Swim Technique

Swimming technique, or swimming technique drills are an important part of any serious swim training program.

  • A swimmer can be the fittest athlete possible, but if his or her swimming technique is poor, his stroke will be inefficient, and he will only be able to go a fraction of the speed he is capable of.

The type of swimming technique training that is right for you will depend on factors such as your age, swimming ability and level of fitness, but will also depend on what type of goals you have in mind for your swimming. If you intend to compete in all 4 strokes (backstroke, breast stroke, butterfly and freestyle), clearly, a great deal of technical work will be required, especially if you are just learning the strokes.

Learning swimming strokes are a little like learning foreign languages in that they can both be learned in later life, but they are much easier to pick up at an early age.

Triathlon Swimming

If your goals are triathlon related, it is likely that you will spend most of your training time, and all of your racing time, doing freestyle. In relative terms, freestyle is a fairly non-technical stroke.

  • The efficiency of an average swimmer’s freestyle stroke can be greatly improved by integrating technical drills into your program.

Efficiency is critical in a triathlon as, even in a sprint distance triathlon, the distances are relatively long for a swimming race, and you need to preserve the maximum amount of energy in order to be able to complete the bike and run sections.

Training And Drills

Technical training and drills designed to improve your technique and flexibility are extremely important elements of any swim training program. Endurance and power are of course important, and require specific training, but without correct technique, you will be wasting energy unnecessarily, which will have a detrimental effect on your endurance and how fast you can travel through the water.

  • If you can incorporate technical drills into your swim training on a regular basis, you will get more from your swimming, as well as introducing a further element of variety and interest into your program.

Swimming Coach Tip

Swim Training

For the majority of people who take up swimming to take part in triathlons or just for fitness the main component of their training will be technique work. An effective and economical technique is fundamental to being able to swim well and the Metasport weekly swim sessions focus on the elements of technique that have been proven to work

Technique

Swim technique boils down to 2 basic elements:

  • Reduction of drag – making the body as streamlined as possible during the swim stroke
  • Application of effective propulsion – once as much drag / resistance to movement has been eliminated then the ability to generate propulsion effectively will lead to great swim performances.

Endurance

The level of swim endurance that a swimmer requires will depend on their goals and intended race distance. For a beginner swimmer, endurance is built while working on drills and focusing on perfecting an economical swim stroke. For more advanced swimmers, endurance is built through the use of interval training and longer swims.

The length of the long swim will again depend on your race goals e.g. an athlete wanting to complete a sprint distance triathlon will have different long swim needs to a swimmer who is competitive in long distance open water events.

Intensity

Swim intensity is very much limited by how well a swimmer’s stroke responds to pressure. For example, a beginner swimmer may only manage a few fast strokes before their stroke technique breaks down and so the amount of intensity in their training programme would be limited. By contrast, an experienced competitive sprint swimmer would do much of their training at a high intensity.

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