Welcome to the Swim Smooth 10-step Performance Checklist!

How many times have you got in the pool and thought "I think I know what I should be doing, I just don't know if I'm doing the right thing at the right time?"

In an effort to provide you with a simple set of guidelines to help you improve your swimming efficiency (both in the pool and the open water) we have devised a simple 10-step Performance Checklist which you can view here (online) to find the necessary detail / explanation and then print-off a condensed version suitable for lamenating and taking along to the pool to keep you focused on the task in hand! This free service is courtesy of Swim Smooth and to thankyou for your support over the last 2.5 years!

If you already have a copy of the Swim Smooth DVD Boxset you are going to be well-placed to understand many of the principle ideas behind what we are going to discuss shortly. The DVD will also provide a useful visual motion account of some of the drills and technqiues that we will discuss. For those of you who learn and absorb new ideals visually, this is a well recommended 'tool' to add to your collection.

At our Clinics we see a variety of abilities from those just learning to swim freestyle, to those whom have been swimming proficiently for a reasonable length of time. Wherever you fit within this continuum, we hope you will find something of value here. Remember, as swimmers and triathletes we never stop learning and whilst this is in no way an exhaustative list, we strongly encourage you to pick up ideas from a variety of sources. For those coaches out there, we hope this will provide you with added value at your sessions too. So here we go!

Step-1 | Step-2 | Step-3 | Step-4 | Step-5 | Step-6 | Step-7 | Step-8 | Step-9 | Step-10

Step-1 Evaluate and Know Thyself!

You want to improve your swimming...we know you do, thats why you're here! However, before you begin this process, you need to know what you are capable of right now, otherwise, how will you know if you've improved or not?!

There are many ways to measure performance, but these are all either classified as objective or subjective.

Objective measures of your performance might be how quickly you can swim 400m freestyle, how many strokes it takes you to complete a 50m lap (on average), or if you're new to the sport, simply how far you can swim without stopping. For most goal-orientated people, you will want to see improvements in these aspects of your performance to really believe that you are improving.

Subjective measures of your performance would be more related with how you actually feel in the water. This is not so "black & white" and is often changeable on a daily basis. Do you feel smooth? Does it feel easy? How controlled is your breathing? Do you feel well "connected" with the water? All these are subjective measures with answers typically being in the "yes, no, maybe, I think so" range.

If you are fairly new to swimming most of your feedback and performance 'testing' is going to be based around these sensory feelings, and if you are not yet up to swimming a continuous 400m freestyle swim, we suggest you skip the rest of this step and jump to Step # 2 (Breathing).

Doing what we do with our Swim Smooth Clinics and 1-2-1 Video Analysis sessions its great to hear that people feel better and smoother through the water, but at the end of the day 98% of you want "cut & dried" results and if this is you, then you're going to have to put yourself on the line here with a simple time trial session. Follow this session (a 400m and 50m time trial) and then download the Swim Smooth Performance Checklist (MS EXCEL file) and enter your results in the Critical Swim Speed (CSS) Calculator at the top of the page.

(From Peak Performance Online):

"The concept of CSS has proven a valid and reliable measure of aerobic capacity (Wakayoshi, 1991). The advantages are that it is non-invasive, practical for all coaches, and the only equipment needed is a stop-watch. It is defined as 'the swimming speed that can theoretically be maintained continuously without exhaustion' (Wakayoshi, 1991). It is the highest sustainable work rate which enables lactate to remain in steady-state (where production equals removal)."

As a triathlete you will hopefully value the benefits of identifying your threshold or Maximal Lactate Steady State (MLSS) as the majority of your racing (for races +1hr in length) will be performed at this level. Doing intervals slightly above and longer sets just below this point are some of the most important "training-training" sessions you will do to help improve your endurance performance. Whilst the majority of this article is dedicated to the technique enhancements you need to make to your stroke, it is important to remember that for optimal results you need a balanced blend of "technique-training" and "training-training". The 8-week Swim Smooth Training Program (available on the CD-ROM accompanying the DVD Boxset) aims to provide you with this optimal balance, as too do our current squad training sessions.

We'll come back to CSS in Step # 9 (Balancing "Training-Training" and "Technique-Training")

Step-2 Master Your Breathing

How important is your breathing? Simple, its the most important aspect of your swimming. Get it wrong (i.e. holding your breath) and you will feel forever frustrated and only see marginal improvements. We hear all the time that a good freestyle stroke is a relaxed freestyle stroke, but this can only ever happen if we learn to exhale freely and easily under the water.

People run into problems with their breathing when they hold their breath, rather than exhaling. If this is you, we encourage you to have a read of this article.

Most coaches will extol the virtues of bilateral breathing (i.e. breathing to both sides, usually every 3 strokes) as it helps develop a nice, even symmetrical stroke. We have found that most swimmers new to bilateral breathing will go through a "2-week Bilateral Breathing Hump" whereby they'll try it for 2 weeks and if after that point its not feeling any easier or any faster, they'll revert back to their old ways. There are many situations in the openwater when its beneficial to only breath unilaterally, but really, doing the majority of your training bilaterally will offer you more options in the openwater as well as help prevent shoulder injury.

Step-3 Body Position & Balance: Head, Core & Legs

Attaining a good body position is critical for how well you cut through the water. We often talk about someone being negatively buoyant if their legs tend to drag behind them when they swim. This is quite popular for lean male triathletes in particular. Rather than kid yourself that putting on a wetsuit will alleviate this entirely, make sure you cover the 3 aspects below which effectively cause your legs to drop.

Head:

We are all probably aware that holding your head and looking too far forward in the water will cause your legs to drop, but should we all be swimming with our eyes looking directly down to the bottom of the pool, and is this the same in every situation (i.e. pool.vs. openwater)? Arguably the head position does control much of how well you maintain a horizontal body position, but the following article helps address whether or not you should immediately jump in and change this aspect of your stroke. Read it here!

Core:

Having a good 'connection' for transfer of power between the upper and lower body is not just key for improving your body roll but also for making sure the hips don't 'droop' in the water. This aspect of your swimming can be worked on on the dry-land with these specific core stability exercises and also by simply remembering to really stretch through the abdominals like your whole body is a stick of liquorice being stretched from either end, with a slight anterior tilt of the pelvis as you do so (i.e. sticking your butt up...only slightly though mind!). If there was one tip Swim Smooth could give anyone to help improve their efficiency in the water immediately, this would be it!

Legs:

Scissor Leg-kick: Few triathletes are aware of how much drag their legs may be causing them. Scissor-leg kick typically occurs when the swimmer takes a breath. The legs split to stabilise the body position in the water, which is like opening up a parachute behind you. One swimmer we assessed had such a severe scissor leg-kick, that just by asking him to focus on turning his toes inward so that his big toes tapped lightly against each other, improved his 1-mile swim time by 3½ minutes at a race the following day – he was stoked!

Ankle Flexibility: As a triathlete you don’t need to have an awesome leg kick to improve your swim, but you do need to be efficient. Ankle flexibility is key to helping you with this. Next time you’re down at the pool, reach for a pull buoy and swim a few laps. On the way down swim with your feet really extended out behind you in plantar flexion(Fig.B). On the way back point them down to the ground in dorsi flexion (Fig. A). Which feels easier? Surprisingly few triathletes address this issue of ankle flexibility. Try to remember this simple way to improve your swim, especially when wearing a wetsuit in your next race!

Step-4 Which came first the Body Roll or the Recovery? Answer = Body Roll!

Take a look at the swimmer on the dryland to the left. Look familiar? Probably. A lot of people attribute a high elbow recovery in freestyle to good shoulder flexibility. This is partly true. Lie down on the ground flat like the picture and try to recover your arms over the ground like you are swimming. Even with great mobility in the shoulder joint, this is nearly impossible without the body rotated on its side.

This flat body position leads to a recovery over the top of the water where the elbow is seen to be trailing behind the hand from the side angle. Working to improve your rotation through the water will help to 'free-up' the shoulder and allow it to operate in neutral much more readily. This long-axis "Body Roll" is expertly demonstrated by Bill Kirby here and a full sequence of drills and techniques to help improve the rotation can be viewed on the Swim Smooth DVD Boxset disc # 1.

The internally rotated shoulder as caused by a flat body position, an entry into the water across the midline, and a thumb first entry (as seen left and as probably taught to you as the 'correct' way for the hand to enter the water when you were younger as this is the way many coaches taught freestyle) are the 3 major cause of shoulder impingement syndrome (Swimmers Shoulder) and rotator cuff damage over time.

This is really very easily remedied through thorough stroke correction. Aall swimmers in our 1-2-1 Video Analysis sessions and Swim Smooth Clinics are screened for this aspect of their stroke and corrected accordingly.

I would say that as much as 85% of my personal coaching is spent helping people alleviate sore shoulders and rehab after injury / surgery. Don't fall foul of a flat body position, a cross-ver entry and a thumb first placement as one day your shoulders will let you know about it!

Step-5 Recovery Pathway

By doing the dry-land exercise in Step-4 you will appreciate the necessity of a good body roll and its impact on your recovery. Observe the swimmer to the left demonstrating a relaxed high-elbow recovery whilst in a side-lying position. Developing a Recovery Pathway like this helps keep the shoulder operating in neutral and as such reduce the risk of injury.

Observe the animation to the left and practice before your next swim. Feel like your elbow is leading your hand / arm in the recovery phase. Full details of this exercise can be read here.

Step-6 Develop Your Feel and Proprioception

We cannot emphasize enough the importance of ensuring that you feel relaxed with your breathing, that your body position is sound and that your body roll has been developed before starting to think about the Catch & Pull Through phase.

Many of the drills that you will have completed from the Swim Smooth DVD in Step # 4 (above) will have already conditioned the body to be a little more aware of what the water actually feels like to slip through it, but not so much for what it feels like to actually hold / grip / or get a good 'purchase' on the water. Don't be fooled into thinking that body roll and the general efficiency drills in Steps 3 to 5 above will be the sole answer to helping you improve your swimming; if you have tried other swim programs and feel like you may have now plateaued and just don't have any propulsion in your stroke, this level is where you are at, and until you go about constructively improving your feel for the water and catch & pull you will continue to stay stuck on your plateau. All is not lost however!

The Swim Smooth DVD contains a feature-rich, viusally-stimulating chapter on developing your feel for the water and catch and pull through. You can also read all about how to improve this aspect of your stroke here through some sculling drills with a full link of topics here.

We are very proud to announce the addition of the new PT Paddles to our product range. These paddles act like the reverse of a standard swimming paddle. A normal paddle effectively increases the surface area of the palm of the hand and feels great to catch the water (providing sound technoique is in place!), however the hand feels lost without them once removed. PT Paddles effectively deflect the water encouraging a higher elbow catch and reducing the risk of injury. Find out more>>

Step-7 Catch & Pull Through

Once enhanced feeling for the water is in place, you can go about developing a stronger, more effective catch. The image left shows the swimmer trying to catch the 'water' with a straight arm pull through. Try it yourself and see how weak this position actually is - totally reliant upon the shoulder muscles to provide force. Ultimately this will result in injury.

A common thing to see with a lot of people's strokes is a 'dropped elbow' under that water due to a poor hold or feel for the water accompanied by a slipping of the hand under the body. Go ahead and try this now. See how you are just starting to engage the chest muscles (pecs) and upper back muscless (lats). Its certainly better than a straight arm pull through, but still, something is missing!! Read on...

Many coaches talk about the idea of "reaching over a barrel" (or Swiss Ball!) to keep the elbow higher than the wrist during the pull through - this is what it looks like! Whilst you will certainly feel the strongest in this position (due to a strong engagement of the last and pecs), make note that the swimmer's body is rotated (as per Step-4) on its side. This not only maximise the feeling of utilising the lats to pull through, but more importantly avoids internally rotating the shoulder. Just another reason to make sure body roll is sound before advancing to this stage!

To aid the development of this aspect of your stroke, use the imagery exercise as shown left, of imagining a Smiley Face painted on the plam of your hand and focusing on showing the palm of the hand back to the wall you've just left when swimming. Doing so will transfer all the water back behind you, sending you effectively forwards. An alternative is the visualisation of utilising an imaginary rope to pull yourself along through the water.

Step-8 Balancing Your Optimal Stroke Length with Optimal Stroke Rate

It often appears that there is much literature in the swimming world about how to go about increasing your stroke length in the pool (i.e. reducing number of strokes per length), though very little attention is seemingly placed upon how a swimmer or triathlete could stand to improve their times by increasing arm turn-over / stroke rate. Admittedly, most swimmers will stand to make the biggest improvements by working to eliminate drag and lengthen their stroke, but does there come a point when one reaches a “plateau” or optimal stroke count, whereby we must then consider lifting stroke rate, but making an effort to maintain that refined stroke length? Do certain body types or genders suit a certain stroke rate / stroke length ratio over others? Do certain swim conditions favour a higher stroke rate and shorter stroke length, or should we be endlessly pursuing that “theoretical” picture of perfection with a long, smooth stroke?

For all the answers to this poignant question, read our full article on Stroke Length / Stroke Rate here.

The best way we have found of working on developing your optimal balance is through the structured use of the Wetronome Pacing Unit. A fully structured program for using this unique tool can be found here.

Step-9 Balancing "training-training" and "technique-training"

So, you've worked through some of the drills above, you've developed your efficiency, maximised your stroke length without letting your stroke rate deteriorate and now you need to develop your 'engine' a little more. The thing to remember here is that you never suddenly stop having to think about your form and technique - far from it! Even the top swimmers in the world balance their training sessions between pure "Technique-Training" and "Training-Training". Everyone has their optimal balance and its all about finding this balance for you. The Swim Smooth 8-week Training Program does a great job of providing you with a simple step-by-step program of 25 sessions all geared at helping you maximise both these aspects of your stroke.

Go back now to your original 400m and 50m time trial results and re-test. Input the new (and improved) times into the calculator. Work out your Critical Swim Speed (CSS) in minutes and seconds per 100m and start by breaking your swim sessions down such that you do a steady warm-up, some drills to attend to the pointers above, a few short, sharp efforts to raise heart rate and prepare you for your main set. Use your defined CSS as your goal pace for a set of 5 x 200m on short recoveries (i.e. 15 to 30 seconds) and work to maximise form throughout the set. It'll feel easy for your first few repeats but then you'll start to drop off, you'll fatigue, your stroke will shorten and become scrappy...DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN!! If it does, go back to a few drills working on rotation and a long, smooth stroke and then return to the set. For a full plan of how to then progress these sets, please register for one of our Clinics near you!

Should I swim with a squad?

Absolutely! Leave the ego in the change-rooms whilst you're warming up and then gain motivation from your fellow squad buddies for your CSS work. Don't fall foul of a scrappy stroke just to keep up, but remember why you swim, why you do triathlon - ultimately to have fun! Locking yourself away in the proverbial "hermits' technqiue cave" is all well and good with good intentions, however this often becomes quite boring! So long as you're disciplined enough to hold your form when it counts (i.e. ALWAYS!), you'll be fine. And if you're in Perth, come and swim with us!

Step-10 Open-water Application & Racing / Re-Evaluation

Drafting, Legally: Its all very well spending months training for your big race refining technique and looking like a supreme example of technical efficiency in the pool. However, often the easiest way to improve your open water swimming is right in front of you - literally. The benefits of practicing the skill of “taking pace” off another swimmer cannot be highlighted enough. In fact, research from France has shown it can save anywhere between 18 and 25% of the energy expenditure incurred to cover a given distance!

Practice drafting in the pool with a few mates at the end of every session and experiment with the benefits of sitting either directly behind their feet, or just off to their side under their armpits. Which way will help you knock minutes off your next triathlon swim?

Other considerations of the differences between pool and openwater swimming and what you should do to be able to adapt your stroke to these differences, can be sourced here. You can also find out much more and have your stroke critiqued for openwater readiness at one of our Swim Smooth Clinics.

Paul's first ever swimming "student" was Harry Wiltshire - now GB International elite triathlete and last year's World  Student Games Champion. Harry finished 4th at the recent 2007 London Triathlon, beating Athens Olympic's silver medallist Bevan Docherty quite convincingly. Harry is reknowned as being one of the world's fastest triathlon swimmers and yet displays a technique that some may say looks quite unconventional from the pool perspective. It is, however, highly effective in the openwater situation due to various factors such as: drafting capability; high stroke rate; high arm recovery; and a constant rhythmical tempo - never 'pausing'. What is necessary to highlight is that whilst Harry's stroke may look a little 'strange', what is important to note is that all the core attributes of a good pool stroke (as discussed above) are all very evident in his form, just that they happen that much quicker! Watch the You Tube link of Harry's stroke now (right) and then compare with Bill's flowing pool stroke - both effective, but both quite different!

The savvy triathlete will take inspiration from both these styles and learn to know how and when to adapt their stroke - a detailed discussion of how this applies to your stroke is now included in our Clinics - register today!

Summary and Conclusion:

So, thats a lot of ground covered in a relatively short space in time. Remember for the most effective results, identify where you are with our Swim Smooth Performance Checklist and then systematically work your way through the progressive steps.

We hope that you have found this to be beneficial to your swimming. We would really appreciate your comments and feedback and to let us know how you're going with your stroke since you either bought the Swim Smooth DVD or attended one of our 1-2-1 Video Analysis Sessions or Swim Smooth Clinics. Please spare a few moments to complete the form below. Thanks and see you soon!