THE BAMBINO GUIDE INDEX [1] Development Session Swim Types Introduction Pg The Bambino In Water Pg Stroke Correction Process Pg.

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1 VERSION b1.2 version 1.0 THE BAMBINO GUIDE INDEX 1. Swim Types Introduction Pg.3 2. The Bambino In Water Pg.4 Development Session 2 Development Session 3 Pg.16 Pg Stroke Correction Process Pg. 6 Development Session 4 Pg.22 Development Session 1 Pg Tools For Bambinos Pg.24 [1]

2 Disclaimer: Before undertaking any exercise program you must ensure you are fit and healthy to do so by consulting with your doctor. Swim Smooth is not responsible for any injury or loss sustained as a result of using this training guide or any advice given herein. All persons using this guide do so at their own risk. [2]

3 1. SWIM TYPES INTRODUCTION YOUR INDIVIDUALITY EXPLAINED Welcome to Swim Smooth's Swim Types System! By now you will have explored the Swim Types website, read the type profiles and watched the example videos. The profiles, together with the online questionnaire and observation sheet have allowed you to accurately determine your type, perhaps with the help of a friend or coach. Congratulations, you are now taking the second and most important step of working to refine your swim stroke based on your individual needs as a swimmer.this guide will show you how to improve your speed and efficiency in the water and feel a whole heap better as a result. Most swimmers and triathletes have trained or been coached to conform to an 'ideal' irrespective of their sex, build characteristics, previous swimming experience and personality. That approach is very much one-rule-fits-all. For mass market swim coaching, a simple message was sold - make your stroke long and gliding. As we'll explain below, this overly simplistic approach limits the achievements of most swimmers and makes things harder than they need to be for that majority. Meanwhile, the very best coaches in the world have taken a very different approach - tailoring the strokes of their swimmers and triathletes to their own unique attributes. This is why many of the best swimmers in the world swim with significantly different strokes - and all move very efficiently through the water. Our Swim Types System is a much more complete, authentic way of developing a swimmer's stroke technique. The system provides you with an ideal development pathway for you, by recognising you as an individual within a more specific group, or Swim Type. The Six Types If you study swimmers of all abilities, initially it appears that everyone swims completely differently to each other with their own unique style. Strictly speaking everyone's stroke is unique, however when you study a lot of swimmers you soon see how stroke characteristics clump together into classic styles - making up the six Swim Types. You too have a level of experience, personality and physical characteristics that contribute to your style. By emphasising your natural strengths in the water whilst systematically tackling your weaker areas you will improve at a much greater rate, to a higher level, than if you simply wipe the slate clean and start trying to conform to a so-called 'picture of perfection'. Most swimmers never get anywhere near this perfect stroke - and these days most coaches agree it doesn't actually exist - there is no one perfect stroke! Doing What's Right For You The power of Swim Types is that it gives you an overall blueprint for your stroke - showing you how it fits together as a whole. The system shows you your strengths and weaknesses, to get you very focused on what you need to do to improve. Many swimmers and triathletes have tried to improve their strokes and haven't become as fast or efficient as they would like. Some haven't improved at all and have become very frustrated as a result! For each Swim Type there are individual reasons for this frustration and underachievement - and unique pathways to improvement that might not work for other swimmers. Swimming technique really is all about the individual. Let's take one classic example so that you can see what we mean: The Bambino And The Smooth Take Lucy, a classic Bambino. She's quite short, has a light build and has only been swimming for three months. Like all Bambinos she lacks a little confidence in the water. Lucy has joined a swimming group and like many swimmers we know has been told by the coach that unless she can swim 40 strokes per 50m she may as well give up! This is equivalent to about 18 strokes per length in a 25m pool - taking account of the push off. Lucy tries to swim with a longer stroke, reaching out and gliding but with her limited feel for the water and short arm length finds this nearly impossible. Maybe you've had this experience too in a group or squad - it's dejecting isn't it? For Lucy, with her low swimming confidence, this experience is shattering. For the tall, skilled Smooth Swim Type, 40 strokes per 50m is a realistic goal and could be an ideal stroke length for them. However, the pathway to improvement for a Bambino is a lot different: Rather than slowing their stroke and trying to glide, a Bambino benefits greatly from adding a little punch and rhythm to their stroke. Lifting their stroke rate gives them a sense of stroke timing - and the faster movements create more pressure on their hands and limbs - letting them feel what's going on. This builds their confidence and allows them to become attuned to their environment. With her shorter arm length, Lucy is unlikely to ever swim at her optimum at 40 strokes per 50m but by improving her feel for the water and stroke rhythm, there's no reason why she can't become a very competent, fast swimmer. This is just one example of how each swim type needs to approach their swimming in a significantly different way. Are you confident that the time, energy, drills and money that you have invested in your swimming is best suited to you as an individual? If not, you are in the right place now - finally! [3]

4 2. INTRODUCTION: THE BAMBINO IN WATER Have you ever felt that most of the swim instruction out there on the internet, in books, or indeed in swim squads doesn t really suit your body type and needs in general? It s all very well talking about the complexities of 'stroke count' this or 'lap time' that, but you just feel that things need to be a little more simple to begin with? Chances are if you re a 'Bambino' swim type you didn t grow up in the water, in fact you may have had a mild or even strong dislike of swimming as a child. This is totally OK, many people go through this same thing and can still succeed when it comes to developing their stroke and enjoying the water. What you do in the initial stages of developing your freestyle stroke is so important for your subsequent and continued progress. Indeed, enjoyment of swimming is such a massive motivator for progression that without it we can often feel like it is too hard and not worth all the effort you re putting in. But it is, especially if you re following the correct path and addressing the areas of your stroke that need the most attention and that lead to the biggest breakthroughs. It is very easy for people to feel self-conscious or even embarrassed about their lack of experience in the water but you don t need to feel this way. One of the best things about learning a new skill is the challenges that this presents you with and if you can understand why these issues arise and what to do about them, you re already standing in a much more confident position than before. As swimming coaches we seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time encouraging swimmers to be smoother in the water, to slow down, to relax and not fight the water especially the Arnie / Arnette swim types. An Arnie's very nature is to be 'full-on' in many respects and until that approach is controlled, positive development is slow at best. One of the key attributes of your swim type (the Bambino) is that, by nature, you tend to be much more genteel in the water. So long as we can work on getting you feeling more relaxed and comfortable with being in this environment then you stand to progress very nicely indeed. Your inherent control combined with a bit of learned 'oomph' will work really well. In essence, you will be following the exact opposite path of the 'Arnie / Arnette' swim type with respect to control. For you we need more positivity in your swimming both with how you mentally approach things and your physical movements in the water. Remember this: You cannot hurt the water! In fact, it cannot hurt you either - so it's a friendly kind of relationship! So, what is it that makes you feel uncomfortable in the water? For many Bambinos this can be due to a childhood memory of learning to swim. Sometimes this memory is of struggling and feeling inadequate. Or sometimes having suffered some near-drowning type of incident that really put you off for your entire childhood. Head Coach Paul Newsome: "I dislike soccer for this very same reason I wasn t very good in my first few practice sessions as a kid at school, I lacked the coordination required and (whilst this could have all been taught), the insecurity and feeling of inadequacy has stuck with me all through my adult life. In soccer terms I would be a classic soccer Bambino!" The fact that you are now sat here reading this guide shows that you have taken the first and most significant step in wanting to address those feelings of apprehension. Well done that s no easy task in itself! We need to place overcoming this unease in the water at the heart of soul of your swimming development. A bit of psychology then: for most people, the biggest cause of anxiety in the water is concerning yourself with external factors that you can t control. In the pool this might be things such as how cold it is, the pungent smell of chlorine, how deep the water is and worries about what others might think about your swimming. Similarly, if you are already swimming in the open water (i.e. sea / ocean / river / lake) these external factors might be lack of visibility, other swimmers splashing around and knocking you, thoughts about what might be beneath you etc. We cannot control these factors and as such there's no benefit to focusing on them. Everyone has little setbacks with their swimming - don't let them knock you down. The important point here is that these external factors cause us a lot of stress when we are distracted by them. This stress often results in causing us to hold our breath when we swim. If you've read or watched a lot of Swim Smooth material you'll know we'll place your breathing technique at the centre of things. Ironically enough, the mere process of holding your breath in the water really magnifies this anxiety and as such we get caught in a really nasty vicious circle panic sets in and it all becomes very off-putting. So, how do we address this then? By focussing instead on the internal factors that we can control such as breathing rate, exhalation and speaking positively to ourselves in a manner that reassures us. You might think that you re not capable of this but by simply recognising these issues as the source of your anxiety and frustration is actually a good thing. You can now start to do something about this! continued on next page. [4] Swim Smooth 2010

5 Believe it or not, across all the Swim Types, holding your breath underneath the water is a very common thing to see. You d never ride a bicycle or run around the track and hold onto your breath. Regular and controlled inhalation and exhalation is what helps to keep us aerobic and operating efficiently and yet so few people do this when they swim. Sure, for strong Swinger and Smooth Swim Types they ve probably been swimming like this all their lives. With their experience and natural confidence in the water this issue is not going to present itself as significantly as it would for someone like yourself who maybe feels less comfortable in this environment. So, in a nutshell we need to address your breathing as a primary concern. In the initial stages this starts off with learning how to exhale better underneath the water without the panic and need to have your head high above the water. With respect to your actual stroke technique though, much of what makes the process of breathing feel cumbersome is connected to the rhythm and timing of your stroke and being confident that turning to take a breath in will not result in inhaling water and sinking as a result each time. None of these experiences are enjoyable, so if we can make sure that these tasks are achieved with much more ease then you re going to be well on the road to developing a much better freestyle. Adding a bit of 'oomph' and rhythm to your swimming and showing you that it is OK to add some power and increase your pace will really take you to the next level. One final tip, stay positive - you can and will improve! Male Bambinos Whilst it seems to be true that most Bambinos are female, there are also many men out there with this stroke type. Male Bambinos may have slightly less anxiety about swimming freestyle - which is obviously a good thing. However, the underlying stroke issues are identical and the same mental approach to swimming is essential for you to progress. We have put a lot of effort into making this guide as easy to digest and as visual as possible. However, sometimes you can't beat seeing these things on video. If you haven't yet done so, we highly recommend downloading our animated swimmer Mr Smooth to your computer: If you are serious about improving your swimming we'd highly recommend purchasing the Swim Smooth DVD Boxset. Three disks packed with explanations, drills, training methods, demonstrations by Olympic Gold Medallists and open water technique. The ultimate stroke correction resource when used in tandem with this guide: This amazing visualisation is supplied to you completely for free. The download allows you to view his 'ideal' freestyle stroke from any angle, clearing up any questions you might have about how the stroke should be performed. Find out more at: Get it now at: [5]

6 3. BAMBINO STROKE CORRECTION PROCESS STEP 1: BREATHING & RELAXATION Being fairly new to swimming, the chances are you will feel a little apprehensive when in the water. This is OK and is perfectly normal, especially when learning to swim in adult life. Try not to panic. The key to controlling this sensation is working on your breathing technique, specifically your exhalation. Think about the last time you felt a little stressed at work someone may have suggested you take a few big breaths in and out to calm down it s not when you breathe in though that you feel relaxed, it s when you release and breathe out that you get this feeling of relief. The tension drops and you immediately start to feel better. When you are nervous or apprehensive in the pool, or indeed in the open water, the very first thing you will inadvertently do is to hold onto your breath. This sets off a chain of paniclike anxiety effects which makes you feel like you re losing control. To bring this under control you must exhale like you would do in any situation out of the water. Subconsciously though you don t want to do this as the concern is that you ll run out of air and then be in real trouble. We need to turn this way of thinking around and be less focused on how much air you can breathe in and focus more on trying to exhale that air out and in a controlled manner. To do this we must start off with adopting some basic breathing exercises which will ensure that you don t panic. Adopting the mantra 'breathe-bubble-bubble-breathe-bubble-bubble-breathe' will help develop a good breathing pattern. Say 'bubble' on a non-breathing stroke when your face is in the water and 'breathe' on a breathing stroke. As simple as this all sounds, this really is the single biggest hurdle that you face and once you have mastered this area of the stroke everything else will seem much easier. Try not to rush through this phase - make sure you conquer it before moving on! We will use these breathing exercises during development sessions 1 and 2. STEP 2: BASIC POOL SKILLS Anything you can do to increase your enjoyable time in the water will really help to boost your confidence. Often this might mean not doing any swimming per se but spending some valuable time practicing basic pool skills like pushing off the wall in a torpedo shape, diving to the bottom of the pool and using fins / flippers to add a bit of propulsion. Try imagining yourself like a dolphin, making turns and playing around in the water much like a child would do. This will all help you feel at home in this environment. As an adult all of this may seem a little too childlike to be effective but that s exactly the point! Watching a child in the water splashing around you ll notice that they have no fear or inhibitions they re keen to try anything. If this developmental stage of your own swimming was missed as a child (or worse, you remember it as a bad experience), it really is worthwhile spending some time developing it now. It s never too late to learn to love being in the water! Stroke Correction Introduction In this section we look at the common pitfalls facing your swim type and how to go about fixing them. Specific drills and methods will be explained later during each stroke development session. If you re a Classic Bambino who has had very little swim coaching, or are new to swimming in general, then you ll identify with this whole guide very strongly. However, if you have studied stroke technique or have received some coaching then you may well have experimented with some of these areas before. The thing to point out here is that this guide is a process as opposed to just trying to tackle a host of individual aspects of the stroke and throwing them all together in a haphazard way. It s always worth at least going through this process like a check-list and ensuring that you feel competent with each stage before rushing forward to the next step. We always need to be mindful of making as few adjustments as possible to your stroke to simplify the process. Too many changes and you will feel inundated with tasks to work on and things to think about! The stroke correction steps are in the order in which we recommend they should be addressed for your type. Follow the process and stay centred on just that one area. It's almost guaranteed you ll start asking yourself if everything else is holding up or if you re forgetting to make sure you re still doing a previous step. Don t do this, stay focused on what you are working on and everything will come together much better. It is very common to see swimmers being able to skip quickly through some of the later steps of this guide because of the positive impact of the earlier steps on your stroke. Remember the freestyle stroke is a continuous chain of kinetic events all linked together find the best place to start on correcting your specific issues and we simplify the whole process. Diligently following this guide and getting to the root cause of an issue rather than just fixating on the effect will save you much time and frustration down the line. [6] Swim Smooth 2010

7 STEP 3: KICKING TECHNIQUE Before we start looking at co-ordinating the stroke, it is well worth briefly looking at improving your leg kick technique. We will work on developing a straighter leg kick action (rather than bending excessively from the knees) and also addressing your ankle / foot position. The first point is quite simple and can be easily fixed by focusing on squeezing your gluteus muscles (your bum) gently and thinking about kicking more from the hip. This doesn t want to be a stiff or rigid action but the pivot point should definitely be from the hips and not the knees. Getting better mobility in the ankle to allow you to point your feet out behind you in a more streamlined position will take a little more work. Much of this ankle stiffness will stem from not having much experience of swimming as a child. Better ankle flexibility can be achieved with some specific stretches we'll show you later that you can perform prior to each session. Also, the use of fins (flippers) will help improve your kicking technique rather than mask a poor kick, as many people believe. Both of these are included in the Development Sessions later in this guide. STEP 4: RHYTHM, TIMING AND BODY ROLL Once you are feeling more comfortable exhaling freely in the water and kicking from the hip, we need to look at improving the timing of your stroke. One simple rule to remember at the outset is that when you swim freestyle there should always be one hand in front of your head at any one time. This helps improve streamlining and support for the process of breathing in, bolstering your technique and making breathing feel that much easier. What normally happens with a Bambino's stroke is that the lead hand drops into the water and slips quickly through without much catch or feel. This results in a low-powered 'wind milling' effect without any stabilisation at the front of the stroke. The timing of the stroke becomes compromised especially when trying to breathe in. To fix this timing issue we'll use a couple of key drills including the use a 'baton' in Development Session 1as a physical cue to monitor whether or not you are doing this correctly. We'll also use a derivative of a very old swimming drill called Catch-up but includes more body rotation. When returning to full-stroke swimming, repeating the mantra bubble-bubble-stretch-bubble-bubble-stretch where the stretch is synchronised with each breathing stroke will remind you to stretch forward at this point rather than allowing the arm to slip down. This is a simple thing to remember but a powerful way to keep your lead hand out in front of your when breathing. We will use a pair of fins (flippers) for most of these exercises as they serve a couple of key purposes: to provide a little bit of confidence-building propulsion so that you can focus on the required element of your stroke timing. Fins will also encourage a better leg kick action from the hips rather than from the knee. This should feel like you are kicking with longer, straighter legs. Swim Smooth also recommends the use of the Junior version of the Finis Freestyler hand paddles for Bambinos. Wearing these great paddles will help to increase your proprioception and feeling for the water by encouraging more positivity with each hand entry. In turn, this increases the awareness and coordination of where each hand is within the stroke cycle. Finis Junior Freestyler Hand Paddles STEP 5: HEAD POSITION - PARTICULARLY WHEN BREATHING Steps 1, 2 and 4 will help to make the seemingly troublesome process of breathing in freestyle start to feel much easier. With the exercises in Step 4 you should now be rolling through the water to take a breath so that your head, neck, shoulders and hips all roll as one complete unit. You should not be twisting your neck and lifting your head to take a breath as this will disrupt both your rhythm and streamlining in the water. If you were to lift your head in such a way, you have to use your lead-arm to prop yourself up and this in turn then tends to collapse down through the water (something we worked to correct in Step 4). Further to this, lifting your head causes the bow wave to be lost. This wave relies on the top of your head to form in the water and lifting it removes the wave - and the small trough or pocket of air it creates by your head. Of course, you are looking to breathe into this pocket of air, do this by looking across the level of the pool with one goggle in the water and one goggle out. The bow wave is formed as you travel through the water. [7]

8 STEP 5 CONTINUED If you ve ever seen the cartoon Popeye, you ll know that he angles his mouth in a funny way to chew his spinach. You can do the same thing with your mouth when breathing in to ensure that you don t have to lift your head too high to get a breath. Sounds silly but it works and you should feel like you re sneaking a little breath in without disrupting the rest of your stroke. <- Popeye Breathing Of course, all of this takes confidence to achieve and so Swim Smooth highly recommends the use of a pair of fins (flippers) to assist with a little leg kick propulsion whilst you are practising this. There will be a couple of occasions when you may take in some water, but don t panic, remember what you learnt about exhalation in Point 1 and simply blow this water out of your mouth as soon as your face rolls back into the water. STEP 6: STROKE RATE One of the biggest misconceptions about stroke rate training is that it is only for elite swimmers. Actually, we see even more benefit with this technique with Bambinos than with elite swimmers! Your Stroke Rate is simply how many times your arms turn over in a minute. Without getting too bogged-down in the detail and numbers, as a Bambino your stroke rate will be quite slow. The reason behind this is that you tend to be quite genteel in the water, like you re thinking very hard about each specific hand entry into the water. Step 4 will certainly have helped this timing aspect of your stroke but now we need to search for some more positivity within your stroke: a little more oomph! To increase the rhythm of your stroke we need to elevate your stroke-rate somewhat. The advantage of this is two-fold: it helps develop more momentum and oomph in the stroke and it shortens the time between breaths. More regular breaths will mean that you ll feel less panicky in the water. The best way we ve found of controlling your stroke rate is through the use of a Wetronome which really helps simplify the development of your stroke. This little gadget is placed underneath your swimming cap and will beep a fixed rhythm to you - every time you need to take a stroke. It really simplifies the rhythm aspect of your freestyle as all you need to do is follow the beep until that rhythm becomes more natural and symmetrical. beep beep beep! To get a baseline rate, asking a friend to watch you swimming normally and count how many strokes you take in 15 seconds. Multiply this value by four to give you a Strokes Per Minute (SPM) value. If this baseline rate is say 42 SPM, have a try elevating this value by 5 or even 8 SPM and see how you fare. You may feel that by increasing your stroke rate you'll be working harder and this will make swimming tougher. Trust us - that's not always the case! Lifting your stroke rate by 5 to 8 SPM normally makes things easier, it gives your stroke more positivity. Of course take things too far and increase your stroke rate by too much and it will become hard work. Try and find that slightly elevated sweet-spot above your normal rate. This will work really well for you and keep you stroking at a nice, consistent tempo. A Wetronome is not essential to follow this guide. To lift your stroke rate without one, simple add more rhythm and positivity to your stroke. Monitor one part of your stroke - perhaps your hand entry into the water - and think about lifting the tempo so it happens with a slightly faster rhythm. STEP 7: ARM RECOVERY Being fairly new to swimming it is likely that your upper body flexibility might not be all that it could. Enhancing your body rotation through the drills in Step 4 above will ensure that your arms clear the surface of the water quite well. However, you can also improve on this with a bit of dedicated stretching targeting the upper back and shoulders. We will also apply a new drill that is targeted very much at the Bambino swim type, to assist in developing better mobility in the upper back and shoulders. [8] Swim Smooth 2010

9 STEP 8: FEEL FOR THE WATER STEP 9: RHYTHM & TIMING PT 2 Good swimmers talk about a mystical concept called 'feel for the water' that they have within their stroke. However for many this sensation is quite elusive. Developing a better feel for the water for the Bambino swim type is essential as this will further assist you with the timing of your stroke and give you greater support from your lead hand when breathing. Both of these will help you feel more relaxed and comfortable in the water. The drills associated with developing this aspect of the stroke are all quite enjoyable and link in very much with the more playful exercises that we suggested in Step 2. We call these drills sculling and they are aimed at increasing the sensation of water pressure on the palm of the hand so that when you do start to pull through, you feel like you are pressing water back behind you. This in turn sends you forwards. Getting your stroke working really well is all about improving the timing of the arm stroke and recognising where each hand is relative to the other and also relative to the head. Remember, the key point is to always feel like one hand is in front of your head. In Step 4 we started to address the timing of your stroke and we performed some drills which had your hands completely catchingup in front of you, like they were playing tag with each other. Stroke timing can be thought of as a spectrum. One end of the spectrum is where your stroke started from, with the lead-arm slipping in the water and arms wind milling in a low-powered way: The other end of that spectrum being a complete catch-up with the hands meeting at the front of the stroke. Most Bambinos lack this propulsive drive and this is the why they move more slowly through the water than the more advanced swim types. The key here is to be pressing back on the water in the direction of the wall behind you, rather than pushing it downwards to the bottom of the pool. Possibly the easiest way to do this is to imagine a smiley face painted on the palm of each hand. Once your hand has entered the water and lengthened forward, you should then begin to commence the catch by tipping the fingertips down. You start this by pivoting at the wrist and showing that smiley face on the palm of your hand back behind you: Initially it was important to make you catch up at the front to experience the feeling and tune into it. However, that's not a very efficient way to swim either. What we need to develop now is a happy halfway house between these two points where you're neither slipping nor fully catching up. Some coaches refer to this as a "three quarter catch-up. The key with this timing is that there is always one hand in front of the head without the hands quite catching up: As you can imagine, this requires some good coordination and all of the steps above (particularly steps 4 & 8) will have already allowed you to make some good progress towards this. We'll use a pull buoy to isolate the catch phase of the stroke and develop your bent elbow catch. We have a very special single-arm drill called UNCO that helps you get the hang of this timing. It's quite a tricky drill - in fact the name Unco suggests it's difficult to co-ordinate! Ironically, when you get the hang of the drill it does wonders for your stroke and really makes your stroke more coordinated. As a bonus, it further assists with the breathing technique that you re aiming to develop. [9] Swim Smooth 2010

10 STEP 10: DEVELOPING SOME OOMPH! You might feel at this stage that you re still only wanting to work on technique and that any speed should not yet be attempted. However, with the Bambino swim type, a little faster swimming is quite essential for you to develop. Don t be afraid to hurt the water at this stage go ahead and do some short (15 to 20m) sprints where you really crank-up the speed and give it some power. You might be concerned that your new stroke will fall apart, but don t be, generating a little more positivity and 'oomph' at this stage is just as important as all the other points above and its position in this list at number 10 is exactly where it should be. Taking this a step further and doing some intervals of 100m (e.g. 6 or 8 x 100m) holding your fastest maintainable pace will also be good for your development at this stage. See Development Session 2 later! Rachel's stroke has a lot of Oomph! STEP 11: OPEN WATER Whilst this is the last step on our list, don t feel like you have to have mastered all the steps above to give this a go. The key to swimming well in the open water for a Bambino is keeping that anxiety under control and not panic. We discussed earlier how focusing on external factors like how cold it is, how deep it is and what may be underneath you, can really create a lot of tension and anxiety and this will immediately force you to start holding your breath. At this point the key thing to remember is Point 1 from this list never, ever, ever hold onto your breath. By staying internally focused and just concentrating on things such as blowing a steady stream of bubbles from your mouth, saying words to yourself like smooth or relax, you will automatically bring things under control and start to feel better. The sooner you can do this the better, obviously! If you do find yourself panicking, flip over onto your back or do a few strokes of breast-stroke with your head up, take in a few nice easy breaths, tell yourself you re OK, focus back on your breathing and then try to start swimming freestyle again. You will be OK! What often causes panic at the start of a race is feeling like you have to keep up with others so as to not be swum over by someone else. Good positioning towards the back of the pack will really help here in the initial stages and once you ve built your confidence up a bit you ll soon feel better moving up a little higher and taking advantage of drafting off other swimmers a little faster than yourself. Our biggest tip for Bambinos when dealing with the melee of other swimmers around you is to stay totally internally focused, even to the point of feeling selfish and imagining you re the only one in the water. If you do get bumped around a little (and you might) try to ignore it and just keep focusing on the rhythm and timing of your stroke that we worked on in Steps 4 & 6. [10] Swim Smooth 2010

11 Bambino Development Session 1 This is a little technique session you can repeat as often as you like. It should feel quite easy but it's very important for your stroke. Fit it in during a work lunchtime! The session kicks off with breathing technique exercises. Really relax and let go of all the stresses of the day during this gentle start. WARM-UP: 3x Sink-Downs 200m or 4x50m Freestyle of Bubble-Bubble-Breathe 3x Sink-Downs 200m Pull Buoy Or Fins: Freestyle Bubble-Bubble-Stretch 5 Minutes Of Water-Play Time! Steps 1 & 2 NEXT: LASTLY: 2x 20 seconds Ankle Stretches 4x Torpedo Push offs and Swim Back Toes-Tapping 4x 50m Kick On Side with Fins: 25m Left Side, 25 Right Side (make sure you don't drop your lead arm!) 4x 100m Fins 6/1/6 with Vitamin Tube freestyle 2x 5 Minute Swims: (1) Bubble-Bubble-Stretch (2) Sneaky Breathing Steps 3 & 4 ' means up the pool ' means back down the pool Step 5 All of these methods and drills are described in detail on pgs Say the word 'stretch' as you go to breathe. Really focus on stretching out that lead hand and not letting it collapse as you do so. You'll find breathing much easier when you get this right! [11] Swim Smooth 2010

12 sink downs Most people think that buoyancy is a good thing for freestyle swimming. It is, when it is evenly distributed along the body, allowing them to lie horizontally in the water without their legs sinking. Many swimmers have a problem with their legs dragging low in the water, which is very inefficient. When looking for the cause of this, the first port of call is whether a swimmer is holding their breath under the water. We see this in at least 90% of the swimmers that we analyze - many having been taught to swim this way. However, when do you ever hold your breath in any other sport? You don t. Doing so creates tension, adds to anxiety and panic, and causes the chest and torso to sit high whilst the legs drop down low. All Swim Types will benefit from this Sink Down exercise because it lifts your legs up and helps you feel more relaxed, comfortable and aerobic when you swim. You may put down the fact that swimming feels aerobically challenging to be due to lack of swim specific fitness - which it could be of course. However, we should first address how well you exhale in the water before making any judgment calls on that. How To Sink Down: Ideally for this exercise you need to be in a pool with a depth of between 1½ and 2½m (5 to 8 feet). If you are a little nervous of deeper water, perform this exercise within reach of the wall. If you are totally comfortable then just scull or tread water about an arm's reach away. Take a big, deep breath of air in and then let out a big, relaxed sigh and see if you can sink down to the bottom of the pool. Remember to simply relax your arms down by your side, go all limp and avoid the temptation to keep your head above the water. Just relax and sink down - it's a bit like collapsing on the sofa at the end of a hard day. Keep that long, steady stream of bubbles going and then rise back up to the surface by pushing off the bottom of the pool. Don t stay down too long and avoid gasping for air when you come back up - just make it a nice, easy inhale. Experiment by exhaling just through your mouth (like you re sighing), just through your nose (like you re humming) or a combination of the two. Once you find a method that works well for you and helps you increasingly relax, do three or four Sink Downs in a row. Never hold your breath doing this exercise - either inhale above water or exhale underwater - no pausing! Now set off for a few steady laps of freestyle and think only about your exhalation - exhale in the same manner as during the Sink Downs whenever your face is in the water. What If I Feel Panicky Doing This? In this case employ the services of a partner or 'buddy' who is in the water with you and can support and assist you. Also hold onto the side of the pool during the first few attempts as your face goes under the water. Blow out and as you start to get rid of some of that air, you should feel like it s easier to keep your head down in the water as you re starting to lose some buoyancy. When you feel less buoyant, recognize the point at which that occurs and keep blowing out for just a few seconds longer. You may need to blow out a little quicker but all the time keep it smooth and relaxed like you are sighing. Once you feel comfortable with this tipping point between buoyancy and sinking, let go of the wall and see if you can sink down without holding on. Progress to doing the exercise without holding on. If this exercise does feel challenging for you, it shows that this is an area of your stroke that needs some attention. Don t give up - it will get better and even if you feel very buoyant to begin with, you should be able to sink down to the bottom of the pool once you have learnt to exhale efficiently enough. breathe- -bubble- -bubble- -breathe! Once you developed your exhalation, you can now look at building the rhythm behind an efficient bilateral breathing stroke. Bilateral breathing is where you breathe to both sides, usually every three strokes. What stops most people breathing bilaterally is the feeling they re going to run out of air and that it feels awkward. That awkward feeling is caused by a lack of body roll to the non-breathing side. This simple little exercise requires you to literally say BUBBLE very loosely in the water each time your hand enters. This sounds very basic but by saying BUBBLE you ll be exhaling on each stroke (especially important on the first) and also helping yourself with the timing of the stroke. Push-off for a lap of normal freestyle, take a breath in (to either side) and then say BUBBLE as soon as your first hand enters the water after the breathe, BUBBLE on the second hand and then rotate your head to breathe in again on the third stroke. This forms the BREATHE-BUBBLE-BUBBLE- BREATHE mantra that you repeat to yourself as you swim. After trying this a few times you should start to find it unnecessary to say BUBBLE into the water, so once you have the rhythm set, just think it. Remember, keep that exhalation like a steady sigh! This exercise is particularly useful for those developing their bilateral breathing and remember, if you take in some water to that nondominant breathing side, ensure you are rotating well to that side and it will soon feel easier. [12] Swim Smooth 2010

13 bubble-bubble-stretch Much like the breathe-bubble-bubble-breathe mantra but this time place more emphasis on what you are doing with the lead-arm when you go to take a breath in. popeye drill or 'sneaky breathing' How does Popeye chew his spinach? With his mouth angled strangely off to one side. Shape your mouth like this when you go to take a breath in and you ll be able to clear your mouth out of the water much more easily and without lifting your head so high: If someone s stroke is going to fall apart it ll do so when they go to breathe in. At this point in the stroke all you re thinking about is give me that air!. However, if you place more emphasis on holding the stroke together at this point by stretching forward, this will keep the rhythm of the stroke together. Plus you have a subtly longer window to breathe in for, making the whole stroke that much more relaxed. Most people s rhythm when they swim is stroke-stroke-dropstroke-stroke-drop where the drop coincides with the lead arm collapsing as they go to take a breath. This lack of support makes breathing much harder than it needs to be. By thinking bubble-bubble-stretch instead you will ensure that the lead arm provides support whilst you re breathing in. Lifting your head just causes your bum and legs to drop down low. Think of this as quite a quick, almost 'sneaky' movement and aim to keep one eye in the water and one eye out, breathing across the pool. Your head creates a bow-wave as you cut through the water and doing so creates a small trough behind it which you re aiming to breathe into. Lift your head too high and it disappears: ankle / calf stretches Ankle and foot flexibility is very often a problem for Bambinos. Introduce these three stretches to gradually improve your ankle / calf flexibility: 1) Place a cushion or mat under your knees and kneel on the ground (barefoot) with your toes curled underneath you. Sit gently back on your heels. You should feel a stretch under the foot along your arch. If this stretch is too extreme and results in cramping, don t sit right back on your heels. Equally, be careful with your knees as well if you have issues there. This stretches the plantar fascia connective tissue in the sole of the foot which is often tight in those with poor ankle mobility: [13] Swim Smooth 2010

14 ankle / calf stretches cont. 2) Keeping a similar position as Stretch # 1, place your feet flat down on the ground with the top of your foot flat on the ground tucked under your butt. This stretches the front of the shin and works antagonistically with Stretch # 1 to ensure better mobility for pointing your toes. If you find this comfortable, try very slowly lifting one knee off the ground with your hand and you should feel a subtle increase with the stretch: torpedo push-offs + swim back An efficient kicking technique doesn t have to be overly propulsive. This exercise is great at developing the balance between propulsion and reducing drag. Push off the wall, one hand on top of the other in a torpedo position and really stretch out and about 50cm under the water. Aim to kick as hard as you can and as fast as you can until you run out of breath and then stop: 3) Perform a standard calf stretch against a wall with one foot back and one foot close towards the wall like you re trying to push it over. Keep the heel of your back foot down on the ground and feel the gentle stretch through the calf muscle. Swap over and try it on the other side: Your focus should be on long, straight legs with your toes pointed back behind you and turned slightly in (pigeon-toed) so your big toes rub past each other with each kick. You should be able to cover 7 to 20 meters like this. When you stop you ll notice how hard you are now breathing and how rapidly your heart is beating. Kicking like this with normal freestyle is very fatiguing indeed and would only suit a sprint event. Now turn around and swim back to the wall with normal freestyle and just focus on very minimal effort from the legs but feeling like the big toes are still brushing past each other. Brushing you big toes is a very simple physical cue to recognize when your legs are staying together. When you push and drive off the wall in a torpedo position, you should feel like the stretch goes through the whole body (thinking of being stretched out like a stick of liquorice) particularly in the core region of the abdominal muscles and lower back. As soon as they start swimming, most people tend to forget this stretch and go back to a slumped mid-section, which results in articulation in the middle of the body - snaking. Focus on maintaining a good stretch in this region and at the same time slightly tilt the pelvis and squeeze your bum. This will cause you to sit much higher in the water and dramatically reduce your drag. [14] Swim Smooth 2010

15 kicking on side This drill involves kicking on your side - perfectly at 90 with your lower arm outstretched and the other arm by your side: 6/1/6 You can advance the Kicking On Side exercise one stage further and start to build the freestyle stroke back-up by swapping sides with one arm stroke every time you need to take a breath. This is a great exercise for working on body rotation and also for the timing of your stroke. With timing, the challenge is to keep the lead arm extended until the recovering arm catches it up. If you find this difficult, try holding a Vitamin tablet tube or something similar out in front of you with the lead arm: This simulates the position the body will be in when you go to take a breath, albeit with your body roll exaggerated to 90 as opposed to the norm of 30 to 45. This is best done with a pair of fins on, providing you with propulsion and allowing you to stay relaxed. If kicking with your left arm outstretched, your right arm should be down at your hip like it s resting in a front pocket and your chest and stomach looking perfectly across the pool. Your eyes should be looking down past your armpit (even though your body is rotated) and you should be blowing a long stream of continuous bubbles. Use it as a relay baton making sure it always stays out in front of your head as you swap from hand to hand: To breathe in, just tilt your chin to the side enough to clear your face out of the water and then return to looking down and exhaling. We are looking to improve the support from the lead hand, to make breathing much easier. To do this, think about improving your posture as you kick by drawing your shoulders back and pushing your chest forward. This will immediately straighten you up and is a great exercise for those who cross-over at the front of the stroke when they swim. Rather than feeling like you are leaning on that lead arm and dropping your elbow - which would result in it sinking - aim to keep the elbow higher than the wrist and the wrist higher than the finger tips: Bambinos and Arnies will find the Vitamin tablet tube useful as will the more unrefined Swinger types who struggle with good stroke timing. This is a great position to be in to set up for a good catch and pull through. Try doing one lap on one side and then another lap on the other side. Work out which side feels best and then aim to mirror what you re doing with this side with your non-dominant side. As simple as this exercise is, it can work wonders for your body awareness in the water. If you re really confident you can try doing it with your eyes closed - so long as your posture and alignment is good, you should still be able to keep yourself straight. Be wary of walls, lane ropes and other Once you are comfortable performing this drill with the tube, you can progress to the normal 6/1/6 drill by performing it without the tube. In Swim Smooth World this drill is called 6/1/6 as you kick on the side for six kicks, take one stroke and then kick on the other side for six kicks. It's a great drill for alignment - if you start zigzagging down the pool you re probably not thinking about your posture and allowing that lead arm to drift across your centre-line. [15] Swim Smooth 2010

16 Bambino Development Session 2 This session contains a mix of technique work focusing on lengthening out your stroke and aerobic swimming working on your efficiency over distance. The same warmup as Session 1 - if you did 4x50m last time, aim for the 200m this time. WARM-UP: 3x Sink-Downs 200m or 4x 50m Freestyle of Bubble-Bubble-Breathe 3x Sink-Downs 200m Pull Buoy Or Fins Freestyle Bubble-Bubble-Stretch 5 Minutes Of Water-Play Time! Steps 1 & 2 THEN: 300m with Fins: 6/1/6 with Vitamin Tube Freestyle Steps 3 & 4 STRETCHING: Stretching on Pool Deck for 3-4 mins Step 7 THEN: 4x 100m With Fins: Broken Arrow Drill with Vit. Tube Freestyle 200m Continuous With Good Tempo (if own Wetronome, set to base rate +5 SPM) Step 7 Step 6 LASTLY: 4x 50m Scull #1 for 15m + 35m freestyle - imagine those smiley faces on the palms of your hands! Step 8 A Wetronome sits by your ear and beeps a stroke rate to time your strokes. Press The Water Backwards, Not Downwards New methods and drills are described in detail on pg To generate good propulsion on the water you need to press the water backwards to the wall behind you - starting right out at the front of your stroke. Imagine someone's drawn a smiley face on your hands with a big marker pen. As you swim, show that face to the wall behind you as early as you can in your stroke. Don't be afraid to experiment and really exaggerate this movement. Deceptively powerful, this little marvel lets you take control of your rhythm & timing. [16] Swim Smooth 2010

17 wetronome mk2 A Wetronome is optional to the successful completion of this guide but is of such value to Bambinos it's worth covering how to use one here. pull buoy - or 'pull' Place a foam pull buoy between your legs (up as high into your crotch as is comfortable) and then swim normal freestyle with your legs held straight and toes pointed. Don't kick with a pull buoy - that is cheating - instead let the buoyancy of the pull buoy support you. The Wetronome Mk2 helps you work on the rhythm and timing of your stroke and also your pacing per 100m. The device has two modes: 1) Stroke Rate Mode where it beeps to you every time you should take a stroke. 2) Lap-Interval Mode where it beeps every time you should hit the end of the pool, to help you pace the speed of your swims. Find out two things before using your Wetronome: 1. Your Natural or Base Stroke Rate To find your natural stroke rate, you need to swim continuously for approximately five minutes at a moderately hard speed (fast but not quite flat-out). Ask a friend or coach to count how many strokes you take in fifteen seconds (counting each arm as a stroke). Now multiply this value by four to give you a Strokes Per Minute (SPM) value. Every swimmer will see some variability in their stroke rate depending on the intensity and distance of their swim, however the test above will give you a good base rate to work from to develop your distance freestyle stroke technique. The Wetronome can be used to experiment with stroke rates above and below your base rate to define your most optimal balance between stroke rate and stroke length. Find out more here: and take the stroke rate ramp test here: 2. Your Threshold Pace Your lactate threshold pace is the key determinant of performance in distance swimming speed - or in plain English: the higher your lactate threshold pace, the faster you will swim in races. If you know what this pace is, you can target it and improve it, to move you up the field. Since taking blood samples is expensive, invasive and very tricky in a pool, we take this concept and define another way to find this threshold pace. At Swim Smooth we define a working threshold at the pace you can swim 1000m to 1500m in a time trial - we call this Critical Swim Speed (CSS). A long time trial like this is tiring and mentally challenging, so we suggest using a special calculation based on shorter 200m and 400m time trials to calculate CSS speed. For the calculation and test method see: (if you swim in a yard pool, simply enter your 200/400yd times and it will return you pace in time/100yd) Whenever swimming with a pull buoy it's always good to focus on maintaining good body roll. This is because most swimmers become flatter when 'pulling'. The added buoyancy of the pull buoy will lift your legs higher and you should feel much less challenged aerobically. If you are very kickdominant and lack catch and feel for the water at the front end of the stroke, you may find that you go much slower with a pull buoy. Arnies and Arnettes tend to love pull buoys as it masks their poorer body position in the water. Kicktastics find it frustrating that they are suddenly slower as they cannot use their leg kick. If you are a Kicktastic, try looking a touch further forward in the water to balance out your body position and avoid any feeling of being unbalanced or uncoordinated. For all Swim Types, avoid being too aggressive with your catch and pull through, doing so will cause you to slip and lose some of that feel for the water that we re trying to develop. Use the pull buoy in combination with the sculling and doggy paddle drills to isolate your arms as the sole source of propulsion. sea anchors Use this drill to test how much a lack of ankle flexibility may be holding you back when you swim. Using your pull buoy, swim with your toes pointed back behind you as streamlined as possible. This is called plantar flexion and is akin to how a ballerina might point her toes. Swim like this until you reach the halfway point of the lap and then purposefully point your toes down to the bottom of the pool. This is called dorsi flexion and is the position your feet would be in if you stood flat on the ground. Whilst this dorsi-flexed position might seem extreme, many swimmers with team-sports backgrounds have a severe lack of flexibility in their ankles. As you ll experience when your legs immediately drop down in the water, this creates a huge amount of drag: To improve your threshold, swim your quality sets at this speed with short recoveries. It's easy to set off faster than this, or swim quicker with more recovery time but this trains different energy systems and isn't optimum for your distance freestyle development. Find out more and see some sample sets at: Try a few laps and find that point with your ankles and feet where you feel relaxed and streamlined and then aim to swim this way normally. [17] Swim Smooth 2010

18 broken arrow The Broken Arrow drill is a new drill that we ve designed to help those swimmers who tend to have limited upper body flexibility, especially in the neck, shoulders and upper back. We recommend you use fins and kick on your side as you would do with the 6/1/6 exercise. As you re doing this, slowly raise your arm straight up so it points to the sky: Pause here for 1 or 2 seconds and then break the arrow of your arm by allowing the elbow to now bend and the arm to then spear into the water in a nice, smooth and controlled manner. This straighter arm recovery allows those with poor flexibility to get more arm clearance over the top of the water and is especially useful for open water swimming when developing a straighter arm recovery for wearing a wetsuit and getting through chop. Perform the exercise in a similar fashion to the 6/1/6 drill, with the emphasis being on what the recovering arm is doing than on the body rotation. When you go straight into normal freestyle after this drill, feel a sensation of looseness in the shoulders and upper back as you swim with a slightly higher arm recovery. scull #1 In order to better feel the water at the front of the stroke we can try some sculling. This is simply an exercise to build up your proprioception for what the water feels like. Once you have this feeling you re then better set for catching the water more efficiently as you go into your stroke. Perform Scull #1 in a prone position (head up), arms out-stretched as though hands have just entered the water at the front of the stroke. The legs trail behind with a small flutter kick or better still using a pull buoy without kicking. Gently scull the hands in and out together as though mixing hot and cold water with the hands about 30cm (1ft) beneath the surface. Try to raise your chest and shoulders up in the water. Always keep your finger-tips below your wrists and your wrists below your elbows to create forward motion. If you don t move anywhere (or even go backwards) the chances are you re dropping your elbows and wrists - pushing the water away from you and so pushing you backwards. Many people drop their wrists in this manner in their full stroke - especially when trying to glide. Remember, this is not breast stroke - you don't scoop the water back behind you. By changing the angle and pitch of your hand you can generate forward motion simply by moving the hands left and right. We normally perform sculling drills for a short distance, such as 15m, then immediately start into full stroke. Tune into that feeling of the water on the palms and fingers during the drill and then maintain it when transitioning into swimming. [18] Swim Smooth 2010

19 3x upper body stretches Some swimmers and triathletes are very stiff in their neck, upper back and shoulders. Exercises which develop the chest muscles (e.g. bench press in the gym) would be better replaced by exercises that improve the ability to retract the shoulder blades together and back (i.e. seated upright rowing or lateral pull down). These exercises ensure a better balance between the muscles at the front of the shoulder and the muscles at the back, thus improving posture. These muscle groups can be improved for mobility with these three simple stretches: Pectoral Stretch Standing close to a wall, bend your elbow to 90 degrees and press your elbow and forearm up against the wall. Slowly turn your upper body away from the wall and think about drawing your shoulder blades together and back. Don t force this stretch, but feel the stretch down through the front of the chest, repeat on both sides and hold for approximately 20 seconds. Latissumus Dorsi Stretch Kneel down on the ground and then reach forward with both arms and lay your hands on the ground with your head bowed down like you are praying. Gently lean back on your heels and feel the stretch under the arm pits. Hold for approximately 20 seconds, sit up and shake off and then repeat. Upper Back Stretch This requires co-ordination but is brilliant for those with stiff upper backs. Lay on your front with both arms reaching up above your head. Keeping your left hand reaching forwards in front of your head, move your right arm to your side so that it creates a right angle with the left arm. Now, curl your toes under and then starting with the right arm, peel this off the ground and roll it back over to the over side whilst keeping the left arm down and the feet where they are: This will create a twist through the torso. Now balance this by bringing the right leg up to 90 degrees as well and feel the stretch running from your right biceps and shoulder, through you upper and lower back, down through the glutes, hamstrings and calf - it really is a great exercise. Hold for 30 seconds and take some nice, deep breaths in this position feeling like you are sinking into the ground. Slowly return to your starting position and then try again going the opposite way. Be very careful with this exercise if you have a bad back - if in doubt, go without! [19] Swim Smooth 2010

20 Bambino Development Session 3 More technique work and some faster swimming in session 3. Take on and enjoy the challenge! WARM-UP: 3x Sink Downs 300m Continuous Freestyle, easy pace 200m Fins: Freestyle (with vitamin tube) 100m Pull Buoy as 25m Doggy Paddle / 25m Freestyle Steps 1, 2, 7 & 8 THEN: 4x 25m Single Arm In Front Drill 2x with fins: 4x 25m Single Arm By Side Step 9 4x25m Unco CHOOSE ONE MAIN SET: Set 1: 2x 8x 25m + 10s recovery 4x 50m + 10s 2x 100m + 20s Swim whole set as alternate 25m PFQ then 25m easy Set2: 16x 25m + 10s, sprint every 4th 12x 25m + 15s, sprint every 3rd 8x 25m + 20s, sprint every 2nd 4x 25m + 30s, sprint every one! Step 10 Set 3: 10x 100m at 80% effort + 20s (hold best possible pace) COOL DOWN: 2x 100m with Fins - Very Easy Pace Step 9 Take your arm up high, pause for two seconds, then break the arrow by bending your elbow. Then spear in. Full description on page 18. Faster Swimming A choice of three main sets here. In each case go for it and see what you can do! Swim with a faster rhythm at all times - if you have a Wetronome try for your base stroke rate +6 to 8 SPM. Don't be afraid to hurt the water! 'PFQ' simply stands for Pretty Flippin Quick (well, that s the polite version). This is 110% effort - eye-balls-out as fast as you can go! [20] Swim Smooth 2010

21 single arm drills inc. unco SINGLE ARM # 1 (ARM OUTSTRETCHED) Wearing fins, push off in torpedo position leaving left arm extended. Perform half a length pulling through only with the right arm and breathing every stroke in time with the pull through. Concentrate on a relaxed recovery and good pull through. Swap over after half way. The extended arm acts as support in the water, but may also inhibit the body rolling effectively. That s where Single Arm Drill # 2 comes in: SINGLE ARM # 2 (ARM BY SIDE) Wearing fins, perform as per the Single Arm Drill # 1 but with one arm always down by your side and stroking with the other arm. Breathe to the same side that you are stroking. Care must be taken to ensure good body rotation when doing this drill and this leads you perfectly onto Single Arm Drill # 3, the 'UNCO' drill. SINGLE ARM # 3 (UNCO) Wearing fins, start off as Single Arm Drill # 2 with one arm down by your side and the other arm stroking. Perform two or three strokes without breathing and then the next time this stroking arm enters the water, try rolling and breathing away from this arm to the side where your arm is by your side. It takes some practice at first and will feel quite uncoordinated (hence the name 'Unco'), but once you have the rhythm required it is this focus on coordination that will really help you develop your stroke. Really emphasize your body rotation with this drill, rolling the non-stroking shoulder out of the water to breathe and then really dipping this shoulder and same hip back into the water to allow the stroking arm to easily recover over the surface again. Aim to breathe every stroke as this will help you with the body rotation. Try going immediately into some normal freestyle and seeing how much better your rhythm and timing feels. It's quite a technical drill this one, but don t give up - it will get better! doggy paddle This is similar to the Doggy Paddle children use to learn to swim with both arms kept under the water at all time. This drill has a slightly longer movement than kid's doggy paddle, extending more at the front and finishing at the mid-riff. Roll a little from the hips as you swim it: Start in a prone position in water with head up and use a small freestyle flutter kick. Alternate extension of each arm out in front, cock the wrist and hold the water at the front. Imagine you have taken hold of a rope about 50cm under the centre-line of your body and pull yourself along the imaginary rope until the hand reaches just above waist level. [21] Swim Smooth 2010

22 Bambino Development Session 4 Some open water skills development is included in this session to prepare you for racing without a black-line! You'll benefit from this even if you don't intend to race in open water. WARM-UP: 500m continuous swim. Aim to pace this evenly. Focus on exhalation the whole time and relax! Step 1 THEN: MAIN SET: 4x 50m as 15m Scull #1 + 35m Freestyle 2x 100m Front Quadrant Freestyle - Long and Smooth 200m Steady Freestyle, Long Strokes (Wetronome set to natural stroke rate less 5 SPM if you have one) If at all possible, swim this with a group of 3 to 5 other people, it will make it more fun and a little bit more hectic: Steps 3, 8 & 9 2x fast 300m drafting in a group - start quickly and then settle in, controlling breathing. Learn how quickly you can go and still be able to settle in. Go for it! 4x 50m swum as 25m fast + 25m easy (take 15 seconds rest between each 50m) Steps 10 & 11 COOL DOWN: 200m fins 6/3/6 Freestyle Step 8 & 9 25 Fast + 25 Easy Front Quadrant Swimming is the best stroke timing for the vast majority of swimmers. Simply perform 25m fast off the wall and follow immediately with 25m nice and easy for recovery. On the fast section don t go eye-balls out, swim fast but controlled and maintain your stroke form as you do it. Front quadrant means both arms pass in front of the head - one above and one below the water. It doesn't mean they fully catch-up at the front of the stroke as many people believe - that would cause a loss of efficiency from the large dead spot it creates. [22] Swim Smooth 2010

23 6/3/6 finis freestylers One step along from 6/1/6 is 6/3/6. It's as simple as copying all the elements of the 6/1/6 drill up until you go to take a breath. Instead of a single stroke, swim three continuous strokes of normal freestyle and pause on the other side to take a breath and stretch out again. This is a great exercise for developing rotation, allowing you to start to transfer this rotation in to the normal stroke and to always feel like one hand is supporting you in front of your head. That's especially important when you go to breathe. By working on your alignment with the side kicking exercises and then visualizing your middle finger extending forward in front of the same shoulder you should be now starting to rectify that cross-over. It s always nice to know just how well you re doing with this in real time. The Finis Freestyler Paddles were made with this very idea in mind. They are a technique paddle which will fall off as your hand enters into the water if you are anything but straight and aligned: Focus on drawing your shoulders back and down in the kicking position: This immediate biofeedback lets you make 'on the fly' adjustments to your stroke while you swim. Don t cheat and grip the outside of the paddle, keep the palm flat and fingers together. Aim to spear into the water with a slight emphasis on keeping the nose of the paddle down. Do this by applying a subtle pressure underneath the fingertips. Don t cut yourself short of breath on this exercise and if needs be, shorten the kicking proportion slightly so that you don t have to rush through the three strokes before breathing. If you can do a lap and keep them on, you know you re heading in the right direction. Because these aren t a power paddle and they help you correct your cross-over technique, they should reduce stress on the shoulder rather than increase it like a conventional paddle. As such they are great for those swimmers trying to correct their stroke to avoid injury. [23] Swim Smooth 2010

24 FINIS FREESTYLER PADDLES 4. SWIM SMOOTH TOOLS FOR BAMBINOS Bambinos respond really well to some of the swimming tools on the market. We'd highly recommend any from this selection to help you develop your freestyle stroke. These unique paddles are a fantastic tool to help get you straight in the water and avoid crossover - we recommend the smaller white junior version for Bambinos. For more information and to purchase: WETRONOME Mk2 Increase your stroke rhythm in a controlled manner to lengthen out your stroke and become more efficient. Use the new Lap-Interval mode to improve your pacing skills as you get into faster swim sets! For more information and to purchase: SWIM SMOOTH DVD BOXSET If you are interested in more information about the freestyle stroke and how to perform it, our Swim Smooth DVD Boxset is the Gold Standard resource on the market. Full of clear explanations about the freestyle stroke and great visuals - including demonstrations by Olympic swimmers. FINIS TECH TOC Here's a great tool if you feel you are a little flat in the water. Receive immediate biofeedback in the form of an audible click if you rotate sufficiently. Helps lengthen out your stroke and make you more efficient through the water. Includes demonstrations of most of the drills described in this guide. For more information and to purchase: For more information and to purchase: [24] Swim Smooth 2010

25 5. GET MORE FROM SWIM SMOOTH Swim Smooth offers you many other ways that you can improve your swimming. OUR BLOG: Feel For The Water is our hints and tips blog which is delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to it and once a week we'll send you advice on how to develop your swimming. With a readership of over twenty thousand, it's a fun and easily digestible way to learn more about fast efficient swimming: As a free joining gift to the blog you'll receive the very cool Mr Smooth Animation for your desktop. Understand an ideal freestyle stroke: OUR TRIATHLON TRAINING PLANS Need a structured training plan to get your swim ready for your triathlon season? Use one of our Waterproof Training Plans to take poolside every session: OUR INTERNET FORUM: Our forum is a communal site where you can ask questions and chat with other swimmers. You'll also get access to Swim Smooth coaches who will answer your questions directly and give you the benefit of their expertise. Check it out here: Each training plan contains 35 Sessions to develop your stroke and swim specific fitness training for your perfect race. Find out more: FEEDBACK This guide is written and published by Swim Smooth This guide, or any part herein, may not be reproduced, copied or distributed in any form, electronic or otherwise. Swim Smooth, Isfryn, Llangernyw, Abergele, LL22 8PP, UK If you have any comments or feedback about this training guide or anything Swim Smooth, please send us an to: feedback@swimsmooth.com We're always looking to improve and would love to hear from you.