6 Steps to Fast Swimming
There are many ingredients necessary for long-term performance success in competitive sports. Technique/quality of movement, strength, power, psychological skills, stamina, flexibility, health, nutrition, speed, and a supportive personal, social, and physical environment are just some of the many areas that are progressively developed over an athlete's competitive career.
There are six specific factors that have been identified systemically and scientifically as being essential for peak swimming performance. These Six Steps to Fast Swimming are:
Distance Per Cycle (“Impulses” & “Spaces”)
Cycling rate
Great starts and transition skills
Efficient technique (Distance Per Cycle + Cycling Rate + Great starts and transitions skills)
The ability to maintain all the above when fatigued.
The ability to maintain all the above when under pressure.
STEP 1: DISTANCE PER CYCLE
Distance Per Cycle (D.P.C.) is the distance a swimmer travels in 2 strokes (freestyle and backstroke) or 1 stroke (breaststroke and butterfly). This is an ultimate measure of stroke efficiency and skill for swimmers. D.P.C. is created from the concepts of “Impulses” (where in the body velocity is generated) and “Spaces” (when body travels forward from an “Impulse”).
STEP 2: Distance per cycle and CYCLING RATE
Great swimmers are possessed with great speed. The ability to move fast through water is what the sport is all about. The top freestyle swimmers in the world, for example, can complete around 50 stroke cycles per minute at top speed, WHILE maintaining approximately 2 meters per stroke cycle.
Step 3: Distance per cycle and cycling rate AND GREAT STARTING AND TRANSITIONS SKILLS
In top level swimming, events are won or lost on competitive skills like starts, turns, and finishes. Explosive starts, tight turns and powerful finishes are often the difference between finishing first and third.
Step 4: EFFICIENT TECHNIQUE (Distance Per Cycle + Cycling Rate + Great starting and transitions skills)
Technique (quality of movement) is a difficult thing to measure. Coaches can identify what constitutes a good technique and what needs improving through years of coaching education and experience. It is generally agreed however, that excellence in technique is a prerequisite for fast swimming and much of what we know about technical excellence we have learned from studying the movements of champion swimmers.
Step 5: Swim with efficient technique WHEN FATIGUED
Swimming fast is not the challenge. Swimming fast when it really starts to hurt, that’s the challenge! Swimmers competing in major competitions can keep swimming fast when it gets tough in those last 25 meters and their bodies are screaming at them to slow down or stop.
Step 6: Swim with efficient technique when fatigued and UNDER PRESSURE (in a race situation)
I remember the great swim by Misty Hyman at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. The last night of competition, she was tired from a week of tough racing, with a tough event (200 meters fly) ahead of her, with all the world watching her compete against the world-record holder, Suzie O’Neil, along with other great swimmers. In other words, she was under great pressure. Yet not only did she win the race with a personal best by more than 2.5 seconds while almost breaking the world record, she swam with technical excellence and control throughout the race despite the pressure. Race analysis after the race shows that she won her race at the turns, coming fast off the walls and racing with the optimal strategy.
Now that you know what they are, how do you take The Six Steps to Faster Swimming?
Work on keeping strokes long and strong in training. In every effort ask yourself, “Could I do this with fewer strokes?” When doing skill work like drills, aim for optimal movement quality, and then optimal movement quality with the minimum number of strokes.
Develop real speed by working hard during your speed work training and getting the best out of every effort. Train fast to race fast.
Every turn in training is a race turn; every start is a race start. Every finish should be completed on the wall with power and assertion. Train as you would like to race.
Drills, along with whole stroke swimming, should be completed with precision and with 100% concentration and awareness. Optimal quality of movement always!
Challenge yourself to swim fast when tired. In training, challenge yourself to jump up at the end of the session and swim fast. When racing, challenge yourself to swim fast when tired, to swim fast heats in the morning prelims then faster finals at night, to swim as fast on the last day of the meet as you did on the first day, etc.
Learn to enjoy pressure situations. Being a little nervous is a sign that something great is about to happen. Your body is getting ready to do something brilliant. Learn to enjoy the pressure of competition.
We can’t all be Olympic gold medal winners, but we can learn a lot about them by studying the way they race. Great swimmers are great for many reasons. The six steps to fast swimming are ones every swimmer, of any level and any age can take to help them achieve their swimming goals. As the proverb says, “the longest journey begins with the first step.” Take your next step towards being the best you can be right now.
