Help Swimmers Swim Straight To Go Fast

A lot of swimmers aren’t swimming slow because they don’t have a great feel for the water or a great catch.

They’re swimming slow because they’re creating too much resistance as they move through the water.

It’s like driving with the brakes on.

Reducing resistance is just as important as creating propulsion.

And while it’s easy to see poor propulsive skills, it’s easy to miss how swimmers are creating resistance as they move through the water.

And that means opportunities to improve are being missed.

However, because it can be difficult to see and it’s not as obvious, it can be real challenge to get a handle on why and how swimmers are creating resistance as the move through the water.

And when you don’t understand exactly what’s happening, or you’re overwhelmed by how much is happening, it can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to helping swimmers get faster.

And when you’re trying your best to help swimmers improve, that can be a tough place to be.

Once I realized that reducing resistance and drag was just as important as increasing propulsion, I became obsessed with the details.

I wanted to know everything, and while I certainly learned a lot, that didn’t always help swimmers go faster.

It wasn’t practical, and I wasn’t able to use my knowledge to help swimmers improve.

I knew something had to change, and I knew I needed a much simpler approach to the problem.

But it’s not just about being simple.

It’s about being simple and accurate.

That’s what makes action possible, and ensures that the action that’s taken is effective.

And while I still think it’s important to know and understand the details, when it comes to helping swimmers go fast, it’s all about knowing what REALLY matters.

So, I looked for common denominators of what reduces resistance.

And much to my surprise, reducing resistance IS ultimately simple.

To keep resistance as low as possible, swimmers need to:

1.     Move straight through the water

2.     Minimize up and down motions

3.     Minimize side-to-side motions

If they’re swimming at an incline, that means more resistance.

If they’re moving up and down, that means more resistance.

I they’re moving side to side, that means more resistance.

In almost every case, those are the mistakes swimmers are making.

And these are opportunities to improve that any coach can recognize.

You don’t have to be an expert coach with tons of experience, and you don’t need a well-calibrated ability to see the tiny details.

• You can start to see how their poor breath is creating resistance that slows them down

• You can start to see how their head position is creating resistance and slowing them down

• You can start to see how the side-to-side motion of the body is creating resistance and slowing them down

The best part is that you can use this framework to identify opportunities for improvement, and you can start to do so TODAY.

You can see if a swimmer is swimming at an incline, you can see if they’re moving up and down too much, and you can see if they’re moving side-to-side.

Then, you can start to work to improve these skills.

When you can understand what really matters and you see what really matters, it’s a lot easier to design and implement strategies to address these problems.

And that’s how you can help swimmers go faster.

Challenge yourself to see the big picture, understand how your swimmers’ are creating resistance as they move through the water, and start to design sets that help them improve these skills.

Your swimmers will start to go faster.

If you’re looking to make this even easier, I lay out the key skills swimmers can use to reduce resistance in each of the strokes in Stroke Fundamentals. 

I also show you the exact strategies I use to help swimmers learn these skills. 

If you want to improve your swimmers’ skills, consider grabbing a copy here.