A shortcut to faster swimming (Cliffs notes for swimming?)

When you were in school, did you ever use “Cliff Notes” to get the highlights of a book?

I admit it, I lived for these book summary notes!

There never seemed to be enough time to read the whole book. (And I’m a slow reader, so I used any advantage I could get!)

And the notes gave you most of what you needed to know for exams.

So what would be wrong with reading Cliffs Notes, instead of the whole book?

People think they are “cheating”, but this is not true. You’re getting the highlights. Why do you need the inconsequential stuff?

Swimming is no different. (Okay, it’s a little different)

Do you want to spend more time on swimming, or do what works to get faster?

I think the majority would say they just want to get to what is going to make them faster, and not keep wasting time in the water.

If you’ve been following Tri Swim Coach for a while, you know that swim training and technique is largely a mental game.

I recommend to my athletes all the time to watch amazing stroke technique, via underwater videos of distance swimmers in the Olympics. Just this watching of videos goes a long way to getting better!

This is the beginning of the Cliffs Notes of swimming.

And you need to get rid of the “fluff” that exists out there when it comes to faster swimming.

Let’s face it, none of us are training for the Olympics 🙂

So getting faster is always relevant to the individual swimmer. Faster in your age group, faster than you were before, or faster than your rival/friend.

The “fluff” would be all the things coaches teach that’s geared towards faster pool swimming (sprints like 100 & 200 meter swims). You don’t need this.

So you can put away the power rack and the swim stretch cords (don’t ask) and the fancy paddles.

You can also forget about swimming massive distance in your training.

So put on those fins or LAVA shorts.

Stop obsessing about number of yards or meters in your workout.

Today, or in your next swim, I invite you to do just three things:

1. Watch some Youtube videos of great distance swimmers from underwater (Sun Yang, despite his lack of popularity in the swimming community, is a good one to watch).
2. Spend about 10 minutes on these videos before your swim.
3. Go for your normal swim. Don’t try to copy what you watched. Instead, count your strokes. Don’t try to hit any specific number, just count each stroke on each length.

That’s it!

You repeat this and you will have improved stroke technique and a faster freestyle, even after your first session 🙂

If you’d like to step it up and take it to the next level, consider our Tri Swim Success program, where we have “break your bad habits” trainings, and in depth views on getting the most out of your swim and getting more from less work, here:

Tri Swim Success

Befriend the Water!

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