Choosing The Right Fin

You might have noticed that on our DVDs and in our new book we only use mid-length flexible fins:

click to play short video clip

We recommend this style of fin for all swimmers as they give you good propulsion and support when performing drills - which is the primary purpose of using them.

Shorter flippers such as zoomers can work well for elite swimmers but for most of us they do not provide enough propulsion for stroke correction work. It's critical that you feel well supported when performing drills so you can focus fully on the drill and not be worried about kicking hard enough to move forwards.

When Purchasing Fins:

- Choose something 'mid length' - i.e. longer than a zoomer but shorter than a full length scuba fin.

- Make sure they are made from a soft and flexible material such as rubber. Some fins are made from plastic which is much stiffer and places a lot of load on your ankles and feet. If you suffer from cramping in the foot with fins then a softer material should help.

- For some reason we've never understood most fins are slightly smaller than stated. So if you have size 9 feet, you're probably best going for a size 9-11 pair rather than a 7-9.

In short, choose something like this: www.swimsmooth.com/fins

Fins Aren't Cheating!

A mid-length fin gives you proper
support for drill work.

There seems to be a school of thought out there that you should never use fins as they are cheating but nothing could be further from the truth.

When used with a specific purpose in mind they are extremely valuable to help you develop your stroke technique in ways that would otherwise be very hard to achieve. New movements in swimming can feel very alien so it's important that you are able to really relax to get the feel of them.

As a rough guide, in the Swim Smooth Squads we use fins for about 400m at a time for structured drill work. We do this with all our swimmers, from the relative beginners right up to our elite swimmers such as Jono Van Hazel. As an added bonus, using fins regularly helps to develop and maintain their ankle flexibility which is key to efficient freestyle swimming.

Not allowed to use fins at your pool? This is a frustrating problem to have and you can find our suggestions about it here.

Blatant Plug Of The Month

We've just got some of the excellent Floating Fins from Finis in stock on our website shop. These have the perfect combination of flexibility and length we are talking about here:

www.swimsmooth.com/fins

Fins like these are easy to find in Australia but we know that in recent years they have largely disappeared from the UK and European markets. So a big shout out to Finis for introducing them again.

Swim Smooth!

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A Rule Of Thumb For Your Swim Fitness

What rate of improvement can you expect from your swimming fitness training per week? And if you miss a week, how much do you slip back?

Here's a rule of thumb we use at Swim Smooth:

- With consistent training, you improve by 0.5 second per 100m per week

- When you miss a week's training, you lose 1 second per 100m per week

So, if you've just had a 5 week break from training it will take you about 10 weeks to get back to where you were before the break - really highlighting the importance of consistency in your training!

Anticipating The Change

These gains and losses show up most clearly at your CSS or threshold pace. If you use a Tempo Trainer Pro or Wetronome to pace yourself through these sets (see below), adjust your pace before your training session using the rule above. Based on your previous training (or lack of it) speed up or slow down the beeper in anticipation of your change in fitness.

We've trained a lot of athletes over many years and this rule of thumb normally works very well. However, if you are new to fitness training in swimming, you may initially improve more quickly than 0.5 second per 100m.

Tempo Trainers And CSS Training

We know that many of you have been using CSS training sets to improve your swim specific fitness and have seen some huge improvements in your swimming performances as a result. For example, Alen Pezzin in our squad improved his speed by 13% in 10 weeks, dropping from 1:47 to 1:32 / 100m at threshold!

The Tempo Trainer is worn under
your swim cap and beeps once every
lap to set you a target pace.

Using a Tempo Trainer Pro in mode 2 is a great way to pace yourself accurately through these sets but did you know you can also use mode 1 to become even more accurate with your lap time? You can then adjust your lap time in 0.01 second intervals allowing you to be really precise with your pacing. The original mode 2 only allows whole seconds at a time, equating to a change of 4 seconds per 100 in a 25m or 25yd pool. That's OK but if you want to adjust things by 0.5 second per 100m you need to be more precise by using mode 1.

You can find out more about CSS training here and the Tempo Trainer Pro here.

Swim Smooth!

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Sweet Uncertainty Is A Powerful Motivator

What makes a great training session from a psychological point of view? A coach we work with closely in Montréal, Charles Gaston-Couturier, describes the challenge of a good training set using something he calls 'Sweet Uncertainty', based on work by Brunelle in 1988 [1].

Visually it looks a little like this:

To the left side of the graph we have a goal that is so far within your capabilities it is too easy and boring. On the right side is a goal so hard you know it is impossible to complete, to attempt it would be futile. Somewhere in-between lies a tough challenge, one you're not sure whether it's possible to complete or not, a challenge that once set becomes very motivating.

The most common example of this form of motivation is when you set yourself a race or event goal, for instance "Next year I want to swim that hard 10km race" or "I want to complete an Olympic Distance Triathlon in 2:30".

The Flow State

Psychology Professor Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi describes how the motivation of a challenge leads to the 'flow state' [2] where all our emotions and our entire focus are aligned to help us achieve the goal:

"The flow state is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one... Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."

In the sporting world we know the flow state as 'the zone'. Attempt something too easy and we become bored but try something too hard or beyond our skill level and we become anxious and demotivated by the futility of trying. Both extremes make it impossible for us to enter the zone, instead we need that point of uncertainty somewhere in-between.

Setting Yourself Regular Challenges

What is interesting to note is that this form of goal setting motivation (known technically as 'extrinsic self determined') doesn't just exist for mid and long term goals, it works session by session too.

So if you are bored or lacking motivation, try setting yourself regular mini-challenges in your training. This could be a set you haven't tried before or times and distances you are not sure you can complete. It might be leading your lane in the squad through a CSS set or matching a training partner who is slightly quicker than you.

Such challenges don't need to be set in every session because looking forward to them will motivate you in other sessions building up to them. But find that point of sweet uncertainty and motivation (and flow) will be yours.

Swim Smooth!

[1] "La supervision de l'intervention en activité physique" by Brunelle, Drouin, Godbout et Tousignant
[2] "Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play" by Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi

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A Little Science Behind Propulsion

As you swim, have you ever wondered how much of your arm stroke effort is wasted? What percentage really goes into pushing you forwards through the water and what is lost as water movement down, to the side and into eddies?

The technical term for this is ‘propelling efficiency’ and it makes a direct contribution to your overall efficiency as a swimmer. If more of your effort creates forwards propulsion and less is lost as water movement then you become a faster and more efficient swimmer.

When you work on your catch and pull technique to press the water backwards with good timing you are working on improving this propelling efficiency.

Swimmers vs. Triathletes

Last year we designed the exciting new range of HUUB wetsuits with Dean Jackson and top sports science Professor Huub Toussaint (we liked his name so much Deano named the company after him!). As well as a guru on minimising drag in wetsuits, Huub is also the world leading sports scientist looking at propulsion in swimming.

In 1990 he conducted a study comparing high level swimmers and triathletes in the water [1]. The results were fascinating. At the same swimming speed, the triathletes converted 44% of their work output into propulsive power whilst the swimmers converted 61%. A very large difference in propelling efficiency highlighting the superior stroke technique of the swimmers over the triathletes.

Huub Toussaint and Dean Jackson with Swim Smooth's
Adam Young and Paul Newsome

This study looked at national and international standard athletes. However if you are a little lower down the pecking order yourself then you can expect your propelling efficiency to be lower with the majority of your effort lost into the water. Your figure might be in the 10-40% range. At the other end of the spectrum, Huub has measured propelling efficiencies as high as 80% in Olympic swimmers at racing speed.

Propelling Efficiency And Effort

Huub's study compared swimmers all moving at the same speed. What happens to your propelling efficiency when you vary your effort from slow to fast swimming? You may find the answer quite surprising: As you work harder, your propelling efficiency improves and as you slow down it gets worse. In other words, if you increase your effort (e.g. by 10%) you get a greater return in propulsion (e.g. great than 10%). Conversely, drop your effort by 10% and you lose more than 10% in propulsion.

Although this change in efficiency with effort is well recognised by sports scientists, there is very little high quality data out there to quantify it for human swimmers. However, we can get a rough idea by looking at studies of fish. Webb studied trout swimming over their full speed range [2]. The results show a very strong relationship :

We have to be careful with this data as it relates to fish not humans but the strength of the relationship is striking. At slow speeds over 80% of their effort is lost into the water whilst when moving quickly they become much more efficient, losing only 20%. The hydrodynamics of why this happens is complex and beyond the scope of this blog but the key point to appreciate is how been overly gentle with the water is actually extremely inefficient.

(In an interesting aside, Webb noted that the fish in the study were reluctant to swim very gently, perhaps innately recognising the inefficiency of doing so!)

Efficiency Folklore

Much of the information out there in swimming books and on the internet purely focuses on decreasing your drag to make you a more efficient swimmer. For that reason it’s hardly surprising if in your mind you equate efficiency with reducing drag but really that’s only half the story. Your overall efficiency is a combination of your propelling efficiency and your drag profile.

You could say:

overall efficiency = propelling efficiency x drag efficiency

It’s important to appreciate that both elements are of equal importance, not one over the other. If your propelling efficiency is poor then you can work all you like on reducing drag but you will only make small improvements in efficiency.

Implications

If you are a bit of a swim geek (like us!) then hopefully you found that interesting. But what practical conclusions can we draw? Here are our thoughts:

Eddies in the space time continuum

1) To become a more efficient swimmer, work on both your propulsive technique (e.g. catch and pull) and reducing drag (e.g. balance, alignment and kick). Don’t be sold on the idea that one is more important that the other or more of a priority to improve your stroke efficiency.

2) As we discussed last week on the blog be careful with the notion of swimming ‘effortlessly’ to become more efficient. As we have seen above, swimming too gently actually reduces your overall efficiency. This is one of the main reasons why swimmers trying to glide effortlessly down the pool become very frustrated with their lack of speed.

3) Don’t become a ‘technique hermit’, shunning all swim specific fitness training and solely focusing on swimming drills. The more swim fit you are, the higher effort you can sustain and therefore the more efficient you will be. Swim fitness is a vital ingredient of an efficient swimmer!

4) A key area of development for the Bambino Swim Type is better rhythm in the stroke. Although this involves turning the arms over quicker, the result is normally a reduction in effort, not an increase. This happens because the Bambino has such a poor feel for the water that their propelling efficiency is very low indeed and by lifting their stroke rhythm this improves.

5) Don’t use this as an excuse to muscle the water, that’s not what we’re talking about here. Efficient propulsion is generated through pressing the water in the right direction with good rhythm and timing. Whilst it certainly does not feel effortless, the catch should not be a forceful movement either.

Swim Smooth!


[1] Toussaint HM. Differences in propelling efficiency between competitive and triathlon swimmers. Med Sci Sports Exerc 1990;22:409-415.

[2] Webb PW. The swimming energetics of trout II: Oxygen consumption and swimming efficiency. J Exp Biol 1971;55:521-540

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When Is It Going To Feel Effortless?

Effortless is a word that is often used by swimmers and coaches alike. But what does it mean to you when you swim or see others swimming?

There's a big difference between an elite swimmer *looking* effortless and them being truly effortless in the water.

As a case in point, our real-life Mr Smooth Jono van Hazel, who competed at the Athens Olympics in 2004 in the 50m freestyle, looks effortless when swimming at 1:10 per 100m pace. And yet this is actually his 1500m race pace - not something he can sustain all day. If it was truly effortless, by trying a little harder he'd be able to challenge Sun Yang's 1500m world record, which of course he can't.

The word effortless has been used in a well meaning manner by coaches for many years. The idea being not to fight against the water but work with it, as elite swimmers like Jono do. However, many swimmers have latched onto the notion that swimming should be truly effortless and as such they should never work hard in training or feel anything but very easy when they swim.

When you are swimming it should not be without effort. Just like when riding or running, you can feel strong, smooth and rhythmical. You are working efficiently with the water but it's never truly effortless. Swimming wasn't meant to be that way.

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Some Vacation Reading

The Swim Smooth team are enjoying a week's vacation, so no proper blog post this week. However this gives us the opportunity to mention some links and resources you might find useful:

	If you didn't know already, our head Coach Paul Newsome is on Twitter here. Coaching tips aplenty in amongst the banter!
	Swim Smooth's Adam Young has started a new blog focusing on how to give up your desk job and turn pro with your own passion (e.g. sports coaching, physio, events, photography etc) : www.adamyoungblog.com
	We've been enjoying reading Sheila Tourmina's excellent new book Swim Speed Secrets. Sheila won Olympic Gold in the pool and became ITU Triathlon World Champ in 2004. A fantastic athlete who knows all about becoming fast in the water!
	Tempo Trainers are now back in stock in the Swim Smooth shop. Pick up this fantastic gadget today, perfect for developing your swimming technique!
	Have a question about your swimming? Why not join our forum at www.swimsmoothforum.com - a great place to meet like minded swimmers and chat with the SS coaches.
	If you're a coach and find Swim Smooth useful to your work, it's well worth joining our Coaches Network here (if you haven't done so already). Members of the network get invited to our coaching courses and many go on to become certified SS coaches. :)

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Stroke Contrasts Revisited

It is very hard to be aware of the flaws in your own stroke technique because they tend to occur in parts of your stroke where you have holes in your proprioception or body awareness. Way back in December 2009 we posted a classic blog to help you self-diagnose such flaws using something called 'stroke contrasts'. This is a very useful method for those without a coach overseeing their swimming and well worth a revisit today, two and a half years on!

The idea is very simple: swim a short distance and deliberately add a flaw to your stroke. If the flaw makes your swimming feel immediately worse that's fine but if it feels the same or only a little different from normal then there's a good chance we've identified an area for improvement in your swimming.

Our suggested procedure: Deliberately introduce the stroke flaw for 100m and see how it feels. Rest for 15 seconds and then immediately swim 100m removing the flaw and emphasising good technique in that area. Feel the contrast!

We've given you some suggestions below of common stroke flaws that you can experiment with. Also refer back to our 2009 blog post here for more examples and feel free to invent your own too!

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Contrast 1: Putting On The Brakes

A classic problem encountered by those trying to overly lengthen the freestyle stroke is dropping the wrist and showing the palm forwards in front of the head. Try 50m braking with the right hand and then 50m braking with the left hand. To correct, focus on keeping the hand a little lower in the water and angling the hand slightly downwards so the fingertips are a touch lower than the wrist. Get this right and you should feel a noticeable improvement in your stroke rhythm. Recommended SS product: Catch Masterclass DVD or Overglider Swim Type Guide Recommended tool to help correct flaw: Finis Agility Paddle

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Contrast 2: Pushing Downwards During The Catch

One of the root causes of a poor body position in the water is pressing down in front of the head during the catch. This lifts the front end of the swimmer up and sinks the legs. This action creates a lot of pressure on the palm of the hand which can be misinterpreted as a good catch but pressing downwards doesn't help engage the water or create any propulsion. Contrast this with bending the elbow in front of the head to press the water backwards, this will feel less forceful but it is generating much more propulsion! Recommended drill: Doggy Paddle Recommended SS product to correct flaw: Catch Masterclass DVD

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Contrast 3: Thumb First Hand Entry

The leading cause of shoulder pain and injury is a thumb first entry into the water, with the palm facing outwards. This internally rotates the shoulder, creating a twisting action and possible impingement. Repeated thousands of times in training this leads to inflammation in the shoulder and ultimately injury. Contrast this with the correct hand entry, with the hand facing downwards, entering fingertips first. If you feel any shoulder pain trying this exercise, stop immediately! Recommended tool: Finis Agility Paddles (these give you feedback by becoming unstable with a thumb first entry)

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Contrast 4: Lifting Your Head To Breathe

Deliberately lift your head upwards so that your head clears the surface when breathing. This is poor technique as it acts to sink your legs downwards and involves pressing downwards with the lead hand which harms your catch. Straining upwards in this manner can also be the cause of neck pain. Contrast this with keeping your head low in the water breathing into the bow wave trough. More information on bow-wave breathing: www.swimsmooth.com/breathing.html Recommended Visualisation: The Split Screen View

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Contrast 5: Holding Your Breath Underwater

This one was in our original blog post but it's so important it bears repeating! Swim 100m holding your breath underwater, exhaling at the very last moment before breathing in. Contrast this with a smooth relaxed exhalation as if you are sighing into the water. Focus on relaxing and letting go of the water easily. If possible, breath every three strokes or less frequently to give yourself time to exhale fully. Getting rid of the CO2 in your lungs and blood stream by exhaling smoothly helps you feel more relaxed and aerobic when swimming. A good exhalation technique is key to allowing you to breathe bilaterally. Recommended drill: Sink Down Exercise

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Contrast 6: Tapping Your Big Toes Together

Tapping your big toes as they pass is good stroke technique and helps you identify a scissor kick in your stroke. Swim 100m with a gentle flutter kick, turning your feet in slightly (pigeon toed) and brushing your big toes lightly together as they pass. You should feel a regular tap-tap-tap-tap. If there's any pauses or irregularity to the tapping then it's likely your legs are parting significantly. Be especially aware of any pauses during and immediately following breathing - this is when scissor kicks normally occur and they are easily missed whilst you are focused on breathing. Correction: Most scissor kicks are caused by the lead arm crossing the centre line in front of the head. This causes you to lose balance and unconciously scissor kick to regain stability. Both our Arnie Swim Type Guide and our Catch Masterclass DVD are perfect for improving your stroke alignment.

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Putting It Together

Using the stroke contrasts above, you can construct a valuable stroke technique session:

300m easy warmup, focus on good stroke rhythm

Perform the six stroke contrasts above in turn as: 100m introducing stroke flaw + 15 seconds rest + 100m focusing on good technique in that area

200m easy warmdown, focusing on correcting the biggest flaw you diagnosed in your stroke. Only think about a single aspect, don't try and focus on several things at once!

Swim Smooth!

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Our Review: The Strokes Of London 2012

London 2012 saw some fabulous swimming performances in the pool and open water. The TV footage has been stunning and we're sure you've noticed quite a range of stroke styles on display, each suited to the particular swimmer and the event in which they were swimming.

Let's take a look at some of the top performances at the games and the stroke styles the swimmers used.

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Men's Triathlon

The men's triathlon was an epic race, finally won by Alistair Brownlee with a stunning 29:07 10K run. Paul Newsome was down at the Serpentine studying the swim:

"An electric pace was set throughout the 1500m wetsuit swim by Richard Varga, exciting the water in 16:56 - a very fast split indeed, even at the very highest level of triathlon. Having someone pace things out so quickly at the front really strung out the field with numerous small clusters of swimmers forming rather than the massive packs often seen at world cup races.

Watching the swim two things were immediately apparent. First, in stark contrast to many of the male swimmers in the pool, nearly all the triathletes were using markedly straight arm recoveries over the surface. This helped them clear the wake and disturbed water from other swimmers and also get closer to other swimmers around them, increasing the drafting benefit available to them. Opening out the elbow angle to create a straighter arm also reduces the fatigue on the shoulders that even the most flexible wetsuit can introduce if a classical high elbow technique is used.

Straight arm recovery technique employed
during the triathlon swims

Second, all of the athletes were turning their arms over very quickly, using a fast stroke rate in the 80-90 strokes per minute region. If you have a Wetronome or Tempo Trainer Pro, try setting it to 85 SPM* and give it a try: it's very quick!

The benefit of this shorter stroke with lots of rhythm is that it reduces (or entirely removes) the gap between propulsive strokes underwater which means the swimmer can't get stalled by waves or chop in the gap between strokes. For that reason, this punchy refined Swinger style is more efficient than a longer slower stroke in open water."

Quick Stats:
Gold: Alistair Brownlee: 89 SPM
Silver: Javier Gomez - 82 SPM
Bronze: Johnny Brownlee: 92 SPM

* SPM: Strokes Per Minute (counting both arms)

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Men's 1500m 

Over in the Aquatic Centre, Swim Smooth's Adam Young watched Sun Yang's incredible 1500m world record:

Sun Yang has super long arms!

"When you first see Sun Yang in the flesh, the first thing that strikes you is his sheer height, even compared to the other tall male elite swimmers in the field. Somehow he seems even taller than his 1.98m (6ft 6in), an impression perhaps created by the length of his incredibly long arms dangling by his sides.

Sun false started the first time the field lined up on the blocks (apparently from a noise in the crowd) and hoping to witness a world record swim, the whole stadium breathed a collective sigh of relief when the starter spared him from disqualification. His competitors might have been slightly more disappointed with his reinstatement though as Sun quickly moved under world record pace and built a dominant lead in the race.

Bent elbow pull-through technique

If you have watched video of Sun swimming, he can give the impression that he glides down the pool as he has a super-long stroke style. However, when you see him swim right in front of you, you can see this is actually not the case. Yes he has a very long stroke but this gifted athlete is all power and timing, making the most of his huge arm span, driving himself forward on every stroke.

In fact our 2011 analysis of his stroke (see here) showed that he has only 0.2 second between finishing one stroke at the rear and starting the next at the front, showing this impression of glide to be an illusion caused by a very long smooth stroke. He is very much the Smooth Swim Type just with a huge wingspan!
Cutting smoothly through the water, Sun stopped the clocks at 14:31.02, a breathtaking new world record and one that will live long in my memory and that of everyone else who saw it."

Quick Stats:
Gold: Sun Yang: 28 SPL* / 65 SPM
Silver: Ryan Cochrane: 36 SPL / 80 SPM
Bronze: Oussama Mellouli : 34 SPL / 76 SPM

*SPL: Strokes Per Length (counting both arms)

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Women's Open Water Swim

The women's 10K marathon swim in The Serpentine was another close thrilling race full of tactics and skilful swimming. Paul Newsome gives us his observations:

Swinging arm recoveries and light two-beat kicks

"I really enjoyed watching this race, as a former pool swimmer who has transitioned first to triathlon and now marathon swimming, this race really highlighted how tough marathon swimming is with a real race of attrition.

Just like in the triathlon events, the 10K field all used very punchy stroke styles, also using a straight arm recovery over the water. What was really noticeable in this race was how the girls combined the fast stroke style with beautifully timed 2-beat kicks. This is much slower than a flutter kick (6-beat) and involves the swimmer kicking at the same speed as their arms strokes, i.e. one kick per arm pull.

Keri-Anne Payne's excellent sighting technique with
just the eyes above the surface

Since kick propulsion is very inefficient, this slower kicking style allows the swimmer to conserve energy during a marathon swim but the swimmer must get quickly into their catch at the front of the stroke without any glide for it to be effective. Otherwise they would decelerate between strokes without the benefit of a more continuous kick.

As with the triathletes we see that swimmers focusing on open water are employing the refined Swinger style to great effect."

Quick Stats:
Gold: Eva Risztov: 83 SPM
Silver: Haley Anderson: 87 SPM
Bronze: Martina Grimaldi: 97 SPM
4th: Keri-Anne Payne: 90 SPM

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Personality And Stroke Style

At Swim Smooth we've coached thousands of swimmers over the last 10 years and observed the 6 classic Swim Types at play. As well as stroke characteristics, we've also noticed how there are distinct personality traits that tend to go with each stroke style. We've noticed that Smooths tend to be much more laid back than Swingers, perhaps turning up late to swim sessions and taking their time to get in the pool and swimming. In stark contrast, Swingers want to get on with things and are often first on the pool deck, dying to get in the water!

This contrast in personality between Swingers and Smooths was immediately apparent on our Coach Education Course last weekend in Loughborough, where we had two coaches on the course with really nice swim strokes themselves. Vicki used lots of punch and rhythm in her stroke and a classic 2-beat kick, every inch the refined Swinger. Ian, a classic Smooth, used that longer smoother style together with a six beat flutter kick. Prior to filming, Ian was taking lots of time to get himself ready fiddling with his bathers, cap and goggles whilst Vicki stood on the blocks waiting to go. In her own words "I can't stand all this waiting around, I just want to get on with it!".

Perhaps this difference in urgency is what defines their individual stroke styles: the smooth relaxed stroke of the Smooth versus the 'get on with it' punchy style of the Swinger.

Swim Smooth!

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Bend It Like Becky Part 2

We hope you enjoyed the women's 800m final last week - it was an amazing performance by 15 year old Katie Ledecky to take out the race in her first event representing the USA and beat the established stars! She is an amazing talent and we wish her well for the future, she looks all set to become a major swimming star herself over the coming years.

Next week: Swim Smooth's Paul Newsome and Adam Young have both been in London watching the thrilling men's and women's Olympic Triathlons over the last few days and talking to many of the athletes and coaches behind the scenes. Next week on the blog we'll be looking at how these olympic athletes swam in the Serpentine and learning a few lessons from them that you can employ to improve your own open water swimming. In the meantime, let's bend another part of the freestyle stroke with Becky Adlington!

Bend It Like Becky Part 2

If you've been studying the underwater footage from the aquatic centre, one thing you may have noticed is how elite freestyle swimmers angle their wrists slightly at the front of their strokes just before starting the catch. This helps them initiate a high-elbow catch position and is something you can look to replicate in your own stroke.

Here's Becky Adlington doing just that:

Nearly all great freestyle swimmers use this technique, including Phelps, Thorpe, Hackett, Yang and Popov. The movement is quite subtle and is hard to see from the pool deck without using underwater video footage, which probably explains why many swimming coaches said we'd got it wrong when we released our Mr Smooth showing this movement back in 2009 :

Initiating The Catch

This is an important movement becomes it helps bring the fingers and hand downwards to initiate the catch, which is the point of the stroke where you start to gain purchase on the water :

We can see that the initiation from the wrist (1) brings the hand and forearm downwards into the classic high elbow catch position (3). Becky can now press the water backwards, not downwards, which is the essence of a great catch technique.

Your Stroke

Try adding this subtle movement into your own stroke, it will help you initiate your catch and will help you keep a nice rhythm, removing any overglide you might have in place.

One word of caution, it is possible over-do this action and point the fingertips too far downwards:

Keep the angle at the wrist subtle and gradually develop a feel for this movement and how the water feels as you engage with it. Remember not to rush the catch but engage with the water and progressively press it backward, helping you generate more propulsion for less effort.

Swim Smooth!

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Bend It Like Becky

Tonight is the women's 800m final in the London 2012 pool, featuring two awesome distance swimmers: Rebecca Adlington from Great Britain and Lotte Friis from Denmark. It's likely to be a close race between the two of them and all fingers are crossed here in London for Becky to produce the first British gold medal in the pool.

The fascinating thing about these two great swimmers is that they have completely different stroke styles and yet are very evenly matched. Becky has that classical long smooth stroke using a high elbow recovery and a six beat kick. Lotte is a classic swinger with a much shorter stroke, straight arm recovery and the ability to switch between a six and two beat kick.

This could well be the classic Swinger vs. Smooth race - you won't have any trouble working out who is who!

Make sure you catch the final tonight at 7:45pm UK time, 2:45pm EDT, 11:45am PDT, 2:45am China/Singapore/Perth.

Bend It Like Becky

So what makes Becky such a great swimmer? Let's have a little look at her underwater and highlight her pull-through technique, something you should be aiming for within your own stroke:

Notice here how Becky's elbow is bent to 110° which gives her perfect leverage to press clear water backwards, propelling her forwards (you can click the image to expand). In your own stroke you should be aiming for an elbow bend of between 100 and 120°.

Many swimmers pull through with a very straight arm which places a lot of load on the shoulder and produces much less propulsion:

Notice also how Becky's hand is directly below her shoulder as she pulls through:

This is perfect technique and is something you should aim for in your stroke too. If you press wide of this or cross the centre line then you will snake down the pool:

Underwater Shots

The underwater footage is fantastic at this Olympics and during tonight's final you should get a good look at both Becky and Lotte's strokes under the water as they go head to head. Their stroke styles are different above the water but don't get distracted by that, instead notice all the important things that are the same:

- Very high body position
- Great alignment without any crossing of the centre line or pressing wide
- Amazing rhythm and timing without any deadspots or pauses
- Great catch and pull through technique, pressing the water backwards, not downwards and bending those elbows!

Becky takes around 38 strokes per 50m and Lotte around 44, despite Lotte being about 5cm taller than Becky. Both swimmers could easily swim with a longer stroke if they chose to but they would be less efficient and so slower as a result. In fact, we're sure many of you reading this could better those figures yourself, albeit with much poorer stroke technique. This really highlights that you can't measure efficiency by counting strokes - not even remotely!

Enjoy the race and Swim Smooth!

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Sprinters vs Distance Swimmers

AT LAST! HUUB Archimedes 3:5 and Women's AURA now in stock. Available now from our UK distribution centre: here

If you train in a squad you will have noticed how some swimmers are great sprinters, able to work very hard over 50 or 100m. Others are much less able to sprint but can sustain a strong pace over 800m or further. This is in part determined by the type of training each swimmer is doing but there also is a genetic predisposition to each, some swimmer make natural sprinters, while others are more natural distance athletes.

If you study swimmers closely you'll also notice cross-breeds; those swimmers who can sprint fairly well and also sustain a fairly strong distance pace. These swimmers normally have a sweet-spot around 200 or 400m where they are faster than the pure sprinters and the pure distance guys. These are the middle-distance swimmers, the great Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe being a classic example of the breed.

We can show this graphically as race speed over different distances of race:

The blue line is a middle-distance swimmer. He or she can travel quicker than our distance swimmer (red line) over 50, 100 and 200m. But by the time they are racing a much longer distance such as 1500m, the tables have turned and the distance swimmer is considerably faster. A pure sprinter would show an even greater drop-off in performance as race distances get longer.

Becoming A Distance Swimmer

Perth squad member Suzanne is all smiles after
her once-weekly CSS session!

To become a good distance swimmer, we're not so interested in the ability to sprint very quickly over short distances. Instead we need to emulate great distance swimmers at the elite level and train ourselves to sustain a strong pace over longer distances. The best way to do this is to swim sets at CSS pace with short recoveries between swims. Compared to sprint or middle distance training, the swims are slightly slower but with much shorter recoveries.

If you come from a team sport background such as football or rugby you need to be especially careful of getting this right as you are likely to have a natural sprint ability. Most Arnies fall into this category. A key focus to improve your swimming is to tame that competitive instinct to go hard from the gun in training and to set off at a more moderate pace but one that you can sustain. At Swim Smooth we affectionately refer to this as 'Taming The Arnie'!

When you swim at CSS pace, it feels very easy over the first 50m and only like a moderate effort over the next 100 to 200m. Be aware of this and resist the urge to go too hard too soon! The effort will progressively build and by the end of the set you'll be really working to sustain that same pace.

Aim to complete one CSS set a week and within four to six weeks you'll notice a definite improvement in your distance swimming fitness and race performances. This is a double gain as increased fitness will also help you sustain a better stroke technique without that feeling of your 'stoke falling apart'. You're changing your fitness and becoming more like the red-line swimmer in the graph above.

More information about CSS training and examples of training sets, see our website here:

http://www.swimsmooth.com/training.html

The CSS Calculator

If you've played with the CSS calculator on that webpage, you might have noticed something a little strange. If you keep your 400m time fixed but reduce your 200m time, your CSS pace becomes slower! At first sight this seems very odd - how can a faster swimmer end up with a slower CSS pace?

To understand this we need to refer back to the graph above. By keeping a swimmer's 400m time the same and increasing the 200m speed, we are saying their physiology is becoming more of a sprinter and that their performances will drop off over longer distances.

The power of CSS training is that it gets you training at the right intensity level to improve as a distance swimmer, whatever your current level of fitness or genetic predisposition.

Richard Ussher

After consulting with us in Perth, five time NZ Coast To Coast winner Richard Ussher has been following our 10 week CSS development programme as he prepares for the XTerra World Champs. Rich identified that he needs to be 90 to 120 seconds faster over 1500m in the swim to match his incredible bike, run and paddling performances. In combination with work to refine his Swinger technique, we identified how essential it is for Rich to train wisely to see the results he wants using CSS training. In 10 weeks he's reduced his threshold pace by 5 seconds per 100m (or 75s over 1500m) down from 1:23 /100m to 1:18 /100m - a very nice result.

Find out more about this amazing athlete at: http://www.adventuresportnz.com/site/Welcome.html

Swim Smooth!

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Join Us At Heron Lake On August 6th

Newsflash: The new Swim Smooth book is officially the best selling watersports book in the UK, topping the sales charts in June and July! We've also had confirmation from Triathlon England, Scotland and Ireland that they are recommending it to their members and supplying copies to selected coaches.

Get your own copy here and read independent reviews here.

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Swim Smooth Open Water Skills Evening: Heron Lake

In conjunction with HUUB wetsuits, Swim Smooth's Paul Newsome and Adam Young will be running an open water skills evening at Heron Lake in West London on 6th August. We're only in the UK for a limited time during the Olympics and the evening is strictly limited to 50 swimmers, so book quickly!

Receive direct coaching from Paul and Adam, including :

- A special Swim Smooth seminar on improving your performances in open water.

- A coached open water skills session to improve your sighting technique, drafting skills and ability to swim straight.

Your open water skills are just as important as
stroke technique and fitness to your performances.

- Correct wetsuit fitting (this can make a surprising difference to how well you swim in your suit).

- Mindset tips and strategies for better racing.

- Special guests and demonstration swims by elite triathletes including Harry Wiltshire.

- Test out what you've learnt in a mini race! Estimate your 400m or 1500m time and then complete the respective race distance without a watch on. The male and female swimmers closest to their estimated time win a special prize!

We're sure this will fill up very quickly so don't hesitate to book your place: www.swimsmooth.com/open-water-evening.html

We also hope to have a number of HUUB wetsuits available to test on the evening, subject to their availability.

Swim Smooth!

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The Red Mist Set

Our Wednesday 5:30am squad in Perth are a tough bunch, they are all experienced triathletes and open water swimmers looking to improve their performances. They come to this session expecting a challenging 90 minute swim and last week we gave them a classic training set, one that distance swimming coaches have used through the decades to test their swimmers physically and mentally.

At Swim Smooth we call this session 'The Red Mist Set' and it comes with a warning:

YOU MAY NOT LIKE THIS BUT IT IS GOOD FOR YOU!

Paul: If you are an intermediate or advanced level swimmer give this set a go and you are guaranteed to learn something about yourself and how you are swimming. It's perfect for anyone racing Ironman or doing a 5km or longer open water race. When I was training with the British Triathlon Team at Bath University we used to swim this set every Monday morning. I make no qualms about it, I hated every last meter of it and used to dread it because it tackled a weakness of mine head on - the ability to stay focused and maintain a strong pace when things get tough. Is this something you struggle with? I think we all do at some level.

The Red Mist Set

This corker of a session is deceptively simple, it's just 10x 400m rolling straight through at a gradually faster pace:

4x 400m at CSS pace + 6 sec /100m 3x 400m at CSS pace + 5 sec /100m 2x 400m at CSS pace + 4 sec /100m 1x 400m at CSS pace + 3 sec /100m

The best way of swimming it is by using a Wetronome or Tempo Trainer Pro in lap interval mode to pace you perfectly through each swim, taking one beep rest between 400s - which for most swimmers will be 20-30 seconds recovery. If you are swimming without a beeper, use a turn around time to give you between 20 and 30 seconds rest.

The Finis Tempo Trainer Pro
- use it to pace out
your training sets perfectly.

The target pace for each swim is referenced from your CSS pace. For instance if your CSS is 1:30 /100m then your target pace for the first 4x 400m is 1:36 /100m and the second 3x 400 at 1:35 /100m etc. In this way, as your fitness and CSS pace improves the session becomes progressively harder to compensate.

Whilst this set might appear to be pure fitness training, it has two very important technique focuses to it: Maintaining your stroke technique at close to threshold pace, as you need to when racing. And developing your pace judgement and pacing skills, which are also essential to reach your potential as a swimmer.

[ Find out how to calculate your CSS pace here and use Steve Casson's Swimulator+ app to help programme your beeper. ]

The Swirling Red Mist

During Wednesday's session, around 80% of the squad became irritable, grumpy or came close to giving up during the set. This is the 'Red Mist' at work, giving you feelings of resentment or perhaps anger for being pushed so relentlessly. If you can come through this set and cope well with the mental and physical challenges it offers then it leaves you perfectly prepared for some great performances in your races.

Squad Board: The Red Mist Set

Paul: In the middle of this set you'll tell yourself that it's pointless 'thrashing around', 'imprinting bad technique' and you'd have been 'better off doing some drills' but this is your head looking for an excuse to stop. Time and experience has taught me that this session really works and if you can get your head around the seeming 'boredom', 'tedium' or 'slog' of this session, you stand to make some massive progress with your swimming. After all, how often in a race have you had these same mental tussles with yourself?

Yes this session puts you under pressure and forces you to maintain focus and push away negative thoughts from your head. To reach your potential as a swimmer it's essential that you put yourself in this pressurised position regularly (perhaps once a week). My old gym teacher at school called it 'Moral Fibre' as he forced us to go cross-country running in sub-zero temperatures in just shorts and a vest!

Every week I swim this session myself with another of our squads (our elite triathlon group) and compared to those years as a junior athlete at Bath, I now really look forward to it. I crave the challenge of taking on the red mist because I know that by getting through this set every week it will give me a real sense of confidence and 'flow' to my swim training. This is a key lesson I learnt from swimming tough sets like this one when training for the Rottnest Channel and English Channel swims.

I've now swum the Rest Mist Set 16 weeks in succession and gone from 1:25 /100m to 1:16/100m, reducing the target time by 1 sec /100m every two weeks. So whilst it's the same session each time, there's progression built in to avoid hitting a plateau.

Give It A Crack

Even if you don't normally swim 4km in training, set yourself the challenge of the red mist, turn off the negative thoughts in your head and give it a crack. Let us know how you get on!

Swim Smooth!

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The Stroke Every Swim Coach Wants To Change (But Shouldn't)

Harry Wiltshire is an elite ITU triathlete who is always amongst the first few athletes out of the water at every world cup event he races. He can swim 17 minutes and change for 1500m, and trains every day with the Brownlee brothers for good measure. But Harry has a problem: every swim coach wants to change his stroke.

His stroke is a long way from an orthodox smooth stroke, with a short punchy style and striking straight arm recovery:

He takes between 45 and 50 strokes per 50m and appears to windmill his arms. His turn over seems frenetic at 90 to 100 strokes per minute:

This is a long way from what most people think of as an efficient freestyle stroke and yet he's first out of the water at the very highest level of triathlon. At an easy level of effort he swims faster than most age group triathletes can sprint. How does he do this?

Don't Mess With Harry!

Also read our exclusive interview with Harry about his swimming and trying to make the Olympic team: www.swimsmooth.com/harry-wiltshire-interview.html

Harry was the first athlete that our head coach Paul Newsome ever coached whilst they were both at Bath University during the late 90s. Like nearly every other swim coach before or since, Paul thought that's a terrible stroke, let's smooth him out and make his stroke longer! The problem with doing so was that it immediately made him slower and less efficient.

Harry is a skilled swimmer and can switch to a longer smoother stroke if he wants to but this stroke style simply does not suit him and it immediately feels hard work. He doesn't swim the way he does because of a lack of coordination or skill, he swims this way out of choice.

It was this experience of working with Harry that caused Paul to realise that this 'Swinger' style of stroke did have a lot of merit and triggered a line of thinking and research that lead to the Swim Type system.

Like all great swimmers, the secret to Harry's stroke is what happens underwater. He has a great body position with hips, knees and feet very near the surface :

An excellent catch and pull technique, pressing the water back behind him with a bent elbow :

And a low energy two beat kick, ideal for distance swimming :

Harry's fast arm turnover gives his stroke amazing rhythm which helps him punch through waves and swell, and minimise buffeting from other swimmer's wakes. That high arm recovery allows good clearance over disturbed water and lets him to swim close to other swimmers to maximise drafting benefits.

At first sight it would be easy to disregard Harry's stroke as 'fighting the water' but as we can see above he's doing anything but. There's plenty of great technique in his stroke, it's just that everything happens very quickly. If you blink you miss it!

If you've been following Swim Smooth for a while you will know that we call swimmers like Harry 'Swingers' because they tend to recover with a distinctive straight arm style. Harry is an extreme example of a Swinger but nearly all professional triathletes and open water swimmers use this style to a greater or lesser extent, including those Brownlee brothers, who are favourites for Olympic Gold in London.

Should You Use This Style Yourself?

Harry's stroke isn't something we would hold up and say 'copy this' as it is a fairly extreme example of the Swinger type with quite a lack of symmetry and a significant head lift to breathe. Compared to an elite swimmer, his catch could also be improved somewhat. However, we should recognise and appreciate his strengths because there are definitely some aspects of his stroke you can emulate to become a better swimmer :

Harry exits another swim in the first pack.

- If you are a triathlete or open water swimmer, experiment with a slightly straighter arm recovery. This may feel strange at first but it will help you clear disturbed water and also swim closer to other swimmers.

- All swimmers need great rhythm and timing in their strokes, and this is especially the case in open water. Don't lose site of this by trying to overly lengthen your stroke.

- If you feel like your stroke is long and slow then experiment with getting into your stroke a little quicker at the front by keeping your lead hand always in motion, either extending forwards, lightly catching the water or pressing it back. You're not trying to shorten your stroke at the front or rear but just remove any delay at the front. Don't be afraid to 'put a bit of Harry' into your stroke.

- If you naturally suit a faster stroke style then feel secure that there's nothing wrong with that and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Of course you should refine and develop your stroke technique but keep that great sense of rhythm to proceedings, it's a real strength in your swimming.

At Swim Smooth one of our goals is to give great swimmers like Harry credit for what they do, which has been sadly lacking until now. They may look unorthodox but their stroke style is highly effective for distance events and they are brilliant swimmers in their own right.

Swim Smooth!

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Breaking news: Since writing this blog, Harry won The Outlaw Iron-distance triathlon in the UK last weekend. As you'd expect he lead out the swim (in 48 minutes in his HUUB Archimedes)...

...and then went on to win the race. Quite an achievement when you appreciate he had stopped running in March to focus on trying to make the Olympic team as a swim-bike domestique. In fact his longest training run before The Outlaw was just 30 minutes long. A phenomenal achievement which really highlights his mental toughness in running a full marathon off the 112 mile bike, a classic personality trait of the Swinger.

Read our exclusive interview with Harry, including his thoughts on developing that unique style here: www.swimsmooth.com/harry-wiltshire-interview.html

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