One of the questions I’m asked most often during 1-1 sessions is “What training session should I be doing?”
It’s a difficult question to answer because there isn’t one perfect session. There are hundreds of great sets, each with a different purpose. Instead of thinking about individual sessions, I encourage swimmers to think about structure.
A good session usually has three parts. An easy warm-up to get the body moving. A skills set (or pre-main set) to switch on the stroke. Then the main set, where you challenge yourself.
On Monday, our pre-main set was all about improving our feel for the water.
We started with some sculling to feel pressure against the palms before trying to recreate that same sensation while swimming. Then we focused on extending the stroke, maintaining pressure all the way through the pull, before adding a little more intent and acceleration without losing that pressure or connection with the water. Finally, we increased the effort to around 7/10 while keeping all of those same technical ideas.
Nothing in that set was especially hard – but by the time we reached the main set, swimmers were ready for whatever came next. The stroke felt connected, powerful and ready to go.
That’s the purpose of a pre-main set. It isn’t there to make you tired. It’s there to make you perform better when the main set arrives.
The messages afterwards told their own story.
“Loved that session tonight and my stroke felt good for most of it. Been a while since I got 1:35 in the warm-up.”
“It felt really good tonight, thanks coach!”
“Enjoyed the session a lot.”
“Felt really good tonight.”
Those comments aren’t a coincidence.
When you spend a little time reminding your body what a good stroke feels like before the hard work begins, the quality of the swimming that follows usually improves.
Sometimes the most valuable part of the session isn’t the hardest set. It’s the one that prepares you for it.
Bryan
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