Becoming a better lap swimmer (Part I)
At 18 years old, I competed in an Ironman Triathlon. About 8 years later, I found myself competing for Colorado State’s swim club team and the differences between the two were stark — not only because I had transitioned from distance racing to sprint racing, but also in the general approaches. Now that I understand the distinctions between the two worlds, I cannot unsee the ‘triathlete’ stroke when I swim in my friendly neighborhood recreation center.
The main problem that I see with my fellow, local lap swimmers is that they are often swimming uphill. You probably have experienced this at least once no matter what level or type of swimmer you are (at least when you get tired when doing butterfly). This sensation occurs because your hips have sunk, your upper body is trying to get more vertical (simulate almost standing) so you can get more air. I cringe when I see individuals doing this because I know it’s not enjoyable, it makes it hard to stay motivated to come back to the pool, and it is a one-way ticket to injury.
Thus, I’ve created this post to target swimmers that would love a few quick tricks to swimming more efficiently and thereby faster and avoiding injury.
The trick is in the kick.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard triathletes say ‘save your legs.’ This approach will get you injured faster than it will benefit you. Not only should you be training your body to be able to do all three sports in a triathlon, but you need to train swimming because otherwise, it will suck all of your energy. Your legs are much more powerful than your arms as they contain much larger muscles than your arms and also, pull on your (large) back muscles. To keep your body on top of the water (and so you don’t feel like you’re swimming uphill), you need to kick and kick well. This means keeping your legs straight and on top of your water and rotating through the hip. I’ve written a separate post about how to become an efficient kicker here.
Tuck that head.
Your head position should be down (always, especially tucked in flip turns). You should look straight at the bottom of the pool (or down the pool at your toes for backstroke). This really goes for all strokes but is another quick way to get your body on top of the water. When I feel myself swimming uphill, I often tuck my chin as it forces the rest of my body to curl up, my core to tighten, and gets me back on top of the water. This is something that I practice with a snorkel so I can really isolate my head position while in motion and not my head position while breathing. Speaking of your breath…
You just don’t need all that air.
Every swimmer ever creates bad breathing habits, but whether you are breathing a lot or taking a long time to breathe, you risk apoxia. This experience will make you feel like you can’t get a full breath (simulates asthma). The best thing that I learned to do is to breathe less in your warm-up (start with every 3 strokes), no matter what. Pick a pattern and stick to it for the entire warm-up. I struggle with this so I typically go for a 3–3–5 stroke pattern. There are three goals here: 1) you want to change up each side so you can swim hypoxically, 2) you don’t want to breathe too much (really every 5–7 is the end goal) and 3) your warm-up will set the stage for the rest of your workout. If you feel like ‘you can’t’ do that, then you should be warming-up smarter: go slower, stop at the walls longer, loosen your interval, or do a longer warm-up.
Rotate through the hip
You need to rotate when you are swimming. I often observe fellow lap swimmers traveling ‘flat’ in the water, but it’s much more efficient to travel on your side. (This is why when you do a flip turn you should leave from the wall on your back then rotate to your side.) A lot of swimmers will drive rotation by reaching with their arms. It’s better to drive this from the hip and continue by reaching your arm and rotating through the shoulder. If your right arm is taking a stroke, you should first push your hip down, then follow through by rotating your shoulder to extend your arm as far out in front of you as you can (reach). One way to practice this is with a pull buoy and paddles. You should aim to drive your rotation from the hip without fishtailing while you are pulling. This takes a tight core and practice to get the balance correct, but once you do, you’ll be saving your shoulders quite a bit of trauma.
By making a few adjustments, you can have better body position and an all-around better experience in the water.
All of these result in changing your body position, namely preventing your hips from sinking. When your hips sink, most people start pulling harder and breathing more. Both or either will lead to overuse injuries in the neck, shoulder, and/or arms.
I leave you with my last tip. Triathletes - you are distance athletes in the swimming world. The shortest swim I’ve seen in a race is a 250 for a super sprint, but most of you are doing distances 500+. This means you’re likely doing more repetitions in the pool and cannot get away with bad technique.
