For most of you reading this, Autumn is a time for a little rest ‘n recuperation and rightly so.

For me, it is by far my favourite time of the year for teaching technique; changes made now have time to be cemented by months of repetition before the first race of 2013.
The first of these changes should be to body position rather than the propulsive phase. A
cyclists’ legs will not work efficiently if they are not set up correctly on their bike and the same
goes for the arms of the swimmer if the body is not ‘set up’. Another ‘coach’ hit the nail on the head in THE seminal martial arts technique film of the 80′s:

Daniel: When do I learn how to punch?
Miyagi: Better learn balance. Balance is key. Balance good, karate good. Everything good.
Balance bad, better pack up, go home. Understand?

Simply substitute ‘catch’ for ‘punch’ and ‘swimming’ for ‘karate’ and you pretty much have a
conversation I have with clients on a weekly basis!
Like Mr Miyagi, I would like to begin by looking at a balanced body position. And let’s start by
taking a look this great photo:

It is testament to the photographers’ skill. Think of the things they had to take into account: lighting, lenses, shutter speed. water clarity. I’m sure the list goes on and on.
The one thing he wouldn’t have had to worry about is the swimmer, Ellie Faulkner. The pose is completely natural to her and, like all elite swimmers, she has repeated it hundreds of thousands of times.

What you are looking at is the extended and rotated position she hits with every single stroke she
takes when training and racing. She is super-streamlined (note the absence of shoulders!). Her
centre of gravity is forward, bringing her legs up. She will engage the huge muscles of the side
and back when she begins the propulsive phase and finally (and most importantly for most of
you) she can breathe with the smallest turn of the head.

Let’s look at three areas that the picture shows clearly:

Rotation

But, and this is a very important but, never rotate to the detriment of the head position! Look at Ellie’s eyes as reference points; you can see that, despite her superb rotation, her eyes are completely level.

When novice swimmers perform the ‘Superman’ drill that mimics this position, many of them find their back arches and they ‘banana’ into the lane ropes. This is because the head is rolled over and the spine is being twisted.
Ellie’s spine is in line and under no torque forces or tension. If it was, her arms would not be
under her control as all of our movements (in water or land) are influenced by the position of the spine.

Hand position

Ellie is showing off the ‘Poolmate’ so her palm is not facing downwards, but the depth of the extended hand is essentially the same as when she swims. It is vital that you don’t allow the extended hand to tip up towards the surface of the water at extension. The position Ellie’s extended hand is in will allow her to get ‘over the water’ naturally rather than slip it. Some
swim technique specialists even believe that the correct hand position at extension will naturally lead to a perfect catch. In my opinion, it certainly helps.

Head angle

Triathletes and open water swimmers amongst you may also want to try a higher, more forward looking head position similar to Ellie’s in this picture. ‘Too high!’ many of you may be saying. But some excellent swimmers (notably Alistair Brownlee) can achieve it. Sighting from this position means hardly lifting the head and the rhythm of the strokes remains constant.

Distance front crawl is all about the constant repetition of the perfect propulsive stroke. But don’t forget that stroke has its origins in a perfectly balanced body position.

“We make sacred pact. I promise teach swimming to you, you promise learn. I say, you do, no questions” 

Bimonthly PoolMate swim training sessions for 3 different levels of swimmer from award winning coach Ray Gibbs from Swim Canary Wharf!

I am writing this during the second day of the Olympic swimming competition. For me the highlight of yesterday was Sun Yang winning the 400m freestyle. He is almost unique in the history of freestyle in that he has a super efficient distance stroke and incredible speed over 100m, 200m.

When you read this he may have shocked the world by beating Lochte in the 200m. Imagine El Guerrouj beating Bolt in a track 200!

His success is in no small part due to the fact that he is coached by Grant Hacketts former coach Denis Cotterell and this month I thought I would share one of his ‘favourite’ sets with you.

Only attempt the ‘full Hackett’ if you are a club level 1500m swimmer. For most of you, the shortened version will be a perfect mid season 1500m set and a little taster of the type of set that makes Sun Yang the phenomena that he is.

Good luck.

• 300m swim
• 200m kick
• 100m drill (or pull)
• 6 x 50m: 25 build to fast, 25 easy

• The “Grant Hackett” (his favourite set apparently…): 84 x 50m
o Fast ones at below race pace
o Non-fast ones at 1500m pace
Swim Set Attributes Intervals for Each Group

• Advanced
• Intermediate
• Improver

Bimonthly PoolMate swim training sessions for 3 different levels of swimmer from award winning coach Ray Gibbs from Swim Canary Wharf!

 We are now well into the Triathlon and Open water seasons and many of you will have already raced. The most common race feedback I get at this time of year is ‘I went off too fast, I lost my breathing rhythm, my technique and my time was not great’.

After a long winter of training, it is understandable that when that first gun goes, adrenaline can get the better of you and pace judgement flies out of the window, so mid season swim sets are all about maintaining, then gradualy improving race pace.

The ‘pyramid’ set below is all about pacing yourself. The 500m in the middle jumps out as the most challenging portion, but it is the first 50m that will make or break your set.

If your 1500m race pace is 30mins, it it essential that you swim this 50m in exactly 60 seconds then maintain that pace throughout the set. The one minute rest will feel far too long after the first 50m, but far too short after the 500m and if you do not begin at the correct race pace your pyramid will collapse!

Your PoolMate data should ideally show the same strokes per length and efficiency rating throughout the set. Don’t expect this to be the case on your first attempt; pace judgement takes full concentration and lots and lots of practice.

Warm up – 400m very steady indeed.

2mins rest.

50m,  1min rest
100m, 1min rest
150m, 1min rest
250m, 1min rest
500m, 1min rest
250m, 1min rest
150m, 1min rest
100m, 1min rest
50m

300m very easy ‘bad backstroke’ warm down. Just let the arms slip the water underneath you rather than engaging it.

Advanced- Race pace = 20min 1500m = 40 seconds for the first 50m, 1min 20 secs for 100m, 2mins for 150m, 3min 20secs for 250m, 6min 40secs for 500m.

Intermediate- Race pace = 25min 1500m = 50 seconds for the first 50m, 1min 40secs for 100m, 2min 30 secs for 150m, 4min 10 secs for 250m, 8min 20secs for 500m.

Improver- Race pace = 30min 1500m = 60 seconds for the first 50m, 2min for 100m, 3min for 150m, 5min for 250m, 10min for 500m.

Good luck! Bimonthly PoolMate swim training sessions for 3 different levels of swimmer from award winning coach Ray Gibbs from Swim Canary Wharf!