Engaging your brain whilst swimming

One of the things I love about swimming is the ‘brain re-set’. It’s allowing your mind to wonder and drift off. It’s very easily done and beneficial in lots of ways. BUT…you shouldn’t be doing this all of the time. If you enjoy a challenging sea swim, like the odd race, want to improve…go faster and further…then you need to learn to engage your brain whilst swimming. Particularly in a race scenario, there shouldn’t be any points where you stop thinking about what you’re doing.

My old swim coaching used to say ‘‘if you want to get good at fighting, get in a fight!’’. If you want to be a swimmer that can adapt to the conditions and swim to a race plan and/or adapt that race plan mid-race, you need to practice engaging with your brain in training. No good trying it in the middle of a race. You also need to be able to think clearly when you start to get tired…which takes practice.

During either a pool or open water swim there will and should be times where you adapt your stroke technique, stroke rate, kick rate, breathing, sighting (when and where you sight), head and leg position, draft someone… This all needs to be practiced fairly regularly.

Technique - if you swim in the open water, swim with hand paddles for swimrun/Otillo events etc you need to think about the chop. Swimming directly into decent sized chop can be tricky, as it can catch the back of your hands and disrupt your rhythm and stroke. You should practice swimming with straighter arms and giving your hands increased clearance of the water. This also goes for your breathing and which side to breath on. You always want the chop hitting the back of your head.

Kick - whilst your leg kick is far less important in the open water, it’s still useful. Putting in a little ‘kick’ at the end of a race or to stop someone drafting can be a very useful tool. Conserving your kick rate when you start to get tired can also conserve valuable oxygen. Getting your legs a little higher in the water and promoting a quick flutter kick when you’re swimming with the chop can also be a good tactic. These all require practice and they require some thought whilst you swim.

Breathing - reading the conditions and knowing whlich side to breath to, waiting to be at the peak of the swell rather than the trough before you breath can also be a great tactic…that needs thought.

The difference between an average and good performance and an average and good swimmers very often doesn’t come from all those muscles you’ve been training in the pool and gym!

The ability to look back and evaluate a swim and make adjustments before the next is also a key factor in improving performance.

Summer Swim Project 2022

At the start of 2022 we took a number of applications from swimmers looking to start swimming front crawl ie. they had no previous experience of front crawl swimming. We ended up selecting 2 swimmers. Both female, aged between 30-40 years. Over a series of 6 sessions head coach Tom went through a number of different sessions, teaching different elements of the stroke, setting ‘homework’ and supervising a couple of mid-distance swims. We then charted the swimmers progress over the summer.

The aim of the documentary is to highlight how much progress can be made with swimming, particularly in the sea (with the additional buoyancy), over a relatively short space of time.

The sessions (roughly), started with breathing, going onto look at body position and leg kick, then arm pull and catch and some time and sessions to then put it all together…

Poor hip position

Hip position is an incredibly important part of swimming front crawl. If you drop your hips too low in the water it can force your head into a higher position and you have increased drag…as well as a reduced efficiency when it comes to your leg kick. This unfavourable position may also have the knock on effect of making it more difficult to rotate the body correctly.

The solution to a low hip position can be incredibly easy or not so. It really depends on the swimmer. Typically the quicker and more experienced the swimmer, the easier (in theory) it might be to correct.

The main thing to remember is that although you should be fairly relaxed when swimming, you still need a degree of tension running through your core, as well as your toes pointed and legs straight. We often say that your legs are fairly redundant in open water swimming and some of our clients barely kick at all (in the open water). That said, you still need your legs straight, toes pointed and feet together. You can’t simply forget about your legs.

FIRST : if you’re in the pool or fresh water (without a wetsuit) grab in kick float and hold the float with your hands, at the very back end of the float ie. only your hands are in contact with the float, not the whole of your forearm. You simply then want to carry out some leg kick, with your face in the water. You can do this with just goggles but it works better if you use a snorkel. Water level should be half way across your ears, with your bum just sticking out of the water and your heels just breaking the surface of the water.

If you’re in salt water / wearing a wetsuit, lie on your front in the water, face down. Have your arms full extended, stretching out in front of you, with your legs straight and toes pointed and together (feet touching). In a very streamlined position. Allow the water to hold your weight….and hold it for 10 seconds. This is the position you should be swimming in. Have a conscious think about how this position feels and where your body is in the water. If you’re swimming and your body position differs from this - stop, float yourself in the water (as described above) and then start swimming again. Stop as often as necessary.

Raising your hips in the water (provided you need to) can be as easy as simply thinking about it and consciously doing it! It’s not that easy however, for most. Here are some drills that might help :

DRILLS :

1. complete a series of 25m swims, on your back, arms out in front (flat on the water), swimming flat across the surface of the water. Your going to do fly kick on your back. It’s good to do these with swim fins. Start with shorter distances and build up. You should find this works the abs and core.

2. Kick board (face in the water), with snorkel…as described above.

3. Vertical kick efforts (as often featured in our newsletter). CLICK HERE for video.

4. Work the arms. You can use pull buoys as part of training and can also use a pull buoy with your ankles strapped together with a swimming band.

5. As well as distance, include shorter sprints into your training.

Bucket List Swim?

As much as we try and explore new waters, make every holiday different, constantly keep pushing to make our swimming holidays exciting and new there are certain swims we’ll come back to time and time again. Even if we know some of our swimmers have done this swim before we’ll do it again!

Mousehole Harbour is one of those swims. You get it on the right day there are few swims that will beat it. Crystal clear waters, stunning backdrop, minimal boat traffic, you swim through the dramatic harbour mouth…we love it! You have the option of swimming around Mousehole Island (St Clement’s Isle). Well, well worth a visit.

Our open water swimming guide to Mousehole.

Are you a pushy parent?

This has been around for decades. It happened when I was a child (I’m now 37)….but seems to be getting worse. Possibly down to the popularity of social media and people’s need to broadcast every achievement (be it their own or children’s) online…I’m not sure. Definitely getting worse though!

Children in all sports develop and improve at different speeds. They hit long plateaus where they don’t improve and then all of a sudden they improve rapidly…with what looks like no rhyme or reason. The classic example is the big kid at school. A child suddenly grows (a lot) and dominates on the rugby field, for example. They’re faster, stronger and heavier than the other kids. They run though them…the problem here though is that it’s too easy. They don’t put the time in to learn and perfect vital skills because they don’t need to. Over time all the other kids grow just as big and strong and fast and the child prodigy is left behind and often then put off the sport, as for the first time they find it quite difficult and no longer have the same degree of success.

Time and time again I see parents hassling coaches to put their child up into the next group or squad. ‘’….all their friends have moved up and my daughter/son hasn’t…it’s not fair…they’re good enough to move…’’. Worst case scenario and again this happens quite frequently, is that the disgruntled parent joins the committee and tries to influence the club’s direction from the inside. From my experience this only hurts the whole swimming club…and whilst parents and children move on, stop swimming, move clubs etc the club continues to suffer long term because of misguided parents making decisions for all the wrong reasons.

The problem with promoting a child too early (in swimming particularly) is the following. If they haven’t mastered all of the strokes or a particular stroke, as they go up through the squads/levels they won’t get the time or attention to improve the stroke later on. If your child has a problem with a particular stroke and they’re promoted too early they may never swim that stroke correctly. Where you think you’re helping your child, your actions are actually having the opposite effect.

The other issue is that all children progress at their own speed. I was hopeless at Butterfly until I was 12-13 years old and made the slightest adjustment to my stroke and went on to be county champion and represent Cornwall swimming butterfly. Whilst I had early success in backstroke, from around the age of 14 I never got any better and it became one of my worst strokes. The fact is that your child doesn’t need to be the best swimmer at the club to become the best swimmer at the club. Nor do they need to be in the best squad. What they need is to develop at their own pace and ensure that technically they’re good enough to move up the ladder. Progress to the next squad isn’t necessarily down to speed (they might simply be quick because they’re stronger than everyone else). Technique is fair more important.

ARE YOU MAKING THE BEST DECISIONS FOR YOUR CHILDREN?

If you find yourself a little angry or upset. Frustrated at your swimming club / sports club’s decision not to pick or promote you or your child, here are some questions you might want to ask yourself, or some actions you might want to take.

1.       This isn’t an easy question to ask but you have to…and be brutally honest. Is part of your frustration at your child’s non-selection or position in a team down to your own ego? Are you angry that other children of the same age are moving up whilst your child has not.

2.       Has your child simply hit a bit of a plateau and is this the reason they’re not improving…Are they in the middle of a growth spurt and perhaps they’re tired. Or simply playing too many sports…

3.       Are you putting too much pressure on your child? Are the goals they have their own or yours?

4.       Do they lack motivation or are they distracted? In which case it might be an idea to ease off the training and allow them to start to enjoy swimming again.  

5.       If you’re not happy with your child’s progress perhaps you should have an open and honest chat with the coach. Find out what your child has to do to continue to progress.

6.       If you seriously think your child is being held back by a bad coach or bias of some kind then look at the cold hard facts. Is it because the squads ahead of them are overpopulated? Is there an issue at the club ie. a lack of boys or girls that progress. Are other parents in the same boat? Is there actually a problem or do you simply want there to be one as it’s suits your situation?

7.       Could your child’s lack of motivation be overcome by a side-ways move. Perhaps taking up waterpolo, open water swimming, surf lifesaving might ignite their interest.

In around 30 years of swimming in squads I’ve seen some fantastic coaches driven out of clubs by parents and poorly run, misguided committees. Swim coaches, especially in smaller clubs, are often poorly paid positions and often the coach takes the position because of their love of the sport, volunteering hours of their time for free. Not in every case but in a lot of cases they’re not shown half the appreciation and respect they deserve. There is a national shortage of swim coaches. Are you putting unnecessary pressure on a coach you should be praising?

Sea Swim Cornwall Safe Swimming Guide - Penzance Sea Front

There are loads of local swimming groups to Penzance. It’d be well worth doing some research and contacting a couple before travelling down.