What’s the difference between the athletes that ‘make it’ in swimming, and those that don’t? In this three part series I cover some of the truths about swimming that I’ve come to learn in the last 20 years of coaching and swimming.
Truth #1: It will take time.
There are athletes that start swimming later in life. Then after 6-12 months they might not be at the level of someone who has swum all of their life and they get frustrated about it. But if you look at the work of someone who started at an early age has put in it will take time to catch up to them…
I was up as early at 4:15am most mornings of the week when I was in school. I got up early to train before school and went back to the pool after school, doing 7-9 sessions a week. That’s more than 10,000 hours of swimming and training – constantly focusing on your stroke, how it feels and how the water is moving around your body.
You can reach really high level with your swimming if you start late, but it is going to take time and a constant focus on your technique. It is not just going to happen in 6 or 12 months.
Our rule of thumb is you need to be in the water at least three times a week. But, if you really want to fast track your progression as a swimmer, 5+ swims a week is the way to do it.
My coach would always say that if you take one week out of the water, it will take you 2 weeks to get back to where you were before you stopped swimming.
Truth #2: There are physical limitations.
Not many coaches and athletes talk about the limitations of flexibility, strength and fitness. But the reality is there are limitations for each of these things.
When we run our clinics, we do flexibility tests with the athletes that come along. 10% of athletes can get to the required ranges with the stretches but most people are well below it. That’s not a bad thing. It just indicates that you need to improve in that area. It’s a good thing because it’s an opportunity for you to find extra speed in your swimming by becoming more flexible.
The reality is you will be held back by a lack of flexibility. This is something that you have to take a look at. You can’t just keep going to the pool, swimming along and hoping that you are going to get faster without looking at the aspects of your swimming.
Same goes for your strength. If you can’t do one chin up, how do you expect to pull through the water with a lot of power? Take elite swimmers, they typically have a benchmark for the number of chin ups they can do in a row.
Strength through the shoulders makes a huge difference to how much power you have during your catch and pull. Strength through the shoulders is something that you can lose easily if you are out of the water for a long time.
Fitness also plays a part in swimming faster. You may be bike or run fit but there is something to be said about being ‘swimming fit’. It’s a different kind of fitness than just by being able to run or ride a bike for a long time.
Truth #3: Success is a habit and a process.
If you look at top swimmers or triathletes today, their training is a habit. They know that every time they wake up in the morning, most of them will have the same sort of breakfast, the same routine for the week without really thinking about how they need to structure their day or week.
If you start a new training program, it’s going to take some thought, effort and energy just to get to those sessions. But, after a couple of weeks of doing them, and you’re in the habit of getting your training done it becomes a whole lot easier.
Truth #4: To swim faster, you have to relax.
Tension, thrashing and aggression don’t often work to your benefit in swimming.
You have to stay relaxed and be controlled in order to swim faster.
See you in part 2!
Transcript
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Welcome to Effortless Swimming, the podcast for swimmers, triathletes and coaches. Join Australian swim coach, Brenton Ford, as he reveals the latest techniques and information to improve your swimming. Let’s dive right in. Hi, Brenton Ford here. Welcome to the Effortless Swimming podcast. This episode and the next two episodes are going to be part of a three-part series called The Truths About Swimming. I’m going to go into some of the things that I’ve seen work for athletes, swimmers and triathletes. What’s worked for them to help someone who may not be from a swimming background? What’s made them reach an elite level with their swimming? And also, what hasn’t worked for people? Where have people gone wrong? Where have people stopped swimming and why has it happened? So we’re going to take a look at some of the truths about swimming. The first one is it will take time. You have an athlete who starts at a later time of their life.
They’re an adult and they’re starting. And after six months, 12 months, they’re not at the level of someone who has swum all their lives and they get frustrated about it. But if you look at the work that someone who has swum from an early age has put in, myself, I was up at 4 a.m. or 4.15 a.m. most mornings of the week when I was in school, getting up early to train, going to the pool after school, doing seven, eight, nine sessions a week. And you look at that as hours. It’s more than 10,000 hours of work in the pool and swimming that we’re constantly focusing on your stroke and how it feels and how the water’s moving around your body. And if you think about that, compare that to six or 12 months of two sessions a week. It’s not going to cut it. It’s not going to quite get you to the level where someone who has started at an early age has got to. So even if you can reach a really high level with your swimming if you start late,
but it’s going to take time and a lot of constant focus on your technique, work in the pool, thinking about all the different aspects of your stroke. So it’s not just going to happen in six or 12 months. These things take years and it takes a lot of practice. So two swim sessions a week isn’t going to cut it. Our rule of thumb is you need to be in the water at least three times a week. But if you really want to fast track your progression as a swimmer, if you can get in the water three or four or five times a week, you’ll notice a huge benefit to how you’re feeling and how you progress. Because as an athlete, our coach would always say that if you take one week out of the water, it’ll take you two weeks to get back to where you were before you stopped swimming. So the same thing goes for even those swimmers who are doing two sessions a week, is if you’re taking five or six days out of the water, it’s a good chance you’ll feel like crap when you get back in after five days of no swimming.
Because for whatever reason, you just lose that feel for the water, where you feel like you can hold the water, you’re swimming fast and you’re swimming comfortable. So you really lose that very quickly if you’re not in the water on a consistent basis. So the first one is it will take time. So don’t get frustrated if you’re not quite where you want to be yet. These things take a lot of time and you’ve got to spend the time in the water and you’ve got to spend that time focusing on your technique, thinking about what you’re doing and looking to improve your technique and your fitness and all the different aspects of swimming that go together to make you what you are. The next one is there are physical limitations. So not many coaches, not many athletes talk about the limitations of flexibility, strength and fitness. But the reality is that there are limitations for each of these things. So when we run freestyle clinics, we do some flexibility tests with the athletes that come along
and maybe one in ten of the athletes can get to the required ranges with these stretches. But most people are well below it. It’s not a bad thing. It just indicates that you need to improve in that area of flexibility. And the good thing is it’s an opportunity for you to find extra speed in your swimming by becoming more flexible. So the reality is that you will be held back by how flexible you are through your shoulders, your lower back and all those sorts of things. So that is something that you need to take a look at. You can’t just keep going to the pool, swimming along and just hoping that you’re going to get faster and able to get into the right positions in the water because you’re limited by flexibility. Same goes for your strength. So if you can’t do one pull-up or one chin-up, for example, then how do you expect yourself to pull through the water with a lot of power? You see a lot of the pool swimmers like the Australian team, the American team
and all the elite national swim squads. Most of them will have a sort of benchmark with their chin-up or their pull-ups and that’s something that the athletes work towards is seeing how many pull-ups they can do in a row. And you get 100 freestyle, for example. You get some of the girls who can do more than 30 chin-ups in a row without stopping. So that sort of strength through the shoulders makes a huge difference with how much power you can put into the water. So that’s something else to look at if you haven’t quite got that strength through the shoulders. And that’s something that you lose very quickly as well is that strength through the shoulders if you are out of the water for a long time. So flexibility, strength, all plays a part as well as your fitness. And most people are very fit, in particular triathletes. Most people are very fit when they come into the sport. But there is something to be said for being a swimming fit is it’s a different kind of fitness
than just being able to run for a long time or ride a bike for a long time. So you want to have that swim fitness but that comes from regular consistent training over a period of a couple of months. The next one is success is a habit and a process. So if you look at the top swimmers today or the top triathletes, their training is a habit. So they know that every time they wake up in the morning, most of them will have the same sort of breakfast. They’ll have the same sort of routine for most days where it’s just a habit. So they’re not really thinking about it. And it’s like if you start anything new, if you’re starting a new training program where before you haven’t been training at all, it’s going to take some thought and some real effort and energy just to get to those sessions. But after a couple of weeks of doing them and you’re in the habit of actually just going and getting your training done and you don’t have to think about it, it becomes a whole lot easier.
So as soon as you can make your training and what you eat and stretching and your strength a habit where you don’t have to consciously think about it, then it’s going to be much easier for you to reach that sort of success that you’re looking for as well as it being a process. So if you look at a lot of the top swimmers who are teenagers, the ones who are the freak athletes, the ones who are winning all the gold medals at the events, 13, 14, 15 years of age, the ones who have got that real talent, usually they’re not the ones who will stick around to 18, 19, 20 years of age plus. The reason is because they haven’t really had to go through the process of becoming an elite athlete. They might have put in a bit of work at training. Some of them will put in as much work as everyone else, but some of them just because they’ve got that talent, they feel that they don’t need to work that hard. So they haven’t built in that process of going to training and working towards improving.
It just happens for them. So be grateful that you might have to be working harder than some other people to reach a certain speed or a certain level of swimming or triathlons. So success is a habit and a process. And the last one is in order to swim faster, you’ve got to relax. You can’t try and go harder and you can’t go at it with real aggression in swimming because that’s when you’ll fatigue faster, but you’ll also be fighting the water. And it doesn’t mean that when you swim it’s going to be pretty all the time. Especially open water, you’re going to have to swim with a little bit more punch and flow there is going to be water coming up from behind you when you kick in and it’s not going to be super smooth the whole way. But it doesn’t mean that you can just thrash with your swimming. You’ve really got to stay relaxed and be controlled in order to swim faster. And as much as diacotomies that seems compared to a lot of other sports
where you can put in a bit more aggression, you’ve really got to just keep relaxed to go faster as silly as that sounds. So they’re the first four truths about swimming. It will take time, there are physical limitations. So you’ve got to accept it and then have a look at what you can do to turn those around. Success is a habit and a process. So you’ve got to put in the time and the work and it’s got to be part of your normal everyday life training and working towards whatever event you’re working towards. You’ve really got to stay relaxed and be controlled in order to swim faster. This has been part one of the truths about swimming. See you very soon for part two. Thanks for joining us on the Effortless Swimming Podcast. To get transcriptions, bonus videos and to be the first to hear about new episodes, go to SwimmingPodcast.com.
