Swimming

Where are you heading

When we get started working towards your goal, you will need to define your goal. Are you looking to do a particular event or multi-day tour, is it for overall fitness, for performance, for exploring.

Each endurance event and active-travel-tour is shaped by its unique characteristics that when put together make up the performance you must deliver.

Once we identify these characteristics, which include distance, terrain, and environmental conditions, we need to look at your current ability to meet these demands.

Training Tools/Equipment

What are we working with

We need to know where you are coming from. What is your current fitness and skill level, do you have any current or past injuries/health conditions that can affect your ability to get started. What is your ability to train, what amount of time do you have, what training facilities and terrain do you have access to, what training tools do you have…

If you have the all-clear after taking the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire, we can get started on your journey.

I use training history, baseline sessions, movement analysis, a One-to-One Consultation and an athlete profile to get us started. You can see the Athlete Profile Questionnaire here: (Click Here, document at SignNow.com).

Sort of a digital training journal, my clients get TRAININGPEAKS^™ Premium to collect Subjective and Objective Training Data in a single platform for an easier overview. This training history will help us identify the training stress each modality has on you.

If we are missing recent training data, baseline sessions can help us find a starting point. These are sessions that give us data on a movement you can hold for an extended period of time… a threshold.

We want to know that you are holding Good Form while training for injury prevention, for efficiency, for force production… we turn to movement analysis, in simple terms the observation of your movements in training. This can be done in person or with videos of the last six months. I use a camera that is waterproof and allows me to see the movement a slower speed. (See list of my equipment here)

• For Swimming analysis

Where to go from here

After the initial analysis, Subjective and Objective data will continue to be reviewed, and your training can be adapted to suit the needs identified. With that there will be occasions where training sessions (and performances) can be intense enough that it will give us a new threshold.

Once we had a look at your movement patterns, training data (Subjective and Objective), bucket list, and availability to train, we can start putting together a custom training plan that transforms what you want to accomplish into something you can accomplish.

It starts with making your ultimate goal possible by creating smaller 4-week Training Blocks that become achievable steps leading to what you want to accomplish. The sum of these 4-week Training Blocks is your Training Plan. What is now achievable allows for something that many individuals struggle with… consistency.

Every week in the Training Block has their own Training Objective guided by the overall focus of the Training Block.

This plan is broken down into 4-week training blocks that have a specific training load and focus set for each week. This training load is calculated through formulas of varying intensities and time creating an overall Training Stress. Depending on what step you are on in your Training Plan, the focus of the Training Block can be one of three.

• Preparation (PR)
• Build (BD)
• Peak (PK)

You will start with a Preparation Block (PR) if you are new, unfamiliar, or out-of-habit with doing a particular movement. You may start here if I see that your form needs some adjustment. We want to make sure your form is efficient and resistant to injury before the next step.

As your fitness develops performance will likely follow, but at some point, progress in performance may plateau. This may call for a change in Focus… If the goal is to progress in performance and you are at the limits of available training volume, the next Block focuses on Building on the Base. The Build Block (BD). In this block the body is teased with sessions of a particular focus into further developing the Aerobic Infrastructure.

The Peak Block is something that focuses on the final preparation of a Performance such an Endurance event or Tour.

More on Training Blocks here

Swimming, getting Started

• With swimming a video setup above and below water from the side and the front could be useful.
• In regard to camera setting a higher frames-per-second (fps) is important.

Swimming, a closer look

Swimming form is a difficult one to develop because there is so little feedback given when doing the activity. “Dry land training” is a very useful tool to develop good form. Of the five exercises above, three of them really cross into dry-land training for swimming (The Plank/Side-Plank, Up-Kick and Pull, and Catch Pull Push)

Lat Pull (Focus Point)

We want to use the power of the lats in the identical manor of doing a Lat Pulldown to bring your body forward. Instead of Pulling a bar, the resistance in the front crawl is the capture of water molecules

Dry Thighs Kick (Focus Point)

It can be done with/without a kickboard or in freestyle (front crawl) swimming. I find that many individuals bend their knee too much, cycle kick, kick too far down, or simply have body below hips drop down (Chest/head up).

1. Use glutes to raise thighs to water surface
2. Allow gravity (weight of legs) to drop the legs slightly down
3. Use glutes to raise thighs to water surface again

I am looking for legs and ankles to stay relaxed… focus on glutes

• No forced knee bend from muscle action (hamstrings)… focus on glutes
  • Knee will bend as shin meets resistance of water with gravity pulling leg down
• No forced straight legs from muscle action (quads)… focus on glutes
  • Knee will straighten as leg meets resistance of water as thighs rise to water surface
• No forced ankle bend from muscle action… focus on glutes
  • Ankle will bend as foot meets resistance of water as thighs rise to water surface
• No forced pointed ankle (toes)… focus on glutes
  • Ankle (toes) will point as foot meets resistance of water with gravity pulling leg down

Now this is a skill/drill that should allow my clients to get a better body position with a Focused movement … over time the kicking should naturally evolve with improved overall swimming form. The focus here is to get control of leg movement and higher leg position. It is not the answer for all my clients. Again, clients should chat with me before attempting this skill/drill.

a note about Open Water swimming

It would be good idea to check the conditions before heading out…

• Ahead of the session day I check the forecast
• The morning of the session I check the Beach Conditions
• As the time approaches, I check the live web cam.

Typically I personally would not attempt to swim in conditions with winds coming in at 10mph plus… unless it is coming from the west.

I live on the east coast of Florida, and if the winds come from anything but the West there will be a swell, chop, or waves.

If the wind is coming in from the West the water is usually very calm.