VERSION a1.2 version 1.0 THE ARNIE GUIDE INDEX 1. Swim Types Introduction Pg. 3 2. Introd'n: The Arnie In Water Pg. 4 3. Stroke Correction Process Pg. 6 Development Session 2 Development Session 3 Development Session 4 Pg.14 Pg.16 Pg.19 Development Session 1 Pg. 10 4. Tools For Arnies Pg.21 [1]
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. www.swimtypes.com [2] Swim Smooth 2010
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]
2. INTRODUCTION: THE ARNIE IN WATER Let s get this straight right away, you - Arnies and Arnettes - are athletically talented and just because swimming feels frustrating right now, doesn t mean that it s always going to feel that way. Of all the swim types you have the potential to progress at the highest rate, if we can just work to control that burning desire to be good yesterday! Think of your competitive nature as a true advantage but learn to tame that at times when stroke technique development is the area you are targeting. You have strength and athletic prowess to spare (even if you don t necessarily realise it) and this has probably served you very well with land based sports. In a nutshell, for you to improve we need to tone-down this power and improve your control and finesse in the water. When done correctly, you really can improve out of sight, however you need to learn to embrace swimming and not see the water as your enemy and something you need to plough through. In fact, one of the biggest hurdles you will face is simply learning to enjoy being in the water. Learn to take motivation from the fact that whilst this might not be your favourite sport or your best discipline that you actually have much more room for improvement here. Monitoring your progress can be very inspiring and rewarding in its own right. As we often say at Swim Smooth, the path to getting faster isn t always the most obvious and this is no more true than with the Arnie swim type. For you, getting faster often means taking things slower (at least initially) to enhance your efficiency in the water as there's a real tendency to try and muscle things and fight the water: Are all Arnies male? Absolutely not! Whilst we encounter more male Arnies than female, if you are a late starter in the swimming world and tend to grab the bull by the horns with most things then it's likely you are an 'Arnette'. Many Arnettes have athletic talent, being good at a range of sports rather than anything specific. This is totally fine and despite our attempt to be humorous with the caricature of that well-known Hollywood movie star, you too stand to progress in a similar manner to your male counterparts. One of the key things to remember about swimming is that it is very much a skill-based activity whereby going harder doesn t necessarily mean you ll go faster. There is no overnight solution to suddenly becoming a good swimmer but by being diligent about your practice and objective about what is working and what is not, you ll certainly be well on your way to developing your stroke. As it happens, a goal-driven focus is one of your real key personality attributes and is something that you ll be able to really use to your advantage. Being openminded enough to try a few new things, experimenting with a variety of specific drills and techniques and accepting that the development of your stroke is a process will stand you in good stead. So, what exactly holds you back in the water? Drag - pure and simple. The biggest challenge for Arnies is overcoming drag from low-sitting legs in the water. We call this 'sinky leg syndrome': Due to your relatively low body fat percentage and high lean muscle mass, you re always going to sit a little lower in the water than another swimmer carrying a little more body fat. Your strong, athletic physique is a real strength on land but in the water can be a bit of a hindrance unless we know how to make it work for you! To do this we must understand what causes the human shape to be negatively buoyant in the water with the legs dropping down low. This boils down to the following four factors, all of which affect you as an Arnie or Arnette: Breathing Your tenacious nature often sees you setting off quite quickly with most things and wanting to get the job done. Unfortunately in swimming 'the harder I try, the faster I ll go' mentality doesn t work and often sees you tensing up and holding onto your breath as a result. Breath holding: Holding onto air when your face is in the water is public enemy number one for attaining an efficient freestyle stroke. Firstly it adds to that feeling of tension and turns what should be a very aerobic activity into a very anaerobic one (i.e. a sprint). You d never hold your breath when you re performing your land-based sports otherwise they too would feel very challenging. Secondly, holding onto your breath adds buoyancy at the front end of your stroke (chest and torso) whereas you really need that buoyancy in the hips and legs. A buoyant torso lifts you up at the front but sinks your legs down. Without taking a step back and developing the skill of exhalation under the water, your legs will always be more sinky than they should be. As simple as this sounds, if there were only one modification you made to your stroke technique it should be this learning to exhale better and be less focused on rushing through your stroke. Aside: as we'll show you, your exhalation should feel like a sigh rather than trying to force it out. continued on next page. [4]
Head Position Head position is a very individual thing within the freestyle stroke. No type is more suited to a deeper head position looking straight down to the bottom of the pool than the Arnie. This will immediately help to lift your hips and legs a little higher in the water. We need to be careful not to force this point though as just by correcting your exhalation in point 1 can be enough to see substantial improvements in body position alone. Trying hard to submerge your head in the water and actively pushing your chest down in the water will not help either as you re likely to overdo this and still be in a similar, tense position as before. Totally submerging your head can also have repercussions on your hand entry into the water as we ll see in the next point. This can then cause major issues with the leg kick. Leg Kick It is very easy to look at the way a swimmer is kicking and say that this a major source of their inefficiency in the water. That swimmer might then be encouraged to go and spend countless hours working on their kicking propulsion for very little gain indeed (even the world s best freestylers only generate about 15% of their entire propulsion from their kick). If you are an Arnie or an Arnette and have tried this before, you ll appreciate that kicking harder is a lot of very hard work! What we need to do is look at why someone is kicking inefficiently why are their legs scissoring so far apart? Why do they bend so much from the knees when they kick? Why are their ankles so stiff and seemingly act like anchors? We ll address these factors in the main section of this guide but often the biggest cause of leg kick drag is from the legs scissoring apart and acting like a parachute to drag the swimmer back and down: This normally has nothing to do with pure kicking technique but as a response to the hand entry crossing over the centre-line. This crossover throws the hips off and ultimately requires the legs to scissor-kick apart for balance and stabilisation. Remove the cross-over and you go a long way towards fixing the kick. Core Stability If you are a true Arnie or Arnette, chances are you feel pretty confident that you have a strong core, i.e. abdominals and lower back muscles. You may have already targeted the fact that being strong here is useful for all sport. However, being able to switch your core on and hold this part of your body strong whilst you are working on relaxing the rest of the body can be quite tricky. If you don't you'll flex through the core as you swim: Holding yourself strong through the core when you swim is important to your body position. Stretching through your core will help to slightly tilt your pelvis anteriorly which in turn will lift your bum, hips and legs a little higher in the water. This all helps to reduce drag. The challenge here is to do this without tensing up the whole body especially the breathing! One Final Tip You no longer feel negatively about swimming - or even hate it! Just like any sport you turn your hand to, you can become good at this one too with a little patience and diligent practice. So let's get started! 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: www.swimsmooth.com/dvd Get it now at: www.swimsmooth.com [5]
3. ARNIE STROKE CORRECTION PROCESS OVERVIEW STEP 1: BREATHING As explained in the previous section, Arnies have a tendency to hold onto your breath under the water which is one of the lead causes of: a) feeling like swimming is a lot harder than it should be b) your legs sinking and dragging behind you (due to your chest being too buoyant - lifting you up at the front and sinking your legs, an action like a see-saw) To fix this we need to work on some specific breathing exercises in the development sessions in the following section. These will be focused on getting you to relax in the water and feel more comfortable in it. It will also result in raising the hips and legs higher in the water due to a more even distribution of the body s buoyancy. Adopt the mantra breathe-bubble-bubble-breathebubble-bubble-breathe where the bubble coincides with a non-breathing stroke when your face is in the water. This will remind you to exhale at this point rather than holding your breath. STEP 2: SYMMETRY In line with developing a better breathing technique will be developing a more balanced, symmetrical stroke. This is greatly assisted through bilateral breathing. However, developing bilateral breathing itself can feel like quite a hard task especially if you re still holding onto your breath under the water! What also makes bilateral breathing quite tricky is the feeling that breathing to your nondominant side just feels so awkward. This can be fixed by better rotation to this side and this will be addressed in the later steps. It is very likely you'll feel like skipping this step - but don't! Bilateral breathing is very important to the Arnie's stroke development. STEP 3: HEAD POSITION We need to investigate whether your normal head position is too high. For Arnies, looking straight down will normally help to lift the hips and legs higher, though every swimmer will need to experiment a little with this. The adjustment to breathing in Step 1 (exhaling) may result in enough body position improvement to make a change in head position unnecessary. The height of head position to choose is very personal - even within this swim type. Having the head higher is more comfortable and better for open water navigation if body position can be maintained. 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 Arnie 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. continued on next page. [6]
STEP 3: HEAD POSITION CONT. When breathing, Arnies tend to lift their heads too high out of the water, resulting in their legs dropping down even lower. STEP 4: KICKING TECHNIQUE Much of what holds Arnies back with your leg kick inefficiencies is due to Step 5 below (hand entry). However, it is worth briefly looking at how to improve your general leg kick technique even before we look at hand entry and alignment in the water. What we can work on here is developing a straighter leg kick action (rather than bending excessively from the knees) and also addressing your ankle and foot position. A straighter leg kick can be easily fixed by focusing on squeezing your gluteus muscles (i.e. your bum) gently and thinking about kicking more from the hip. This doesn t want to be stiff or rigid but the pivot point should definitely be from the hips and not the knees. We will fix this through a sequence of drills which teach you how to rotate your legs, hips, shoulder and head / neck as one complete unit when you go to take a breath. This head / neck roll will ensure that your head stays low in the water and your hips and legs stay high. The cause of lifting your head in this manner is the anxiety or even desperation to get air in. Because of this, getting better at Step 1 (exhaling and relaxing) will impact positively on Step 3. 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 is related to the Arnie's previous sporting background (land based sports) which tend to require good ankle stability. Better ankle flexibility can be achieved here with some specific stretches that you can perform prior to each session. Also, the use of fins (flippers) during training sessions will actually assist in stretching your ankles and so improve you kick efficiency. Some coaches believe the opposite, that fins are bad for swimmers because they mask an inefficient kick - in the case of the Arnie this is not true. STEP 5: HAND ENTRY Nearly all Arnies will have some degree of cross-over in their strokes, especially if you only breathe to one side, resulting in a lop-sided stroke. This asymmetry then causes a lack of balance in the stroke the hips are thrown off, your body bends in the middle (like a banana) and the result is a significant scissoring of the leg kick which results in a huge amount of drag: To fix this issue we need to work on ensuring that the middle finger of each hand extends directly forward in front of the same shoulder. We ll work on this by addressing your general posture in the water and remembering to keep your shoulders back and chest forwards which will improve your alignment automatically. Better hand entry will then result in less snaking of the hips, less banana-rama through the core and less scissoring of the legs. The result: a much better profile through the water reducing your drag. You can further keep tabs on this scissoring of the legs by ensuring that your big toes brush gently past each other with each kick if you can feel this happening every time they pass then you know you re not scissoring! We highly recommend the use of Finis Freestyler hand paddles to work on your hand entry and alignment in the water. As we'll show you, they will fall off if you re still crossing over and will really help you to develop your alignment. Crossing-over at the front of your stroke is also bad for the shoulders and can often lead to significant shoulder pain if left uncorrected. The cross-over is almost always connected with a thumb-first entry into the water which is one of the leading causes of shoulder impingement so it makes sense to be pre-cautionary and correct this at an early stage. Finis Freestylers In Action [7]
STEP 6: BODY ROLL Arnies tend to be a little flat in the water, using their strength to muscle their way through the wet stuff. As we work to correct your hand entry into the water with some specific postural drills we'll simultaneously be introducing and developing your body rotation (or roll) at the same time. Improving this aspect of your stroke will ensure that each stroke becomes longer and smoother so that breathing to your non-dominant side feels that much easier. This in turn will ensure better balance and more symmetry in the stroke which can only be a good thing for swimming straighter in the open water! For Arnies, Swim Smooth highly recommend the use of the Finis Tech Toc body roll tool which is a unique device that is worn around the waist / hips and features a cylindrical tube containing a large ball bearing. The ball bearing moves from one end of the tube to the other (on every stroke) if the hips are rotating well enough, making a loud audible click which you can hear and feel. This instantaneous biofeedback on whether or not you are rotating well enough (no noise = not enough roll) is excellent for Arnies who may find body rotation feels quite alien within their stroke at first. Finis Tech Toc STEP 7: ARM RECOVERY Being quite strongly built, it is likely that your upper body flexibility might not be all that it could be. Enhancing your body rotation in Step 6 will ensure that your arm clears the surface of the water each time quite well but you can also improve on this further with some dedicated stretching, targeting the upper back and shoulders. We will also apply a new drill called 'Broken Arrow' that is targeted very much towards the Arnie and Arnette Swim Type to assist development of better mobility in the upper back and shoulders. STEP 8: INITIAL CATCH AND PULL For the undeveloped Arnie, due to the cross-over within your stroke, as your hand enters the water the elbow will be hitting the surface at the same time as your hand enters. This is undesirable as it means that as you start to catch the water and pull through you'll still be over the centre line with quite a straight arm. A good catch involves bending the elbow early on and pressing the water back behind you. Hopefully by now you've gone a long way to correcting this cross over within your stroke but it's still likely that your arm will still be in the habit of catching and pulling through too straight. The issue caused by a straight-arm pull is that it presses down on the water and this results in a lifting of the front of the body upwards. Because of the see-saw effect, this is another source of the legs dropping down. You probably relied on this lifting motion in your stroke to get the head out of the water to take a breath. So if Steps 1, 3, 5 and 6 are solidly in place then you are already less likely to be pressing down with that straight arm. To develop your initial catch and pull we will use some dedicated sculling exercises to enhance your feel for the water and have you pressing water back behind you rather than down. This should never feel like a hugely powerful movement but more of a caress. It seems a little strange because you d think that your power and strength would be of use for your stroke. However, pull too hard and it s likely your arm will just slip through the water without ever really feeling it. Toning down this need to pull hard will pay real dividends - it s all about control. As we'll see, using a Pull Buoy to isolate the front of the stroke and develop your bent elbow catch will really help with this. www.swimtypes.com [8] Swim Smooth 2010
STEP 9: STROKE RATE Due to that rushed "I ve got to get there now attitude that you may have had when you first started swimming, it s likely that your stroke rate is a touch on the high side like you re spinning your arms through the water without any real catch and feel for the water. By addressing Steps 6 and 8 above you ll already have started to slow your stroke rate down a touch in favour of a slightly longer, smoother stroke. Getting the right balance between stroke length and stroke rate is always important but in the short-term the focus should be on slowing things down a slightly and getting a little more reach with each stroke. If you own a Wetronome, an excellent way of achieving this is to set the stroke rate function at 5 to 8 SPM (strokes per minute) slower than you d normally swim. STEP 10: PACING One thing you ve probably already noticed is how you have a pretty decent ability to swim fast for a short distance - even when you were first learning the freestyle stroke. This is due primarily to your athletic ability. However, for longer distance swims, taming this power in favour of a more even-paced effort will be very important. All of the points above will already help assist you with this change to your stroke and attitude towards your swimming but it s always worth keeping a check on this. Practicing some specific pace-awareness sessions will really help you here. The damage that you do to yourself in the first 25 to 50m of a swim when starting off too fast should not be underestimated it can have a huge impact on how well you are then able to back that up with subsequent laps. An excellent way to develop this is to use a Wetronome pacing device set to the lap interval function at a pace per 100m you d like to be able to maintain, say for a longer swim of 1000m. STEP 11: OPEN WATER SKILLS By addressing all of the previous steps you should be well placed for swimming well in the open water: - You should be more relaxed with your breathing and not feeling quite so anxious. - You will be more symmetrical through your improved ability to breathe bilaterally and better hand entry. This will really help you swim straight in open water. - Your body position will be higher in the water and more horizontal, therefore creating less drag. - Your ability to pace yourself over longer distances will be much improved, which will be especially useful during a triathlon event where you re trying to manage your efforts appropriately for the subsequent bike and run disciplines. www.swimtypes.com [9] Swim Smooth 2010
Arnie Development Session 1 This is a great short technique session you can repeat as often as you like. It's not hard swimming 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 4x 50m Freestyle of Breathe-Bubble-Bubble-Breathe 3x Sink-Downs 200m Pull Buoy Or Fins Freestyle Bubble-Bubble-Stretch Steps 1 & 2 THEN: NEXT: 4x100m Freestyle (1) Breathing 3/2/3/2 2x 20 seconds Ankle Stretches (2) reathing left side only reathing right side only (3) Popeye Drill (4) Eyes looking straight down at bottom of pool. 4x Torpedo Push offs and Swim Back Toes-Tapping 200m Pull Buoy Toes Pointed Behind Toes Pointing To Bottom 100m Super Smooth Freestyle - simply feeling streamlined ' means up the pool ' means back down the pool Step 3 Step 4 OPTIONAL: 2, 3 or 400m Freestyle using Fins and Excellent Posture - shoulders back, chest forwards. If owned, swim with Freestyler Paddles and point the way forward with the paddle's spear tip. Step 5 All of these methods and drills are described in detail on pgs 11-13. Finis Freestyler Paddles are an amazing tool for Arnies - unlike normal paddles they really help you become straight in the water. www.swimtypes.com [10] Swim Smooth 2010
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. www.swimtypes.com [11] Swim Smooth 2010
breathing as 3/2/3/2... A nice stepping-stone for those who struggle with bilateral breathing is the 3/2/3/2 exercise. Push-off for a lap of normal freestyle, take three strokes and breathe on the third, then two strokes and breathe on the second, then three strokes and breathe on the third etc. 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 allow the buoyancy of the pull-buoy to lift your legs up. By doing this you reduce the average time between breaths versus breathing every three strokes every time. You also get to work on your non-dominant breathing side by taking two breaths to that side in quick succession. As you perform this exercise, emphasize your body roll to the non-dominant breathing side. Practising this exercise regularly should gradually make bilateral breathing much easier for you. Another version of this exercise is to pick a side of the pool that you always have to breathe to. For example, on your way down the pool you might be just breathing to your left but on the way back you have to just breathe to your right. Developing your non-dominant side breathing - as hard as it might be initially - really will pay dividends in developing your symmetry in the water. 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: 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 aerobically challenged. 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 off balance 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. 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: 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 teamsports 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: 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. www.swimtypes.com [12] Swim Smooth 2010
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 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: ankle / calf stretches Ankle and foot flexibility is very often a problem for Arnies. 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: 2) Keeping a similar position as Stretch # 1, place your feet flat down on the ground with the top of your foot flat and 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: 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 your big toes is a very simple physical cue to recognize when your legs are staying together. 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. 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. www.swimtypes.com [13] Swim Smooth 2010
Arnie 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 4x50 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 Steps 1 & 2 THEN: 4x100m With Fins Kick on Side: Left Kick on Side: Right 200m normal freestyle (no fins) feeling streamlined 4x100m With Fins: 6/1/6 Freestyle If you have an empty lane, try 6/1/6 with your eyes closed! Steps 5 & 6 MAIN SET: 4 or 5x 200m using a Wetronome at 5 SPM less than your natural stroke rate. If you don't own a Wetronome, focus on long smooth strokes. Steps 9 & 10 COOL DOWN: 3x Sink Downs 100m swimming like Mr Smooth! Step 3 New methods and drills are described in detail on pg 15. A Wetronome sits by your ear and beeps a stroke rate to time your strokes. Remember: Focus On Getting Air Out, Not In Whether you exhale from your mouth, nose or a combination of the two is not important. What is essential is that you exhale the whole time your face is in the water. If you hold your breath and then suddenly and forcefully exhale, you will still be exhaling when you should be inhaling and so receive a much smaller breath of fresh air than you need. Deceptively powerful, this little marvel lets you take control of your rhythm & timing. www.swimtypes.com [14] Swim Smooth 2010
kicking on side bubble-bubble-stretch This drill involves kicking on your side - perfectly at 90 with your lower arm outstretched and the other arm by your side: 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. 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 bilaterally 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. This simulates the position the body will be in when you go to take a breath, albeit 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. 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: 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 straight. Be wary of walls, lane ropes and other swimmers when doing this! 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. Use it as a relay baton making sure it always stays out in front of your head as you swap from hand to hand. Bambinos and Arnies will find the Vitamin Tube useful as will the more unrefined Swinger types who struggle with good stroke timing. This drill is called 6-1-6 in Swim Smooth World 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. www.swimtypes.com [15] Swim Smooth 2010
Arnie Development Session 3 Some faster swimming in this session. As an Arnie you have raw-power to spare over the 100m reps. Pace these so that you can maintain the same speed throughout the set! WARM-UP: 1 or 2x 200m Easy Freestyle in Fins Breathing 3/2/3/2 100m Pull Buoy: Bubble-Bubble-Stretch 100m Easy Freestyle: Popeye Breathing 200m Pull Buoy or Fins Freestyle B-B-Stretch Steps 1, 2 & 3 THEN: 4x Torpedo Push offs and Swim Back Toes-Tapping 3x Sink-Downs Step 4 CHOOSE ONE MAIN SET: Set 1: Set2: Set 3: 1 or 2x fast COOL DOWN: 2x fast 1x fast 3x 100m + 30s recovery 2x 200m + 30s 1x 300m + 30s 2x 200m + 30s 2x 100m + 30s 100m + 30s 200m + 30s 300m + 30s 400m + 30s 200m 200m fins Broken Arrow asy Freestyle Whichever main set you choose, swim each repetition at the same pace per 100m! Steps 9 & 10 Step 7 Pause for two seconds and then break the arrow by bending your elbow. Then spear in. Full description on page 17. Pace Judgement One of the keys to improving your swim speed at any distance over 100m is to develop an innate sense of pace judgement. It's amazing how easy you have to swim over the first 25, 50 or 100m of a set to avoid blowing up further on. Keep an eye on the pace clock at your pool and make sure you don't set off too fast. It's very easy to do and a bad habit to get into. www.swimtypes.com [16] Swim Smooth 2010
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 more than on 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. www.swimtypes.com [17] Swim Smooth 2010
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! www.swimtypes.com [18] Swim Smooth 2010
Arnie 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! Steps 1, 2 & 3 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) Swim this with a partner if possible: Steps 2, 8 & 9 2x fast 300m drafting - start quickly and then settle in, controlling breathing. Learn how quickly you can go and still be able to settle in. Tricky for an Arnie to get right! 4x 50m as 25m fast + 25m easy (take 15 seconds rest between each 50m) Step 9, 10 & 11 COOL DOWN: 200m Fins 6/3/6 Freestyle Step 6 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. Don t go eye-balls out, just maintain your form and technique 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 deadspot it creates. www.swimtypes.com [19] Swim Smooth 2010
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 in. At which point take 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 take a breath. 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: 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. This immediate biofeedback lets you make 'on the fly' adjustments to your stroke while you swim. Don t cheat and grip the outside, just keep the palm flat and aim to spear into the water with a slight emphasis on keeping the nose of the paddle down by applying a subtle bit of pressure underneath the fingertips. 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. 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. 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: www.swimsmooth.com/strokerate and take the stroke rate ramp test here: www.swimsmooth.com/ramptest 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: www.swimsmooth.com/css (if you swim in a yard pool, simply enter your 200/400yd times and it will return you pace in time/100yd) 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: www.swimsmooth.com/css www.swimtypes.com [20] Swim Smooth 2010
FINIS FREESTYLER PADDLES 4. SWIM SMOOTH TOOLS FOR ARNIES Arnies and Arnettes are in a position of responding well to many of the Stroke Development tools on the market. We'd highly recommend these special tools 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 - arguably the Arnie's biggest stroke flaw. For more information and to purchase: www.swimsmooth.com/freestyler WETRONOME Mk2 Slow your stroke rate a touch in a controlled manner to lengthen out your stroke and become more efficient. Use the new Lap-Interval mode to improve your pacing skills and keep your ballistic tendencies under wraps! For more information and to purchase: www.swimsmooth.com/wetronome 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 - includes demonstration swims by Olympic swimmers. FINIS TECH TOC A neat tool for Arnies to tune into an alien concept for them: body rotation. Receive immediate bio-feedback 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: www.swimsmooth.com/dvd For more information and to purchase: www.swimsmooth.com/finis_techtoc www.swimtypes.com [21] Swim Smooth 2010
5. GET MORE FROM SWIM SMOOTH Swim Smooth offers you many other ways that you can improve your swimming. OUR BLOG: WWW.FEELFORTHEWATER.COM Feel For The Water is our hints and tips blog which is delivered straight to your email 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: www.feelforthewater.com 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: WWW.SWIMSMOOTHFORUM.COM 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: www.swimsmoothforum.com Each training plan contains 35 Sessions to develop your stroke and swim specific fitness training for your perfect race. Find out more: www.swimsmooth.com/trainingplans FEEDBACK This guide is written and published by Swim Smooth 2010. 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 www.swimtypes.com www.swimsmooth.com If you have any comments or feedback about this training guide or anything Swim Smooth, please send us an email to: feedback@swimsmooth.com We're always looking to improve and would love to hear from you.