swimming

Dec

2025

Coach Swimming – One Thing At A Time

Coaching Swimming

When I’m coaching swimming… I do this more casually than professionally. The key in coaching or teaching is “one thing at a time”.

One Thing At a Time

The key here is to figure out the biggest departure from the individuals ideal form.

We are all individuals. All different. There are some basics of course. And these basics are so, so important.

I do basic drills every workout.

I watch coaches and swim instructors. Often trying to correct 2, 3, 4 or even 5 things at once. “You need to do this with your arm, while you breathe better and don’t forget to kick.” Doesn’t work.

No one can learn properly that way. In any subject.

Teach only one thing at a time! This is really, really important.

And everyone is different. Not everything will work for everyone.

Two of the biggest faults I find are difficulty with breathing and not enough ‘turn’ or rotation.

Breathing

I often, with very sloppy or new swimmers, tell them they have to practice bobbing. Most don’t want to do this because they feel that’s only for children. Watching them swim, I see that they are lifting their head to breath. The reason for this can be from a variety of things. One, being that they need to wear goggles. That is usually a pretty simple fix. A trickier thing is that the swimmer is trying to breathe out and in while their face/mouth is out of the water. Takes too long. That's why bobby is taught as a drill to children. If taught properly one learns to breathe out underwater and in while their face is out of the water.

Need to get used to breathing in while out of the water and breathing out while under the water. If they don’t have this drill conquered, they try to breath out and in at the same time while they are swimming. As a result their face/head is out of the water too long or they tend to lift their head to get enough air. Either way their stroke gets messed up. If they lift their head, feet sink and they drag. The bobbing drill helps to fix that.

Turn Baby Turn

The biggest fault I see, though, with many and more advanced swimmers, is the lack of rotation. That’s why I do my ‘skating’ drill every workout.

I kick, with fins, half a length, switch sides then, do the rest of the length on the other side. "Skate" on the front bone on your hip. Usually it is about a 45° angle. Now, again, everyone is different. So, the angle that is perfect for you may not be perfect for someone else. Find your sweet spot for your freestyle stroke. Some say to exaggerate this exercise. I disagree. I think one should drill the exact thing you want to be doing. But that's just me.

What this does, swimming with a proper rotation, allows for a number of different benefits. One, your reach will be longer. In some cases, lots longer. You will be doing fewer strokes per length. The negative trade off for that will be fewer breaths if you are breathing the same pattern. Adjust. Also, as your hand is exiting the water, if you are rotating, you will find it is much easier to get that little extra push.

Another benefit is that you are using more and varied muscles. Using your latissimus dorsi as well as your arm muscles. They are stronger. You will feel it.

Kick: Two Beat Kick

And it’s best when you are doing longer strokes like this that you do a two beat instead of a six beat kick. The propulsion that you get from a six beat flutter kick is terribly overrated. Even back in the 1960s - James E Counsilman's book The Science of Swimming - he tested this extensively. Showed that kicking like crazy was not getting you there much faster.

Personally, I use fins when I do kick drills. I’ve learned to do a two beat kick and fins strengthen the muscles that I use. I get a stronger kick this way without fluttering away uselessly. The fins really work the necessary muscles.

Paddle and Buoy Drill

Using hand paddles and a buoy between your thighs as a drill is very helpful to get the feel of a proper stroke. It is hard to just drag your hands and arms through the water and waste energy when you are wearing hand paddles. And if you are doing a proper rotation you will really feel the muscle groups being worked: your lats particularly.

Please feel free to leave questions in the comment section or email me directly. The photos at the beginning of the article are of some of the books I've read and/or use for reference. The 'Science of Swimming' by James E Counsilman is considered the "bible" of competitive swimming.

Jan

2023

Swimming 101

Freestyle (Front Crawl)

I have a pretty long, smooth stroke. It is not for everyone but I’m pretty relaxed and quite efficient when I swim. I’ve read quite a number of books on the subject and watched videos of people with different philosophies on the correct way to do things.

Like pretty much everything else in life, not everyone is the same or equal and not everything works for everyone.

I often see triathletes trying to up their game on swimming. A lot of times, swimming is the weakest third of their race. I’m not a triathlete but I do know how to help someone not be exhausted after the swimming part of the triathlon. That’s the kicker. Trying to get through the swim part without using up all your energy and still not coming last.

I watch friends and family trying to give pointers. “Put your arm in this way.” “Breathe like this.” Etc, etc.

It all comes from the core really. If you are not rotating your body properly, you won’t be able to breathe properly. If you are not rotating properly, you will over stress your shoulders and not have a proper stroke.

This is all assuming that someone is comfortable with putting their face in the water.

Equipment

First item to get is a decent pair of goggles.

Secondly, a pair of fins.Not the diving kind that are really long but those designed for lap swimming. They are shorter.

Something like these:

You will need them for the main rotation drill.

Drill, Drill, Drill.

Think of a tugboat vs a sailboat going through the water. Tugboat is flat and pushes through the water. That's you swimming flat. Then there is a sailboat, narrow, cutting through the water. That's you with your hips in a 45°.

Most videos that I’ve seen suggest doing this drill completely on the side when practicing. I disagree. I think one should practice how they would do it in the stroke and also to help get the feel of the position. You want to be at a 45° in the water and rock back and forth so each time you are sort of skating on that bone that you can feel on the front of your hip.

Check out the images below first for the angle and then for the point you are ‘skating’ on.

Put your fins and goggles on. Push off from the side and cruise along on your left or right side to begin. Take a good breath before you start or as you start to cruise then make sure your face is in the water. Make sure you are at a 45° and continue a long slow kick. Go as long as you can on one side, take three strokes to switch sides. Breath a couple of times as you are doing that. Then stay there at the 45° angle again.

As you are cruising and just kicking, you leave your lower arm in the water ahead of you a few inches in the water. Your higher arm, hold along your hip that is higher or above the water.

When you are ready to switch sides again, just start the stroke with the arm that is in front, one, two, three and you are on the other side. Do a length and take a minute or two rest if you need it.

More Drill

Swimming: I'm a big proponent of drilling. Drilling parts of the whole stroke. It would best if I could watch your stroke then coach you from there but...

In this video link, you can watch up to about 3:50 -

Rotate hips

In that video he says to drill at 90°. I disagree. As I said, I think you should drill the way you should swim. Around 45°. The more you do that the more you will get the feel for how your body should be in the water.

Here is another video on this rotation drill. Watch from the beginning but at 3 minutes you get a second drill. I would suggest you do all these drills with fins. I never drill any sort of kick without fins.

If you are going to buy some fins, get a leg buoy and some sort of pull paddles at the same time. The paddles/leg buoy work together and help lengthen your stroke.

You are welcome to send me feedback and questions.

Some great drills in this book by Blythe Lucero:

Mar

2012

Swimming – glide or no glide

I wish I had an underwater camera and someone to wield it. About a year ago I started studying the Total Immersion style of swimming and adapted much of it to my stroke. More recently I started reading Swim Smooth’s newsletter and studying their philosophy of how to swim freestyle. I’m 60 years old so I’m more interested in going long at a good steady pace. I do some sprints but although I did a 32 second 50 meters recently it puts too much pressure on my old shoulders so I think, in future, I’ll stay away from those short races. I warm up with 800 meters – at about 13 minutes which puts me in the top 5 or 10 for my age group depending on the year. I glide. Just a little bit. But that is where I would love to be videoed. I have kind of developed my own stroke that moves me along pretty quickly. (Probably closer to Total Immersion than Swim Smooth)

That said this is a pretty good article on the amount one should glide: http://www.feelforthewater.com/2012/03/overgliding-inefficiency-and.html

The Total Immersion style is pretty heavily promoted for Tri-athletes and I think works for us ‘older’ guys. But I would advise studying both and seeing what works for you.