately puts you in the right position for a great catch phase.

If you have a thumb first entry it can be a hard habit to break and will take some persistence on your part. Here's two visualisations you can use to help you get this right in your stroke:

Visualisation 1: As your arm recovers over the top of the water, imagine you are holding a briefcase in your hand. It would be very awkward to turn that hand outwards whilst holding the briefcase so lightly carry it past your head with the palm facing inwards. (Thanks to Montreal based coach Charles Couturier for this tip!)

Visualisation 2: Imagine a small fish is swimming just in front of you and you are chasing it. As your hand enters into the water try and spear the fish with a nice horizontal hand, angling your hand and fingers down into the water.

In the 1970s a thumb first entry was taught together with an S-shaped pull to give a longer pull pathway, which was believed to be more powerful. Any advantage in propulsion has since been disproved and we now understand the outward sweep at the beginning of the S shape puts a large force on the shoulder in an awkward position. Since the 1990s all elite swimmers have been taught to enter with a flat hand and pull straight backwards - it carries a much lower injury risk and it's a faster and more efficient technique:

What are your experiences of shoulder pain or injury? Is it still causing you a problem or if you are cured, how did you go about about fixing it? Let us know in the comments section here.

Swim Smooth!

Relevant link: Our website page on shoulder injury.

Share:

Read More

How To Improve Your Swimming Core Stability Without Lots Of Sit Ups!

** Hold the back page! About Swimming have just contacted us to say that we're in the running to be their 'Swimming Blog Of The Year'! If you've found the Swim Smooth blog useful then please vote for us here. Voting closes today (Friday) so please be quick - cheers! **

A quick tip this week to help you develop your core stability when you swim:

Imagine a string of elastic or licorice that is attached at the top to your rib cage and at the bottom to your pelvis. As you swim keep that elastic stretched by lifting your chest up and away from your pelvis as much as possible:

Swimming in a tall stretched position uses your core muscles in the right way as you swim, keeping you aligned and straight in the water. You don't have to be super-strong through the core to do this well, it's more about using your core muscles in the right way than outright strength. Ironically it's often the swimmers who spend a long time on dry land core-conditioning who flex the most through the middle when they swim!

Try and get in the habit of adopting this stretched position when you push-off from the wall at the beginning of every lap. Adopt a strong torpedo, stretch through your core and as you start your stroke maintain the stretch all the way down the pool.

A stable core will have you tracking straighter through the water and also develop your body rotation - both very important for an efficient freestyle stroke. It will also rotate your hips forward slightly, lifting your bum and legs higher in the water - great if you suffer from 'sinky legs syndrome'.

Stretch that elastic the next time you swim, we're confident you'll notice the difference straight away!

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More

Mental Toughness For Long Distance Swimming and H2Open Magazine Launch

Swimming a very long event such as the 35km English Channel is an incredible physical undertaking but it is also extremely tough mentally. The sheer distances, the hard training, the loneliness of the event and the cold water create considerable challenges for any swimmer. How do long distance swimmers cope? This fascinating article written by Professors Greg Whyte and Andy Lane explains and gives you some of their techniques that you can use in your own training and racing, whatever the distances and environment:

www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/david-walliams-endurance-swimming-coach-reveals-all-39465

You may know Prof. Whyte as comedian David Walliam's coach when he swam the English Channel. He was also one of Paul Newsome's exercise physiologists at Bath University on the British Triathlon Team.

Also this week we bring exciting news of the launch of a new UK based open water swimming magazine: H2Open. We've written some articles for the new magazine and are very impressed with the list of contributors - it will be a fantastic read. If you've largely been a pool-based swimmer to date we know you'll find the new magazine a great inspiration for training and racing in the great outdoors!

Find out more about the magazine here: www.h2openmagazine.com
And subscribe here (UK or international): www.escosubs.co.uk/h2open/index.asp

Congrats to Simon Griffiths and his team on the launch!

Swim Smooth!

Share:

Read More