next week, it might feel really good. It’s not always going to feel better. So the main thing is just to keep, like you did, just keep following the process and keep doing the drills, keep that focus on the stroke. Welcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast to show that help swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here’s your host, Brenton Ford. This is podcast episode number 133. My guest today is Ryan Razzelli and Ryan came to a freestyle clinic of ours in Brisbane in March this year and he had the Cannes Ironman, which was in June, or the Cannes Half Ironman. And Ryan messaged me the other day and he said that his time last year for the swim was 36 minutes. And this year after doing the clinic three months prior, he was able to get down to 31 and a half. So basically a five minute improvement or five minutes and six second improvement over the course of three months there. So I’ve got

Ryan on the podcast today to talk about what’s things he focused on in his stroke, how he went about making those changes and how he managed to ingrain those changes as muscle memory and make it permanent. And he also talks about what he focused on in the race and what advice he has for other triathletes and swimmers in a similar position who are wanting to swim faster, but they’re not sure how. So Ryan gets into it by talking about what his swimming background was coming into triathlons. I didn’t really have any swimming background. I used to do some triathlon back at secondary school. My highlight being racing Dino Bazzoni at New Zealand secondary schools, way back. And I was second to last out of the water. So, you know, I’ve never really been as strong as I’ve never been a strong swimmer. And it’s just something that I’ve had to spend some time working on. And yeah, certainly over the last two years,

yeah, it’s all new to me really. And is that when you started doing triathlons two years ago?

Yeah, so I had a friend that did Can’s 2017 and the half. And I followed him

in his race. And then I thought, well, if he can do it, then I can certainly do it. And after a couple of weeks of thinking about it, I decided to, I talked to my partner about it and said, this is what I want to do and have a crack. And she said to support me. So she came from a swimming background. So, yeah, she said, I’ll just go to the pool and start swimming. And she said, oh, you know, the first swim just goes from the cave. And yeah, you’ll probably struggle. And I went to the pool and I swam 2k and I felt all right, but, you know, wasn’t breaking your record. But just would have been a build from there. And take me back to, I guess a couple of months ago. So you first came to a clinic in March this year and then you had Can’s in June. So take me back a couple of months ago. What made you decide to come to a clinic and start working on your stroke? To me, I didn’t have any sort of coaching.

So I wasn’t making any inroads with my swimming. It was kind of, you know, my times weren’t really improving as much as I was trying to, you know, get quicker and, you know, Olympic races and all that kind of stuff that I was doing locally. You know, there was no change. And I find I was just playing a game of catch up when it came to the bike and the run. And I decided if I want to, you know, get any better at this, then I need to start swimming better. I’ve been recommended by others in my tri-club to come along and give one of your sessions a go. So I thought, you know, leading into Can’s is a perfect time. It gives me a good three or four months of lead and work to work on, you know, whatever we’ve covered in the clinic. And, yeah, for me it certainly worked. And what were those things that we, that you took away from the clinic? What were those key points that you ended up focusing on for the three months going into Can’s?

My biggest one was probably putting on the brakes. Well, personally, that’s what I think. And, you know, coming into the water and my hand was just shooting back up to the surface. And I think every single stroke was just slowing you down. Learning from there, getting on those train tracks, you know, straightening everything up.

There’s a little bit of hand entry and breathing. And I think, you know, combine all of those things. You know, at that time, I’d been watching your videos as well. So I was aware of, you know, trying to get my elbow in the right position for that catch, you know, elbow higher than the wrist. And I was aware of that, but it wasn’t until I actually saw it on video that I saw it. I was actually a fair way away from that. And certainly focusing on the drills to dial that in as well. So what did you, and actually going back to when you came to the clinic, and I look back at those videos, the video we took at the start and the one we took at the end when you were trying to make some changes there at the end. And when you, because I think the main thing in that second video at the end that you focused on was entering further out and avoiding putting the brakes on. And just even just that change alone, I reckon that was one of the real main ones that just made the stroke flow a lot better.

So much less drag being created and just kept the speed up. So you weren’t really, you weren’t just salarating as much each time. And just from my perspective, looking at that difference there, it’s like, you know, if you can focus on that for three months, that’s going to be a huge difference. And you already had some pretty good aspects of your catch and pull in place, which was, which was really nice to see. So, you know, I think,

you know, for you looking at the, the stroke was just a couple of tweaks to those things that you’re mentioning, like hand entry further out, don’t put the brakes on, don’t lift the head too much to breathe. Just tweaking a few of those, allowed you to kind of use those, those really good aspects in the stroke that you, that you had. And what did you do to lock in those changes as habit and change that, that muscle memory? Because it’s easy to, you know, change something once, but then it’s very easy to fall back into, into old habits. So how did you make those changes? Yeah. So from a little session that I’ve done by my open water, I’ll get in and do 500 meters of drills. So, you know, the five drills that I took away from it, I’ll do 50 meter drill, then just swim back with the fins on with the snorkel on and focus on my stroke. And I think, and then going forward and through my sets that I do in training with the kick,

no, sorry, with the poor boy and with the hand paddles, I’ll do all of those with a snorkel. So I can really focus on my stroke. I don’t have to worry about the breathing side of things. And I think for me, I’ve found really focusing on that stroke with the setup of the drills at the start to just, you know, for me being able to remember the points that I have to focus on,

then going through the session, focusing on, you know, the high elbow and the catch and the hand entry and not putting on the brakes. And, you know, two, three times a week doing those drills has really helped me to actually implement it in a race situation. And how did you feel in the first couple of weeks? Was it, was it one of those changes that made you feel better straight away or did it feel a bit unusual and worse? How was it for you?

My speed didn’t change initially. A few bits and pieces, some of them felt good, some of them felt bad and still even now, you know, I try to focus on lengthening out and, you know, the head position that we talk about when you’re at the clinic. And, you know, I still forget about that because it wasn’t one of my main points that I had to think of, but I’ll be swimming along and it’ll just come into my head and I’ll make that change. And, you know, even still it feels weird to do a few of these things, but it is starting to come, it’ll become more second nature, which is really good. And then, you know, obviously since then I’ve been watching videos and trying to implement a bit of the Serafe one you’re talking about with Josh and, you know, again, I forget about that. I don’t know the drills associated with that, but I kind of, by watching the video, I kind of understand the dynamics of it and what it should

feel like and what it should look like. So, you know, I’ll think about that halfway through a length and I’ll try to add that in as well and you can certainly feel the difference. But for me, I think going forward, something like that there is really going to help take you to the next level as well. Yeah. And did you end up seeing an improvement in your times within that three months in training or was it until race day that you’re able to see that difference? No, most definitely. And it was, I think within the first week, I had already had a 200 metre PB and that was, you know, in the middle of the session, I was swimming faster than I typically would have swum, say a 200 metre at the start of the session, only two weeks earlier. So, I did have the immediate improvement. And then going forward, you know, noticing, you know, my 100 splits coming down as well in my speed sessions and even in, you know,

my more tempo sessions, my 400 and 500 splits were coming down. So, and then on weekends, I tend to go out and do an open water swim as well. So, noticing across the board there as well, though, those splits were coming down and, you know, sort of 1,000 metre and 1,500 metre intervals. So, most of my times I’d noticed within probably three or four weeks we’re starting to improve. And was it, was it constant improvement or did you find in some weeks it would regress a little bit and then you’d be able to improve again or what was that sort of curve like for you? Yeah, no, it certainly didn’t just keep coming down. So, you know, some weeks I felt really good and then other weeks I’d go backwards and I’d be like, I just had no rhythm and, you know, I don’t, I can’t explain why that was.

But, you know, if you go back through my training peaks where I comment to my coach, there’s, there’ll be a lot of that where I was up and down and up and down. But, you know, if you look at a trend graph, I suppose over those three months you could certainly see bits and pieces coming down which was really good.

Yeah, it’s, and that’s how I normally find it is it’s over the course of time that improvement is, it keeps going but it’s, it’s this up and down where it will, yeah, it often gets faster and then you, you can slow down and feel like you’ve gotten out of swim and then the next week it might feel really good. It’s, it’s not always going to feel better. So, the main thing is just to keep, like you did, just keep following the process and keep doing the drills, keep that focus on the stroke and know that it’s going to, it’s going to happen over time and then come race day. So, you’re there on the, the starting line at Cairns. What were you, what did you think about in the, in the race? Were you focused on your technique or did you just kind of let it, let it be where it was, was that in your focus just on racing and your pace? Started out wanting, you know, for anyone that swam Cairns you know that the first half of the race

is kind of out and into the current and into the swell. So, I wanted to push a little bit harder, harder going out and, you know, you’d obviously start off and then you start to get a bit more warmed up for some reason. I decided to not do an in-water warm-up this year but just focus more on stretching and getting the arms moving out of the water and, you know, a couple hundred meters into it you start and then get into a good rhythm and then, you know, you start to feel probably a little bit of fatigue starting to set in. So, it’s at those points that I really think back to okay what do I have to focus on with my stroke and try and get that high elbow catch and, you know, make those, or focus on those changes that I had been working on and training over the last three or four months and then, you know, you make the first turn, make the second turn and then just a matter of coming back with that current and, you know,

riding the current and, you know, just try to increase the the tempo a little bit, get the arm turnover a bit higher, you know, you don’t have to fight so much into the current which was really good and just enjoy the swim from that point. And back in March, well, so your time a year before was around that 36 minute mark and you’re down to 31, 31 and a half this year. What did you think you were capable of doing this year in the race time wise for your swim? Pre-race I was hoping to probably just under 31 but, you know, it was, well, if you saw the weather leading into the race, it certainly wasn’t conducive to fast time. So, you know, I ultimately, based on the day, I think get there was a really good time. You know, I’ve been saying to my coach that I want to swim, you know, low 30s being, you know, 30, 31 minutes and I don’t think he actually believed I’d do it. But, yeah, I had the belief that, you know,

I’ve been working hard and, you know, I’ve been pushing him to come along to one of your courses and I think he’s going to sign up probably for the next one that’s coming up. So, yeah, I think I believed that I could probably go into the 30s. So, you know, low 30s and I was hoping for, I’d said to people, I was hoping for a five minute swim improvement and, you know, looking at my times, it was five minutes and six seconds. So, pretty spot on as to where I thought I was going to be. Well done. And was that just based on the times that you were doing in training, leading up to the race, or just roughly where you felt like you could get to?

Probably a bit of both. Like, you know, if I looked at my, you know, sort of swimming, leading into 10, 28 in compared to this year, you know, open water swim the year before I’d done sort of two and a half K and I was swimming in average cases, you know, 142, 143 per sort of 500 meters. Whereas, you know, a month before Kansas this year, I was doing that and swimming, you know, 127 splits. So, I kind of knew that I was about 16, 16 seconds per 100 faster. You know, most of my training done the pool without a wet suit and for me, a wet suit does make a big difference as well. And, you know, going forward to my next race, it was a big decision or a big part of the decision that I made as to where I was going to race. So, it was a wet suit swim. Yeah, like, obviously, when you know you’re swimming faster and training is good. And for me, I thought, well, you know, if I can swim to that pace in training over, say 200, then over the 1.9K with a wet suit, it should be pretty similar

in those conditions. So, it did work out pretty spot on as to where I thought it could be. And then in the next sort of six to 12 months, what are your targets for your swim time? What do you feel like you can get down to? Oh, looks like I’d like to depend on the 30 if I can. As I said, it’s a wet suit swim, but it is fresh water hitting over to 20.2 in Shanghai. And my ultimate goal is to qualify for Taupo 2020. So, you know, there’s a lot of work to be done. Obviously, if I can get another two or three minutes off my swim, you know, nothing better go a long way to helping me. And then we’ll go from there. And for anyone who’s listening to this who’s wanting to improve their technique or they’re in the process of doing that at the moment, what advice can you give to them? And what would you recommend that they

sort of think about or are willing to go through in that period of change? What advice can you give to people? I always wish I’d gone to 1.9K earlier. So, you know, you spend all this money swimming every week. But, you know, you’ve got to pull membership or, you know, paying daily or whatever it is that you’re doing. And, you know, if you don’t know what you’re actually doing, then, you know, what’s the point? You could just turn up on race day if you’re not improving. So, I always wish I’d probably gone a year earlier. But, you know, for whatever reason, to be honest, I probably didn’t even know about the clinics a year earlier. But I wish I’d signed up earlier once. I did find out about them. And then from, you know, most of the clinics just work hard and focus on it. You know, if you can swim an extra time a week, an extra session a week, then that’s what I’m trying to do now. But in four sessions a week instead of three, which certainly go a long way with that extra

from fitness and strength as well. Yeah, I think that four sessions a week can really help as well. You know, it’s especially if you don’t come from a swimming background, it’s the fitness and also just the feel for the water and developing the rhythm and timing. It helps a lot with four. I mean, even if you, we have a lot of people who listen overseas, I mean, we mostly run clinics in Australia. But I did a video on, I put a video on YouTube yesterday about how to film your freestyle, how to film your stroke if you don’t have someone there to record you. And you can get like these GoPro attachments in the water. So just even seeing what you look like in the water can be the first step. And I mean, I ran clinics about three years until I actually filled myself. And it wasn’t until I looked at myself when there’s no, I’m not doing that. That is not me. And then that’s that process of changing it over the last couple of years. And yeah, just, it makes a big difference

once you actually see yourself because the perception is always very different than reality. Yeah. And I know there’s a few guys in our office that, you know, we signed up to the corporate try and, you know, went along after the clinic and he was swimming at lunch times and I just one day bought along my GoPro and filmed him. And he was just absolutely shocked as to what he was doing. He thought he was so much better than what he was. So, you know, even for him, and I got him onto your videos and he’s been watching those. So, you know, he’s learned a lot just from watching.

Yeah, that’s fantastic. Well, thanks so much for joining me on the podcast and well done on such a massive improvement. And I want to preface it to say that

five minutes or yeah, five minutes is a big improvement in the space of sort of three months from doing the clinic to racing. But it’s a huge testament to the train that you’ve obviously put in and the commitment to doing those drills and doing it every time. So, well done. And I’m sure I’ll see you again in the future. Yeah, no doubt. I think I’ll be coming along with my tripod in a few months to get a follow-up filming session done and hopefully make some more gains before Shanghai. So, thank you very much for all your help. Thanks for listening to the Effortless Swimming podcast. If you’d like us to help you become a faster, more efficient swimmer, go to www.effortlesswimming.com.