Being a Swim Smooth defined “Swinger”

My Mother’s day present to me this year was extremely generous. I treated myself to a one day Swim Smooth clinic in Limerick. I have been swimming since I was a kid but since then I haven’t had any lessons, I rarely do technique work, don't own any swim drill tools and never read any swim books. I saw myself on video swimming in a pool last year as part of a triathlon training session and it really didn’t look pretty. I looked like a helicopter ready to take off. After seeing how awful I looked I decided it was time to investigate further and I got videoed in an endless pool at Base to Race in Dublin last December. This identified a poor leg kick (from the knee not the hip) and poor underwater catch with no high elbow underwater. I worked on these elements and managed to shave 9 seconds off my 1,500m long course race at the Limerick Masters Gala event at the start of this month. I came in on 25:26.59 versus 25:36.00 last year even on the back of less training. Although I took gold in my event I wasn’t overly happy, perhaps I was overly optimistic but I was hoping to come in under 25 minutes. 

I started to read a few swim books to see if I could gain any further insight. I read a Total Immersion Swim book but just couldn’t identify with it. Trying to take long strokes just isn’t me, it never was. I struggle to take 23 strokes per 25m so there is no way I was going to get that down to 18 without a lot of work. I am the mum of two young kids aged 3 and 4 years and  I simply don’t have the time to massively overhaul my stroke. I probably just don’t have the patience anyway.

I picked up my husband’s Swim Smooth book and I was thrilled that I was able to relate to one of the swim types that they had mentioned. Fast choppy stroke rate, straight arm recovery, performs better in open water, dislikes sprinting but likes distance swimming. This was just me even the comment “may have received unfavourable comments about their stroke in the past in comparison to smoother swimmers” was so applicable.  They even said that many elite swimmers were this swim type which they termed “Swingers”. Maybe things weren’t so bad after all!

On seeing that Paul Newsome and Adam Young the authors of the book were giving a clinic in Limerick I got very excited. Yes it wasn’t cheap and I was going to have to ask my husband to mind the kids on a bank holiday but I was determined to go.

It was an action packed day to say the least. After seeing the schedule I thought I might get bored – how on earth could one analyse the freestyle stroke for a whole day? However from the moment we had the ‘meet and greet’ to the receiving our own DVD’s at the end of the day I loved every minute of it.  All this helped no doubt by the fact that I was finally being complimented on most elements of my stroke, I was really chuffed. Yes I can now live with having an “uglier” stroke then the smoother swimmers. Anyway as Adam said Swingers have more fun!!

First time in the pool since the clinic this morning and a few things to work on, (1) reduce leg kick and kick from the hip (apparently even Ian Thorpe only gets 11% of his propulsion from his kick). I have been wasting far too much energy on kicking hard from the knee; (2) Try and reduce stroke rate from 86 per 100m (on 1:30.) to about 76 (3) Focus on my left arm underwater and try to maintain a high elbow position underwater. (4) Change to single side breathing to bilateral breathing every 5 strokes.

Session this morning: 2600m; 300m warm up; 1 x 400m (off 6:30); 3 x (1 x 200m (off 3;20); 2 x 100m (off 1:45)  and 2 x 50m (off 55’); 1 x 100m easy) 100m cool down.   

My aim is still to get my pool 1.5k down under 25 minutes and hopefully get my open water 1.5k in between 23 and 24 minutes. Apparently you can gain 38% by drafting effectively so I am certainly going to work on this for the ITU World Age Group Championships in London in September. Since the clinic I have beefed up our swim section in our shop (Amphibian King in Oranmore, Galway) - we now have a range of Finis Swim toys, Orca wetsuits, TYR swimwear & goggles. Coming soon Zone 3 & HUUB wetsuits.I eyeing up the new HUUB Aura 3.3 myself for this years events....don't think I will wait until next Mothers day to treat myself!!