Stroke Tips


Lessons

In the back of your mind, you probably think it is better to churn out the distance and do the occasional sprints. The sad truth is that if you want to swim better, faster and easier, you need to condition your muscles to learn the correct techniques and then maintain that correct action at speed.

Thanks to Terry Laughlin, he developed the Total Immersion techniques which were based on his observation of champion swimmers. The lessons and drills from his Total Immersion book have been very briefly summarised here. Do refer to his excellent book AND video for a more detailed explanation and you can check out the Total Immersion website. Each drill is a progression of skills to rebuild your swimming technique. If you use your training sessions to focus on and practice these drills, the improvement should astound you.

The learning curve will be different for everyone but you will know when you have mastered each drill since your body will let you know how stabilised and comfortable it feels. For starters, you should memorise the names of the lessons and drills in each lesson and understand what they are trying to do for you. These lessons really make you work harder only in the sense that you have to concentrate and stay focused on your stroke technique. Click on the floating Lesson menu (your browser must have javascript enabled) to review the drills which will open in a new window (close each window before making another selection)

Lesson 1 - Get Balanced
The most common cause of poor balance occurs when turning the head to breathe - the hips drop and the legs fishtail. The 3 drills here teach you to how to use the natural buoyancy of your body to stay afloat and balanced.
Lesson 2 - Get Longer
These drills are not difficult if you have an efficient kick. If your kick is tiring and not very effective (probably bending the knee too much), practice kicking vertically for 15 seconds at a time or wear zoomers. These 3 drills help make yourself longer in the water which reduces resistance.
Lesson 3 - Swim on your Side
You glide most easily in the water on your side so you need to spend more time there. I'm sure you would rather be a yacht than a barge in the water. These 4 drills introduce you to side swimming. The 4th drill in this lesson (or drill 10 in this series) introduces the concept that you should use the rotational power from your torso to drive yourself through the water.
Lesson 4 - Graduate School
These advanced drills should not be attempted until you have mastered the other drills.

The above drills can be combined together into a single workout schedule by progressing through each drill to get a feel for them and then go back to the drill you need to correct.

masters need lotsa zinc and a good stroke technique