Swimming Made Easier for Bikers

Getting more efficient:  More tips for good freestyle

1. You want to try to become as proficient as possible breathing on both sides. A good drill to try is doing a 50-yard repeat, breathing every three strokes, which will force you to breathe on both sides.  As you get more advanced, you can try breathing every five strokes, or even every seven.
2. Per lap, you want to take as few strokes as possible, maximizing your outstretched arm’s glide, and maximizing the other arm’s pulling power under the water. Swim one lap and count the number of arm strokes you take (left-arm pull, then right-arm pull equals two strokes.). Compare your number to Michael Phelps, who can take as few as 8 strokes per lap.  Back to reality, I’ve seen some recreational swimmers take as many as 30 strokes.  Depending on your height (and strength), you should be taking 16-20 per lap.  If you take fewer than 16, you are already a pretty efficient freestyler (now try to get it down to 13-14!).
3. If you feel like your legs are really getting you down, buy a pull buoy and place it between your legs, above your knees.  The buoy will give you some extra buoyancy and help stabilize your body position to roll better on your core axis.  Masters swimmers will do pulling sets with buoys (no kicking allowed), or will pull a long repeat (1 x 800) during warmup, to get the stroke flowing efficiently.  Buoys are particularly helpful for men with very developed thigh and calf muscles from riding.
4. You can’t underestimate the value of seeing yourself swim.  Have a friend take a video of one lap of your stroke.  Even though you won’t be able to see the really important stuff that’s going on under the water (your dropped elbows), you’ll be able to see if you are properly rolling from side to side, not lifting your head to take breaths, not bending your knees while kicking, and in general if your stroke looks smooth.  If it looks smooth and feels smooth, you can certainly make swimming your primary workout, one or two days a week.

An Hour-Long Beginner’s Workout

Now you’re ready for a real workout. If your facility has a pace clock, good—make sure you can see it.  If not, you can use a waterproof sports watch with a chronometer.  Each of these bullet points is called a set.

• Warmup:  Easy 300 swim, think about proper technique.
• Warmup KICK only with a board:  10 x 25 yards on 1:00. (Each time the second hand returns to the minute mark, you take off for the next repeat.)
• Warmup DRILL:  10 x 50 yards on 1:30, alternate fingertip-drag with closed-palm drill
• Main set:  Swim 6 x 100 yards on 20 seconds rest.  When you finish the first 100 (4 laps), note your time, then wait 20 seconds and push off for the next.  As you get better, try to beat this time every successive repeat.
• Main set: Swim 12 x 50 yards on 10 seconds rest.  Try to stay consistently at the same time for all 10 repeats.
• Sprint set:  Sprint 12 x 25 yards on 30 seconds rest.  Just swim your fastest for each repeat, ten times, take a nice long 30 second rest between each.
• Warm-down:  Easy 300 swim.  Take the opportunity to practice good long gliding, efficient breathing, strong underneath, high-elbow pulling.
• This totals 2,850 yards and would be considered a beginner’s workout.

For additional workouts, technique tips, coaching, equipment, places to swim, etc. the best resource is United States Masters Swimming at www.usms.org.

And finally, if you have the opportunity to hire a good coach for a few individual sessions, do it.  The coach can instantly see what you most need to work on, and provide specific stroke correction suggestions and specific drills to correct your flaws.