| Swimming Tips |
| Swim, Swim, Swim! |
| Pool Swimming Tips When ever you decide it's time to get back in the pool for a good workout, make sure you stick to a structured workout. A shorter structured workout will benifit you ten times as much as just swimming a lot of garbage yards. In other words, don't do long continuous swims. If you want to get faster, you need to swim on timed intervals. Here is an example of interval set: Let's say for a set you wanted to swim 500 yards total. To swim this on an interval, you can break up the 500 yards into 5 swims of 100 yards each, and swim these 100's on the 1:30. Your overall set will read like this: 5x100 on 1:30. This means that if you start the clock when you start your first swim, every 1 minute and 30 seconds you need to start your second swim. So lets say you swim your first 100 yards in 1 minute and 20 seconds, that means you will have 10 seconds rest until you start your second 100 yard swim. If you swim your second 100 yards in 1 minute and 25 seconds, then you will only get 5 seconds rest before you start your third 100 yard swim. Get it? Swim decending sets. To decend a set would mean you progressively swim each of the swims in your interval faster and harder. So using our example of 5x100 on 1:30 from above, you would swim the first one moderately relaxed, the second 100 a little faster, the third 100 a little faster than the second 100, and once you get to the last swim, it should be all out effort. This will train your body to swim progressively harder as time goes on during a long distant race. If you feel like your swimming a constant pace, your most likely getting a little slower each lap. By decending, your pushing yourself harder each lap, thus causing a steady pace (each lap will be just as fast as the previous). See our swimming workouts page for some great structured workouts! |
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| Ocean Swimming Tips When swimming in the ocean there are a few differences that you need to be aware of in order to have a successfull race. First off, when you swim in the ocean, you need to lift your head every 5-10 strokes or so, to make sure your on course. Try to time when you lift your head when you are at the peak of a wave. If you lift your head while you are in the trough, your just going to waste energy. When ever you look for your target that you are swimming too, try to find a large landmark that will be visible all the time, unlike the bouy your probably swimming around. This goes for even before you start the race, finding a good landmark on shore where you will be finishing. When dealing with rough water, here are some good tips. When approaching a wave, dive under the wave allowing the entire thing to pass over you before surfacing. If the waves are large, then dive under the wave as before, but go to the bottom and grab tightly on to the sand until the wave passes completely over you before surfacing. Large waves have a lot of energy associated with them and will be difficult to get by otherwise. Look for rip currents and use them to your advantage. If it means running 20 yards out of your way to enter the water in a rip current, this will give you an advantage by allowing the rip to pull you out to sea faster than everyone else. Keep in mind these tips are for advanced swimmers and should not be attempted by anyone who does not have an extensive swimming background. Keep the lateral current in mind. Depending on conditions and location of the race, the lateral current can play a big role. If the current is pulling down the beach to the right, then you need to enter the water farther down the beach to the left, and swim strait out (not toward you target), as the current will pull you towards the target. Ocean swimming takes a lot of experience to master, but these tips along with asking the lifeguard the current conditions will help you to succeed in an ocean race! |