Three easy ways to accelerate your swim progress
Swim coach Andrew Sheaff presents three simple strategies that will kick-start some real swim improvement…
If you’re an athlete, you’re probably not satisfied with your progress. It can never be too fast, and that’s certainly true of triathletes. If you’re in a bit of a rut, and you’re looking for ways to start improving again, check out these three simple strategies to kick-start your progress.
Switch up your speed
Too many triathletes perform all of their swim workouts at the same speed. Switch it up. Start using workouts where you force yourself to swim faster over short repetitions. Perform some workouts where you swim at more moderate speeds over medium distances.
And perform some workouts where you swim more patiently. You’re going to find that swimming faster or slower than your normal pace is uncomfortable. That’s what you want to improve, as it’s just the stimulus for getting you to change what you’re doing.
It also makes sense from a racing perspective. Most races are performed at a variety of speeds. To race effectively, you not only need to be able to swim at different speeds, you’ll need to be able to do so within one swim!
That’s going to be a very tall task unless you’re able to swim at different speeds and effort levels in practice. Once you can, then you can start practising at different speeds within the same set (see below).
Use training aids
Swimming with different training aids such as fins, paddles, or a pull buoy will feel different from how you normally swim, and they’ll force you to swim differently. If you’ve been doing the same old thing, it can be just what you need. Just start simple.
Perform part of your warm-up with a different training aid. Or perform one of your sets with a different type of gear. Just doing something different can be enough to spark the change you’re looking for. For more on how to use different training aids, you can check out my series on YouTube.
Introduce contrast into your training
Let’s say you’ve decided to swim at different speeds in your training, and you’re committed to using different training aids. How do you take it to the next level? Introduce a lot of contrast to your training. Instead of performing different workouts or different sets at different speeds, start changing it up within each workout or set.
You want to swim at a variety of different speeds within a given set. By constantly having to switch speeds, it’s going to force you to change and force you to adapt. The effects are even more dramatic than when you’re working at different speeds during different practices. At first, it’s disorienting, and then you start to improve!
You can take the same approach to using training aids. Within a single set, you can change the gear you use as often as a repetition-to-repetition basis. Because different gear changes how you swim, this is going to really challenge you to find your groove, execute your skills, and accomplish your goals.
If you’re stuck in a rut, sometimes the only way to get out of it is to constantly shake it up. While training aids can do that all by themselves, switching it up constantly can have an even more dramatic impact, and that may be exactly what you need to improve.
Top image credit: Getty Images
Andrew Sheaff
Swim coach 
