Archive for May, 2009

The Essential Triathlon Swimming DVD. Discover the secrets to improving your swim technique, avoiding painful injuries, and shaving minutes off your best triathlon times to date!I often get asked about what type of weights or strength training helps the most in swimming. The answer is that gaining muscle strength in general, such as working the triceps, will not help you to swim faster (especially [...]

1. Swim with your fists. Closing your fists and swimming freestyle can really improve your stroke technique. At first it will feel clumsy and awkward, but it actually forces you to rotate your hips and move through the water the way you are supposed to. Try alternating 2 laps with fists, and 2 laps straight freestyle. 2. 6 Kicks Per Stroke Take one stroke, extend your arm, and kick six times on your [...]

Is it legal to draft off of other swimmers in a triathlon? Yes! Is it a good idea to draft off of other swimmers in a triathlon? Yes! Most people draft in the swim, whether they know it or not (except of course, whoever the leader is). But how can you get better at it? Here are a few tips: 1. The most draft you will get is directly behind another swimmer. If they are just slightly faster than you, [...]

Well, no not unless you have some time to learn to swim. If you are a true beginner swimmer, you will need at least a couple of months to get yourself up to speed, assuming you are doing a sprint or short-distance triathlon. But don’t let not knowing how to swim stop you from training for a triathlon! You will simply have to take a different mental approach to your training. Swimming will be [...]

Playing sports competitively comes with certain risks, injury being the most important. While swimming isn’t usually thought of in this light, it’s certainly an activity that can result in injury. When it comes to the pool or open water, the most common injury generally involves the shoulder. I’ve been swimming competitively off and on for the past 25 years, with 15,000 meter days [...]

In the past, you’ve probably had coaches that asked you to count strokes during your workout, either by incorporating it into drill sets, the primary set, or at the end of a workout. Indeed, many coaches advise their swimmers to make a habit of keeping track of the stroke count. After years of experience coaching both triathletes and long distance swimmers, I have come to the conclusion that [...]

In this episode, I cover the pros and cons of sports drinks, as well as what to do about sinking. References: 5 Free Triathlon Swim Lessons & The Tri Swim Coach Newsletter Signup: www.triswimcoach.com/newsletters.php Tri Swim Coach podcast comments: Open up iTunes and type in ‘tri swim coach’ in the search field. Click on the Tri Swim Coach podcast (at the top) and add your comments/ratings. Zoomers [...]

You may already have heard the most commonly asked question in the swimming world today. Which of the following techniques is superior: breathing to one side, or bilateral breathing? Until just one year ago, I breathed to the right side every time I got in the pool. Why, do you ask? Simply because taking breaths on the opposite side didn’t feel right! Indeed, this is the primary reason that the [...]

One of the most commonly asked questions in the world of triathlons involves breathing. While swimming freestyle, the first step on the road to proper form is body positioning. Add in breathing, and suddenly everything is turned on its head! More than anything else, this has to do with a lack of balance. Instead of the core, you’re using your head to breathe. Listed below are the top five challenges [...]

One of the most commonly asked questions in all of competitive swimiming is whether fins are beneficial in training. There is no one answer; whether fins are right for you depends on what you hope to gain, your level of skill, and the type of fins used. Swimmers often wear fins simply to maintain the same speed as the other swimmers working out alongside. In other cases, a swimmer might want to move [...]