I find swimming to be the most challenging and at the same time, frustrating surf sport. You see, as a surfer, I developed a stack of bad swimming habits. For example, I hardly kick… when surfing the board is usually in the way. Also, I have a very short stroke. When paddling on the board, you are too high above the water to get the stroke length required for swimming. But also, I have never had proper swim training, so my technique is just reflective of the way I developed myself. Its just an accumulation of years of bad habits which I developed outside competent supervision.
One thing I have found with swimming is that everyone around you who can swim, wants to help. So you get given all these different tips and pieces of advice, but during those squad sessions when the sets force you to tear up the laps, working as hard as you can to keep up. This has been particularly unhelpful to my stroke.
The squads are about fitness, not about stroke correction. If I am trying to swim better in squads, all I can do is concentrate on improving one thing in that set. For example, I might concentrate on keeping my elbows high (as I always drop mine), or keeping my leading arm stretched out as long and far as I can, but nothing else. Then, I also need to either spend time in the pool drilling for technique, away from a fitness squad, or I need to spend time with a coach who will correct it.
These days of filling my head with 100 tips from 101 people and trying to change everything each session in the pool have to stop. I know what I should be doing, now I just need to do it. A week ago, I purchased a bunch of DVDs from the Total Immersion Swimming guys – this will be my basis for drilling for technique, in the quiet away from the fitness sessions.
