Wetsuit, Waves, and Balance

A few observations to share from my swim in the sea today, wearing my sleeveless, short-legged wetsuit. I went west along the shore for about 31 minutes, into a wind-driven current, with 50 cm swells and wind chop hitting me from 10 o’clock (to my side and slightly against my head). At the half-way mark [...]

Argument for Swimming Naked

I bet the title on this essay is going to get me in trouble on some search engines, but there is nothing inappropriate in the content, I assure you. The title just fits… I was swimming in the Mediterranean Sea in Antalya yesterday. April 8! The water was 18 C. I got fed up of [...]

Using A Tempo Trainer

I am committed to being a content-producer, so I rarely repost someone elses work, but TI Head Coach Terry wrote a marvelously concise primer on the advantages of working with a Tempo Trainer and included 5 practice set templates at the end. If you have interest in the TT I highly recommend this essay.

The Perfect 25

THE PIECES OF THE PERFECT 25 No matter how short or how far we intend to swim, it starts one 25 meter (or yard) pool length at a time. The excellence of the whole swim is never greater than the excellence of each part of the swim- so why permit inferior parts? Excellence does not [...]

Slide, Don’t Hammer

I had a great practice set in the pool early this morning- 1600 yards broken into 16 x (4x 25 yard sprints), with a rest interval based on my heart rate*. The objective- holding SPL (at 16) while increasing tempo from 0.95 to 0.83 seconds, using a Tempo Trainer. In the winter I like to [...]

Review- Finis Positive Drive Fins

Here’s one of my three new Finis tools- the Positive Drive Fins. When I looked at these on their site and considered buying a pair to test I wasn’t sure if I could expect that much performance difference from my standard zoomers. But the moment after I slipped these on and took my first kick, [...]

Simple Math Can Swim Fast

It is the basic math of SL x SR that tells us where we are at and where we need to be in order to reach our goal. If I set a target of 17 strokes per 25m, starting with 1.20 second tempo, and I find that is it easy for me to hold optimal [...]

Don’t Burn Rubber

Anyone can crank their arms around wildly in the water. You don’t even have to try to go anywhere. You don’t even have to be a swimmer! Yet the swimmer who increases his stroke tempo* without maintaining a long stroke is like a hotshot who’s spinning out his car, burnin’ rubber on the asphalt. Without [...]

Go For Muscle Or Skill?

I want to stimulate our thinking about the difference between focusing on building muscles (i.e. fitness) during swim practice versus focusing on building skill. Let’s take this example of the difference between a practice set using  paddles versus a set using a fist in the stroke. Paddles increase the surface area of the hand and [...]

Using A Tempo Trainer- SPEED IT UP!

Using A Tempo Trainer – SPEED IT UP! If you’ve read the previous two lessons then great. Let’s procede. If not, I suggest you take a moment to go back to the Intro and see how those two lessons set the stage for this one. Speed = Stroke Length (SL) x Stroke Rate (SR) GOAL: [...]