Swimming – Finding The Magic Bullet?

I heard somebody say recently that there was no magic bullet to swimming. No quick fix or secret hack that would improve your swimming.

That’s true. To an extent.

Swimming frequently and regularly will help you improve your swim. No question.

The magic, though, is in what you do during your swim sessions. What you do in your sessions – and how you do it – will help you improve much faster and reach a much higher level than just swimming two or three times per week.

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Taking One Minute Off A 400m

For example, the swimmer I met last week who then improved his 400m time by one minute in his very next swim. He didn’t improve because he suddenly swam a lot. He improved so quickly because he invested some time and money into a 1-1 swim session with me.

In that session, we worked on three things – how to lengthen his stroke, how to improve his body position in the water and how to generate more power on each stroke. He is now a much quicker and more efficient swimmer. No magic bullet, but a targeted intervention.

Plenty more examples of swimmers who’ve asked for some 1-1 support and have made instant improvements. This isn’t to brag, rather to say that rapid improvement is possible!

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More Improvements

• The swimmer who took 5 seconds off his 50m time in 30 minutes with me, by improving his catch and pull.
• The swimmer who reduced her SWOLF score from 52 to 44 during a single session by improving body position and introducing some elbow bend into the catch and pull.
• The swimmer who couldn’t swim 400m in May, but by attending coached swim sessions, completed the swim at Ironman Wales in 1.18.

These are all significant and lasting changes that took place in coached sessions – either 1-1, swim video analysis or a group programme. Had they not attended these sessions, that potential would still remain untapped.

So no magic bullet per se.

You will have to put the training in to improve your swim. However, by swimming with a coach that understands swimming, understands how swim technique works and is able to pinpoint issues in technique (and then fix them) is, in my view, the closest thing to a magic bullet that you will find.

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If you would like to book a 1-1 session with me to improve your individual technique or would like to book on to our group technique programme, or our Swim Squad, get in touch!