Sheila Taormina’s Swim Tips

Of the three disciplines in the sport of triathlon—swimming, cycling, and running—I think that our minds have the most tendency to wander during the swimming. We think about what we are going to eat after practice or the other duties that we must address after leaving the pool. Of the three, I think it is the safest to lose focus as far as your health goes—you won't crash into an oncoming car or twist your ankle on an unnoticed crack. The worst that can happen is that you'll wonder whether you just did 38 lengths or 40! (Amy White has a hilarous remedy for this in Alphabet Soup).

However, of the three, swimming is the most dangerous to lose focus in another sense—technique is everything!

Not a set went by during my last four years of competitive swimming in which I did not concentrate on some part of my technique or race strategy, and in those four years my swimming improved dramatically. Here are a few things that I think about during practice to make it go by more quickly and make it much more effective for improvement.

1. Always feel the pressure of the water on your palms. A slight change in the pitch of your hand makes a huge difference in how much water you hold. I cannot tell you at what degree your hand should be pitched—you have to feel that. I would adjust my pitch constantly to get a hold of the water. At the beginning of practice, we usually are tight and not as flexible as we will be in the middle, so the pitch of your hand might need to be different to make up for the lack of range of motion. It will simply be a slight change that may not even appear to be different from someone who is watching on deck, but you will know as the swimmer who feels it.

2. Remember to apply continuous pressure on the water. A hitch in the stroke that does not apply backward pressure not only will not help you, but hurt you. The resistance of the water is upon us at all times while we swim. In one way it helps us, because we float on it. In another way it slows us down, because a portion of our body is always having to pass through the stuff! Most of us know to reduce the resistance on our bodies by rotating our hips and balancing from head to toe so that our legs don't sink like anchors. Not enough athletes apply continuous motion principles though. Don't lose your momentum! By the time one of my hands was exiting the water for the recovery, the other hand was already applying pressure to propel my body forward. When we become fatigued we have a tendency to get sloppy on this, so really pay attention when you're tired.

3. The combination of the number of strokes you take multiplied by the rate at which you take those strokes will give you your time for a race. If you take 100 strokes, and if it takes you two seconds to do each stroke, then your time will be 200 seconds. Therefore, there are only two ways to improve your speed: either reduce the number of strokes you take or increase the rate at which you take those strokes. Be careful though, because if you improve one, then the other might suffer to the point where you actually make yourself slower. I have worked with so many triathletes whose rate of turnover was so slow, and they explained that they had a coach tell them to glide forward in the water when they extended their hand. It is true that you want to extend forward in order to increase your distance per stroke, but don't take all day to do it. Whenever I was experimenting with a new stroke idea, I would count my strokes and get the rate of the stroke to see if the change really made a difference. There is an optimum combination of the two factors that work for each swimmer. Find what your combination is.

There are many other things to think about while swimming, but I want to end this article with two comments. First, notice that each of the three points I made above does not give you scientific numbers nor a specific formula for success. Swimming is very much a sport of feeling, and that is what makes it unique to each swimmer. Be brave enough to find what works for you instead of trying it imitate the faster swimmer whose body is nothing like yours in terms of size, stength, flexibility, etc. The three concepts above should give you enough on which to focus internally— so don't keep comparing yourself to others. Think feel, continuous motion, and rate x number of strokes (the combination that works for you). Finally, if you do discover a stroke change that appears to make you faster, stay with it. You may go through a stage where you go slower, but that is due to the fact that you probably have to develop the new muscle groups to support the change. Many swimmers get excited about a change, and then they give up when they hit the slow stage—they get discouraged. Give yourself time, be patient, and keep your focus! Hope to see you at some races!