Category: Tips

In 2017 I swam the 20 km Mercer Island Marathon Swim, around Mercer Island near Seattle, Washington. I was fortunate to have a kayaker assigned to me. She was supportive, enthusiastic, motivational – everything you want your support kayaker to be – and she had a GoPro.

I had not yet embraced the GoPro world. Selfie sticks, helmet cams, prolific amounts of footage, and video editing, were way outside my comfort zone. However, after the swim I found myself anxious to get a look at my stroke. My lovely kayaker, also a coach for a local swim team, passed along some footage and suggested, ” maybe you could catch… a little sooner?” This insight, and being able to actually see myself swim, sent me down a long and winding path to change my form – that I never would have crossed if it hadn’t been for that footage.

My stroke had served me quite well to date; I completed the Mercer Island Marathon Swim, I had a few 10 mile Kingdom Swims under my belt, the 17 km Portland Bridge Swim, and even suffered through 36 miles of END-WET! Did I need to change?

It’s a grainy image from a video, but you can see it, can’t you?

Look at that elbow drop! Not to mention the lack of rotation.

I’ve studied, practiced, and coached many clients since 2017 (I’ve also invested in a GoPro). As I discussed in my last post, when you turn your head to breathe, you want to be as streamlined as possible. When you have good posture, a powerful pull, and snappy drive, you can capitalize on the moment between one stroke and the next and get a free ride.

With the awareness gained from watching this video, I could now feel when my elbow was dropping on my glide. It was extremely consistent! Not fatigue induced as I had originally thought.

Awareness is the first step. But how do you fix your stroke?

I’ve known for years that there is benefit to incorporating drills in your workout. When I was on deck coaching masters swimmers, I dedicated entire sets to drills and harped on my swimmers to actually do them correctly. However, when I attended a group workout, this was never something that I wanted to focus on: I can’t let Joe (the guy in the lane over) beat me! What if I miss the interval? I might not be able to lead my lane! What if I get lapped?

I started to investigate this further. The more I thought about how I swam, the more I realized that I had always swam for yards, or miles, or what have you. I always expected that my “feel” for the water would develop and be honed by swimming more. That was the way I grew up swimming. As an age group and high school swimmer, the longest race that I competed in was 1650 yard Freestyle, yet we trained upwards of 15,000-30,000 yards a week. Volume was always the emphasis.

Furthermore, it wasn’t until the very end of my swimming career, when I was taking a Water Safety Instructor course to learn how to teach kids to swim, that I received feedback on my stroke. The instructor asked me why I didn’t use my full length: “Why do you cut your stroke so short when your arms are so long?” In 10 years of swimming competitively, this was the first time anyone had mentioned this to me!

If you want to improve, you need a good coach, and you need to see yourself swim! It’s the only way that you can change. You need to see what you’re actually doing instead of just thinking that you’re doing it right.

Have you seen yourself swim? Ask a friend (or a lifeguard!) get some footage. Underwater footage is great, but a lot can be seen above water, I provide feedback for free!

Next time: how to make change.

For the fourth and final installment of efficient swimming basics, meet: Glide

When we swim with great posture, a strong pull, and snappy rotation (drive), we can capitalize on the sweet spot between finishing one stroke and starting the next; this is active glide. 

As a marathon swimmer and efficient swimming advocate, the glide is my secret weapon. When I’ve been swimming for hours and hours and have a few more to go: I drive my hip forward, R-E-A-C-H and glide! If I feel like I haven’t been training enough, but it’s time for my long training swim, I really lean into my glide to get through.

The trick is to continue the forward momentum generated by your pull and drive, by not creating drag with any part of your body. Check your posture: Is your neck long? Your low back flat? Where are your arms? Where are your legs? Are they in the same plane as your head and shoulders?

Keep you elbow high, palm towards the bottom of the pool, ready for the next catch.

Make yourself as tall as possible.

If you’re breathing, check your head position: chin up, forehead down, ear near your arm.

Make sure everything is in line.

If you’re swimming fast, you’re probably gliding a lot less! But you can still capitalize on this momentum before starting your next stroke.

Are you ready to glide? Investigate where your arm is when you breathe. It should be near your ear. If you’re pushing the water down to get your head up you’re creating drag by having your arm dangle down as you drive your hips forward. You’re probably kicking harder, which is likely wearing you out (kicking uses the largest muscles in your body!). You’re working against the water.

We want to work WITH the water: start with great Posture. Put power in your Pull. Drive your hips forward. Reach and Glide.

Want to get deeper into efficient swimming? Sign up for my self paced Efficient Swimming Basics course!

First we talked about Posture. Then we put power in our Pull. For part three of our four part series on Efficient Swimming Basics: Drive

Rotate! This is quite possibly the most common feedback that I have for comfortable swimmers who are looking to improve. Perhaps swimmers *think* that they are rotating because they turn their head to breathe. Or because they rotate their arms around and around. But when I say “rotate” what I want to you think about is: forcefully driving your hip forward.

So, instead of rotation, we’re going to call it: Drive

Driving your hip forward, drives YOU forward through the water.

Try this: Stand in front of a mirror. Raise your right arm over your head. Now drive your right hip 45 degrees. Let your body roll with this motion. What does your hand do? It wants to reach! The more you drive and rotate your hips, the more length you can get with each stroke!

We accomplish several things when we employ adequate rotation in freestyle: 

First, turn your boat from a barge into a yacht! While we practice good posture to be flat on top of the water to reduce drag, we also want to slice through the water with each stroke. Reduce the surface area that you’re pulling through the water by rotating your hips as you reach.

Second, gain distance per stroke by reach, reach, reaching… Lean into that hip. How much higher you can reach? This is what we want!

And finally, leverage. Imagine trying to pull down on a weighted pulley with your arm stretched out straight. Now rotate so that the pulley is closer to your body. See how much easier that is? We gain leverage on the water by rotating our body. 

Sometimes I realize during a warm up, or even well into a workout that I haven’t been thinking about driving my hips, I’m merely rotating on an axis like a rotisserie chicken. There’s a difference. Think about driving for distance! Sometimes the Cake lyrics pop in my head:

“He’s going the distance

He’s going for speed…”

If you’re looking for speed, reach and drive!

Last time we talked about Posture, for part two of our four part series on efficient swimming basics, enter: The Pull

In the pull, our goal is to push the water behind us; as much as you can, as soon as you can. 

It’s that simple.

Start floating face down in the water in neutral position: arms over your head shoulder width apart, neck long, back flat. Now, push the water behind you with one arm. 

Take note: Did you move forward? 

If you didn’t take note, push the water behind you with your other arm.

Could you feel the water as you were pushing it?

Were your fingers closed or open? Were you cupping your hand? (Hint: relax you’re hand!)

What could you do differently to better engage the water to propel yourself forward?

Can you make your paddle bigger? Lock your wrist so that you can pull with the entire surface area from your finger tips to your elbow!

Does your arm come out to the side? Try keeping it under your body.

What if you bend your elbow sooner? You may notice that if you pull with a straight arm, you’ll be pushing your body up until such a time that your palm faces the other end of the pool and you can push the water behind you. Try bending your elbow sooner.

Do you lift your elbow out of the water before your hand reaches your thigh? Try pushing all the way through.

How much water can you push behind you with each stroke?

Be curious. Try different things! Find out what propels you forward.

Don’t get fancy and draw letters (I grew up in the days of the S pull!), just engage the water, and push it behind you. The sooner you start, the more water you can push behind you with each pull. 

If you’re a kicker, STOP. Investigate what happens when you start in a float and just push the water behind you.

That’s it. That’s the pull: push the water behind you. 

Next up: Rotation!

I’ve been working on my in-water posture for more than a year. For in-water posture, I practice what I call Neutral position: long neck, tummy tight, low back flat, arms over head with shoulders back and down – I try to spend some amount of time in this position every time I’m in the water. I believe this work has helped tremendously with eliminating low back pain on long swims. If this is something that you have faced, check your core engagement!

But that’s not enough.

Better posture in the water, starts out of the water. This is part one of a four part series covering the basics of efficient swimming.

In my Fitness Focus post, I mentioned some of the things that I’m working on in 2020. I mentioned it third, but I would suggest that, first and foremost, I’m working on my posture… thus the POSTURE PROJECT (read with booming, echo-y voice) has commenced.

This is the first tenant of efficient swimming: Posture.

In part, we want good posture to stay on top of the water and not drag our body through the water as we’re trying to progress forward. Notice the difference in posture in the top picture versus the bottom picture.

This difference in posture comes from engaging the core (tighten tummy), tilting your pelvis back (flatten low back), and bringing your shoulders back and down.

But we also want to quickly snap from one side to the other. Think about it: if you’re a noodle in the water, the transition from one side to the other isn’t nearly as effective as if you’re a board, from your head to your tail bone.

In working on my out of water posture, for starters, I try to catch myself slumping and immediately: tighten tummy, flatten low back, shoulders back and down. I think about it when I’m:

…doing dishes

…driving

…walking the dog

…folding the laundry

…sitting at a table/desk – this I a big one for me!

…playing with my boys

Inevitably, I tighten my tummy and realize my low back is arched, and my shoulders are sneaking up to my ears!

Tighten tummy, flatten low back, shoulders back and down.

Another activity that I’m engaging in to bring awareness to my posture is yoga. This week I’m attending a yoga retreat in Playa Chacala, Mexico. I couldn’t be more thrilled with how much focus has been on correct posture and proper technique—just like in swimming! So far I have been able to bridge this into impromptu swimming classes where we focus on floating (posture), and feeling the water.

It’s a fantastic marriage: yoga and swimming. After yoga, meditation, and a delicious, local, organic breakfast we digest for a bit then swim down the bay and back. A short, but adequate swim amid the relaxing that is called for in a place like this.

I expect more to come from this marriage of yoga and swimming, stay tuned!