Some Useful Information

[ swim sets explained ] [ more terms ]

1. When swim training think about quality rather than quantity. There is no point in practicing drills when you are tired/fatigued you will gain no benefit what so ever. All drills should be practiced over short distances with plenty of rest, before you start attempting longer drill sets.

2. Practice all drills to the best of your ability; don't try to rush things. The longer you spend on trying to build your new stroke the better the end product will be. If the drills are difficult don't be afraid to mix up the drills with normal swimming, a half length of a good drill is of more benefit then a full length performed nearly right.

3. When practicing the drills always relate the key aspects of the drill to the swimming stroke.

4. Continue to practice the drills in warm-ups and cool-downs in your normal sessions, especially once your drills course is complete - the idea is to make sure that your arm-pull, recovery, rotation are happening correctly.

5. When practicing the drills always concentrate on one aspect of the stroke - this will help reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed with too many parts of the stroke to focus on.

6. All kicking sets should be practiced without a float - this way you can practice your upper body rotation or the fully extended position.

Swim Sets explained:

Warm up
1*800 Front crawl - every odd length Breathing 3's, even lengths every 2's.

Here we will swim 24 lengths of a 33.3M pool as a steady warm up, do not be afraid to mix some drills up within this swim. You should concentrate on breathing every 3rd breath on the odd lengths and every 2nd on the even lengths.

Sub Set
3*200 building within each 200 - i.e. 66 steady, 66 medium, 66 at 85% - 45 secs. rest.

While still getting fully warmed up for the main set often a sub set will be swum, here pace will pick up and HR increase slightly as we continue to warm up. In a 33.3M pool the set is to swim 3 times 6 lengths (200M) with 45secs. between starting the next 6 lengths. Each 6 length swim should be built i.e. start out with 2 lengths medium, then two lengths faster finishing with 2 lengths at 85% of max. HR.

Main Set
400 Steady swim - 30 rest.
4*100 descend times from 1 to 4 (20 rest).
Repeat sequence 2 times, maintain 400's as constant throughout, descend 100's to 85% effort, extra 60 before the 2nd 400.
400M will be 12 lengths swum steady i.e. slower than mile pace so for most this would be about 75% effort.

We then take 30secs. rest before commencing with the second part of the set i.e. 4 lots of 100M (3 lengths in a 33.3M pool). Note we are instructed that the sequence is to descend the 4x100's so number 4 is to be faster then 3, which is faster then 2 etc.

Listen to your coaches' instructions during the set, as depending on time of season and if there is an upcoming race etc, number 4 in each set could be as fast as 100% effort. Usually with more rest then 20s would be taken if the effort was higher then 85%, mid tri season we will swim them to 85% effort as we are only taking 20s rest between 100s. There is then an extra 60secs. before starting the 2nd 400 as we will be repeating the 800M set twice for a 1600M set.

Cool Down
1x (1L breathing every 7, 2L breathing every 5, 3L breathing every 3)
1x 200EZ

After the main set it is important to slowly bring the level of the HR down to help clear out the build up of lactic acid which will induce muscle soreness soon after the completion of the session. The last 10-15 minutes of each session is all about slowing down and resting. It is a gradual process so we perform a shorter set with some drills or BP (breathing pattern) exercises. In this set we swim a 200 continuous with a BP variation i.e. on the first length breathe every 7th stroke, then 2 lengths breathing every 5th stroke and finally 3L breathing every 3. After this we finish with 6L very easy.

More terms:

1. Example of 6*1L with 30R = means that you will swim a maximum of 6 lengths but you have a set amount of rest at each length. It means 6 Repetitions of 1 length.

2. Example of 30R = this means you take 30 seconds rest after each length.

3. Bi-lateral Breathing patterns = Breathing every 3rd swimming stroke. This will help balance the stroke and help you to propel through the water in a straight line. This will also help at certain tri races when you only need to breathe to the one side - your stroke will still stay symmetrical because you train breathing to either side.

4. BP 2,3,4,5,etc. = Breathing patterns which will be either every 2 (to the left or right) for a full length, 3 - obviously bilateral, or 4 swimming strokes usually up to a max. of every 9.

4a DPS = distance per stroke; try to reduce the number of strokes swum each length by slowing and lengthening the stroke.

5. Lateral Deviation = the body moves through the water sideways instead of only moving forwards. This action occurs for a number of reasons: The recovering arm is swinging around the body and crossing the centre line, the hands are pulling across the centre line, one hand/arm is pulling wider than the other and the final reason is that you are only breathing to one side.

6. Catch = the most important part of the swimming stroke - if you can break at the elbow after you have fully extended/fully rotated this will set up a fully efficient pulling action.

7. EZ = means steady swimming on any swimdown/cooldown.

8. Fins Swimming = please check with your local pool before using the fins, some pools will not allow there use because they are seen as a hazard. Please check with Pool managers, they might put a lane in for you.

9. Use of Fins has advantages and disadvantages. These are:

See also our 'Basic' and 'Advanced Drill Concepts'