Are You Shanghai Surprised?

Have you been watching the swimming world championships from Shanghai? We're sure you'll agree it's been fantastic racing and the underwater and close-up video footage is amazing to watch.

Have you been surprised at the range of strokes on show? Some swimmers using straight arm recoveries, some with super-high stroke rates, some slower two beat kicks and others powerful six beat kicks? It just goes to show that a variety of stroke styles can be fast and efficient depending on the build of the swimmer, the distance they are racing and the environment (pool or open water).

When watching the racing take a look for the similarities in all their strokes, the things that are essential for an efficient stroke technique:

Photo from Shanghai courtesy Dr Jim Miller

- Very high body position
- Good rotation to both sides
- Great alignment of the body and arm extension
- Great catch mechanics - pressing water backwards at all times, not down or to the sides
- Efficient kick technique with a relatively straight leg (with the possible exception of the sprints where all-out kick power is needed)

Aspects that vary significantly amongst elite swimmers are:

- Arm recovery style (traditional high elbow vs. straighter arm recovery)
- Head position (looking down to looking almost straight forwards)
- Stroke length (taking anywhere from 30 to 55 strokes per 50m)
- Stroke rates (up to 110 Strokes Per Minute in open water, 75-90 SPM during pool events)
- Kick timing (two beat combined with a faster stroke rate, six beat combined with a longer smoother stroke)

Clearly, if these aspects vary significantly between elite swimmers they are not fundamental to an efficient freestyle stroke.

Non-Elite Examples From Perth

Sue came to us for a video analysis session a few weeks ago looking to improve her swimming. She fits our Swinger Swim Type and has a naturally high stroke rate. She found that by lowering her stroke rate using a Wetronome and stretching out her stroke she became less efficient and 'it felt harder' as a result. As we lifted her stroke rate again she told us it 'felt much easier' and 'more natural' once more. This sounds counter-intuitive to many swimmers but for Sue a higher stroke rate style suits her perfectly and matches her natural two beat kick.

Guy is a classic tall Smooth swimmer with long arms and a natural 6 beat flutter kick. During our stroke correction session with him we worked on improving his catch mechanics as he had a tendency to press the water down at the front of the stroke. By improving his catch he became quicker and his stroke rate lifted slightly in line with this, however when we elevated his stroke rate too far things felt 'really tough' and 'ragged' to him. Guy's long smooth stroke fits his individual make-up perfectly.

Keep an open mind when making improvements to your stroke and take a leaf out of an elite swimmer's book and experiment with different aspects of your stroke technique. There really is no 'perfect way to swim'. If something feels promising then try it for a few sessions and see if it makes you faster and more efficient - you may be surprised by the results!

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Are You Sure You're Putting On Your Wetsuit Right? The Human Shoehorn

There is a bit of a secret method to getting in your wetsuit properly, we call it the "human shoehorn". You'll need some help from a friend to use this technique but it will make your suit a lot more loose and flexible around the shoulders.

The first step is to make sure that you pull enough loose material up the arms and legs. Use a plastic bag over your hand or foot as you slide them into the suit, this helps the suit slip on. At the ankles and wrist pull your suit up 5cm (2 inches) more than you might normally do:


Work this material up your legs to the groin area and up your arms to the shoulders:

Now have your friend slide their hand inside the suit down towards your tricep and with their other hand work the material up the arm and round from the chest on both sides. This is the "human shoehorn" :


Take care not to over-stress the suit doing this as you might tear it. You're just trying to position the suit nicely on your body, not stretch it. The last thing you want to do is rip your suit immediately before a race!

Without using this method you will have a wide gap across your back between the zip and when you do up your suit it will compresses your shoulders and makes things very tight. After Human Shoehorning your suit will sit quite differently with the zip almost together on your back, which can be easily done up:


Now your shoulders will be much more free and loose, ready for a great swim split!

One last tip, as you get in the water pull the neck open a touch and let some water in. This helps lubricate the suit and the water acts as an additional layer of insulation once warmed up.

Have a great race and let us know how you go on the blog comments here.

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Are You Slower In A Wetsuit?

It's frustrating isn't it? You spend many hundreds of dollars or pounds on a beautiful well fitting wetsuit but when you swim in it you're no faster, or even slower, than you are without it. You might feel awkward and unbalanced in it too.

If you have this problem don't worry, you're not alone. Many triathletes suffer in this way - particularly females with a swimming background as a child. The reason is that when swimming without a wetsuit you already have a very good body position with the legs sitting up very high in the water. The extra buoyancy from your suit actually takes your legs too high leaving you feeling very unbalanced in the water.

If you already have a fantastic body position, a wetsuit can
leave you feeling unbalanced in the water.

Nearly all Kicktastics (often female with a swimming background) suffer from this problem - your strong leg kick gives you a fantastic high body position which is a major asset in your stroke. The added buoyancy of a wetsuit starts to lift your legs out of the water and you lose power and the stability provided from your leg kick.

An important adaptation for Kicktastics is to lift your head higher and look further forward when you swim in your wetsuit. This lifts you slightly at the front and brings your legs down a touch, redressing the balance in your stroke. Experiment with a range of head angles, from looking 1-2 meters in front to looking right ahead with the goggles just beneath the surface.

Pro Example: Kate Bevilaqua

Paul Newsome is coaching double Ironman winner Kate Bevilaqua who also suffers from this frustrating problem in the water. Prior to working with Kate she swam around 62 minutes for 3.8km. Our first breakthrough was a 58 minute swim at IM New Zealand in March this year, followed by a 53 minute swim at IM Lanzarote in May. Paul worked on two aspects of her stroke:

The Kicktastic:
- Strong 6-beat kick
- Often female
- Long limbs
- Hates wetsuits!

1) Kate was originally coached and led to believe that all swimmers should look straight down at the bottom of the pool or ocean to bring their bum and legs up. This is totally wrong for some swimmers and was terrible advice for Kate. Despite her lean muscular build, Kate has a very good natural body position in the water and maintaining this head position with a wetsuit or pull buoy was causing her legs to sit too high, leaving her feeling very unbalanced as a result. Paul raised her head a touch by looking forward in the water by around two meters and she immediately felt better.

The better view forwards also helped Kate's drafting which is something we worked heavily on in April. Given that this can save her up to 38% of her energy expenditure if performed well, or allow her to sit with the faster age-group men, this is a major benefit that is essential for her to exploit.

2) Kate often complained of tired shoulders when using her wetsuit. She was coached to maintain a very high elbow during the recovery phase but inevitably the suit's resistance lead to premature fatigue at the start of her races. To improve this, Paul worked with Kate to swim with a straighter arm recovery which led to more hand clearance over the water (ideal for rougher swims) and also allowed her to tap into her ability to maintain high stroke rates in excess of 85 SPM (strokes per minute). This change gives her rhythm and purpose in a tightly packed open water swim.

If you are slower or feel unbalanced in your wetsuit then don't despair, try the the changes above and we're sure you'll instantly feel a lot more comfortable in your wetsuit and faster too. Let us know on the comments section of this blog how you go! You will also find plenty more specific advice to improve your stroke in the Kicktastic Swim Type Guide here.

If you are a swimmer who loves their wetsuit and you gain significant speed from the buoyancy, then you may find this hard to believe. It just shows how different we all are and why modern swim coaching is moving away from traditional one-size-fits-all methods to an individual approach.

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Over-Thinking And Under-Achieving ?

Many swimmers, particularly Overgliders, have a tendency to over-think and over-analyse when they swim. They feel a strong urge to focus on every single stroke of every single lap of every single session in case their stroke falls apart or somehow they will not achieve their potential in the water.

Of course it's important to work on areas of your stroke that are holding you back - preferably in a targeted way using coach feedback or video analysis. However, obsessively thinking about the same areas of your technique over and over again soon leads to you hitting a plateau. If you've experienced this you'll know that this 'analysis paralysis' is extremely frustrating!

Over-Thinking

An important part of developing your swimming is the ability to simply switch off sometimes and feel your stroke rhythm. Over-thinking adds a noticeable pause within your stroke as you analyse you previous stroke and plan your next which kills your natural rhythm and timing. Also, all that mental pressure makes you tense and rigid as you try to be perfect, which only gets worse as you become more frustrated!

Faced with the prospect of 10hr+ English Channel crossings, SS Head Coach Paul Newsome and the rest of the Channel Dare Team know all about the dangers of thinking too much, which would be to the detriment of that key ingredient for distance swimming: rhythm. It's hard to explain what a channel swimmer really focuses on for ultra-endurance swim sessions, other than simply getting into a good groove and holding a nice rhythm for a prolonged period.

When you get into this zone you enjoy the experience and feel the natural rhythm of your stroke. In doing so you'll often find an area of your stroke starts to click or you become aware of something that was holding you back. Interestingly, Swingers like to switch off like this and are very good at it, so much so that they dislike technique sets for the disruption to the rhythm and momentum of the session.

Example 'Brain-Off' Set

Try this neat little set and see what happens, repeat it anywhere between three and five times through in your next session:

4x 50m drill with 10 seconds rest between each 50m. Choose a single drill for each set of four 50s which you know will target a specific aspect of your stroke, for example you might choose sculling, kicking on your side or unco. Restrict yourself to only thinking about that one aspect as you drill for each 50m but then:

200m continuous steady freestyle with the brain switched off - just feel the rhythm! Let the previous drill just do it's work and naturally filter into your stroke.

What If I Can't Switch Off? - The Split Screen View

At Monday morning's technique session here in Perth we tried this set with our squad and it was very well received by the swimmers. However, not everyone managed to find that rhythmical place in their stroke straight away, the place where they felt they were on auto-pilot.

One swimmer was struggling to find his flow during the 200m swims so we asked him to simply look at (and enjoy) the image of the water rushing past his face as he breathed. His goal was to see if he could keep one eye looking above the water and one eye under in a sort of "split-screen" view:

By giving this swimmer a visualisation which wasn't a direct technique focus (but still emphasised good breathing technique), he was able to improve the single biggest thing holding him back: sinky leg syndrome. He improved his efficiency in the water without having to think overly hard about anything, which normally makes him tense and rigid especially when he's frustrated and feels he's "not getting it".

If you struggle to switch off, try using the visualisation above and enjoy the motion of the water around you which will make it much easier to find that flow and rhythm. Before you know it you've crossed the Channel and are standing on the beach in France... well, nearly! ;-)

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We're Swimming The English Channel!

Swim Smooth Head Coach Paul Newsome and seven other members of our Perth squads have been busy training to swim the English Channel this northern hemisphere summer. In fact last Sunday the entire team successfully completed their six hour qualification swim in 15°C water and are now officially qualified for this tough 34km solo crossing - fantastic job guys!

L-R: Andrew, Geoff, Paul D, Ceinwen, Paul N and Wayne
still smiling after their 6 hour qualification swim!

The combination of the long distance, strong tides, potentially rough conditions and the cold water make the English Channel one of the hardest swims in the world. So hard in fact that fewer people have swum the English Channel than climbed Everest! Today on the blog we're going to let the Channel Team members update you on their preparations, find out how the qualification swim went and hear about their fund raising for a very important cause.

To find out even more, the team have a dedicated website here: www.channeldare.com

Wayne, Ceinwen, Paul N and Paul D

The Channel Team Swimmers

Andrew: "Our team of eight swimmers are Paul Newsome, Paul Downie, Wayne Morris, Ceinwen Williams, Lisa Delaurentis, Geoff Wilson, Carrol Wannell and me. There's a range of speeds in the group (Paul N and Ceinwen being the super-fish!) but it's well known that depending on conditions on the day, stamina and mental strength can greatly outweigh pure speed!

Every one of us has our own boat and skipper (known as a "pilot") who will guide us through the strong channel tides from England to France some time in our 5-7 day tidal windows. When the weather conditions are set fair for the following day we'll receive a call from our pilot telling us we're off in the morning (cue big rush of adrenaline!).

Paul N and Ceinwen
training hard!

Each of us will make the long journey from Australia to England for our slot this northern hemisphere summer:

Geoff: 21st to 29th July 2011
Lisa: 25th to 31st July 2011
Ceinwen: 6th to 13th August 2011
Wayne: 6th to 13th August 2011
Carrol: 20th to 26th August 2011
Andrew: 5th to 10th September 2011
Paul D: 5th to 10th September 2011
Paul N: 5th to 10th September 2011

Cold Water Adaptation

Andrew getting a hot drink down during training

Paul D: "A large part of the challenge of swimming the English Channel is the cold conditions with water temperatures in the 15-17°C range. The Channel Swim Association's rules are very strict and we're only allowed to wear normal bathers and a swim cap - strictly no speedsuits or wetsuits!

Swimmers often take 12 to 16 hours to complete their crossing and obviously this is a very long time in such cold water.

Adapting to the cold and deliberately adding a few kilograms of insulation to our muscular physiques (!) are a major part of the preparation to swim this mighty event. We've been swimming regularly in the Swan River here in Perth which is a perfect 15°C for training and we've been rewarding ourselves with plenty of (ahem) "high quality nutrition" to make sure we have enough insulation for our crossings. Trying to gain weight can be a real challenge when you're swimming 50km per week!"


Training... And Yet More Training!

Training in the Swan River, Perth

Ceinwen: "The great thing about having eight of us training as a team is the shared camaraderie to get through the long and challenging sessions. Each of our training weeks will peak in the 50-60km range, with at least 25 to 30km of that in cold open water.

Our staple training has become long endurance swims but we've kept some threshold sets to maintain speed together with some technique sets to keep our stroke form. Open water techniques are key to a successful swim so we're doing lots of sighting and navigation practise. Being able to breathe bilaterally is important too as our support boats will move around us depending on the direction of the swell and good communication needs to be maintained with the boat at all times.

Andrew and Paul D in action

"Due to the tides, many English Channel swims start before dawn in total darkness so night swims have been part of our preparation as well. Swimming in total darkness is extremely disorientating as you lose perception of where the water ends and air begins - very freaky at first but thankfully you do get used to this!

Experience and expertise of this event is so important that we've employed the services of 7-times World Marathon Swimming Champion Shelley Taylor Smith, herself a channel veteran. We're very lucky to have Shelley local to us in Perth, thanks for all your help Shelley!"

Geoff getting greased up by Shelley before
his qualification swim

A Six Hour Qualification Swim

To even attempt a channel swim crossing you must have completed a six hour qualification swim in 16°C water or colder. Last Sunday the entire team completed this swim in the Swan River here in Perth using a 2km loop - perfect for the support crews to keep a close eye on them in case of hypothermia. The jetty was also the perfect as a feed station.

Geoff and Andrew coming in for a feed

Paul Newsome: "I swam with my trusty Garmin GPS monitor which showed that in 5h 59'09" that I had swum a total distance of 24.52km at an average pace of 14'38"/km (including drink stops). My actual swim speed was just under 13'40"/km, or the equivalent of doing 245x 100m intervals, hitting 1'22" for every 100m, leaving every 1'27" - now that would be a proper threshold / CSS set!

The conditions whilst cold were perfectly flat and with no obvious current so it's hard to draw comparisons accurately against my previous Rottnest Channel swims but I went through 19.7km in exactly 4:45 or 37 minutes faster than I have ever swum the race. This is a massive confidence boost and a good sign that all the hard work has been paying off. I certainly felt good and held a stroke rate of 80±2 SPM (strokes per minute) throughout.

Swim Smooth Head Coach Paul Newsome
was stoked with his qualification swim

I'm not even going to hypothesise what I could do across to France if I held this pace, as this has been the pitfall of many a previous swimmer, ignoring just how much the elements can play against you. However, I am confident that I have found my rhythm and that I have been doing everything I possibly can to get myself in the best possible shape for this challenge - and yes, that includes the 12kg I've put on to keep myself warm - I'm now a hefty 78kg!! I used to race triathlon at 62.5kg if you can imagine that, LOL!

Now I'm just looking forward to another good block of training and getting on with the task at hand."


Raising Money For Breast Cancer Care

Shelley and Leith keep things organised on the jetty

Lisa: "We are swimming for Breast Cancer Care WA who provide financial and emotional support to breast cancer victims and their families. In case we were not taking this part seriously enough, not long ago a member of our group told us of a beautiful 35 year old mother of two who is facing terminal cancer after breast cancer has returned to haunt her for the second time. I can only imagine what she and her family are experiencing.

It saddens me to think about my selfishness of complaining about the cold water when there are people like this in our community fighting to live. Whilst I can not guarantee the success of making it to France I know I will fight with such spirit. I'm sure you have all experienced something very close to this in your lives and watched others hurt, so please help and donate to Breast Cancer Care. Please give generously here:

www.channeldare.com/?page_id=23

So far we've raised over $25,000 dollars but we know we can raise a lot more with your help - please show your support for what we're doing!"


The Support Crews

Wayne: "It's truly amazing just how many people need to be involved in the preparation for an English Channel crossing. A special thanks from us to all the family, friends and coaches who have given up their time, energy and beauty sleep to help us qualify.


Over thirty people were involved in supporting the qualification swim and many of them will be travelling to the UK to support us during our attempts. Thanks so much - we simply couldn't do it without you guys regardless of how much training we put in!"

Here on the blog we'll keep you up to date with the team's training and how each crossing goes, including special coverage of Paul Newsome's swim on the day he crosses in September. We hope you enjoyed the update and perhaps feel a little inspired yourself!

In the meantime, if you have any messages or questions for the team then please post them in the comments sections on the bottom of the blog here.

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What To Think About When You're Racing

Warning! Free international shipping on all our Coaching DVDs and Training Plans ends on Sunday. Order your swimming improvements now and don't miss out! : www.swimsmooth.com/products

As a swimmer or triathlete you will be doing technique work in the pool focusing on different areas of your stroke. But what should you think about when you're racing to optimise your performance?

The good news here is that the technique improvements that you've made in training will largely stick when you are racing, leaving you to focus on the effort of swimming fast and also navigating if you are in open water. You will however have a little spare concentration available to you even when racing, so choose one simple thing in your stroke and keep some focus on it.

Here's some ideas of what to focus on:

pick one thing to focus on when you race

- If you feel anxious in open water then simply think about exhaling smoothly into the water and block out every other swimmer and distraction. This will help relax you and keep things nice and manageable.

- If you have a tendency to veer off course then become aware of what your lead hand is doing when you breathe. Let the breathing action take care of itself and turn your focus to keeping your lead hand extending straight in front of you and not crossing over your centre line.

- If you know that you have a tendency to pause and 'overglide' in your stroke then aim to keep your lead hand constantly in motion - entering and extending forwards, lightly catching the water and then pressing it backwards. Remember this should have a lighter feeling than overgliding, like dropping down a gear on the bike and spinning a little faster and easier.

- If you are aware that you have a scissor kick then focus on lightly brushing your big toes together as they pass with a regular tap-tap-tap rhythm. If you're not sure what to focus on in your stroke then this is always a good choice.

- If you have a tendency to lift your head to breathe, focus on keeping your head down when breathing and look very slightly behind you.

For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, enjoy your racing and let us how you go in the comments here! The weather here in Perth is decidedly wintry now with lots of cold rain and storms coming through. We're thinking of you having fun up there!

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How To Sight Correctly In Open Water

Sighting - lifting your eyes out of the water to see where you are going - is a very important skill in open water and triathlon swimming. The mistake most swimmers make is to crane their head high out of the water to try and sight and breathe at the same time. This sinks your legs, adding lots of drag (even in a wetsuit) and ruins your stroke rhythm.

The correct technique is to keep your head much lower, just raising it enough to lift your eyes above the surface of the water:

When do you breathe? Immediately afterwards and to the side. It looks like this:

As you catch the water and pull through with your lead arm, lift your head and look forward. Then immediately rotate to the side to breathe with the stroke, dropping your head back into the water as you rotate. The whole thing is one smooth fluid action and it takes less than a second to complete.

Practise this technique in the pool and get used to timing your head movement. It's normal for it to feel quite mechanical and awkward at first so allow yourself around six sessions and it will start to feel much more natural.

Turn A Fuzzy Picture Into A Clear One

The great thing about this technique is that it creates less downward pressure on the legs and so less drag, there's also very little interruption to your stroke rhythm. The downside is that you don't have very long looking forward, so hold the image of what you saw in your mind and analyse it afterwards. With any sighting technique you won't always get a clear view of what's ahead but that's OK - don't panic! Perform a couple more strokes and sight again and you'll gradually turn a fuzzy picture into a clear one in your mind.

How Often Should You Sight?

Anywhere between every 3 and 12 strokes depending on the conditions and also on the symmetry of your stroke. If you have confidence that you swim straight then you can afford to look forwards less frequently, avoiding the extra effort of lifting your head and the downward pressure on your legs that results.

If you find you veer off course all the time then something as simple as bilateral breathing during your training can significantly improve your stroke symmetry, helping you to swim straighter and faster in open water as a result.

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Actually, There Are Two Ideal Stroke Styles

Most people assume that the Smooth Swim Type is the ideal stroke style. Very tall swimmers like Grant Hackett, Ian Thorpe and Rebecca Addlington epitomise this style - their long strokes setting world records and winning multiple Olympic gold medals.

But, unfortunately, it's not quite that simple. There is another stroke style that can be just as fast: the refined version of The Swinger. This shorter, punchier style of stroke can be incredibly quick, especially when combined with a two beat kick. Laure Manadou, Kate Ziegler, David Davies and Janet Evans used this style of stroke to win gold medals and set world records in the pool. In fact, at the 2007 World Championships, the women's 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle were all won by Swingers - proof that they can dominate in the pool.

Smooths and Swingers sit
together at the top of the tree

The key point to appreciate with these refined Swingers is that although they're using a fast stroke rate, they're not fighting the water. There are no crossovers or scissor kicks to be seen and their body position is very high, reducing drag. They also have great catch mechanics, pressing the water backwards which propels them forwards effectively. In short, they have all the key stroke elements for fast efficient swimming, just as the Smooth style does.

Whilst there are generally more Smooths than Swingers in elite pool swimming, the situation is reversed in open water. Swingers dominate in the great outdoors (including triathlon) because the extra rhythm of the stroke helps punch through disturbed water from other swimmers. A Smooth making the transition from the pool to open water should be very wary of this.

So there are actually two 'top dogs' in swimming stroke technique, not one. Both have their strengths and weaknesses but they are both devastatingly fast and efficient strokes when matched to the right swimmer.

Which Style Suits You?

In a sense you don't have to consciously choose because as you develop your swimming your stroke should naturally evolve one way or the other. Instead of actively chasing a particular stroke style, focus on correcting and refining elements of your stroke technique and you'll gravitate towards the style best suited to you. This happens because different swimmers have different natural buoyancy, strength levels, gender, height and arm reach. Believe it or not personality can play a part in this too - Smooths tend to be quite reserved and considered people while Swingers are normally more extroverted and go getting!

We don't know why but Swingers seem to love bright swimsuits!

If you find that you naturally favour a faster more punchy style with minimal kick, then the Swinger style is for you. Work on refining it by removing any crossovers in your stroke and improving your catch mechanics (see here). Also check you're not using a thumb-first entry into the water on one or both sides, this is a bit of a tendency amongst Swingers.

If your stroke naturally evolves towards the Smooth style then that's great but remember that to perform well in open water you're going to have to commence your catch a little sooner than you might as a pure pool swimmer. This will shorten things just slightly and add more rhythm to your stroke. You can do this without fighting the water but allow yourself some time to develop the modification as it will change the feel and timing of your stroke quite dramatically.

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Avoiding Cold Water Shock

This is the time of year when northern hemisphere swimmers and triathletes are returning to open water venues for training and races. At most locations water temperatures are still pretty chilly and the shock of jumping into water this cold can make you short of breath and anxious when you start swimming. It can also cause panic attacks which are deeply unpleasant and can ruin your race. Here's a quick tip to help overcome this:

Before you get in and swim, splash cold water on your face from the lake, river or sea. Doing this for around ten to fifteen seconds allows your face to cool down to the water's temperature so your body adjusts and the shock passes.

Start swimming soon afterwards and you should find things much more comfortable and you can start swimming properly straight away, exhaling smoothly into the water to settle any remaining nerves. Note that this trick only works with your face, not any other part of your body.

Sounds too simple? Try it - it really does work!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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