Mallorca Clinic, BEST Fest & Our Tips On Tapering Effectively

April 7, 2017, 3:48 am

≪ Previous: Training And Racing Through A Season

Today we're opening up places for a special Swim Smooth 1 Day Stroke Correction Clinic on 27th May at the BEST Centre, Mallorca. This is a very rare opportunity to have your stroke analysed and corrected by our Head Coach Paul Newsome who is over from Australia!

The course has just 10 places and will fill up very quickly indeed, so don't miss out.

Sign-up here: http://swimsmooth.com/clinics-may2017.html

Venue information: http://www.bestswimcentre.com/

We'll also have 20 (yes 20!) additional coaches attending the course (2 assigned to each swimmer), looking after you and giving additional tips during the day. An unmissable opportunity in a unique location!

And of course the Swim Smooth team are going to be staying on after the clinic for The BEST Fest open water festival which runs from May 28th to June 3rd.

The BEST Fest is an amazing set of open water swimming events in the stunning waters of this beautiful mediterranean island around the town of Colonia Sant Jordi. With a different event on every day you can enter as many or as few as you like. Ranging from the 4x 500m team relay through to the mighty 10km Colonia Classic, the BEST Fest has something for you, whatever your level of swimming:

Signup here: www.bestopenwater.com

Thanks for all your responses to our post last week on how to lay out your races through a season. We know from your replies and shares that you're really keen to hear some more of our thoughts on how to taper, especially for distance events such as open water races and triathlon.

What Is Tapering?

Tapering is where you reduce your training in the build up to races to remove fatigue from your system and give your best performance on race day.

If you rest up too much ("over tapering") then you will be well rested but feel sluggish on race day as your body has started to switch off from exercise. Further to that, if you performed a really long taper you might start to lose some fitness from the lack of training too.

Alternatively, rest too little ("under-tapering") and you'll carry fatigue into the event and under perform as a result. You might even find you motivation is low and you're not in the mood for the race.

Getting the balance right depends quite a lot on you as an individual, the training you've been doing and the distance and demands of your race.

This Time It's Personal

Everyone responds to training in slightly different ways and recovers at different rates. Some athletes need to taper a lot to remove the fatigue from their system whilst others recover quickly and require less of a taper. So to some extent the best taper for you needs to be personalised to you as an individual.

Experienced elite athletes have refined their tapers over many years of experience and often ending up at a very different place from when they were a junior athletes - a classic example of "If only I knew then what I know now!".

Because of this need to tailor things to you individually, treat the advice and example taper below as a "middle of the road" option and over months and years, gradually adapt and refine your taper to suit your needs - just like the pros.

Generally speaking the younger and more talented you are, the quicker you recover from training and the shorter the taper you need.

Some "Rules" Of Tapering

Here's an outline of some key concepts of tapering:

- You only need to taper at all if you are training hard enough to create some residual fatigue on race day. If you are only swimming twice per week (as many triathletes do) then you probably don't need to taper at all. Train normally, but don't swim full sessions in the two days before the race.

- For swimming, tapers are normally between 5 and 14 days in length. 6-7 days is a sufficient taper for the vast majority of swimmers training for swims of 5km and below (including triathletes). Tapers of 10-14 days in length are normally only necessary for those doing big mileage for marathon swims.

- A good way to freshen up while keeping your body "switched on" is to swim on your normal days but aim for around half your normal distance in every session. Reduce the distance you swim at higher intensities to around one third to one half normal distance but resist the temptation to go faster - keep the pace the same despite the shorter distance.

- Aim to get out of the pool at the end of every taper swim feeling like you've got plenty left in the tank.

- Use race week to dial in your race pace for the event. Many a good race is destroyed by starting too fast - use a Tempo Trainer Pro to calibrate your judgement of race pace during the taper.

- Swim the day before the race and treat it as a loosener - don't stress yourself at any stage. Swim a few drills and a few short efforts at race pace with lots of recovery. This session might be 800-1200m in length (or perhaps a little more if you are very fit). Aim to feel good but don't worry if you don't - often you can feel a bit average the day before a big race but feel awesome when race-day adrenaline kicks in.

- Find a quiet spot, clear your mind and practise a little positive visualisation in race week. Think about different scenarios that might happen (good and bad) and how you will react to them. For instance, imagine you lose sight of the buoys and start to feel disorientated - you visualise calming yourself down and sighting with good technique until you pick up the route again. Always visualise recovering and succeeding!

A Basic Taper For Distance Events

But what should things look like in practise? As a guide, here's an example for a swimmer training for a 5km open water swim. She trains 4x a week, totalling around 12km a week.

Her normal training routine is:

Monday: CSS session. Total session distance: 3000m.

Tuesday: Technique session. Total session distance: 2700m.

Thursday: Red Mist or Aerobic Endurance Session. Total session distance: 4-5000m.

Saturday: Open Water skills in the pool or open water. Total distance distance: 2400m.

Her taper is going to last a week and might look like this:

Monday: Mini CSS set of half normal distance (900m vs. usual 1800m set length) maintaining normal CSS pace even though she could go faster through a shorter set. Total session distance: 2000m.

Tuesday: General technique swim but nice easy pace throughout and only two thirds normal distance. Total session distance: 2000m.

Thursday: Steady 1500m swim including a few key drills for her stroke. If in the pool include 2x 300m swims at 5km pace using a Tempo Trainer Pro to "dial in" race pace. If at the race venue this could be on the course to become familiar with the surroundings and work out sight lines to buoys / turns.

Saturday: 1000m easy paced loosener including 4x150m at 5km pace (no faster) with lots of recovery between each. In the pool or if possible in the open water at the race venue (again use for course familiarisation / sight lines).

Sunday: 5km Race

Note our example swimmer is training on her normal days of the week. This is fine if you can do it but if necessary switch your days around to avoid swimming a full session in the last few days before the race.

Using The Fitness Tracker In The Guru To Assess Your Taper

PRO subscribers to the Swim Smooth Guru can use a special tool we've developed called "The Fitness Tracker" to help get their taper right:

Subscription required: https://www.swimsmooth.guru/fitnesstracker/

The fitness tracker assesses your training session by session and predicts your fitness and fatigue levels at any point in time:

As you train you are obviously looking to get fitter and you can see your progress on the chart as the weeks and months go by. But you can also monitor your fatigue levels too, so if you have a bad session you can see if that's just because you are tired and you need to take a few easy days to recover.

Monitoring your fatigue level is obviously very important during a taper - you want to freshen up but without losing too much fitness. Take a look at Karlee's Fitness Chart here, where she trained and tapered for the mighty 19.7km Rottnest Channel Swim back in February:

Apart from some sickness and missed training in December, Karlee had a great preparation with the blue fitness line heading ever upwards through her preparation. Notice also how the fatigue levels (orange line) build too as she's putting in those big sessions.

Then we can see her taper down in the last 2 weeks - notice the fatigue levels dropping from around 130 to a much lower 75, a level she knows she can perform very well at. As a result Karlee smoked the swim and finished a stunning 11th female overall in an international field. Brilliant swimming!

This Fitness Chart is a great way of visualising everything we've been talked about in this post. Not only can you look in detail at any individual taper but you can also compare tapers event to event, learning where you did too much or too little and how that affected your performance.

Swim Smooth!

↧

Visualising Better Breathing

April 15, 2017, 7:50 am

≫ Next: Our Tips On Losing Weight By Swimming

≪ Previous: Mallorca Clinic, BEST Fest & Our Tips On Tapering Effectively

Let's jump right in and watch how elite swimmer Jono Van Hazel breathes in his stroke:

His breathing technique is so smooth and seamless to the rest of his stroke that blink and you miss it!

Underwater things looks like this:

Notice the following:

- He only rotates his head just far enough to breathe, so that one goggle stays in the water and one out. He doesn't over-rotate and look to the sky.

- He keeps his head low in the water and doesn't attempt to lift it clear of the surface.

- He angles his mouth to the side like Popeye chews his spinach so that he can keep his head lower without taking on water:

- He blows out smoothly into the water so he only has to inhale when he does rotate to breathe.

- He breathes regularly to both sides - bilateral breathing - which keeps his rotation and whole stroke symmetrical.

Here's two common problems you might have with your own breathing:

Twisting your head to look skywards to breathe. This causes you to rotate right onto your side (way too much rotation):

Do that and your legs will part to regain your balance, as we see Clare doing above, which creates a huge amount of drag.

Lifting the head out of the water to breathe. This is also a problem because to lift you up at the front you have to press downwards on the water with your lead arm. That only lifts your torso upwards and sinks your legs downwards, again slowing you down significantly:

So the next time you swim, focus on angling your mouth to the side like Popeye, keeping your head low and looking across the pool with the lower goggle in the water. Just like Jono.

Get this right and your breathing will take less time than you're used to, involve minimal movement and you will feel a more continuous rhythm to your stroke. It's so quick you can think of it as taking a "sneaky" breath!

Swim Smooth!

Related materials in the Swim Smooth Guru (subscription required):

↧

Our Tips On Losing Weight By Swimming

April 21, 2017, 1:00 am

≫ Next: Marlin Special Pre-Order Offer Ends Midnight! (And One Place Left on SS Mallorca Clinic)

≪ Previous: Visualising Better Breathing

If you're looking to shed a few kgs of body fat as you train then you're not alone - we've all been there! A little excess weight doesn't impact swimming performance too much (unlike other sports such as cycling or running) but we all want to look lean and be healthy - so how should we go about shedding a little excess flab?

First Up The Bad News - Losing Weight And Gaining Fitness Is Difficult To Combine

Losing weight is all about creating calorie deficit - using more calories than you're eating. Your body can cope with a small deficit but there comes a point where you don't have enough calories coming in to fuel you through training and recover properly afterwards.

If you're looking to gain fitness and lose weight at the same time, don't aim to lose more than 0.5-1kg (1 to 2lb) of weight per week, otherwise your system will be depleted, you'll feel very flat when training and your fitness won't develop.

Generally speaking it's easier to lose weight the fitter you are because with greater fitness your fat burning ability will increase and your reliance on carbohydrate will reduce. You will know when this starts to happen because you won't feel quite so hungry after a training session.

For that reason it's better to gain fitness first in a training program and then aim to gradually lose weight later on when you have first gained fitness. This happens naturally and it's no coincidence that most athletes become leaner as they become fitter even if they are not consciously trying to lose weight.

Developing A Good Fat Burning Engine

You can do any exercise at any intensity level and you will burn calories, which of course is useful to create that calorie deficit you are looking for. However, at higher intensities (e.g. CSS training) we mostly burn carbohydrate and this will make us feel depleted and hungry. That's OK - and it certainly can work for weight loss - but it's less challenging to lose weight if we burn quite a lot of calories as fat during the training session. And that means swimming continuously at more "steady" effort levels.

In sports like running and (especially) cycling, targeting this "steady pace" intensity for long periods of time is quite easy to do. However the culture of swimming encourages us to swim short distances with recovery between each swim. This does two things:

- It encourages you to push the pace and raise your intensity level because you are only covering a short distance and know you are going to get recovery time afterwards. Swimming at this higher intensity can easily lift you out of the fat burning zone and shift to carbohydrate.

- The lack of continuous swimming places little demand on your aerobic endurance and therefore your fat burning engine never develops properly.

We're not saying that you shouldn't do any swimming at higher intensities - far from it - but make sure you include some longer continuous swims of 800m or more in your weekly training to build that fat burning engine, even if you have to swim more slowly than you are used to doing.

In fact if you are training for an event this summer using a bespoke training plan in the Swim Smooth Guru or one of our waterproof training plans, you can safely follow the plans as normal as they include those longer aerobic swims you need. Just make sure you're controlling your pace well during the sessions - don't start too fast and blow up!

Eating Right

Of course not only do you want to get your training right but there's plenty you can do in terms of diet to help you become leaner. We don't recommend doing anything too radical, just eating normal healthy balanced meals but make your key action to reduce the amount of sugar you consume - e.g. desserts, soft drinks / soda, cakes, fruit juice, chocolate, biscuits etc.

Doing so will regulate your appetite and keep your energy levels more consistent, meaning you are far less likely to have a blood sugar dip and reach for the cookie jar...

Unless you are swimming longer than 90 minutes you shouldn't really need energy drink or gels during your sessions either. Take water but avoid additional energy products unless you are training a very large overall volume of training - e.g. marathon swimming training.

We also recommend you avoid taking too much caffeine which can create peaks and troughs of energy too - it's easy to become reliant on caffeine but it can often end up making you feel more tired overall.

In a nutshell, just eat normal regular food, just aim for low sugar (note, not low carb).

Above All Else, Be Consistent

Just like when you are training purely for best performance, make consistency your goal: consistent training, consistent diet, consistent rest and gradual consistent weight loss. Avoid "superman weeks" where you do huge amounts of training but then hit a massive energy low.

Keep things rolling over many weeks and months, train and eat at a level that you can sustain without undue struggle, enjoy your time in the water, stay healthy and that number on the scales will move slowly and consistently downwards...

Swim Smooth!

[All this may make somewhat amusing reading to marathon swimmers who face the opposite problem - how to keep weight on (or gain it) whilst training hard. If you're swimming long distances in cold water (no wetsuit allowed) then a healthy layer of body fat is definitely required to avoid hypothermia...!]

From the Guru (PRO subscription required):

↧

Marlin Special Pre-Order Offer Ends Midnight! (And One Place Left on SS Mallorca Clinic)

April 28, 2017, 1:29 am

≫ Next: FLASH SALE - HUUB Wetsuit Bargains!

≪ Previous: Our Tips On Losing Weight By Swimming

First up, we have one place (yes just one) left on Swim Smooth's Mallorca Clinic on May 27th at The BEST Centre, Colonia Sant Jordi! This is an extremely rare chance to have your swimming analysed and corrected by SS Head Coach Paul Newsome himself.

Snap up the place for yourself here: www.swimsmooth.com/clinics-may2017.html

Platysens Marlin Special Pre-Order Price Ends Midnight Tonight!

If you haven't heard about the new Platysens Marlin swim meter, where have you been the last few months?!

The Marlin is a next generation swimming tool, not only recording your session like a swimming watch but speaking to you whilst you swim, giving you feedback on your stroke, talking you through training plans and guiding you to swim straight in open water.

What's more, we're integrating the Marlin with The Swim Smooth Guru meaning Guru subscribers can transfer Guru training session to the Marlin to follow, and upload your recorded swim back to the Guru for Swim Smooth analysis. Truly "closing the loop" on your swim training!

The Marlin launches at the end of May and the special 12% off pre-order price ends at midnight tonight. Order now or miss out! :

www.swimsmooth.com/platysens-marlin-swim-meter.php

A message from Paul during Marlin testing

The Marlin uses bone conduction technology to give you spoken feedback whilst you swim.

Order today or miss out on the special pre-order price:

www.swimsmooth.com/platysens-marlin-swim-meter.php

Swim Smooth!

SS Clinics and Camps:


North America
Montreal Squads	Montreal Video Analysis	South Carolina Video Analysis
The Woodlands TX, Swim Squad	Connecticut 1-Day Clinic April 28th	Chicago Video Analysis
Chicago Squads
Asia / Middle East / Australia
Hong Kong Squads & Video Analysis	Dubai Video Analysis	Perth Squads
Perth Video Analysis	Kuala Lumpur Swim Squad	Kuala Lumpur Video Analysis
Europe
Prague Junior Swim Club	SS Camp Lanzarote (English - Dutch)	Prague Junior Swim Club
Prague Video Analysis	Nijmegen Video Analysis. & Stroke Correction	City Of Elche Video Analysis / Squads
Nijmegen SS Squads	Zwevegem Video Analysis (English - Dutch)
United Kingdom
Yorkshire Squads (Pool & OW)	Yorkshire Video Analysis	West Lothian Video Analysis
Richmond London SS Squad	SW London Swim Workshops	Salisbury 1to1 Analysis
Twickenham Video Analysis	Lancaster SS Squad	Swindon/Cotswolds Video Analysis
Lancaster Video Analysis	Northampton Swim Squad	SS Clinic Marlborough
Swindon SS Squad (Try for free!)	Felixstowe Video Analysis	Stratford upon Avon& Birmingham/Coventry Squads
Felixstowe Squads	Acton London Video Analysis	Cardiff Video Analysis Clinic
Improvers Freestyle Course, Abingdon	Open Water Confidence Course, Dorchester 4 Places Left	Northampton Video Analysis Clinic

↧

FLASH SALE - HUUB Wetsuit Bargains!

May 4, 2017, 8:25 am

≫ Next: Paul's Powerball Recipe And Our New Certified Coach in Rhode Island / Boston Area

≪ Previous: Marlin Special Pre-Order Offer Ends Midnight! (And One Place Left on SS Mallorca Clinic)

This is one of our favourite times of year... Spring has sprung in the northern hemisphere and the open water season is starting in earnest!

To celebrate we're running a quick Flash Wetsuit Sale to make way for new wetsuit stock.

Get yourself an amazing bargain and order your shiny new wetsuit from our Swim Shop at these very very special prices (also with **Free Worldwide Shipping**!).

Availability of these new suits is very limited so move quickly, when these suits are gone, they're gone:

	Sizes Available	Retail Price	Sale Price
HUUB Archimedes 1 4.4	XS	End of line	£199	Buy Now
HUUB Archimedes 1 3.5	XS	End of line	£199	Buy Now
HUUB Aerious 1 4.4	XS, S	End of line	£149	Buy Now
HUUB Aerious 1 3.5	XS	End of line	£149	Buy Now
HUUB Aura 3.3	L	End of line	£199	Buy Now
HUUB Mens Aegis	S	End of line	£129	Buy Now
HUUB Womens Aegis	XS	End of line	£129	Buy Now
HUUB Archimedes 2 4.4	S, SMT, M, MT, L	£549	£475	Buy Now
HUUB Archimedes 2 3.5	ST, SMT, MT, ML	£549	£475	Buy Now
HUUB Archimedes 2 3.5 GB Ed	SMT	£549	£475	Buy Now
HUUB Aerious 2 4.4	S	£450	£359	Buy Now
HUUB Aerious 2 3.5	ST, SS	£450	£359	Buy Now
HUUB Atana 3.3	S, M	£425	£359	Buy Now
HUUB Axena 3.3	XXS, XS, S, M	£495	£399	Buy Now

Swim Smooth!

↧

Paul's Powerball Recipe And Our New Certified Coach in Rhode Island / Boston Area

May 5, 2017, 2:45 am

≫ Next: Because Swim Coaching Can Be So Much Better

≪ Previous: FLASH SALE - HUUB Wetsuit Bargains!

First up we'd like to extend a very warm welcome to the Swim Smooth team our new Certified Coach in Rhode Island and the Boston area, USA: Peter Russo.

Peter's put in all the hard yards to go through our training and certification process. He's a fantastic coach based in Providence and we're very proud to have him aboard. Contact Peter now and unleash him on improving your swimming today:

website: www.r2tri.com/swim-smooth
phone: (01) 401-286-2865
email: russo@r2tri.com

Training to be a SS Coach is a huge undertaking. Developing the necessary skills and experience of advanced video analysis, stroke correction, squad coaching and open water skills takes time and cannot be rushed. We are fortunate enough to be able to pick our coaches from a large talent pool but even for very experienced coaches, training takes at least 1 to 2 years.

For full information on all our Swim Smooth coaches and to find your local Swim Smooth Coach see: swimsmooth.com/certifiedcoaches

Nutrition Tips: Paul's Powerball Recipe

Always hungry and looking for a healthy energy-giving snack between meals? Or wondering what you should eat before and after a swim session? Try SS Head Coach Paul Newsome's "Powerballs" (!). Paul's just put together a short video doing his very best Jamie Oliver impression to explain how to make them (it's super easy). Guaranteed to give you a satisfying slow energy release.

Enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-FNp0DrEk

The ingredients are:

Fresh dates - 3 or 4 pitted
Dried apricots, pears or apples - small handful
Dried figs - 3 or 4
Desiccated coconut (small handful)
Dried cranberries (small handful)
Almonds (handful)
Cashew or walnuts (handful)
Chia seeds (sprinkle)
Paleo protein mix (sprinkle)
Cacao nibs (sprinkle)
Pumpkin kernels (handful)
Pea & brown rice protein powerful (a shake)
Optional UCAN super-starch
Coconut oil (1-2 tablespoons)

Blend for a minute, squeeze into golf-ball size balls and then roll in ground LSA (Linseed, Sunflower Seed and Almonds). Keep in the fridge!

This isn't a hard and fast recipe so feel free to experiment with your own choice of ingredients.

Swim Smooth!

SS Clinics and Camps:


North America
Montreal Squads	Montreal Video Analysis	South Carolina Video Analysis
The Woodlands TX, Swim Squad	Connecticut 1-Day Clinic April 28th	Chicago Video Analysis
Chicago Squads
Asia / Middle East / Australia
Hong Kong Squads & Video Analysis	Dubai Video Analysis	Perth Squads
Perth Video Analysis	Kuala Lumpur Swim Squad	Kuala Lumpur Video Analysis
Europe
Prague Junior Swim Club	SS Camp Lanzarote (English - Dutch)	Prague Junior Swim Club
Prague Video Analysis	Nijmegen Video Analysis. & Stroke Correction	City Of Elche Video Analysis / Squads
Nijmegen SS Squads	Zwevegem Video Analysis (English - Dutch)
United Kingdom
Guernsey SS Squads	Guernsey Video Analysis	Yorkshire Squads (Pool & OW)
Yorkshire Video Analysis	West Lothian Video Analysis	Richmond London SS Squad
SW London Swim Workshops	Salisbury 1to1 Analysis	Twickenham Video Analysis
Lancaster SS Squad	Swindon/Cotswolds Video Analysis	Lancaster Video Analysis
Northampton Swim Squad	Open Water 1-2-1s	Swindon SS Squad (Try for free!)
Felixstowe Video Analysis	Stratford upon Avon& Birmingham/Coventry Squads	Felixstowe Squads
Acton London Video Analysis	Cardiff Video Analysis Clinic	Improvers Freestyle Course, Abingdon
Open Water Confidence Course, Dorchester 4 Places Left	Northampton Video Analysis Clinic

↧

Because Swim Coaching Can Be So Much Better

May 12, 2017, 3:04 am

≫ Next: Will This Animated Swimmer Injure You? + HUUB Sphere Shorts Now On Sale!

≪ Previous: Paul's Powerball Recipe And Our New Certified Coach in Rhode Island / Boston Area

What is Swim Smooth all about? What do we stand for and care about?

Here's five big things:

1. You Deserve Swim Coaching That Recognises And Embraces You - As An Individual

For too long everyone has been told to swim the same way, with a very long stroke like Ian Thorpe, Michael Phelps or Rebecca Adlington*. But if you're not 2 meters tall, you don't have the flexibility of an olympic gymnast and you haven't been swimming since age 6 then how does that work out? Not very well!

We need to take account of your individual height, build, gender, experience, strength, flexibility and even your personality. Our Swim Type system is a brilliant way to improve your personal swimming, taking account of all those factors to find the optimum stroke technique for you and become the very best swimmer you can be.

For far too long coaches have been coaching the stroke, not the swimmer. Let's change that.

We're all different so let's take account of that.

2. Simple - Direct - And Easy To Understand

Swimming isn't rocket science and nor should it be. When one of our highly trained Swim Smooth Certified Coaches makes a break through with your swimming - how does it feel? The thing we hear time and time again from swimmers is: Wow, that feels amazing and I can't believe how simple that is!

You don't need a PhD in fluid dynamics to become a really good swimmer but you do need some straightforward, easy to understand knowledge. That's why we put so much effort into producing clear, to the point, well produced coaching materials.

When it comes to improving your swimming: Knowledge Is Power

Swim Smooth is a very visual coaching system: Insightful video, simple words and instructional pictures are a powerful combination to improve your swimming - and very inspiring too.

Rebecca Adlington shows off her streamline.
(click image to expand)

3. An All Round, Balanced Approach

If you are new to swimming but have a background in another sport you'll know that it doesn't matter how strong an athlete you are on land, not much of that fitness carries across into the water. The strongest cyclist or runner in the world can be left gasping for air after just 25m of freestyle!

Traditional swim coaching focuses exclusively on stroke technique with new swimmers and ignores working on swim fitness. But that is a mistake - of course stroke technique is very important but you will progress far more quickly and become a much better swimmer with a balanced approach combining achievable training for your level of fitness combined with the right technique work for you as an individual.

We also understand that great pool swimmers don't necessarily make great open water swimmers. In fact your ability to cope with a variety of water conditions, sight effectively, draft well and swim straight are just as important to swim efficiently in open water as your fitness and pool stroke technique.

Whether you are reading our book, following a Swim Type Guide, using the awesome Swim Smooth Guru, or best of all seeing a Swim Smooth Certified Coach, our coaching always combines these three elements:

- Technique Work specific to your needs as an individual.

- Fitness Training set at the right ability level for you and focused on the event you want to excel in.

- Open Water Skills so that you perform well - and enjoy swimming - in the great outdoors.

We call these elements "The 3 Keys" because getting the right mix of the three is the key to you becoming the swimmer you've always wanted to be.

The Three Keys

4. You Are A Distance Swimmer And Need To Train Like One

So how do you make huge gains in your speed? Improvements like Mega Megan going from 2:12 /100m to 1:32 /100m?

If you are racing events lasting 10 minutes and longer (i.e. all triathlons and open water swims) then you are a distance swimmer - and you will make huge improvements if you actually train like one!

If you are a triathlete or open water swimmer (or racing any distance over 400m in the pool) then traditional masters swimming isn't going to serve you very well. A focus on sprinting and all four strokes is great for pool based sprinters but far from ideal for the rest of us.

That's why we popularised CSS training** and invented challenging Red Mist sessions. Focused, rewarding, achievable training sessions pitched perfectly at your level (using some clever technology here and here). Are you ready to unleash your diesel engine?

Mega Megan - she looks innocent enough doesn't she?

5. Bringing You The World's Most Passionate Coaches

You deserve access to highly trained, professional coaches delivering you the fantastic individual coaching that you need to improve. At Swim Smooth we spend a huge amount of time and energy finding, and training, the very best coaches in the world then making them available to you.

Unlike many other coaching certifications, becoming a Swim Smooth coach is a very tough and challenging process. Getting through selection is extremely difficult all by itself (so far only 42 of over 2500 applicants have done so) and that's when the training begins! Each coach is intensely trained and mentored by ourselves for over a year, including that famous trip to work with the Swim Smooth squads in Perth, Australia.

Find your nearest talented Swim Smooth coach at: www.swimsmooth.com/certifiedcoaches

Beware of imitators - many will claim to use our methods but if you are not seeing one of our coaches listed here then you are not seeing a Swim Smooth coach!

Enrique - Russell - Paul - Emma - Lucy - Fenella - Emma
A little fun amongst the hard training in Perth!

Whatever your level of swimming and whatever you goals, we believe that your time in the water is precious and we want you to make the most of every minute. We're working flat-out 24-7 to make that happen for you.

Swim Smooth!

* In fact over the last 13 years we've managed to fundamentally change the world view on what makes an efficient swim stroke. It is now widely recognised that a longer stroke isn't always better - in fact for many swimmers a shorter stroke is faster and more efficient. This has been a huge battle to achieve (and many called us crazy along the way) but it is perhaps our proudest achievement so far. Longer isn't necessarily better - thanks to you for sharing that message.

** We didn't invent CSS training (it originates from way back in 1992) but we brought it to the fore and developed the method further - using Tempo Trainer Pros to dramatically improve the accuracy of CSS training and introduced the concept and tools for tweaking your pace week by week for optimal gains.

↧

Will This Animated Swimmer Injure You? + HUUB Sphere Shorts Now On Sale!

May 19, 2017, 3:43 am

≫ Next: What We're Up To In Sunny Mallorca This Week

≪ Previous: Because Swim Coaching Can Be So Much Better

Back in June last year, together with our partners at HUUB Design, we released the 3/4 length HUUB Kickpant. If you purchased a pair we're sure you are loving swimming in them. Not only do they keep your legs high in the water (simulating wetsuit swimming in the pool) but with their unique design features they also allow you to kick naturally while actively promoting your legs into a straighter position.

BUT we've heard from some swimmers who would prefer a conventional above the knee buoyancy short and so we have developed the new HUUB Sphere short:

As they are cut above the knee, the Sphere shorts obviously don't contain the active knee control of the full Kickpant but they do still feature the X-O Skeleton stiffening system for improved kick alignment and contain full NBR panels for much greater wetsuit-like buoyancy than a conventional neoprene short.

We have the new Sphere shorts in stock and on sale on our website here:

www.swimsmooth.com/huub-sphere-neoprene-buoyancy-short.php

Start simulating wetsuit swimming and improving your stroke technique in the pool today!

Will This Animated Swimmer Injure You??

If you've been hanging out on any swimming groups on Facebook recently, you might have seen this animated swimmer:

www.facebook.com/hocboi/videos/1498662333512530

First up, whilst you might see a semblance of our own animated Mr Smooth freestyle visualisation (available as a free app on our website) we'd like to assure you that this animation is nothing to do with Swim Smooth!

Your first impression might well be that he's a little jerky compared to Mr Smooth and that's certainly the case. But that jerkiness aside, the animation contains a number of elements which you definitely don't want to copy in your own swimming - in fact some might even give you a shoulder or elbow injury as a result.

Shoulder Injury

When it comes to shoulder injuries in swimming, there are two classic causes. A thumb first entry into the water (with the palm facing outwards) and a crossing of the centre line in front of the head (a "crossover"):

However, there is another major cause that is harder to diagnose, especially without in-depth video analysis. However (somewhat ironically) this new animation does demonstrate this stroke flaw really clearly (and therefore so should definitely not be copied). Take a look at this position with the lead arm fully extended out in front of the head:

Notice how the lead hand is reaching slightly outwards (in this case with the palm facing slightly outward too) and shoulder is collapsing inwards towards the chin - technically "protraction of the scapular".

Here's a real swimmer Christopher Bernestrå doing just the same:

This can happen on any arm stroke but it most commonly happens when a swimmer is breathing. Notice how Christopher's lead hand and fingers are turning outwards slightly as the shoulder collapses inwards. The problem with this position is that it can pinch the structures at the front of the shoulder, resulting in inflammation and/or injury.

Swimmers most susceptible to doing this are those who are aiming for a long smooth stroke style. That means our Smooth swim type of course (Christopher is indeed a Smooth) but Overgliders can also be prone to this stroke fault as they too are trying to "go long". A long stroke can be a good thing but try not to overly focus on stroke length and be too "greedy" with it - it can cause you to over-reach and as we see here, possibly even create a shoulder injury.

So how should the hand extend? Straight forwards of course, with the shoulder blades remaining retracted and supporting the shoulder joint. Here's our very own Mr Smooth demonstrating that position:

To understand this in a bit more depth, take a watch through Paul Newsome's analysis of Christopher's stroke, which we've just released onto Youtube. There's plenty to gain here for your own swimming as Paul explores tuning up Christopher's catch and pull technique:

youtu.be/1Lv0uzgtnR0

Interesting in having your own swimming analysed in this way? You need to see a highly trained Swim Smooth Certified Coach:

www.swimsmooth.com/certifiedcoaches

Also see the list of their camps and clinics below.

Swim Smooth!

SS Clinics and Camps:


North America
Montreal Squads	Montreal Video Analysis	South Carolina Video Analysis
The Woodlands TX, Swim Squad	Connecticut 1-Day Clinic April 28th	Chicago Video Analysis
Chicago Squads
Asia / Middle East / Australia
Hong Kong Squads & Video Analysis	Dubai Video Analysis	Perth Squads
Perth Video Analysis	Kuala Lumpur Swim Squad	Kuala Lumpur Video Analysis
Europe
Prague Junior Swim Club	SS Camp Lanzarote (English - Dutch)	Prague Junior Swim Club
Prague Video Analysis	Nijmegen Video Analysis. & Stroke Correction	City Of Elche Video Analysis / Squads
Nijmegen SS Squads	Zwevegem Video Analysis (English - Dutch)
United Kingdom
Guernsey SS Squads	Guernsey Video Analysis	Yorkshire Squads (Pool & OW)
Yorkshire Video Analysis	West Lothian Video Analysis	Richmond London SS Squad
SW London Swim Workshops	Salisbury 1to1 Analysis	Twickenham Video Analysis
Lancaster SS Squad	Swindon/Cotswolds Video Analysis	Lancaster Video Analysis
Northampton Swim Squad	Open Water 1-2-1s	Swindon SS Squad (Try for free!)
Felixstowe Video Analysis	Stratford upon Avon& Birmingham/Coventry Squads	Felixstowe Squads
Acton London Video Analysis	Cardiff Video Analysis Clinic	Improvers Freestyle Course, Abingdon
Open Water Confidence Course, Dorchester 4 Places Left	Northampton Video Analysis Clinic

↧

What We're Up To In Sunny Mallorca This Week

May 25, 2017, 11:53 pm

≫ Next: Tim Don And Lucy Charles

≪ Previous: Will This Animated Swimmer Injure You? + HUUB Sphere Shorts Now On Sale!

Hello from Mallorca! Paul Newsome, Adam Young and Morgan Williams are here running our 3 Day Coach Education Course with 20 coaches at the awesome BEST Centre in Mallorca - an amazing venue to run a swim training course:

If you've been following Swim Smooth for a while you'll know that coach education is a big passion of ours - one of our key goals as a company is to spread the news far and wide about how coaches can raise their game and improve the effectiveness of their coaching.

We thought we'd share with you a few shots from the training course and let you know what we're up to:

The coaches have travelled from all Europe - and the world - for this course. Three days isn't anywhere near enough to become a Swim Smooth Coach of course but provides a good introduction to our methods. It is very intensive but a lot of fun at the same time.

The basics of video analysis are a large part of day 1. Swimmer Manu travelled all the way from Marseille to Mallorca for his 1to1 video analysis and stroke correction with Paul, as observed and discussed by the coaches:

The coaches hail from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, South Africa and the UK:

Of course we should take account of a swimmer's individuals height, build, experience and strength. Not everyone is the size and shape of an Olympic swimmer after all:

In depth classroom discussions:

Open water swimming at dawn in the beautiful waters off Sant Jordi:

Many of these coaches will be interested in selection to become a Swim Smooth coach and could be chosen if they have the right combination of drive, talent and skills.

If you're a coach interested in attending a future coaching course, make sure you're a member of our Coaches Network to get an invitation to apply (generally we don't announce our coaches courses publicly):

www.swimsmooth.com/coachesnetwork.html

And for more information on becoming a Swim Smooth coach see here:

www.swimsmooth.com/becoming-a-swim-smooth-certified-coach.php

AND after the course has finished we'll be taking part in the BEST Fest Swim Festival. If you're taking part or in the area, come and say hi - it's going to be a phenomenal series! If you're not out for the festival this time, make sure you plan ahead and attend in 2018:

www.bestopenwater.com

We hope you're having a great time swimming wherever you are in the world - let us know what you are up to and share some pictures in your neck of the woods!

Swim Smooth!

SS Clinics and Camps:


North America
Montreal Squads	Montreal Video Analysis	South Carolina Video Analysis
The Woodlands TX, Swim Squad	Connecticut 1-Day Clinic April 28th	Chicago Video Analysis
Chicago Squads
Asia / Middle East / Australia
Hong Kong Squads & Video Analysis	Dubai Video Analysis	Perth Squads
Perth Video Analysis	Kuala Lumpur Swim Squad	Kuala Lumpur Video Analysis
Europe
Prague Junior Swim Club	SS Camp Lanzarote (English - Dutch)	Prague Junior Swim Club
Prague Video Analysis	Nijmegen Video Analysis. & Stroke Correction	City Of Elche Video Analysis / Squads
Nijmegen SS Squads	Zwevegem Video Analysis (English - Dutch)
United Kingdom
Hever Castle Open Water Clinic
Guernsey SS Squads	Guernsey Video Analysis	Yorkshire Squads (Pool & OW)
Yorkshire Video Analysis	West Lothian Video Analysis	Richmond London SS Squad
SW London Swim Workshops	Salisbury 1to1 Analysis	Twickenham Video Analysis
Lancaster SS Squad	Swindon/Cotswolds Video Analysis	Lancaster Video Analysis
Northampton Swim Squad	Open Water 1-2-1s	Swindon SS Squad (Try for free!)
Felixstowe Video Analysis	Stratford upon Avon& Birmingham/Coventry Squads	Felixstowe Squads
Acton London Video Analysis	Cardiff Video Analysis Clinic	Improvers Freestyle Course, Abingdon
Open Water Confidence Course, Dorchester 4 Places Left	Northampton Video Analysis Clinic

↧

Tim Don And Lucy Charles

June 2, 2017, 3:58 am

≫ Next: Swim Smooth On Instagram - Photo / Video Highlights

≪ Previous: What We're Up To In Sunny Mallorca This Week

If you've been following the triathlon news the last couple of weeks you'll be aware of two great race performances - a fantastic first Ironman win by newly turned pro Lucy Charles and an absolutely incredible official Ironman world record time by Tim Don.

Both Tim and Lucy feature their swimming exclusively in the Swim Smooth Guru - if you're a subscriber, find out why they're so fast and efficient here and here (hint, they're both out-and-out "Swingers" which means they swim with lots of rhythm and tempo)!

We've devoted the blog this week to their performances - if you have an Ironman coming up yourself this summer here's a little inspiration for you!

Ladies first:

Lucy Charles: A First Pro Ironman Win

If you've been following the Swim Smooth blog for a while, you'll know that we first introduced Lucy to you back in July last year. A former elite open water swimmer, Lucy decimated the women's field at the Ironman World Championships in 2015. Racing as an age grouper, she set the fastest women's swim split - 2 minutes 44 seconds faster than Pro Jodie Swallow!

Find Lucy on twitter and on her website.

Of course having a great triathlon swim leg is to be expected from a former elite swimmer, but could Lucy adapt to triathlon and become a great cyclist and runner too? Well the weekend before last we got the answer at the famously tough course at Ironman Lanzarote. Taking down a strong women's field, Lucy led out the women's swim by over 5 minutes before breaking the bike course record - in the process extending her lead to over 19 minutes. A solid 3:18 marathon capped off a fantastic maiden Pro Ironman win:

Lucy in recent races and training:

We asked Lucy about her race:

Having flown straight out to Lanzarote following my win at Challenge Lisbon, I knew I was on good form but I certainly could not have predicted Saturday's result.

I took the swim steadier than normal, this was my first full Ironman for a year and I didn't want to go crazy. I found myself in the lead pack of men and was able to just sit in and cruise along. I exited the swim in 47:06 feeling fresh for the bike, which is always nice after 3.8km in open water!

I have really been working hard on my biking over the winter but to break the Ironman Lanzarote bike course record was totally unexpected.

The 2017 season could not have started any better for me, with a string of great results. I have a busy race schedule this year so I really hope i can keep this good form going.

After the win at Ironman Lanzarote I am now on a mission to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in Kona. My fiancé Reece has already qualified as an amateur after his stunning performance at Ironman Lanzarote. Fingers crossed we can both be on that start line together.

I couldn't be more over the moon with my result at Ironman Lanzarote. After a string of setbacks and injuries in 2016 I feel like 2017 is set to be my year!

Everyone at Swim Smooth is willing you to a fantastic remainder of 2017 Lucy!

If you would like to discover what makes Lucy such a phenomenal swimmer, watch our full stroke analysis in the Guru here (subscription required):

https://www.swimsmooth.guru/video/c2m/lucy-charles/

Tim Don: A New Official Ironman World Record

Last Sunday the irrepressible Tim Don set a new official Ironman event record of 7:40:23 at Ironman Brazil, comprising a rapid 3.8km swim split of 44:16, a scorching 180km bike in 4:06:56 and to wrap up with a full marathon in 02:44:46!

Find Tim on his website, twitter and instagram here.

We'd like to pass on our personal congratulations to Tim - he's a friend of Swim Smooth and a former training partner of our Head Coach Paul Newsome, way back in the late 1990s. Tim's a fantastic guy and a super-tough athlete who thoroughly deserves this new record:

Tim (left), Paul and Swim Smooth's Adam Young (right) showing
strong mutual respect in Boulder in 2013

To get an insight into Tim's abilities as an athlete, here's a couple of videos not to miss. Firstly, Tim's post race interview discussing his phenomenal performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pmvkJ9Ad78

And secondly an outtake from our 3 Day Coach Education Course in 2013, when Tim kindly popped in to show us his stroke and give age group triathlete Tarek Mouganie the swim experience of a lifetime by letting him draft him in the pool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r99sWPLgLI

And of course, if you want to learn from Tim's swimming to make improvements to your own, check out our exclusive Guru stroke analysis here (subscription required):

https://www.swimsmooth.guru/video/lZ/tim-don/

Swim Smooth!

SS Clinics, Camps and 1to1s:


North America
Montreal Squads	Montreal Video Analysis	South Carolina Video Analysis
The Woodlands TX, Swim Squad	Connecticut 1-Day Clinic April 28th	Chicago Video Analysis
Chicago Squads
Asia / Middle East / Australia
Hong Kong Squads & Video Analysis	Dubai Video Analysis	Perth Squads
Perth Video Analysis	Kuala Lumpur Swim Squad	Kuala Lumpur Video Analysis
Europe
Prague Junior Swim Club	SS Camp Lanzarote (English - Dutch)	Prague Junior Swim Club
Prague Video Analysis	Nijmegen Video Analysis. & Stroke Correction	City Of Elche Video Analysis / Squads
Nijmegen SS Squads	Zwevegem Video Analysis (English - Dutch)
United Kingdom
Hever Castle Open Water Clinic
Guernsey SS Squads	Guernsey Video Analysis	Yorkshire Squads (Pool & OW)
Yorkshire Video Analysis	West Lothian Video Analysis	Richmond London SS Squad
SW London Swim Workshops	Salisbury 1to1 Analysis	Twickenham Video Analysis
Lancaster SS Squad	Swindon/Cotswolds Video Analysis	Lancaster Video Analysis
Northampton Swim Squad	Open Water 1-2-1s	Swindon SS Squad (Try for free!)
Felixstowe Video Analysis	Stratford upon Avon& Birmingham/Coventry Squads	Felixstowe Squads
Acton London Video Analysis	Cardiff Video Analysis Clinic	Improvers Freestyle Course, Abingdon
Open Water Confidence Course, Dorchester 4 Places Left	Northampton Video Analysis Clinic

↧

Swim Smooth On Instagram - Photo / Video Highlights

June 9, 2017, 12:03 am

≫ Next: The New Platysens Marlin Is Now In Stock!

≪ Previous: Tim Don And Lucy Charles

If you love photos like we do, Instagram's a great medium to show off your shots. You can follow Swim Smooth on Instagram at:

www.instagram.com/swimsmooth

Here's a few highlights of an exciting last few weeks for us in Perth, Mallorca and Prague from our account:

And from Youtube:

www.instagram.com/swimsmooth

And also on Twitter and Facebook:

www.twitter.com/SwimSmooth

www.facebook.com/336910292072

Swim Smooth!

↧

The New Platysens Marlin Is Now In Stock!

June 16, 2017, 1:00 am

≫ Next: Announcing New Swim Smooth Coaches In San Diego, Calgary, Tunbridge Wells and Manchester

≪ Previous: Swim Smooth On Instagram - Photo / Video Highlights

We're very excited to announce that the brand new Platysens Marlin has just arrived in the UK and is now on sale in the Swim Smooth shop! :

www.swimsmooth.com/platysens-marlin-swim-meter.php

The Marlin is a next-generation swimming tool worn on your goggles. It monitors everything you do as you swim and then speaks to you, giving your verbal feedback on your performance.

The Marlin informs you of the speed you are swimming, your stroke rate, strokes per length and distance swum. It can also talk you through training sessions step by step:

Once your session is complete you can of course analyse all your swim data on your smart-phone (iPhone or Android required).

Swim Smooth have been an integral part of the development team at Platysens, making sure the Marlin gives you the right feedback and prompts you in the right way to maximise your development as a swimmer.

The Marlin comes in two versions, the pool only Marlin-P (without GPS) and the pool and open water Marlin. It's a true next generation product and we're super excited about getting one strapped to your goggles! Buy yours today at:

www.swimsmooth.com/platysens-marlin-swim-meter.php

Marlin Youtube Unboxing

Paul Newsome unboxed his production Marlin a few days ago in Perth, giving you some insight into how to use the Marlin along the way:

Marlin Product Overview

• As you swim, the Marlin provides you with spoken feedback on your speed, distance swum, stroke rate and strokes per length without you having to stop and look at a watch.

• The Marlin can be configured to control your stroke rate and set pace in a similar way to a Finis Tempo Trainer Pro.

• You can download training sessions to the Marlin and be led through them step by step as you swim - removing the need for a written plan.

• Analyse your swim pace and performance after your swim to optimise your speed and efficiency.

• With the Marlin model you can record, map and analyse your open water training. Note, as the Marlin has a clear GPS signal on the back of your head it can do this with far greater accuracy than a GPS watch which spends much of the time underwater during the freestyle stroke:

• You can also program an open water swim course at your local venue on your smart phone and have the Marlin guide you round, speaking to you whenever you go off course with corrective instructions to bring you straight again. Amazing technology!

• At no additional charge, Swim Smooth Guru PRO subscribers will soon be able to connect their Guru account to their Marlin, sending Guru training sessions to the Marlin to follow at the pool. Sessions swum using the Marlin can also be automatically imported into the Guru for detailed Swim Smooth analysis. Guru integration is scheduled for completion in early July.

Swim Smooth!

↧

Announcing New Swim Smooth Coaches In San Diego, Calgary, Tunbridge Wells and Manchester

June 23, 2017, 2:26 am

≫ Next: As You Change Speed What Should Happen To Your Stroke Rate And Stroke Length?

≪ Previous: The New Platysens Marlin Is Now In Stock!

Working on your stroke 1-to-1 with a fully qualified
Swim Smooth Coach is a revelatory experience.

Swim Smooth are very proud to announce the certification of four new Swim Smooth Coaches in Tunbridge Wells and Manchester - UK, San Diego - California and Calgary - Canada.

Training to be a SS Coach is a huge undertaking. Developing the necessary skills and experience of advanced video analysis, stroke correction, squad coaching and open water skills takes time and cannot be rushed. We are fortunate enough to be able to pick our coaches from a large talent pool but even for very experienced coaches, training takes at least 1 to 2 years.

Whether you are a complete beginner or elite competitor, when you see a Swim Smooth Coach you can be assured you are seeing a talented highly trained individual with the very best coaching methods at their disposal.

Congratulations Laura, Mary, Lucy and John!

For full information on all our coaches and to find your local Swim Smooth Coach see: swimsmooth.com/certifiedcoaches

Laura Ansell - Tunbridge Wells, UK: www.triswim.org.uk

Master teacher and coach, Laura, has been a swimming teacher and coach for 17 years.

Laura went on to coordinate her own swim school alongside Cannons Health and Fitness and Swimming Nature at the age of 19, and combined the manual manipulation techniques of Shaw, with elite stroke techniques from ex-Olympic swimmers with whom Laura swam and studied with, to the forefront of her coaching style.

Laura co-wrote the First Choice Swim Abroad programme and implemented it’s curriculum through Europe from 2006-2007.

Laura spent her youth competing at County and National championships for Hertfordshire and GB, and held the 100M Butterfly and IM record for her age group for Hertfordshire. Laura is currently the KC ASA Open Water Manager and her passion to drive the sport forwards has meant she is the head of the ASA Open Water Committee.

Laura specialises in nervous and new swimmers of all ages and abilities, and supports their learning in a supportive, nurturing and empathetic manner which has seen her athletes continue to Triathlon AG placing, and World Series qualifying, as well as producing pool and open water County and National level swimmers.

www.triswim.org.uk

Mary Jessey, Calgary, Canada: www.lynxtriathlon.com

Mary is thrilled to be introducing Calgary to the Swim Smooth Coaching method!

Mary has been swimming her whole life – first as a competitive age group swimmer, then as a member of a NCAA University team, and most recently through the sport of Triathlon. She progressed from sprint distance to Ironman distance races and then started sharing her passion for the sport through coaching.

After 5 years of focusing on Triathlon coaching, and the realization that swimming is often the limiter for triathletes, she decided to expand her focus on swim coaching. In 2016, she attended a Swim Smooth coaching course in California where she fine-tuned her swim coaching skills. Then, in January 2017, she continued her education and training under Swim Smooth mentorship, in Perth, in order to become the first female Swim Smooth Certified Coach in Canada and only in Western Canada.

She has been told by her swimmers that her squad sessions both in the pool and in open water are “focused, fun and fly by”. She finds it rewarding to work with both newbies and lifetime swimmers and enjoys the camaraderie that exists within her squad. She finds that if swimmers supplement regular squad sessions with periodic video analysis and stroke correction sessions with her, a swimmer of any ability will improve their technique, gain efficiency and get faster!

Find more information about Swim Smooth services in Calgary here:

www.lynxtriathlon.com

Lucy Lloyd-Roach, Manchester, UK : www.swimmingmatters.co.uk

Lucy is a "Smooth" with a strong swimming background, having spent most of her years growing up around a poolside. She continues to compete at a Masters level and has broken individual Masters British records in the 100 and 200 butterfly and has been on 6 Masters World record breaking relay teams. It was only as an adult that she discovered the joys of open water swimming and using the Swim Smooth coaching system she successfully made the transition from the pool to the open water. Her open water highlight to date was being part of the fastest ever female double English Channel relay in 2015.

Lucy has been lucky enough to follow turn her passion into a career and to help get others enjoying their swimming; she has been teaching and coaching full time for over 10 years. In this time she’s worked with all ages and abilities of swimmers from those nervously taking their first strokes right up to those training for world age group triathlon championships and solo English Channel swims.

Her aims are to get you swimming better and thinking differently about your swimming!

www.swimmingmatters.co.uk

John Chipponeri, San Diego, California: www.swimsmoothsd.com

As the first Swim Smooth Certified Coach in California, John is pumped up to bring the professionalism and passion of Swim Smooth to San Diego.

John discovered Swim Smooth in 2013 during a 4-year corporate assignment in Perth, Australia. Already in the swim coaching business, John quickly identified the unique, passionate and effective methods of Swim Smooth.

His pursuit of stroke efficiency has helped him overcome his Overglider tendencies and to successfully train for and complete the 20km Rottnest channel swim in 2016 in just over 6-hours.

Along with his Swim Smooth Coaching Certification, John is passionate about putting his long history of coaching and competing in a variety sports, including 15 years as a triathlete and open water swimmer, in to practice to inspire swimmers of all levels to enjoy swimming, be challenged, and become more efficient and faster swimmers.

John is also a USAT Youth and junior Certified Coach, Triathlon Australia Certified Coach, US Masters Certified Level 2 Swim Coach and a TriDot triathlon coach.

www.swimsmoothsd.com

For full information on all our Swim Smooth coaches and to find your local Swim Smooth Coach see: swimsmooth.com/certifiedcoaches

And for more information on training to become a Swim Smooth coach, visit: swimsmooth.com/becoming-a-swim-smooth-certified-coach.php

Swim Smooth!

↧

As You Change Speed What Should Happen To Your Stroke Rate And Stroke Length?

June 30, 2017, 3:49 am

≫ Next: New Video: Anna-Karin Turns To The Dark Side!

≪ Previous: Announcing New Swim Smooth Coaches In San Diego, Calgary, Tunbridge Wells and Manchester

Here's a great question from Guru swimmer Andrew Boccio:

If I'm running, my cadence stays the same (about 180) regardless of how fast I go. The only difference would be how much I push off the ground, thereby lengthening my stride length. That extra effort of pushing off the ground harder to get a bigger stride, is ultimately what gains speed, not the cadence increase. As I'm sure you know this already, I only point it out because I'm confused as to how this is analogous in swimming.

It seems as though the way you describe stroke rate is that it should be the same for you as a swimmer once you find your optimal rate. And that rate matters so much in terms of the actual mechanics of your swimming (overgliding if it's too slow and chopping hard if it's too fast). But how is it possible to ever change speeds then?? If I slow my stroke rate, I mess up my form, and same if I increase it too much. So then do I have to shorten or lengthen my stroke length (which doesn't seem possible really). Or, the only thing I can come up with is pushing less water or using less effort on the catch so that your "push off the ground" (so to speak), does not require as much effort and you will therefore go slower.

The short answer to Andrew's question is that as you change speed, both your stroke rate and stroke length change. Swimming faster normally means both a slightly longer stroke and a slightly faster turnover.

Before we expand on that, here's a couple of quick definitions:

- Your stroke length is how far you travel on each stroke. One way of measuring this is to count your strokes over a length of the pool - the fewer strokes you take the longer your stroke length.

- Your stroke rate is how fast you are turning your arms over - i.e. your cadence. We normally quote this is strokes per minute. You can measure this with a specialist stop watch and control it using a stroke rate beeper such as a Finis Tempo Trainer Pro.

Note that in the early 1990s it became popular to count strokes per length driven by the belief that a longer stroke always meant a more efficient stroke. We now understand that this is not the case and there are distinct dangers with trying to reduce your stroke count too far. Instead you need to find a balance between the length and rate of your stroke for you as an individual.

So how do you find this sweet spot and swim "optimally" at different effort levels?

First Fine Tune Your Catch Technique

Right at the front of the stroke you extend forwards underwater and get a hold of the water before pressing it backwards. This initial engagement with the water is called your "catch" and your catch technique can have a dramatic effect on your stroke rate.

Generally speaking, swimmers with a better catch swim at a higher stroke rate without fighting the water. This is one of the secrets to swimming fast and efficiently.

Pressing down on the water, pressing wide or even pressing forwards (Overgliding) can dramatically reduce your stroke rate. Trying to optimise your stroke rate with any of these flaws in place will prove a frustrating experience. So before you go ahead and run a ramp test (described below) do some work on fine tuning your catch.

Pressing down during the catch gives you
less propulsion and slows your stroke rate

Our "go-to" product for improving your catch is the Swim Smooth Catch Masterclass - available in the Guru here: www.swimsmooth.guru/subsection/fw/catch-masterclass/

Or on DVD here: www.swimsmooth.com/catchmasterclass.html

Watch the Catch Masterclass trailer here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q3Tsp_u02c

The Swim Smooth Stroke Rate Ramp Test

OK, so you're confident your catch is half-decent, what now? You need to conduct a experiment on your swimming that we call a "Ramp Test".

We've conducted ramp tests on thousands of swimmers over many years at Swim Smooth and use a standard test format you can find here:

www.swimsmooth.com/ramptest

The test involves you swimming a series of 50 meters or 50 yards starting at a low stroke rate and progressively increasing the rate each 50. You control your stroke rate with a Tempo Trainer Pro beeping the rhythm to you and record your time per 50, your strokes per length and how it felt in terms of effort.

Ideally you run this blind without knowing the stroke rate you are at and have a friend time you, count your strokes per 50 and record everything on the stroke rate sheet.

As you increase stroke rate you'll go progressively quicker up to a certain point where you really start to fight things and can't continue. Stop there!

When you look at the results you should find at least one "sweet spot" where your stroke "clicks into place" and works nicely. There might be a noticeable drop in effort at this point and/or an increase in speed too.

Better swimmers will often find more than one sweet spot over their speed range. One around steady effort level and another around CSS pace:

Of course once you have found these sweet spots you can target them in training over longer swims and key training sets. As you develop that sense of rhythm at which you best perform you can use it in races for best performance.

Developing More Versatility

But what if you want to swim at a pace faster or slower than your sweet spot? Perhaps you want to smoothly change your pace during a race for tactical reasons.

To develop this versatility in your stroke, try the following set where you are varying force application during the catch to change the length of your stroke. This will adjust your pace whilst still swimming at an "ideal" rhythm for you:

Swim 4x 200m/yds with a Finis Tempo Trainer Pro set to a stroke rate you might naturally use for steady paced swimming. If you don't have a Tempo Trainer, aim to maintain a similar stroke cadence throughout. all the 200s.

Progressively increase the firmness of the catch for each 200 to lengthen your stroke and increase the pace you are swimming. Don't add a glide, just increase the pressure during the catch and maintain the stroke rhythm:

First 200: Light catch - "Granny Gear"
Second 200: "Apply a sense of firmness"
Third 200: "Catch treacle"
Fourth 200: "Big gear"

Think of it like changing the gears on your bike but maintaining the same cadence through the range. As you adapt to doing this you should effectively broaden the speed range you can swim within your sweet-spot stroke-rate.

Try this set and let us know how you get on! You can see the Perth squad board here for the entire session:

Swim Smooth!

↧

New Video: Anna-Karin Turns To The Dark Side!

July 6, 2017, 11:49 pm

≫ Next: Swimming A TRIPLE English Channel Crossing World Record

≪ Previous: As You Change Speed What Should Happen To Your Stroke Rate And Stroke Length?

Newsflash 1: Swim Smooth Coach Lucy Lloyd Roach and her all women team just set a new World Record for an English Channel triple crossing in 31 hours 20 minutes! That's well over 100km of swimming including swimming right through the night! More details to follow soon but a huge congrats to the whole team: www.facebook.com/groups/andyschannelladies/permalink/887676451408751/

Newsflash 2: Ne manquez pas cet article de Charles Couturier à propos des "Swim Types" dans le dernier numéro du magazine Québecois sur le Triathlon: 10-21-42km (page 30): issuu.com/10-21-42kmmagazine/docs/102142km-juillet_2017
Retrouvez d'autres articles Swim Smooth en français ici: http://www.swimsmoothmontreal.com/blog

Anna-Karin Lundin - The Smoothest Swinger In The Whole Wide World?

At Swim Smooth we are lucky enough to boast several Olympians, World Record holders and World Champion swimmers and triathletes amongst our Swim Smooth Coaches.

One notable coach is Anna-Karin Lundin based in Gothenburg, Sweden who competed at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in the 4x100 Medley Relay. Anna-Karin raced the breast-stroke leg but as you can imagine all four of her strokes are pretty phenomenal.

During her competitive career, AK employed the long smooth freestyle stroke style used by many swimming greats such as Thorpe, Phelps and Adlington. We call this style of stroke "The Smooth" and it works best combined with a powerful 6-beat kick, often over shorter race distances in the pool. Here's some archive footage of Anna-Karin in action:

BUT.... AK has recently turned to the dark side (!) and has been experimenting with the alternative "Swinger" style, also used by many elite swimmers such as Olympic Champions Gregorio Paltrinieri, Janet Evans and Alistair Brownlee. Here's Anna-Karin in action:

(click on animation to see whole video at full speed)

Compared to The Smooth style, this is a shorter stroke with a higher turn-over, normally combined with a straighter arm recovery. This swinging up-and-over recovery is why we call this style "The Swinger".

Here's another angle:

If you've been following Swim Smooth for a while you'll have seen quite a few Swingers in action and many of them might have looked a bit hurried and choppy to you. In fact you might have been put off from trying the Swinger style yourself because you didn't want to look like that.

But if you're not very tall and strong, and you don't have a hugely powerful leg kick, then it could well be that the Swinger style will allow you to swim faster and more efficiently. Especially over longer distances and especially in open water where the extra rhythm of the stroke is of great benefit to punch through disturbed water.

The point of showing you Anna-Karin's beautiful swinger stroke is that there's no reason why the swinger style can't be performed with real artistry. So why not give it a go?

The key to increasing stroke rate isn't to rush things but to get into your catch a little more quickly at the front of the stroke. Over time you'll probably find the swinging arm recovery just suits this way of swimming and feels natural.

Don't miss the complete video clip on Anna-Karin on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LDbps7O5Ps

Find Your Local Swim Smooth Coach

Anna-Karin is one of those annoyingly multi-talented people, not only is she a fantastic swimmer but she's also a brilliant coach! Book in for a Swim Smooth stroke correction session with her in Gothenburg at:

http://simcoachen.se

And of course you can find a complete listing of all Swim Smooth coaches here:

http://www.swimsmooth.com/certifiedcoaches

Not all are Olympic swimmers themselves but they have all been hand-picked and share Anna-Karin's passion and drive for improving your swimming. Get started improving your swimming today!

Swim Smooth!

↧

Swimming A TRIPLE English Channel Crossing World Record

July 14, 2017, 12:49 am

≫ Next: Should You Raise, Lower or Maintain Your Stroke Rate?

≪ Previous: New Video: Anna-Karin Turns To The Dark Side!

Newsflash: Swim Smooth Perth swimmer Julie Isbill on Tuesday evening completed the Catalina Channel Swim in California. Another amazing swim! Read her report on the Perth blog here.

This week on the blog we have Swim Smooth Coach Lucy Lloyd Roach's full race report from her team's English Channel TRIPLE Crossing World Record set from Tuesday to Wednesday last week.

This amazing team of six women not only smashed the women's triple record but also broke the men's record too!

Three channel crossings in a row is over 100km of swimming as the crow flies but with huge tides pulling the swimmers up and down the busiest shipping lane in the world, the total distance swum is actually much further.

What does it take to swim across the busiest shipping lane in the world 3 times? Lucy takes up the story with her full race report:

The Big Day Finally Arrived...

We knew about a week before our crossing window that we wouldn’t be going on the Thursday/Friday (29/30th June) because the winds would be too high. This meant I worked Thursday as normal and then could pack, on the Friday.

The weather was nice on the Friday and some single crossing relays went out – it looked idyllic – calm and sunny, but the weather wasn’t good enough for a triple crossing of 30 hours.

It was looking like Monday was the hot favourite and so the Manchester contingent were going to drive down on the Sunday. On Sunday morning however, the weather took a turn and it looked like it would be Tuesday or even not at all…

We made it down to Dover and the weather looked glorious – sunny, not a cloud in the sky, we could see France from Varne Ridge, the legendary Channel Swimming camp site. However as our pilot Andy King was to point out later on there were some white caps out there and the sails on the boats were full of wind:

The view from the cliffs at Varne Ridge

Andy drove an hour to meet with us all on Sunday night and to explain to us all how it was looking and what it meant for the swim. If Tuesday didn’t look do-able then there was a chance with the weekend, but the same could be said for Monday the week before, so if Tuesday looked do-able then we would grab it with both hands and go for it. The wind forecast was changing almost hourly. He would give the nod either way on Monday evening when the final wind forecast of the evening was announced at 7.30pm

On previous Channel swims, I’ve explored the delights of Dover, and fancied a change, so Jane, Nat, Emma and I headed into Folkestone. Being from a busy city (Manchester) we were surprised that most places had shut by the time we got there! We came across loads of places that looked interesting, but were sadly closed.

As we woke up on Monday morning, we were grateful that we hadn’t gone – the weather was overcast, grey and miserable. A complete contrast from the day before.

After a lot of team faffing, we eventually made it to Dover harbour for a training swim and some photos. Having been stood around for 20 minutes or so going for a swim was the last thing on my mind. The wind was up and the air temperature was cold. This meant it was wavy and was the waviest I had swum. Although once I’d managed to get in, the water was surprisingly warm and turquoise! It’s not normally that colour in the harbour. If it was like this on the ‘cold side’ of the Channel then I knew it wouldn’t be too bad out in the middle!

The World Record Triple Relay Team: Lucy (left), Nikki Fraser, Natalie Massey,
Emma Ross, Jane McCormick and Dee Llewellyn-Hodgson.

We headed back to Varne Ridge to get changed and then for some of us to explore Folkestone whilst the others caught up on work. We got our last minute food purchases and then headed back to Varne Ridge where Nat had prepared a fine feast for our last meal! As we sat down, Andy phoned to give us the nod; we would be going at 7.30am. The wind looked ok. Eeek!

After minimal sleep, we were up and away to the port with seemingly little difficulty. It was strange to be heading off in the light (previous crossings had involved v. early starts)! Once the boat was packed, we had the customary photos taken and then we were speeding off towards toward the start it was pretty bumpy! Everyone started to feel a little green and hoped it would be ok once we weren’t working against the chop.

Nikki jumped off the boat and swam towards the shore to start the swim. She cleared the water, the horn sounded and we were off! Official start time was 7.39am:

The running order swimming an hour each was:

Nikki (7.39am, 1.39pm, 7.39pm, 1.39am)
Nat (8.39am, 2.39pm, 8.39pm, 2.39am)
Me (9.39am, 3.39pm, 9.39pm, 3.39am – I had worked out the night before that I would end up with 2 dark swims)
Emma (10.39am, 4.39pm, 10.39pm, 4.39am)
Jane (11.39am, 5.39pm, 11.39pm, 5.39am)
Dee (12.39am, 6.39pm, 12.39pm, 6.39am)

The first leg was an odd one, you wanted to get going, but at the same time you knew that you had 4 more swims to go…

The conditions were choppy and more often than not we were smashed in the face by a wave as we attempted to breathe! :

The chop was a learning experience as we swam along. At least it distracted me from the potential of jelly fish and how long we had been in.

Having taken on quite a bit of salt, I felt a bit sick for around 30 minutes after this leg. Full of energy and the excitement of getting going, everyone was awake for the first set of swims

Building on the lessons learned from the first swim, the second was choppier and rougher, but it was fun!

After Emma had touched France, I decided it was time to start focusing on recovery. This is something I didn’t do in our previous channel swims, but I knew was key on something of this length. In previous attempts, I didn’t feel like I could have gone on past the 3rd swim. Having just read Sleep by Nick Littlehales, I borrowed the sleep kit idea employed by Team Sky and created my own. Essentially this is a covered piece of memory foam. I got out of the swim, got dried, changed into the next swim suit, put on clothes, sub suit and dry suit and then climbed into my sleeping bag (despite the air temperature being 20 degrees). Have a warm drink and small snack and nap until Dee was in the water. Then eat a larger meal. Then smaller snacks whilst Nikki and Nat swam. Then an energy gel about 10 mins before I got in (and an emergency gel in my suit in case I got cold).

Emma speeding towards France

By the third leg I was getting a little angsty and just wanted to be off the boat. I was feeling a little nauseous, possibly from all the sugar. Or maybe from ingesting too much salt.

The third leg had a beautiful start – swimming into the sunset!

Swimming in the dark is also a beautiful experience as it’s not as dark as one might think. There are different shades of dark; it’s almost textural. Then out of nowhere a drift of sea weed and rope (accompanied by jelly fish caught underneath) went over the top of my head and across my back and down the back of my legs. It made me jump and that set the mind games going. My body tensed up and I was then just waiting for the next sting to appear from the lurking jelly fish that I couldn’t see. As I tensed, I started to feel the cold and the negative chatter increased more as a result.

This sting went all away around my right leg, down my shins and my left arm too!

Ouch!

It was getting darker and so was my mood. The light on the boat was the only thing I could see, it was a comfort, but it was also disorientating. It suddenly felt really lonely and I had no idea how long I had left. All my senses were dampened. I couldn’t see or hear anything. It was at this point that I was also grateful that I had done sessions that replicate these psychologically challenging places in training (if you're a Swim Smooth fan - Red Mist and Long Steady Swims), so I knew I had experience of dealing with myself in these situations. Although with my mental toughness diminishing, I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep going for. Then I saw a misty silhouette through my goggles and I knew one of the girls was with me. It helped to keep going. If I’d have been doing the swim by myself I probably would have given up. I got to a point and I was going to have a gel to give myself some more energy to keep shivering and swimming. It was also welcome to help break up the monotony. As I went to do this, Nikki, the mysterious silhouette, said that I had 5 mins left. Just 5 minutes, I could do that and the gel remained untouched.

It then took a team effort to re-warm me as I was shaking uncontrollably and unable to dress myself! I was glad for the sub suit. The sub suit and dry robe combination was a good one. Although I couldn’t get my hand in when I was really cold or work out which was legs and which was arms!! I then retired to my sleeping bag with my dry robe, and subsuit on. I was shivering for at least an hour but eventually warmed up. I got shaken awake as it was my turn to watch Dee. I put the LED gloves on, had a pizza and kept going. I knew how hard it had been, so I wanted to make sure that I was there for her. There was a moment where my dancing caused confusion – so I had to be more selective about the moves I was doing! The gloves and I then ended up dancing our way through some of Nikki’s and Nat’s legs too. We also brought out Nat’s glow stick party pack for her leg too!

On the 4th leg, I felt like I had something to prove to myself as the previous leg had almost broken me. I also knew that I had to swim hard to fight the tide.

It was completely dark and swimming towards England was a boost during the night shift, which had been tough for us all. We all had to face our demons be that the dark, the lurking jelly fish, the cold, or the fact our bodies were telling us that we wanted to be asleep, yet here we were throwing ourselves off a boat into the English Channel...

As a swimmer with a pool background, a turn is always a relief! It was nice, as I knew that there wouldn't be as many jelly fish towards the shore and I was relieved that the water started to get warmer as it got shallower. As we got closer to the shore the dingy came out with me and having spent the last few hours following a boat I wasn't used to following it. I remember asking Andy the minion, 'which part am I aiming for?' He said 'England'! I've heard horror stories about landings, people coming out with cut feet and scratches, so whilst I wanted to get to England, I didn't at the same time! It turned out that I had to swim through a mass of flat seaweed (or that's what I hope it was as I couldn't see), and my whole body got tangled towards the end but otherwise I came out unscathed!

England viewed from the main boat (the light is the dingy tracking me)

It was almost anti-climatic as the girls couldn't see the landing and all I could see of the boat was a bobbing white light waiting for me to catch up with it. In my haste to catch up with it I nearly swam into the dingy as Andy had a head torch on and had turned the dingy around to face the boat. I didn't enjoy the water getting cooler again, but the sun rising warmed me psychologically even if didn't start to warm my body up until it had risen higher in the sky.

I swam with arms only in the last 10 minutes of the leg as my hip flexors had gone (maybe over-kicking or the cold contributed to this). I honestly couldn’t move them, didn’t have any power in them. I didn’t know how I was going to deal with the ladder back onto the boat!

Thankfully it was easier than I thought it was going to be to get out and then the cycle of recovery began.

Up to cheer Dee on, and then came Nikki’s jelly fish party… I think we were all relieved that it wasn’t us! :

I tried rolling (Nikki’s roller) but I couldn’t seem to get the usual painful bits it only seemed to show me just how much of my body hurt that I wasn’t aware of!

I got in for the 5th leg and knew that I would have to hammer it as we were looking close. Plus no-one wanted to get in for longer than they had to! That was motivation in itself. I was weary about getting in having seen all the Jelly fish on Nikki’s leg, but I knew from the last couple of times that we would probably see the odd jelly fish.

It was calm and dare I say it boring on this leg…. I was just waiting for something to happen. Would it be jelly fish? I could see that we had crept into the shipping lane as there were some big ships by us. Then it started to happen in the last 30 mins. Even though the big ships were probably half a mile away they were drawing up all the cold water from the bottom and it was ‘patchy, cold’ as I said to Emma in our handover. Emma reckoned it went from 14 to 19 degrees!

I got out, put underwear on instead of a costume as I was confident that I wouldn’t be getting back in… Then as the reports of the tide started to come in, there was a chance that I would have to get back in and blitz it to shore. If I was to get in, it would be tight! So I had to be prepared for a sprint for home!

Following the recovery cycle, the cheering went up a gear – no one wanted to miss out on the record.

France was doing that thing where it didn’t seem to be getting any closer. The cap (we were landing in Wissant) was going forward and backwards all the time. We would pull in front and then it would be seemingly by our side again. Nikki battled hard and then Nat went in. Surely she would get France? She was so close! When they got in the dingy, this was a sign that something was going to happen – we would make France soon

Following a Baywatch style exit, Nat did it! Official time 31 hours 20 minutes!

We broke the 13 year old Women's world record by 1 hour and 11 minutes and the all comers record, which had stood for as long as Nikki had been alive (24 years) by 3 minutes!

Our splits for each crossing were: 9:47 (Emma on the turn), 10:20 (Lucy on the turn), 11:13 (Nat on the finish) with an overall time of 31:20:

The full record video on Youtube:

Our final route (English Channel swimmers get pulled side to side by the strong tides running up and down the channel):

We were overwhelmed by the support from people at home – it was phenomenal! We must have single-handedly reduced the productivity of the UK that day! So many people were sending in reports of being glued to the tracker.

It was such an incredible thing to have been part of. I don’t think it has all really sunk in yet. It has taken 4 days or so to start to process it all and recover!

There has been such as team event. The ‘team’ included the inspirational girls and crew of the Louise Jane Charters, but it also extended to the people at home (and secretly at work) who were sat glued to the tracker and watching our progress on social media. Everyone did their bit to keep us going through the tough moments.

Thank you to everyone for doing their part to make this happen! :)

Lucy

Lucy Lloyd-Roach

PS. If you're in the UK you can also watch the team's interview on BBC North West Tonight here (19 minutes in): http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08xcs0q/north-west-tonight-evening-news-13072017

Find out more about Lucy's coaching setup in Manchester and book a session with her to improve your swimming at: www.swimmingmatters.co.uk

------------------

Let's not forget why we did this:

Join our team of super star supporters and make a donation to The British Heart Foundation by heading over to
https://www.justgiving.com/teams/andyschannelladies2017

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/channelladies
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/andyschannelladies/
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/channelladieswithbabies/

Also a big thank you to our team sponsors:

↧

Should You Raise, Lower or Maintain Your Stroke Rate?

July 21, 2017, 1:51 am

≫ Next: Our New SS Coach In Johannesburg + Conventional Wisdom Takes Another Beating In Budapest

≪ Previous: Swimming A TRIPLE English Channel Crossing World Record

One of the most common questions we get asked at Swim Smooth is should I be looking to raise my stroke rate? Equally, we often have to look at swimmers and ask is their rate is too high? Would they swim more effectively if they slowed their stroke slightly and lengthened out a little?

Way back in 2009 we published the Swim Smooth Stroke Rate Chart (you can find it on our website here). The key to this chart is that it takes account of your current swimming speed such that it covers any level of freestyle swimmer, from beginner right through to Olympian:

Up the side we have your stroke rate in strokes per minute - counting both arms. Note this is your strokes per minute, not strokes per length! If you've used a Finis Tempo Trainer Pro you'll be familiar with your stroke rate.

Across the bottom we simply have the speed you are swimming - this can be steady swimming, CSS pace or sprinting or anywhere in between, as long as you use the corresponding stroke rate at that effort level on the vertical axis.

If you sit in the blue zone, we are saying that you need to look to raise your stroke rate to make progress with your swimming.

If you sit in the red zone, then you need to look to slow your stroke rate slightly and lengthen out.

If you are in the white zone, then your stroke rate is about right for your level of swimming - at least as far as this tool can tell you. To improve you should look to gradually lift both your stroke rate and the length of your stroke to traverse up the white area.

Notice that the white area is quite wide vertically and this takes account of your individual height, build and personal style. If you are quite short or have short arms then you can expect to be towards the top nearer the red zone and tall rangy swimmers nearer the blue zone.

Let's look at classic two example swimmers:

Stroke Rate Too Slow

Here's Patrick, a classic Overglider with a distinct pause at the front of his stroke:

With a swimming speed of 2:10/100m and a stroke rate of 35 SPM Patrick sits on the blue dot here, clearly in the blue zone. By improving his stroke technique to lift his stroke rate, we can expect him to move into the white zone in the direction of the arrow:

The right way to lift Patrick's stroke rate is to work on his catch technique to remove that deadspot at the front (see the stroke correction process in the Guru and this video analysis here). This alone will naturally lift him into the white zone.

By working on removing the deadspot and improving his catch, Patrick's stroke will gain much more purpose, improving his traction on the water and lifting him higher in the water.

The wrong way to proceed would be to simply try and turn his arms over faster with the stroke flaw still in place - incredibly hard work!

Stroke Rate Too High

Here's Dean:

Dean is a classic Arnie and sits on the red dot here with a speed of 1:55/100m and a stroke rate of 68 SPM. By progressively reducing his stroke rate and lengthening him out, we can expect Dean to travel into the white zone like so:

A great way to do this would be to follow the Arnie stroke correction process in the Guru - using body position and rotation exercises such as 6/1/6.

By slowing his stroke rate we reduce that tendency to fight the water and give him time to straighten out his stroke and gain more traction on the water. Longer to exhale between breaths will improve his balance in too, lifting the legs higher.

Note we are only looking to reduce Dean's stroke rate by around 7-8 SPM, if we reduce it any further the danger is he will enter the blue zone and become that classic cross breed, the Arnie-Overglider.

Your Own Swimming

Of course you'll want to look yourself up on the chart too. You can do this by eye on the chart or enter your numbers into the interactive chart half way down this page on our website:

http://www.swimsmooth.com/strokerate.html

If you're not sure of your current stroke rate and don't have a Tempo Trainer Pro to find out, then ask a friend to time how long it takes you to take 10 strokes (counting both arms) using a stopwatch. Divide 600 by that number of seconds. So if it takes you 11.3 seconds to take 10 strokes, your stroke rate is 600 / 11.3 = 53 strokes per minute.

Elite Swimmers

You might be wondering where elite swimmers sit on this chart. There's two classic groupings for Swingers and Smooths.

The likes of Ian Thorpe, Michael Phelps and Rebecca Adlington have long smooth strokes and lie in this area:

The Swingers of the world such as Sharon van Rouwendaal, Janet Evans and the Brownlee brothers lie in this upper grouping:

Interestingly, the great Katie Ledecky (whose stroke lies somewhere between Swinger and Smooth) sits between:

It just goes to show there's more than one way to swim quickly and efficiently.

Swim Smooth!

↧

Our New SS Coach In Johannesburg + Conventional Wisdom Takes Another Beating In Budapest

July 28, 2017, 4:06 am

≫ Next: Elite Swimmer Demonstrations Need To Be Better

≪ Previous: Should You Raise, Lower or Maintain Your Stroke Rate?

Swim Smooth is very proud to announce our first Certified Swim Smooth Coach in Africa, Jana Schoeman based in Johannesburg:

Jana simply loves swimming and helping people swim better, no matter what their ability level. She has an extensive knowledge base in biomechanics from her background as a physiotherapist before starting her swim coaching career, leaving her perfectly placed to improve all technical aspects of your swimming.

Jana runs Swim Smooth squads and advanced video analysis and stroke correction sessions at the Boksburg North 50m indoor pool as well as Open Water Skills Clinics in and around Joburg.

Find out more about Jana and book a session with this brilliant coach at:

website: www.swimsmoothjoburg.co.za
phone: +27 (0)82 823 9478
email: jana@swimsmoothjoburg.co.za

Conventional Wisdom Takes Another Beating : The Fina World Championships Budapest

If you love your swimming, we hope you've been enjoying the action at the Fina World Champs in Budapest. The racing has been tight and enthralling so far!

Here at Swim Smooth we're not afraid to take on conventional wisdom when we think it's questionable and we've taken our fair share of flack from "old school" swim coaches over the years who feel challenged by the changes we're making in swimming. Once again, the results in Budapest are turning that conventional wisdom on its head and those who refuse to change are being (literally) left behind.

Here's our round-up from Budapest so far: Revenge of the "Ugly" strokes?

Adam Peaty And His "Headbutt" Stroke

Wherever you are from (but especially if you are British) you can't have missed the phenomenal performances of Adam Peaty. We don't normally talk about breaststroke too much at Swim Smooth but Adam has taken the 50 and 100m events to a different level and there are lessons in how he's achieved this which are relevant for all four strokes.

The key feature with Adam's swimming is how his stroke rate is significantly faster than his rivals and that his is not afraid to give up a little stroke length to achieve this incredible rhythm. You can clearly see that from watching him race:

UK : http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/swimming/40732169

USA: http://stream.nbcsports.com/nbcsn/generic?pid=33921

(If you can't access the world champs using these links, check out Adam's Rio 2016 win here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsGHSe6N06w)

As Head Coach Paul Newsome examines in this study of Peaty's stroke from Rio 2016, so aggressive is he that he actively head-butts the water as he swims. Highly unconventional and not what one normally think of as "pretty swimming":

https://vimeo.com/227384741

Peaty's coach Melanie Marshall has done phenomenal work with Adam, spurring conventional wisdom that breaststroke should only be swum with a long glide in the stroke (you've heard it all before with freestyle of course!). Adam's stroke is quite the opposite, it is all power, rhythm and fast turnover, with very little glide at all.

Their results speak volumes about not necessarily needing to follow the status quo to swim at your best. In fact the more you look at the very top performers in swimming, the more you appreciate that aesthetically pretty strokes don't necessarily equate to speed and efficiency. What we perceive to be a beautiful elegant stroke may or may not be efficient - in practice there's almost no correlation at all.

Here's the stats from the 100m Breaststroke Final at the Rio games:

Adam is taking a few more strokes than his rivals but critically note how much faster his turnover (strokes per minute) is. If you have a Tempo Trainer Pro, try setting it to 59 SPM in mode 3 for breaststroke - it's incredibly fast! Given the fact that both arms are used simultaneously on breaststroke, this would roughly translate to a freestyle stroke rate of 118SPM!

Such is the strength of the conventional viewpoint that all strokes should be long and smooth, that in Australia the race commentators were very critical of Adam's stroke in Rio, suggesting if he glided more, lengthened out and stopped head butting he would be better. But they're entirely missing the point - Peaty is succeeding because of his stroke, not despite it! So dominant is Peaty that he holds the top 10 fastest times ever in the 100m breaststroke and 9 of the top 10 in the 50m - for Peat's sake (sorry!) - how is that possible if his stroke is so fundamentally wrong?!

Adam Peaty is changing the status quo of breaststroke swimming despite looking somewhat unconventional. Where others see unconventional, we see beauty, we see rhythm, we see class and we see a swimmer-coach combination which has truly coached the swimmer rather than coaching the stroke.

For the young breaststrokers that we work with here in Perth, fine tuning the extension forward, removing the lag / glide, getting them into the catch sooner and adding in the drive of the headbutt automatically raises SR from what we typically see in the high 20spm to low 30spm, up to mid to high 40spm and a significant improvement in speed. Do they look better? All we know is that their parents are sending multiple emails with how little Jonny is making massive improvements in their swim times because of this. People LOVE the Adam Peaty headbutt when they try it.

The truth is that swimming is still developing at a great pace and our prediction is that come Tokyo 2020, all the best breaststrokers in the world will be using this style and decades of convention will have been turned on its head.

Women's 200m Freestyle - Pellegrini Turns Back The Clock

In women's freestyle the great Katie Ledecky has been totally dominant over the last 4 years or so, winning 200, 400 and 800 freestyle gold at the Rio Olympics (as well as another relay gold and silver)!

But in Budapest, World Record holder Federica Pellegrini paced her race perfectly to pip Ledecky for 200m glory:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1945051092406721&id=1768512570060575

Pelegrini is a full-on Swinger, with an extremely high stroke rate (over 90 strokes per minute) and straight arm turnover, swinging around the side:

Again, not a pretty stroke but incredibly effective. Should we really be listening to the armchair experts who say you must be long and smooth to be a great swimmer?

Think Effective And Think Purposeful - But Not Necessarily Beautiful

You want to swim faster and more effectively and that's only right but don't confuse that with trying to look perfect when you swim. There are some notable exceptions (such as Ian Thorpe) but for most of the time great swimmers don't have to look particularly elegant or pretty when they're swimming at their best to be the best. They actually look powerful, punchy, rhythmical and purposeful... and so should you. Even Thorpie warns of the difference between over-gliding and efficiency in his book:

So focus on the things that matter and if that happens to look beautiful then that's great but let's not confuse pretty with effective. If anyone tells you otherwise, send them our way and let us take the flack for that:

The Crazy Ones

Swim Smooth!

↧

Elite Swimmer Demonstrations Need To Be Better

August 4, 2017, 5:18 am

≫ Next: 50 Shades Of Smooth

≪ Previous: Our New SS Coach In Johannesburg + Conventional Wisdom Takes Another Beating In Budapest

As you know already, here at Swim Smooth nothing gets our juices flowing like some video analysis of a great swimmer to highlight how you can swim better.

In relation to the issues raised in last week's post where we looked at how our perception of a visually attractive stroke doesn't always equate to the most efficient way to swim for EVERY swimmer, we received the following email from Jim Kravets in California:

Dear Paul, Adam and Swim Smooth,

I bought the book and the DVDs and the Android App, and I am an ardent student of the Swim Smooth ethic, but I have a question and I'm not sure where to post it, as it concerns one of your basic tenets.

I've been contemplating your general feeling about "gliding" while at the same time trying to reconcile what I'm observing in this Speedo video with Nathan Adrian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SONx52cyltI

I'm sure you've address it before, but I think I missed your response. Would you kindly offer your thoughts again on what appears to be a gliding stage in that Nathan's forward arm seems to neither be catching, pulling, nor pushing for an observable amount of time.

Thank you,

Jim

At Swim Smooth we're great admirers of Nathan's swimming, he's obviously a fantastic athlete and has a very smooth stroke but there's some elements in this video that surprised those who sent it in to us, and may surprise you too. Things that we have warned you NOT to do.

Is this video really how Nathan elects to swim at his most efficient and powerful? As Jim asks, is it really a good guide to improving your swimming?

Let's take a deeper look and challenge the notion of visual perfection vs true efficiency and economy, whilst referring to another video of Nathan from when he won that fabulous Olympic Gold at the London games:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO7y41uBdUA

Extension Forwards:

The first thing you might have noticed during his demonstration swim is how Nathan turns his hand up at the front of his extension and shows the hand forwards. At Swim Smooth we call this "Overgliding" and it's symptomatic of trying to overly lengthen the stroke:

Stroke demonstration

Many non-elite swimmers develop exactly the same flaw when trying to glide down the pool:

Pushing forwards on the water like that helps stall the lead arm out front and artificially lengthen the stroke. But it adds a pause, creates drag and harms the catch that follows.

Does Nathan do this when racing? Of course not:

Reality

Swimming at his very best in the Olympic Games, Nathan extends forwards with the elbow above the wrist and the wrist above the fingertips. He takes more strokes doing this but it gives him much more traction on the water, reduces drag and removes that inefficient glide from the stroke.

Stroke Timing / Catch-Up Stroke

In the stroke demonstration he pauses with the lead hand out front such that the recovering arm nearly catches up at the front. Again, something we don't recommend and symptomatic of Overgliding:

Stroke demonstration

This "catch-up" style of stroke is actually taught by some swim coaches but it's not an efficient way to swim and to move at any speed requires a very powerful energy sapping leg kick to push through the long gap in propulsion between arm strokes. Without a powerful kick you just grind to a halt and start to sink in the water.

Here's a normal swimmer displaying the same catch-up timing flaw:

Note that when racing Nathan doesn't actually pause out front, he's much more fluid in his stroke. The arms don't catch-up in front, in fact they pass just in front of the head, with the underwater arm already starting its stroke as the recovering arm passes over the top of the water:

Reality

Kick-Start

During the demonstration swim you might have noticed Nathan's big knee bend and whip-kick:

Stroke demonstration

We see this a lot and it's entirely symptomatic of pausing and gliding too long out front with the lead arm. In order to get the stalled stroke started again he literally has to kick it into motion with an exaggerated kick from the rear. This creates a lot of drag and it's not something he's doing intentionally.

Here's a non-elite swimmer doing the exact same thing:

Notice the exact same combination of faults - showing the palm forwards at the front, pausing in that position and kick-starting the stalled stroke again at the rear.

When racing, Nathan uses a much more continuous stroke such that the legs can kick continuously and without excessive knee bend. The kickstart action is nowhere to be seen:

Reality

Hand Entry

Finally in the demonstration we see a the lead hand slicing into the water with the palm facing outwards. This is known as a thumb-first entry:

Stroke demonstration

A thumb first entry certainly cuts through the surface of the water very smoothly but it is potentially very bad for your shoulders (out more here: www.swimsmooth.com/injury.php). The last thing we want you to do is injure yourself swimming so make sure you enter with the palm facing downwards fingertips-first instead. Not only does this reduce stress on the shoulder but it will also set you up for a better catch and pull:

Thankfully for his shoulders, and contrary to his demonstration, Nathan enters fingertips first (sometimes called a "mail-slot entry") when racing:

Reality

We sent through the above analysis to Jim and he replied:

Hi Paul,

This was an absolutely astounding response! You provided an explanation above and beyond anything I had hoped for, and your effort paid off in spades. As usual, thoughtfulness and research won the day. Thank you for taking the time to analyze this seeming anomaly.

I do hope you will find a way to post this to a larger audience. I know many would find this very useful.

Thank you again. You guys are all class.

Your Swim Smooth Zealot in California,

Jim

Demonstration Swims vs. Reality

When you watch content like elite demonstrations on Youtube you need to be aware that oftentimes that swimmer is trying to live up to the perceived ideal that a perfect stroke is as long and smooth as it can possibly be.

We hear it time and time again in statements like "A faster arm stroke doesn’t always improve your swimming speed. Longer efficient strokes are ALWAYS better than shorter, aggressive movements". The words are well intended but we can clearly see the dangers from them in the analysis above.

The fact is that when swimmers like Nathan Adrian are swimming at their best they actually swim quite differently. They do take more strokes than their minimum and they do swim with real rhythm and purpose. So should you.

A super-skilled swimmer like Nathan has the ability to change his stroke technique and stroke timing at will. He can introduce a glide to his stroke and change his stroke timing when trying to look super-long but when he needs to actually perform, he instantly changes back to proper stroke technique.

The danger for non-elite swimmers when watching a video like this is that you a) wrongly think you need to replicate that demonstration stroke and b) find it very hard to change your stroke technique and timing once it's been ingrained.

As a non-elite swimmer your time in the water is limited, you need to focus all your efforts on developing and training with a stroke that is best for you. Great technique, strong rhythm and the right stroke length for your individual height, build and flexibility.

Quality of content is everything. A great stroke visualisation for you to study is our very own Jono Van Hazel, swimming here with his "normal stroke" despite it being a demonstration swim. When our head coach Paul Newsome first saw Jono here at Challenge Stadium in Perth he was mesmerised by how smooth and efficient he was at all speeds when training up for the Athens Olympics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3HhNlysFDs

Challenging Convention At Swim Smooth - Our #1 Commitment And Promise To You

As human beings we're all curious about what it takes to excel at a sport or activity, to truly "suss" it out. You might regularly find yourself round a table chatting and debating with your mates about individual swimmers like Nathan Adrian and what makes them great. Why no one stroke is identical to another, either in the elite world or at your local pool.

We get that. We've built our entire philosophy around that. This can't be copied and replicated. It takes time, energy and passion to learn this and to truly understand swimmers of all abilities. This is what Swim Smooth is all about and is why our coaching has gained international credibility and endorsement by British Triathlon, Swim England and The International Triathlon Union in 119 countries around the world.

But it's not only knowledge, it's about creating focused, clear and interesting content that transparently communicates how you can improve. We've put in those hard yards for you, even to the point where some people have quipped that we have too much content!

We share an ambitious vision for the future of swim coaching and a core belief in swimmer-focused, always-relevant content to help you improve. This is what excites us as a swim coaching company. Anyone can point out the strong points of an elite swimmer like Nathan Adrian (albeit not his normal stroke) but only those with a vested interest in your swimming and a wealth of coaching experience can show you what you need to do to improve and why.

Swim Smooth!

↧

50 Shades Of Smooth

August 11, 2017, 12:18 am

≫ Next: Endless Pool Drills + Swim Type Case Studies: Before & After

≪ Previous: Elite Swimmer Demonstrations Need To Be Better

L-R: Professor Huub Toussaint, Deano Jackson, Adam Young, Paul Newsome

In September 2011 at their very inception, the world’s leading wetsuit and swimwear manufacturer HUUB Design selected us to be one of two key partners in their product design team. Why were we attractive to them? It's our ability to recognise the individual "greyscale" of the way you swim - doing so allows HUUB to create wetsuits and swimwear that far surpasses anything else available on the market.

Where others only operate in black or white, we see every shade of grey in between. We see you...

50 Shades Of Smooth

Week in, week out, we are blessed to receive amazing emails and messages from all levels of swimmer around the world who have discovered Swim Smooth somewhere along our 13 year journey. At 4am here in Perth, as we have breakfast before heading down to Claremont Pool, there's nothing we like more than catching up on those messages from some of our 120,000 followers, of which you are one. Often it's a story about how you've unlocked something in your swimming, or you're asking a technical question or we're considering your ideas for future Swim Smooth features.

YOU are what keeps us beavering away to raise the standards of swim coaching even higher around the globe and not settle for the status quo. So keep those emails, feedback, suggestions, Facebook posts, Tweets and Instagrams coming! You are a key part of the energy that builds Swim Smooth:

The 1976 Montréal Olympic Stadium plays host to www.swimsmoothmontreal.com
- brilliantly lead by Swim Smooth Coach Bart Rolet

Coach Gemma in The Woodlands, TX ensures her troops - no matter what level of initial ability - ALL improve using principles and practices we have been espousing for the last 13 years

Building a movement like Swim Smooth is not always easy, and like in any walk of life you have to have a deep-seated passion and belief that what you are offering is the very best for the people you are serving. Of course, we're frequently challenged on some of our ideas too - and that’s OK - we get just as excited about those emails as well!

Over the last 13 years we've been fortunate to coach and communicate with hundreds of thousands of swimmers worldwide, who occupy every notch on that greyscale spectrum. Swimmers just like you.

In Perth alone, we've been running 12 squad sessions per week to 450 individual swimmers for 13 years straight and we now have replica versions of the Perth squads in 40 other locations worldwide. That's a helluva lot of coaching! Each setup is run by a Swim Smooth Certified Coach that has been hand-selected, tutored and mentored by the core Swim Smooth team to ensure that they are unrivalled in their coaching ability. You can literally rock up to any of these squads worldwide and receive the exact same reception and experience as you would where it all started here in Perth.

This huge breadth and depth of coaching experience gave us the insight to develop the unique Swim Types coaching model, released in 2010:

Swim Types, original and unique since 2010

Prior to Swim Types being released, the status quo was to coach a single "ideal" stroke irrespective of people's height, weight, age, gender, body type, personality, ability and experience. A one-size fits all approach. Aim to look like Ian Thorpe, even if you're five foot nothing. This might make for a good cookie-cutter business model but it’s ultimately just lazy coaching.

In contrast, great coaching seeks to coach the individual, not the stroke, as there is no one ideal stroke for everyone. There can't be. A simple viewing of last month’s World Championships is testament to that. Across all sports, many great coaches have employed such an individual mindset but we like to think we've been responsible for popularising this idea in swimming and bringing wide attention to it.

Swim Types is our vehicle that allows both swimmers (and their coach) to understand and address what is truly holding them back in the water.

A great quote on the power of "categorising" your swimming from Tim Ferris’s recent publication, Tools of Titans

Swim Types works because stroke flaws don't appear randomly, they actually come in clusters. Six common clusters representing the six Swim Types. The power of the system is that once you recognise your type we can given you a proven, refined process to improve your swimming. A process that won't work for any other type (in fact it could even make their swimming worse!).

It’s not pigeon-holing but a blueprint for success. Of course it’s significantly harder to coach this way and requires much more skill as a coach, but the upside is that you the swimmer get the best result, and isn’t that what great coaching is truly all about?

Getting the best coaching to every level and type of swimmer is where our motivation lies, where it's always laid, and why we get up at 4am 364 days a year to seek out what will truly work for you. To let you become the swimmer you deserve to be.

Once you start to recognise people’s individuality you can do one of two powerful things:

- See the strengths in a swimmer's stroke rather than just being blindsided by the faults - this is a positive space to be in for both swimmer and coach.

- Realise that there is no black and white definitively best way for everybody to swim - it’s a greyscale spectrum. It allows you to understand and accept that even those who don't look technically perfect may actually be succeeding because of their stroke, not despite it (even at an elite level). We believe every great swimmer deserves credit irrespective of how they look.

Take a listen to the audio on this commentary by the BBC:

https://twitter.com/SwimSmoothPaul/status/893644012510298113

Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri is on his way to winning the men's 1500 freestyle in Budapest, backing up his Olympic Gold 11 months prior. Surely there's something in the way he swims that makes him this great?

Knocking Paltrinieri's "unorthodox" stroke in comparison to Romanchuk's "long, easy strokes" shows a fundamental lack of understanding of what makes a great swimmer. Both styles are valid, both men are swimming incredibly well. How can Paltrinieri be doing anything fundamentally wrong? It's a good job Paltrinieri’s coach isn't a "betting man" and has promoted and supported Paltrinieri's natural style rather than trying to mould him to look more like Romanchuk. Good on you Stefano Morini!

But whilst we're here we'd like to point something out... related to questions we get like this:

"Why don't you change your name to Swing Smooth if you hate long smooth, gliding strokes so much?".

Yes, we often find ourselves promoting and celebrating the Swinger style, as demonstrated here by Paltrinieri but also famously used by the Brownlee Brothers, Janet Evans and many others. We do this because it is so unappreciated and so commonly denigrated by arm-chair experts. Of course we also love the Smooth style (Romanchuk's here) - after all it is equally phenomenal when performed well by the right swimmer. We do support the Swinger swim style, for sure, but for everyone? - No way!

The point here isn't that one of these two styles is better than the other (although they do have subtle strengths and weaknesses) the point is that these contrasting styles suit different swimmers. Use the wrong one and that swimmer's performances will quickly deteriorate. We wish more coaches understood this point as it would greatly improve their coaching.

There are no extra points or time bonuses for those with pretty strokes in any swimming discipline!

Ultimately the Swim Types model is all about acknowledging this sage piece of advice:

We believe it is this willingness to experiment, to seek out the real truth that truly sets Swim Smooth apart. It’s not easy to continuously push forwards and "do things right" but we're happy to take the flack from those trying to hold everything back.

Start improving your own swimming using the Swim Types system here:

www.swimtypes.com

and here:

www.swimsmooth.guru

If there’s one thing that drives us forwards - as cliché as it may seem - it is this quote from the late Steve Jobs and founder of Apple. We hope you like it and we hope it in some way it ignites the same level of passion in you and your pursuits as it does in our coaching:

Watch the video here: youtube.com/watch?v=8rwsuXHA7RA

Thanks for listening,

Paul & Adam

Swim Smooth

↧