Swimming Drills that Give Better Results for Triathletes

You don’t have to swim faster to beat your best time in a triathlon

triathlon swimmer doing a face down floatYou just have to swim better than you are right now.

Many triathletes go to the pool with a soggy workout printed off the internet and a bag of pool toys like paddles, fins and a snorkel   But what most end up being frustrated  by is not knowing if their work with the drills and toys translates to better swimming.

When you begin to realize that just doing a drill doesn’t mean you’ve learned a better swim skill, you’ll start to pay attention to the quality of your training plan.

it’s better to have a specific body based focus that you can pay attention to while swimming.

Let’s take just one example.  most triathletes carry a lot of tension in their neck which impacts their streamlining, efficiency and breathing.  Here’s one way to approach improving this micro skill and improve awareness.

“25 kick, 25 swim”

Does this look familiar?  “25 kick, 25 swim”.   This is an extremely common example of a freestyle drill set for triathletes.    It would seem that the main intent is to practice kicking, right? But without further direction or a coach on deck, it’s unclear and doesn’t give you the focus you need to improve your freestyle swimming for triathlon.

Instead of “25 kick, 25 swim”, let’s add a specific thought to direct your muscles while doing the drill.

“Relax your neck” while kicking with one arm extended for 25 yards.  Stroke once to breath or roll to the sky for a breath.   Then swim 25 yards while maintaining your relaxed neck.  Does your neck feel relaxed with and without arm strokes?   

Aside from using a few more words, what’s the subtle difference between these two drill sets? The second set addresses a specific issue that impacts your swimming in both drilling and full stroke freestyle.   You see most people will tense their neck and instinctively pick their head up a bit to look ahead.  This creates tension in the neck and creates misalignment.   Both issues require more effort to swim, and create an even bigger problem when trying to breath.

Great swim practices move your attention instead moving body parts

By removing the arms and just kicking (with or without fins) you can move your attention to your neck and experiment with different levels of relaxation and tone.  When followed immediately with swimming it’s easy to compare the results of the new focus and attention to the neck.

Since new movements feel awkward and foreign, a drill set that addresses a specific thought (“relax the neck”) rather than an exercise (“Kicking”) is a supercharged way to increase your learning speed and adopt better swim skills faster.

Next time you go to the pool and are faced with a drill set, try substituting a body awareness focal point, or simply layering it on top of the drill.   Some examples

  • One armed swimming becomes “Stroke with your Left (Right) arm, while keepign the neck relaxed and the spine aligned during the entire arm cycle.”
  • Cat & Mouse drill becomes “Keep your neck relaxed while exploring how much overlap is in your stroke while playing cat & mouse. At what point in your overlap can you keep your neck most relaxed?

12 Weeks of Better Swim Practices

If you’re ready to apply these principles to your own training, my dedicated triathlon swimming plan for Olympic or Half Distance races contains 12 weeks (32 unique workouts) of practical swimming workouts just like these. Just head on over here to purchase a dedicated triathlon swimming plan to prepare you for an Olympic or Half Distance Triathlon.  

(You can apply this plan over top of any other training plan you’re currently using and just swap out the swims) 

Glossary of Abbreviations

Your coach planned workouts contain a number of space saving abbreviations. Once you become accustomed to them, your workouts will read like plain english. Review this list of abbreviations to help you get your bearings

‘ or min – Minutes
” or sec – Seconds
1:00 – One hour
00:30 – 30 minutes
AT-Anaerobic Threshold
ATP-Annual Training Plan
BCR – Big chain ring
bpm – Beats per minute (heart rate)
CD – Cool down
km – Kilometer
LT – Lactate Threshold (same as AT-Anaerobic Threshold)
M – Mile
m – Meter
MS – Main Set
MTB – Mountain bike
RI – Recovery Interval
rpm – Revolutions per minute
SCR – Small chain ring
WU – Warm-up
Y, Yd or Yds – Yards
Z – Heart Rate Intensity Zone (eg. Z3 – Zone 3)

Adapted from Peaksware.com

A Few Examples

Here are a few examples to help get you oriented.

Swim Workouts

WU: 100 swim easy, 50 kick easy, 100 swim moderate, 50 kick moderate, 100 swim build speed, 50 kick build speed. MS: For the first set decrease times with each work interval. All aerobic-easy breathing. 4 x 100 (10″) moderate. RI 2 minutes. Kick 300 steady. 6 x 25 relaxed speed (15″). CD: 200 easy swim. Total: 1500

Translation:

Warm-Up: As described Main Set: Four repetitions of 100 yards/meters at a moderate pace with 10 seconds of rest between each 100 yard repeat. Rest 2 minutes after this set. Then Kick 300 yards/meters. Next, swim six repeats of 25 yards each at a “relaxed” speed, with 15 seconds of rest between each repeat. Cooldown: Finally, swim 200 yards/meters very easy as your cooldown.

If a rest period is not specified, simply begin the next part of your workout when you feel ready to go. For example, you may be able to go immediately from a kick only set to a relaxed swim set with little rest.

Biking Example

Tempo intervals. On road or trainer. Do 4-5 x 6 minutes in the 3 zone (2-minute recoveries). Relax! Smooth pedaling. 80-90 rpm. Aero position.

Translation

The interval type is called a “tempo” interval, which are done in Zone 3 (you can use heart rate, rating of perceived exertion or a power meter to determine if you are in zone 3). Do four OR five six minute intervals in Zone 3 based HR, RPE or Power. Recover with easy spinning in zone 1 for 2 minutes between each interval. Pedal at a cadence of 80-90 revolutions per minute. (can be counted or viewed with the cadence function on your cycle computer). Use the drops on a road bike, or the aero position on a triathlon bike.