Just Keep Swimming

As a kid I did every sport going. That also included a short spell in a swimming club when I was about 10 years old. Unfortunately it didn't last long. Constantly having to wear a verruca sock wasn't a good look! The other youngsters in my lane also used to sprint to catch me up and yank my foot underwater until I was close to drowning so that they could swim over me and finish the length first. It is also not natural to want to train for a sport where you can not breathe! So after a few months I told Mum I wanted to join table tennis club, trampolining club and high board diving club instead and that was the the end of my short lived swimming career.  When I started swimming again at 24 I couldn't remember how to do front crawl and had to start from scratch again, starting with just a length at a time.  All I remember thinking was "why on earth did I ditch swimming for table tennis club?"

I quickly realised the most important thing about learning something new is being able to laugh at yourself. Check out this video below of me being mega serious thinking I am absolutely nailing the tumble turns.....no wonder the lifeguard used to kill himself laughing!

When I first started triathlon Mum could pick me out amongst the other hundreds of swimmers because I was the one who had the incredibly fast arms but didn't seem to be getting anywhere!  Over the years I have been able to improve my swimming.  I'm never going to be the quickest but I'm gradually decreasing the gap between my own time and the lead swimmers time, this can be seen in the latest championships I have done, starting in 2010 a whopping 3 minutes 50 seconds behind the lead swimmer in my age group and decreasing that this year to 48 seconds. Granted, every race is different and it depends on who is in the race but my geeky stats table below shows I'm stepping (or swimming) in the right direction....

	My Swim Time	Time I’ve lost to the lead swimmer in my AG	Average Swim Time	Time over average swim time
September 2010, World Triathlon Champs, Budapest Position after swim – 17th Finishing position – 11th	13:28	3:50	11:42*	1:46
June 2011, European Triathlon Champs, Pontevedra Position after swim – 11th Finishing position – 7th	13:07	2:43	11:09**	1:58
June 2013, European Triathlon Champs, Alanya Position after swim – 5th Finishing position – 1st	12:43	0:48	12:13***	0:30
September 2013, World Triathlon Champs, London Position after swim – 18th Finishing position – 7th	11:53	1:42	11:02****	0:51

* Taken from top 10 finishers

** Taken from top 8 finishers

*** Taken from top 3 finishers

**** Taken from top 10 finishers

One of my swimming highs this season was definitely coming out of the water with the lead pack(ish) at the British Champs. What a great position I had put myself in to start the bike leg.  However, last out the water at Liverpool Elite (with the canoe bringing up the rear) and also 28th out of the water at the European Champs in Turkey (giving myself a hell of a lot of work to do) made me realise that I need to crack this swimming business.

With 3 compulsory non-wetsuit races this year, it's time to learn more about technique!

To help me in the right direction I contacted my friend and swim coach Jai Evans.  Jai has been coaching swimming for 20 years and has been around the world to coach every standard of swimmer from non-swimmers and novices, through to competitive and professional athletes.  I met Jai when we raced in Belgium earlier this year and over-hearing him talk to others about swimming I thought "there's nothing this guy doesn't know!".

Jai is convinced there is a great swimmer inside of everyone (even me!). Rather than break the stroke down and isolate movements, Jai has helped explain how the whole connection of everything I do impacts on my stroke. He has got me thinking about my body position, taught me to swim more effortlessly and even got me humming when I swim!  The speed is starting to come naturally without thinking about it. Last week I clocked a 400m PB (5:43) and a 600m PB (8:58) which by the fast swimmers standards is not speedy by any means, but compared to where I started, it's a massive improvement.

The following photos taken from swim video analysis also show the progress I've made.

The above photos were taken about 6 months apart but show the same point in my stroke. You can see on the left hand pictures that I have no high elbow under the water thus no catch and I have no real sense of body position in the water, my head is all over the place and I'm often losing balance in the water. The pictures on the right show an improvement in both of these things.

This most recent filming shows a much more streamlined body position in the water. The picture below also shows more control in my rotation.

(The bruise on my leg is courtesy of Jacqui after we fell off our bikes a couple of weeks ago!)

So between now and when I next go and see Jai again I'm just working on mastering what I've been shown and trying to maximise my potential as a swimmer.  I've done a bit of research on my own and as I don't go to any coached or group swim sets, I've been thinking more carefully about planning my own swim sets.  Luckily I've been able to drag my training partners Anna and Jacqui in to help me complete them and I'm really enjoying the variety and challenges these swim sessions are giving us.

If you're interested in seeing Jai for some specific swim feedback of your own he can be contacted on swimjai@me.com and his new website will be up and running soon too so watch this space! Thanks for reading, happy training.....and just keep swimming.