Once Inspired

Posts Tagged ‘technique’

Swimming technique, if you do 1 thing wrong you will set the whole balance out. Swimming is a little different to the other disciplines.  To get faster you need to train faster but to go faster you need to nail the technique, to nail the technique you need to do drills and you need to do the drills slowly. Okay so it’s not much different. But not many athletes realise that.

I very often see people swimming as fast as they can, displacing water in all directions other than backwards. If your technique is poor then going faster can only be sustained for a short period. Efficiency is a key ingredient to swimming success.

For those of you who don’t know, running is not my strong point, even though I used to win just about every race I entered at school up until I was about 15. What happened after that? Shoulders and chest happened. Anyway, I am wanting to run like used to so I am paying quite a lot of attention on my running. I came across this video and thought it was pretty good. I find this to be working well for me. Just replace the Brookes he speaks of with the Saucony Kinvara.

Kicking is quite a debatable issue and sometimes a sore point amongst coaches and swimmers alike. Some swimmers simply cannot kick and trying to get a swimmer to kick as a coach is not often as easy as one may think. There are a number of reasons why some swimmers have a strong kick and why others simply don’t move when doing kicking drills.

In triathlon there is quite a debate regarding how necessary the kick really is. Many believe that using a kick simply as a means of balance and having a short fast arm stroke is the answer. Whilst this is true in some cases, this is not applicable to every athlete.

Now that we (in the Southern Hemisphere) are currently in our off-season phase it is good to know what to do and how to go about it. Most people think of off-season as gym time. Make me strong… but here’s some useful advice.

Much has been said about weight and strength training for triathletes, yet there are no conclusive studies which could confirm any schools of thought regarding this matter.

Many triathletes think that it’s better if they don’t kick while they swim in order to save their legs for the bike and run. But surely if kicking makes you a more efficient swimmer then it would be better? Well if you didn’t believe it here are some videos as to why you should kick, courtesy of The Race Club

Propulsion

Lift

Stabilizing Force

Inertia

View Coach Jesse Kropelnicki’s website

Taken from http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/

Pull buoys are useful tools in helping you improve your swimming. Every swimmer should use one. It’s just that simple. Please see below a nice piece on using pull buoys taken from http://www.goswim.tv/.

You take a piece of foam, hold it between your thighs, and go swim. Could it get any simpler? Well, yes. Here are some pull-buoy dos and don’ts that will help you EXCEL on your next pull set. And for triathletes: Learn how to use your pull buoy to simulate wetsuit swimming in the pool.

Why Do It:
Some swimmers and coaches have banned pull buoys from their tool kit, arguing that they give you a false sense of balance, that they inhibit core rotation, and that they’re more like a binky than a pool tool. But when used correctly and in moderation, pull buoys have many benefits.

A great article from www.runnersworld.com by Amy Burfoot, 2004

As a teenager, I loved to run barefoot on the Connecticut beaches, splashing through the waves. A few years later, I often ran without shoes while training for the college cross-country season, completing workouts that were the hardest, fastest, most puke-able, and yet most enjoyable of my life.

If you ever wanted to see exactly how the pros set their bikes up this is the video to do that. Perfect