Effortless Swimming

One of the most important components of a training program is slow aerobic work. One of the mistakes that I have made before and I see a lot of athletes commonly making this mistake; is that they do their slow aerobic work at a pace which is a little too quick to work the right […]

If you have ever been told by a coach to get your hips up what you might have done is bent at the hips and stuck your bum up higher in the water; therefore your bum is higher but your legs are dragging. What that does it creates more resistance and more drag than what you originally had at the start because your legs are now dragging through the water. 00:28 - Being Taller 00:52 - Kicking Drills That Get The Right Body Position 00:58 - Why  Do Swimmers Snake? The solution in order to actually get your hips up and have a better body position in the water is to sit up nice and tall, have your shoulders back and your chest out; you push your hips slightly forward. That will get you sitting straight in the water and reduce the resistance on your legs. You are actually doing the opposite of what you might think that you need to do in order to get your hips up. Instead of trying to get your bum up in the water you are pushing your hips forward and that will bring the rest of your body up with it. In the Mastering Freestyle Program a lot of the kicking drills in there help you get into that position where you have a nice straight body position and you are not bending at the hips. If you have ever seen a swimmer with a snaking type of technique where they are going from side to side and their legs are dragging along behind them; the reason most likely is because they are bending at the hips. Look at sitting up nice and tall, shoulders back, chest out, pushing your hips slightly forward and you will be a lot taller in the water and reduce your drag and resistance. That’s it for new this week. I will see you next week.

If you have ever been told by a coach to get your hips up what you might have done is bent at the hips and stuck your bum up higher in the water; therefore your bum is higher but your legs are dragging. What that does it creates more resistance and more drag than what […]

If you have ever been told by a coach to get your hips up what you might have done is bent at the hips and stuck your bum up higher in the water; therefore your bum is higher but your legs are dragging. What that does it creates more resistance and more drag than what […]

I have been getting a lot of questions lately about losing weight and swimming and do the two go together. The thing about losing weight is the majority of it comes down to what you eat and how much you eat. Swimming can play a good part in losing weight and maintaining weight but the majority of it comes from what you are eating and how much you are eating. The Dieticians Association of Australia say that 70% of it is how much and what you put into your body and 30% of losing weight is the amount of exercise that you do. 00:13 - Diet 00:50 - How to Tone Up 01:20 - The "5 Minute Salad" Recipe from Swimprove 01:31 - Visit Swimprove.com If you really want to get the benefit of exercise and losing weight, you need to exercise for 60-90 or more to burn enough calories to make a difference to your weight. If you are exercising for only 30 minutes a day then you will feel good but you won’t get that benefit. If you are looking to tone up, look fitter and look better then you need to look at doing some sprints and some harder work rather than the long aerobic slow swimming. If you look at the distance swimmers, the majority of them have a little bit of extra weight on them as opposed to the sprinters and the middle distance guys. When you are training and only doing long aerobic swimming which is slow, and you want to tone up then take a look at doing some strength work, some speed work in the pool and exercises that will get your heart rate up in the pool. In Swimprove every now and then I add some videos and some recipes of what I like to eat and what I have found works best for energy in the pool but also keep your weight down so that you can swim at your optimal level. Swimprove members can login at Swimprove.com. If you are looking to get a bit more insight into what you should be eating to become a better swimmer then take a look at Swimprove.com

I have been getting a lot of questions lately about losing weight and swimming and do the two go together. The thing about losing weight is the majority of it comes down to what you eat and how much you eat. Swimming can play a good part in losing weight and maintaining weight but the […]

I have been getting a lot of questions lately about losing weight and swimming and do the two go together. The thing about losing weight is the majority of it comes down to what you eat and how much you eat. Swimming can play a good part in losing weight and maintaining weight but the […]

In this video I am going to share with you some smart training hacks for you to improve your triathlon swim training. In the recent triathlon world championships held in New Zealand, one of our swimmers who uses the Effortless Swimming Workouts won his age group in the 45-49 years age group for Olympic distance […]

In this video I am going to share with you some smart training hacks for you to improve your triathlon swim training. In the recent triathlon world championships held in New Zealand, one of our swimmers who uses the Effortless Swimming Workouts won his age group in the 45-49 years age group for Olympic distance […]

In this video I am going to share with you some smart training hacks for you to improve your triathlon swim training. In the recent triathlon world championships held in New Zealand, one of our swimmers who uses the Effortless Swimming Workouts won his age group in the 45-49 years age group for Olympic distance triathlon, making him the world champion in triathlon for Olympic distance for his age group. I interviewed Russell Smith in the latest episode of the Effortless Swimming podcast which is at swimmingpodcast.com and I asked him about how he has been using the Effortless Swimming Workouts as part of his training. 00:06 - Smart Training Hacks 00:28 - Listen to the Latest Podcast 01:41 - How to Use the Workouts Effectively 02:27 - Visit SwimmingPodcast.com The difference between some normal workouts that you might have done before and the Effortless Swimming Workouts is a few. The first one is if you are doing a very short warm up and then going straight into main set you usually miss out on being able to get the most out of your main set; if the body is not warmed up, if the heart rate is not up then it can take a long time to get going in your main set and you miss out on the benefit of that. Whereas if you are warming up for longer and you are using some drills and doing some kicks, some scull and changing your pace up in the warm up then you are ready to go for main set. You can get the actual benefit out of the set for what the set is designed for. If you are doing 20 x 100m’s where every fourth one is fast it might take you ten of those to warm up if you are not doing a proper warm up. One of the other things is if you are doing all of your training just with pool buoy and paddles then you are going to build up a bit of strength but you are going to miss out on some of the feel of the water. If you are doing everything with paddles and pool buoy then it is not the ideal way to improve your swimming. On the podcast Russell shares how he uses the workouts in his own training program, he is emailed the workouts every month, prints them off takes them to the pool and goes through the workouts. There is no need to take 15-20 minutes to think about what you are going to do for the session and it makes it much harder to second guess yourself or take the easy road and jump out early. If you have the program in front of you then it is much easier to follow through, finish it off and work hard in the workout because it has been set by someone else. If you set it yourself I find the same thing, it is much easier to jump out early and take the easy road. The Effortless Swimming workouts are good if you train by yourself or if you are a coach or if you are just looking to find a different kind of structure for your workouts if you are not happy with what you are currently doing. Check out that podcast with Russell Smith at swimmingpodcast.com as he shares some good insights into how he uses the workouts as part of his training program and how he set himself up really well in the swim of the world championship race that allowed him to go on and win that event. That’s it for news this week.  I will see you next week.    

The strategy we are going to talk about today is Find Feet and Hang On. You see, if you are not the fastest swimmer but you know there are swimmers out there that are slightly quicker than you then, you can swim pretty much the same pace as them for the race if you find […]

The strategy we are going to talk about today is Find Feet and Hang On. You see, if you are not the fastest swimmer but you know there are swimmers out there that are slightly quicker than you then, you can swim pretty much the same pace as them for the race if you find […]

The strategy we are going to talk about today is Find Feet and Hang On. You see, if you are not the fastest swimmer but you know there are swimmers out there that are slightly quicker than you then, you can swim pretty much the same pace as them for the race if you find their feet and hang on. 0:10 - Find Feet and Hang On 0:22 - Lorne Pier To Pub 0:50 - The "Drafting" Module from The Open Water Mastery Program 1:00 - Draft at the Back of The Pack 1:30 - Hang On to Swimmers Quicker Than You & Save Time and Energy 2:00 - For more Open Water Swimming Strategies, Check Out OpenWaterMastery.com On the weekend, was the biggest ocean race here in Australia called the Pier to Pub. There is something like 4000-4500 swimmers that compete in it every year. It is a huge event. In the race that I was doing, I managed to find a swimmer that was slightly quicker than me, so he was swimming at a pace I don’t think I would have been able to maintain for race but I knew he would be slightly quicker. From the very start of the race I found him on the start line and from the very beginning I sat on his feet the whole way and basically rode his wave. You will find that in training when you are training in groups the slower swimmers can usually hang on for faster sets because they are in the draft of the other swimmers. If you are able to find a swimmer who is slightly quicker than you and you know that they are slightly quicker than you, you can position yourself from the start line to be on their feet for the entire race. They will be good with their direction for the entire race then that means you can swim with them for the majority of the race. But you don’t have to navigate if you trust their navigation skills. In this race I hardly had to look up I just had to keep my eyes on his feet and he dragged me in the whole way and I had a very good result which was better than I would have expected had I been out on my own, swimming without drafting. It is a good strategy if you are able to find a swimmer who is a little bit quicker than you, you can hang on and swim a faster pace and you can also save a tonne of energy that way too. Find Feet and Hang On and you will be better off in your events. We talk more about this in the Open Water Master's Program with Sam Shepherd who won the Pier to Pub on the weekend. I filmed open water mastery with Sam Shepherd because I know he is such a good racer and so good with his strategies and tactics in the race. If you want to get more details on open water skills and strategies like that, check out OpenWaterMastery.com and you can find it there. That’s triathlon news for the week we will see you next week.

If you want to swim a faster 50m or 100m freestyle there are a few changes you can make to your stroke in order to swim faster. 0:11 – How To Change Your Technique For Sprinting 0:27 – Shoulder Driven Freestyle 0:36 – Start The Catch Deeper 0:54 – Keep Momentum From Your Entry 1:12 […]

If you want to swim a faster 50m or 100m freestyle there are a few changes you can make to your stroke in order to swim faster. 0:11 – How To Change Your Technique For Sprinting 0:27 – Shoulder Driven Freestyle 0:36 – Start The Catch Deeper 0:54 – Keep Momentum From Your Entry 1:12 […]