“I play with my stroke constantly. … I’ll just float in the water, and I’ll take my arm and I’ll just hold it still underneath me and make sure I’m putting it in the position that I see world record holders doing,” she said.
Taormina also highly recommends that swimmers work with the HALO SPHandle tubing device by Lane Gainer Sports. Taormina likes the device, which is essentially a more complicated version of stretch cords, because it forces swimmers to duplicate a stroke that generates a lot of propulsion, beginning the stroke with a high-elbow catch.
Taormina’s forthcoming book on swim technique also includes several drills and photos to help swimmers generate more propulsion.
3 Terry Laughlin, head coach of the Total Immersion Swimming program, which is especially popular among beginners.
“A triathlete’s guiding principle in swimming should be to find the easiest way to travel at the same or a faster pace,” said Laughlin.
To do this, Laughlin said that athletes should master the skills of balance, stream-lining and propulsion — skills that he said are inherent in the strokes of the best swimmers he has coached or studied over the years.
For Laughlin, balance is the essential foundation of efficient swimming, and that achieving balance is “achieving a ‘weightless’ and horizontal body position by cooperating with, instead of fighting, gravity.”
When it comes to streamlining, Laughlin said swimmers should engage in active streamlining, which is “stroking in ways that minimize drag even while engaged in creating propulsion.”
Finally, swimmers should use whole-body propulsion. “Traditional training treats the pull and kick as skills to be developed and trained independently. Total Immersion technique strives for seamless and complete integration, with power and rhythm flowing to the arms and legs from the core body,” Laughlin said.
To learn balance, streamlining and propulsion, Laughlin suggests that swimmers practice the following drills for 20 to 40 hours:
• Hang your head. Let the water — not neck muscles — support its 10 pounds. You should feel your legs ride higher. This means less drag and less kicking.
• Think about reaching forward, not pushing back. (You still push back, but keep your focus out front.) Lengthening your “vessel” reduces drag.
• Eliminate bubbles, noise and splash from your stroke. All are evidence of wasted energy. Swim a timed 50 your regular way. Then swim the same time, but silently. Was it easier?
• Swim inside out. Set stroke rhythm in your core, and let your arms and legs follow. Your core has more power and virtually never tires, which means less work and more output.
WHAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU?
Remember, there are plenty of swim experts out there, so don’t forget to do some research and a little self-testing before you go all in with one particular guru. Beyond Laughlin, Taormina and Dr. G., another notable swim expert is Darren Smith, who’s known for turning non-swimmers into world champion and Olympic medalist triathletes. He said that the best swim stroke for triathletes is one that propels someone most efficiently in choppy water, not pristine pool water. He also believes that what works for Olympic swimmers — people who are generally tall, have freakish range of motion and have swum from childhood — doesn’t necessarily work for regular-size triathletes.
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