Swim Better, Swim Faster

190 Pages·2014·35.58 MB·English

by  Paul Mason

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
01 Swimming is simple
02 Flexibility
03 Body position
04 Arm stroke
05 Breathing
06 Kicking
07 Stroke and rhythm
08 Turns
09 Open water
Technique training sessions
About the author
INTRODUCTION
swim verb bathe, dip, be awash, glide, move through water using natural means
of propulsion
This book grew out of the experience of coaching swimmers. Not top-level
racers striving for national championships or dreaming of Olympic glory.
Ordinary swimmers. The ones who fall somewhere between Becky Adlington
and people who would only swim if they fell out of a boat.
In other words, most of us.
IS THIS BOOK FOR YOU?
There are lots of good books on swimming out there. To work out if this
particular one will help you, ask yourself if you fit into one of these categories:
• Are you a keen swimmer who turns up at the pool and regularly swims for half
an hour or more, getting fitter and fitter – but never much faster?
• Does it feel as though you’re splashing your way up and down the pool, while
you notice the really good swimmers smoothly gliding along?
• Would you like to be able to do triathlons, but find the swim leg so daunting
that it puts you off?
• Do you find swimming front crawl so tiring that you can only manage a couple
of lengths at a time – even though you can swim breaststroke for ages?
• Are you aiming to take part in a long swim for charity and feeling nervous
about completing the distance, or maybe wishing you could swim front crawl
instead of breaststroke?
If you read one or more of these and felt a flash of recognition, Swim Better,
Swim Faster can help.
SIX SIMPLE ELEMENTS
Swim Better, Swim Faster separates front crawl into six key elements. Work on
just one of these for even a few hours, and you should feel an improvement in
your stroke:
1. Flexibility
2. Body position
3. Arm stroke
4. Breathing
5. Kicking
6. Stroke and rhythm
People often feel that they have a particular problem with one of these areas, and
concentrate on that. But the trick with swimming is to get all the elements of
your stroke working together smoothly and in balance. Work on all six over a
period of time, and your swimming will quickly improve.
TURNS
As well as swimming technique, Swim Better, Swim Faster has advice on turns:
• Many pool swimmers would like to learn tumble turns, which are a great way
of getting more out of your time in the pool.
• Triathletes taking part in cold-weather races often do the swim leg in a pool. In
some triathlons swimmers are banned from doing tumble turns – but it’s still
possible to make up a lot of time by doing the fastest possible touch turn.
Top tip
The advice and drills in Swim Better, Swim Faster will make you a good
freestyle swimmer. But improvement doesn’t stop there.
BECOME YOUR OWN COACH
This really works: after over 40 years of swimming, I still think about my
technique on just about every length I swim, try new things, and develop new
ways of training.
Always be careful, though, about picking up bits and pieces of advice from
the internet. There’s more than one style of swimming front crawl. The
technique in this book is good for swimming middle and longer distances, but
may not be what a typical sprinter would use. Mixing and matching from
different styles isn’t likely to help your stroke.
OPEN WATER
Open-water swimming – in lakes, rivers and the sea – is a fast-growing area of
the sport. The back-to-nature vibe, and the fact that it’s generally free, fits the
spirit of the times. But if you’re used to pools, swimming in open water requires
adaptations to your approach. You also need one or two extra pieces of
equipment. See Chapter 9 to find out more.
RAPID IMPROVEMENTS
Putting Swim Better, Swim Faster into action should lead to noticeable gains
within a relatively short time. Swimmers often report a measureable
improvement within three or four hours. Within 10 to 12 hours, most people find
their stroke has become smoother and more efficient.
To help you get maximum benefit from the book, at the back you’ll find
suggested suggested training sessions. Each session focuses on a different aspect
of your front-crawl style, and is between 20 and 40 minutes long. If you have
more time than this, it’s easy to combine the main sets from different sessions
together.
FOCUS YOUR TRAINING
Always distinguish working on your technique from training for fitness. You
learn new techniques best when fresh and rested. Never nail technique work onto
the end of a fitness-based session: you’ll be too tired to do the work properly.
USING THE BOOK
Each of the technique sections of this book has the same structure:
• First there’s an introduction to the subject and the key elements that will
improve your stroke, saying what you’re trying to achieve.
• There’s also information on some of the common problems swimmers
experience, and suggestions for ways to check which areas you need to work
on.
• Finally, there are drills that will help you to improve. If there’s more than one
drill, the simplest and/or most basic comes first, then they get steadily more
advanced.
A poor kicking style, with very bent knees. This will hold the swimmer back by creating drag and
affecting her body position. She needs to remember the coaching maxim ‘kick water not air’
This swimmer has a much neater swimming technique: most of the movement comes from her hips, not
her knees, and she is kicking mostly underwater with only her heels breaking the surface.
SWIMMING IS SIMPLE
swim verb float, glide, slip, stroke, submerge, move or propel yourself through
water using natural means such as arms and legs
At heart, swimming is simple. The basic techniques – arm pull and recovery,
kick, and body movement – aren’t especially complicated. But unless you’ve
been a competitive swimmer, you probably don’t really have a clear idea of what
you should be trying to achieve. This chapter gives you that information.
WHAT YOU’RE AIMING FOR
Aim for a smooth stroke, your body rolling from side to side with each arm
stroke, but always straight and level in the water. Breathing should be a seamless