My Tri Training: Practice Your Swim Stroke

I hit this gym this week with the intention of practicing my freestyle swimming stroke, because it's definitely in need of some help. Not only do I need to build up my stamina but my technique just isn't quite there.

Based on the 12 week sprint training plan I'll be following, the first week calls for 10 - 16 laps, 25mm each with 20 seconds of rest in between. Click here to read the whole plan.

Earlier in the day I was doing research on the basics and found the following videos, which were a huge help.

Create a Stronger Freestyle Stroke with a Push Drill:

• Love how she just glides. I recommend watching this a few times and examining her technique

Faster Freestyle Swimming: Part 1. Hand Placement: How to properly set up the stroke:

• Great fundamentals

• One takeaway I got was keeping your hand close to your body during the stroke, which is easier said than done. I practiced this and took breathing out of the equation. As soon as I needed a breath, I stood up, took my breath and went right back to practicing. Be sure to work on turning your body as well.

• Planning to purchase a snorkel in order to focus part of my workouts on the technique without worrying about the breathing portion.

• Be sure to watch parts 2, 3 and 4 of this video series

That night I ended up staying and practicing way more than I planned. Ended up somewhere in the neighborhood of 32 laps. Looking forward to the next session.