Sample Workouts

Title: Stroke Balance

Theme: Drill/Skills

Audience: Beginner through Advanced (all levels)

Total distance: 2-3 loops – or 1600-2400m

Intro: This is a great workout for beginners to help their stroke feel smoother, easier and more balanced. For advanced swimmers, this is away to return to some important fundamentals that will help with swimming straighter in open water where there are no lines or lane ropes as visual cues.

Balance comes from 3 major components – breathing, kick, and pull. 

1. Warm-up will focus on the breathing. In fact, all warm-ups in swimming should include a focus on breathing. Depending on your ability, do 250-800 (~1/3 to a full loop) front crawl breathing every 3 strokes.

Important points:

• focus more on exhaling on strokes 1 & 2, than on inhaling on 3. This may feel like you are exhaling more than you are inhaling, but that perception is normal and good.
• Try to make the exhale relaxed while your face is in the water, almost like you are sighing. Do not purse your lips to blow out. 
• Balance the amount of roll you do to either side. Breathing every 3 also forces you to breathe to both sides. Many people have a dominant side and roll more to that side. If you can, have someone watch you and provide feedback on whether your roll is balanced. Also, your shoulders should roll WITH your head when you breathe.

1. After warm-up, is kick. Depending on ability, do 250-500 broken into 50s by the buoys of “kickstart” drill. Kickstart is when you start from the buoy with just streamlined kick, but bring in your normal pull after a short distance (~5m) and continue full stroke to the next buoy. Repeat this drill for each buoy over the distance. You should finish at the 500 buoy where you cut back across to the 0 buoy.

Important points:

• Streamlined is hands straight out in front, focused on a flat, horizontal body position – legs NOT dragging down.
• Kick should be a tight, small but steady kick, with little knee bend.
• Pay attention to what your legs do when the arms begin. Kick should stay small and tight, and not open up to a wider kick.
• Pay attention to what your legs do when you breathe. Kick should stay small and tight, and not open up to a wider kick. Many people, especially runners, will scissor kick or wide-kick to balance their stroke when they turn to breathe. Their upper body is off balance and they use legs to counter-balance. This wide kick causes increased resistance and slows you down. Your kick should be streamlined at all times.

Note: Triathletes typically don’t need or want to use their kick much during the swim, and save their legs for the bike and run. This is fine, but they still benefit from keeping their legs streamlined and balanced. The kick can be very light, but still small and steady.

1. Combine breathing and kick. Swim the 300m straight line from the 500 to the 0 buoy trying to combine elements of the first 2 sets. Think about your breathing – exhale on 1-2, inhale on 3 AND on keeping your kick small and steady.

1. Pull – wide entry. Depending on ability, do 250-500 stopping and restarting every 50-100 (every buoy or every other buoy)

Important points:

• Before you start from each buoy over the distance, look at the next buoy start by pointing the top of your head at that next buoy. Keep visualizing that next buoy as you swim and have your right arm enter the water just to the right of where you visualize the buoy and left arms enter just to the left of where you visualize the buoy. You will probably need to readjust your direction each time you sight (life your head and look).
• Many swimmers, experienced ones included, overreach on their entry. This means their right arm enters straight above or to the left of their head, and/or the left arm enters straight above or to the right of their head. This can cause a slight side-to-side motion when the overreach in even, or a drift to one side when it is uneven. Instead, your arms should enter directly above or slightly outside the shoulder, not your head.
• If you find that you consistently drift to the left, you are probably overreaching with your right arm, and need to enter wider with that arm. Conversely, drifting to the right probably means you overreach with your left. Adjust your entry as needed.
• As you get better at swimming straighter (more balanced) you can sight less often. Sighting can burn more energy and slow you down if done too often. However, making sure you swim straight is very important to efficiency. Sight as often as you need to swim straight. Working on your balance can reduce that need.

Optional advanced drill: Jedi swimming. This is basically just swimming with your eyes closed. The point is to take away the visual cues that let you correct any stroke imbalance you might have. Swim anywhere from 10-30m with your eyes closed straight toward a buoy. Stop and open your eyes. If you have drifted left, you probably overreach with your right and need to enter that arm wider. Or, if you drift right, it is the opposite. Repeat this drill as needed until you are swimming relatively straight. Be careful with this drill – avoid doing this when close to other swimmers or if there is debris in the water. Use your common sense.

1. You should be at the 500m buoy again. Swim the last 300m trying to combine all 3 elements. In your mind, switch your focus between breathing, kick and pull. You may be only able to do one at a time, but as you practice, it will come more naturally until you can do all 3 at once.