The dodo egg of all of this is the illusive technique to guarantee the swimmer feels the water?? You only have to look at the shapes and sizes of the people around you in the swim lanes to extrapolate that swimming is (at age grouper level) 80% technique, Drills, aids and demonstrations will only take you so far in your quest to catch the water and heave your body past it, the rest relies on the three P's practice, pool time and perseverance.
It's for this reason I believe in following programme, as it succeeds in giving you all three and still is triathlon specific.
Equipment needed:- Finns, Hand paddles, Pull Buoy
400m warm up - freestyle 70% -400m
This is great for all of the early season sprint triathlons to see where your at stamina wise, warm up should be slower than race pace
50m catch drills - 15s rest inbetween - 200m
1- One arm drill 25m one arm and 25m the other
This encourages breathing at the right time and introduces breathing bilateraly
2- Sculling 25 m with arm at water entry point and 25m with arm at mid point of catch (chest level)
This promotes the feeling of the water around your hands
3- 50m Fist 4 strokes with fist closed and 4 with fist open
This Promotes feeling of the water along forearms and biceps
4 - 50m hand paddles
this promotes feel of the water around your hands
200m - Pull Buoy Free style - 200m
Great way to simulate wetsuit swimming and to put in the practice the catch drills without using to much energy kicking
50m Leg drills - 15s rest inbetween - 200m
1- 50m Catch up with rotation
great way to kick and rotate try and concentrate on the amount of kicks each arm stroke and increase if you can
2- 50m over take
So a great way to overtake in triathlon is to kick hard, this can only be done in small bursts. If swimming with a group pair off, the person infant should be swimming at 60% so not make it to difficult and you should overtake each other twice a length, if swimming on own kick hard from 5 seconds twice a length and time your speed increases over your normal 25m time
3 50m push and glide
pushing off from the pool edge is a luxury in pool based swims but it should not be overlooked this can safe you lots of time and give you the edge on your competition! see how far you can get down the pool when pushing and kicking only. tip, try drafting a partner and kicking off the wall! the draft caused by the person infant allows you to move further and faster in the water without extra effort make up valuable time.
4 -Vertical leg kick with fins 30secs x 4
In the deep end of the pool kick to keep your self buoyant in the water whilst vertical and with your arms crossed over your chest, finish set with 50m of pool with finns on
200m - Finns and Paddles Freestyle - 200m
This one really gets the blood going but also makes you feel like a hero flying through the water like an olympian, gets you used to speed and what you should be aiming for!
4 x 100m Drafting - 400m
Its a pretty dark art in swimming and a loop hole to the triathlon rules that allow this blatent use of someone else's power. But done correctly can be a massive advantage. Ideally this is done as a group of 4 and each person takes a turn at the front, on your own this is difficult but not impossible, public swimming pools are rarely empty and no matter how slow the other people are you can still brush up on this skill and feel the benefit. The key to this part of the session is to maintain some sort of sighting (raising your head out of the water) in a pool there will only be one direction but come open water you will need the practice of recognising landmarks even when you in the swell of the other competitors!
Total 1600m - If this doesn't get your triathlon juices flowing I don't know what will!?
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