Swimming Drills

Now that autumn is clearly on us and with winter fast approaching the swim sessions are into technique work. I know I have a lot of work to do, but I'm heartened by how removed I am from this time last year, and how even in the last few weeks I've started to feel these technique sessions begin to make the changes that will lead to a increase in power and speed through the efficiency I'll gain.

A couple of the coaches pointed out to me after the session that I'm pushing my head forward, so the top of the spine is curved, before I tuck my chin in. This probably explains why I feel like my throat is restricted & breathing is difficult! (and if you've been following my blog for a while, my shocking posture as seen in a previous post probably isn't helpingking posture

Getting my breathing right would make such a difference to my style - if I mess up my breathing, I start to panic & tense up, making it harder to get a good breath, so I get more panicy. Very much a negative feedback loop.

There were several kicking drills tonight where I used the fins, and I felt the benifit in the lengths that came afterwards; with the fins on, it was way easier to engage the core and get the glutes working the legs rather than the thighs, and I managed to carry that feeling over into some of the later lengths. Many of the other drills were about getting the arms to be going into the water 'wide', so that there was no crossing over and being horribly inefficient. COncentrating on those, I found it easier to go 4 strokes between breaths than normal, probably because my body position was so much better! In a 4 stroke pattern, I feel so much more stable in the water. Doing these drills I could feel the catch properly, that rippling down my forearm that Robert from Discover Swimming has talked to me about before, and that sense of speed. It just felt so right!


A lot of it is about the core, engaging the muscles and putting yourself into a nice flat position in the water, and there were a few lengths towards the end where I felt I was achieving this, making myself long and thin, so those lengths just flew in. When I do hit those lengths, I power up without any noticable effort, and can hitting the far wall at a fair old pace. I need to get those lengths happenning all the time

So yeah, my posture needs improving, but then it needs improving for all disciplines, so its an ongoing process. So many other things need improving, but as long as I stick at it, and particularly start getting to Tuesday & Sunday coached sessions, I know the coaches can drag a reasonable technique out of me. And once the technique is there, the stamina to swim a 3.8km will come.

Tonights blog was brought to you by Knife Party's Ibiza Mix