Swim Philosophy

There are lots of ways to train as a triathlete or open water swimmer. There are lots of ways to coach swimming for the triathlete too.

It’s no surprise to see many athletes and many coaches approach it very differently.

Whether we know it or not, we all have our own swim philosophy.

Some coaches (and athletes) have a preference for …

Long distances
Drills
Swim toys
No swimming at all at points in the season
Dry land swimming eg Zen 8 or Vasa or swim cords
Big sessions
Short and frequent sessions
Group sessions

Where do you fall? What is your swim training philosophy?

My Approach

It’ll probably come as no surprise to many of my swimmers, but I’ve come to realise that my preferred style is …

Strong Swimming

As a coach, a lot of my focus through the year is to help swimmers become fast. To do this, we work a lot on …

Knowing how to swim fast (and efficiently).
Being able to swim fast over short distances.
Being comfortable swimming fast.

In many of our sessions, and in much of our season, we take ourselves right out of our comfort zones.

We translate this fast swimming over short distances, to smooth, strong swimming over much longer distances.

Swim Fast When Fatigued

I like swimmers to be comfortable swimming well under fatigue. We deliberately design sessions to put swimmers in this position. We often build pace through a set so we are swimming our fastest towards the end.

Always, the challenge is to maintain technique at the end of these sets, despite fatigue.

Big Sets Of Short Intervals

I like big sets of short intervals. Give me 40 x 50m over 5 x 400m any day of the week! I’ve written about my preference for short intervals on many occasions.

Strong pace. Good technique. High focus.

Very Few Drills

We do not do much work with drills. We do some – very short sets – but all with a specific purpose, and then we switch into focused full-stroke swimming.

I much prefer swimmers to focus on specific aspects of their stroke within full stroke swimming.

Swim Efficiency

I’m a big proponent of making sure we get the most from each pull and improving swim efficiency. A big focus on distance per stroke – how well we hold the water and propel ourselves down each length – is a common theme within our Squad sessions.

We also try to reduce drag through the water, so body position and posture is another focus.

Fun

Finally, I think it’s important to make swimming fun and interesting. If it’s fun, if swimmers enjoy their time in the pool, they are likely to turn up regularly and be consistent . If they are consistent, they improve.

We often find swimmers’ attitude towards swimming changes as a result of this approach, they actually enjoy it (!) and want to improve.

Results

Results this year (and over many years) tells us that this approach works.

Swimmers drop huge chunks of time in training over short and long distances.
We have athletes hitting best ever race times, leading race day swims, competing at the front of the swim pack.
More than that, we have athletes who are so much more confident in the water, not phased on race day.

“I used to get a knock in the swim, stop, look around and panic. Now, it barely registers.”

So there we are. That, I think, sums up my swim philosophy. That is how I approach my coaching – both online and in our Swim Squads.

Sound good to you?