Swim Secrets

For the first time during a swim workout, I applied the pull technique outlined in Sheila Taormina's book, Swim Speed Secrets.  After a slow-paced 250-meter warmup to practice the technique, I did two 100-meter splits which were not impressive, just one or two seconds faster than before.  Then I tried a 500-meter, telling myself "Don't push too hard, you don't want to get injured."  I swam much less than all-out, yet still managed to shave twenty-one seconds off my previous 500-meter time.  Right now the muscles in my forearms and my upper back near the shoulder blades (posterior deltoids?) are a bit sore, but just a bit.

I've been swimming laps for twenty-six years, and this is the first time that I've learned a technique that improved my swimming speed.  As I was swimming today I couldn't help thinking:  "This is so obvious.  Why didn't anyone tell me about this before?"

I won't try to explain the technique in detail--read the book for that.  It basically involves keeping the elbows up during the first third of the stroke and pushing back with the hand and forearm acting as one, like a paddle, and only then, in the second two-thirds of the stroke, bringing the forearm down and the hand more towards the middle of the body, in a diagonal sweep.  It means that the arm and hand are pushing water backwards during the entire stroke, or at least eighty percent of it; much more so than if the arms are nearly kept straight like windmill blades (which was how I used to do it).  Taormina shows underwater photos of some of the greatest swimmers, and they all use this technique.

I'm a convert, without a doubt.  And now I'm officially becoming a triathlon geek, since I'm so excited about this one improvement in my swimming.