Swimming Girl

Do you ever feel that your arms and legs prevent you from swimming better?

After all, lack of knowledge clearly is not the factor that’s holding you back. You’re already familiar with the various elements of proper freestyle technique: floating high in the water, rotating from the hips, pulling with a "big paddle" and the rest. You have a very clear mental vision of what your body should do.

During workouts, your brain commands your arms and legs to move just like Michael Phelps’s limbs do when he swims freestyle, but the muscles do not (or cannot) obey. If only you could get rid of your body and swim in your mind with the perfect technique you picture and intend there.

Actually, to some degree, your limbs really do get in the way of improving your swimming, and you can in fact refine your freestyle technique by practicing without your arms and legs. What makes this possible is the fact that the motor programs stored in your brain and activated to control your freestyle stroke are far more malleable than your muscles, which execute these programs.

In other words, your brain’s motor centers can imagine and intend alternative ways of swimming far more easily than your muscles can adjust their movements. Thus, by temporarily replacing your real muscles with imaginary ones—that is, by visualizing yourself swimming—you can practice alternative techniques with greater freedom and make it easier to get your muscles to do what you want them to do when you return to the pool.

Your freestyle swim stroke—like every other motor skill—is produced through two-way communication between your brain and your muscles. The motor centers of your brain store programs for your freestyle stroke that were developed through previous practice.

When you decide to begin swimming, your brain selects the appropriate programs and executes them by sending electrical signals to the muscles, causing them to move in the programmed pattern. As you swim, your muscles send a constant stream of sensory feedback to your brain, providing data that enables your brain to refine and adjust the stroke.

Practice Visualization

It’s this sensory feedback, or the feel of your muscle movements, that constrains your ability to fiddle with your stroke in ways that make it more efficient and powerful. When you practice your swimming through visualization, you replace real sensory feedback from the muscles with images of correct technique that you have captured by studying photographs and instructional videos and by watching better swimmers at the pool.

Armed with this data, you can easily see and feel yourself swimming with better technique while lying in bed with your eyes closed. When you imagine yourself moving, you activate the very same neurons (brain cells) that become active when you actually move. Frequent mental practice causes these patterns of neural activity to consolidate into newer, better motor programs for swimming.

When you return to the pool you can draw on these new programs. With your muscles factored back into the equation, you won’t find it quite as easy to swim like Michael Phelps as you did in your bed, but it will be decidedly easier than it would have been if you had not used visualization.

Most athletes are unaware of just how much control the brain has over athletic movement. Your brain is the puppet master; your muscles are mere puppets. In fact, they are totally replaceable. By implanting electrodes inside the brain’s motor centers, medical engineers have enabled quadriplegics to play video games with their thoughts.

In these cases, the visual feedback the patient receives from the movements of the character representing him on screen replaces muscle feedback. Through trial and error, the patient learns to connect neurons previously used to move his arms to the video-game character.

As an athlete wishing to swim better, you can exploit the plasticity and independence of your brain’s motor centers, as highlighted by the above-described medical example, by connecting your freestyle swimming programs to images of perfect swim technique as seen in others.

All you have to do is gather some concrete and detailed images of the technique elements you covet and picture your body performing these movements for a few minutes each day while sitting or lying quietly with your eyes closed. Be sure to imagine the feel of swimming in this manner, as well. In fact, the more detailed and real you can make your visualization, the more effective it is likely to be. Throw in the smell of chlorine, if you can.

Studying the Power of the Mind

Perhaps all of this sounds like hocus pocus, but it’s not. A number of studies have proven the capability of visualization to improve motor-skill performance beyond the level that can be achieved through physical practice alone.

For example, in one study subjects were challenged to toss a ping-pong ball at a target from a cup affixed to the crook of the elbow. Half the subjects practiced the skill only physically, while the other half practiced it both physically and through visualization. On average, members of the latter group improved their aim more rapidly than the others. Field studies involving skills that actually matter to real athletes have produced similar results.

New research suggests that everyone practices a de facto form of visualization to learn new motor skills during sleep. In a study performed at Harvard Medical School, two groups of right-handed subjects practiced a rapid typing task with their left hand, at the end of which time they were tested for improvement in the skill. Then they waited 12 hours and were tested for further improvement in the task.

One group was tested at 10 a.m., following a practice session, and was retested at 10 p.m. the same day without any additional practice. The other group was tested at 10 p.m. and was retested at 10 a.m. the next morning, after sleeping, and without additional practice.

Members of the first group showed a 2-percent improvement when they were retested. Members of the second group, who slept between tests, showed a 20-percent improvement the next morning without any additional practice of the skill.

In light of these results, I would suggest that the best time and place to mentally practice your swimming is at night, in bed, as you are preparing for sleep. Not only do you have nothing better to do in this situation, but taking advantage of the opportunity in this manner will ensure that your freestyle stroke is at the top of your subconscious mind as you fall asleep, increasing the chances that you will wake up a better swimmer in the morning.

A long, vigorous swim may be good for your heart, but scientists have long questioned whether the high levels of chlorine in many swimming pools can have some less desirable effects on your hair and skin.

Studies have found certain effects, but hair loss may not be one of them. One of several studies on the topic was published in 2000 in the journal Dermatology.

In that study, a team of researchers examined 67 professional swimmers and 54 nonswimmers. The researchers found that 61 percent of the swimmers showed signs of hair discoloration, compared with none of the nonswimmers.

The scientists also found that the hair discoloration coincided with surface damage of the swimmers’ nail plates, apparently due to chlorine.

But although the swimmers’ hair appeared coarse and damaged, they did not have higher rates of hair loss. The researchers speculated that the differences might also have been due to what they described as “cuticle damage by friction with water.”

Any damage caused by chlorine can partly be averted by using chlorine-removing shampoos and conditioners.

The Bottom Line 

Chlorine in swimming pools can damage hair, but not necessarily make it fall out.

Every athlete ever to skid, stumble, or crawl across a finish line has a race-day horror story to share.

Triathletes and cyclists recall getting a flat or going down on the road. Runners compare notes on excruciating cramps, blisters and shin splints. But perhaps the most anxiety-inducing tales come from swimmers, who live in constant fear of experiencing their worst open water moments again and again.

Lots can go wrong in the water; after all, we evolved to live comfortably on land. From losing a pair of goggles at the start of a race to experiencing a debilitating cramp in deep water, swimmers have it rough.

Below is a list of the most common open water Worst Case Scenarios, and how you can prevent them from occurring—or at least cope with them should they come up in competition.

Ways to Avoid Having a Worst Case Scenario Become Your Worst Race Scenario

1. Losing Your Goggles

Nothing is more dispiriting than rushing into the water at the sound of a starting gun only to have your goggles snap off. It’s happened to the best of us, and although it’s rare, it can be the death-knell for one’s racing goals (not to mention one’s contact lenses if you wear them).

Always make sure to inspect your goggles the night before your race. Pull the straps gently and look for small tears and ripples that indicate wear and tear, especially at the clips where the straps are secured.

Often, you will find that straps can look shiny and new while showing signs of deterioration at the seams and buckles near the eyepiece. If so, get another pair of goggles and adjust them before you go to sleep; the following race-day morning will be hectic and nerve-wracking, so you won’t want to think about preparing a new pair of goggles to fit just right.

Remember that sun, chlorine, and moisture all add to the elements that can cause a strap to break, so take care to keep your goggles dry and wrapped in a towel when not in use.

It is not uncommon to see extra-paranoid swimmers bringing a spare pair of goggles with them during a race (around their neck, wedged into their swimsuits, or even tied around their ankles!). While this is a surefire way to add insurance to your race experience, it is highly unnecessary and cumbersome. Goggles around your neck are dangerous (choking hazard), and all other options are nothing more than dead weight.

One is much better off anticipating a Worst Case Scenario and being prepared for it: Try swimming without your goggles, and accustom yourself to opening your eyes under water. Such drills are invaluable to your confidence should the unexpected occur, and you will be able to cope with such an unforeseen circumstance without sacrificing your entire event.

2. Getting a Cramp

Leg cramps while swimming are very common among triathletes, most often striking the calves. This is because triathletes are predominantly lower-body athletes whose legs by virtue of their defined musculature and overall training fatigue are more prone to muscle spasms in the water as their less-flexible legs flay stiffly back and forth.

One obvious preventative measure is to practice lots of stretching, not just before your race but throughout the season. Leg flexibility is relative, and triathletes are habitually less flexible than swimmers. Concentrate on ankle flexibility so that you are able to point your toes on the down-kick of your kick cycle; often, triathletes kick incorrectly with their feet at a 90 degree angle to their shins, contributing to the likelihood of a calf cramp while adding extra drag.

Potassium is known to prevent cramps. If you don’t take supplements or eat bananas regularly, that could be your answer if you’re known to suffer from exercise-induced cramps.

Should a cramp occur during a race, do not panic. Be aware that you are experiencing one and stop swimming. Tread water and slowly try rotating your foot at the ankle to work out the cramp (if it occurs in your calf). Oftentimes you can stop a cramp with this approach. The severe cases occur when an athlete panics and tenses up all muscles in the body, resulting in further muscle contractions and convulsions.

3. Your Swim Cap Tears or Falls Off

It may not seem like the end of the world, but to a swimmer with long hair, losing her cap is a miserable experience. In addition, a swimmer whose cap falls off usually loses her goggles too, since goggles traditionally go over the cap.

Obviously, an easy solution to this potential problem is to wear your hair short if you compete in open water. You can (and should) still wear a cap for warmth and easy identification by race officials. But the longer your hair, the more likely it is to get in your eyes (or worse, your mouth) should your cap rip or slip back on your head. A tight ponytail tied with elastic will at least keep the hair from spreading across your face if you insist on keeping it long

You might consider putting your goggles on under your cap, a unique technique favored by open-water champ Dawn Heckman. This prevents you from losing your goggles should your cap unexpectedly fall off.

I personally never like to wear a brand-new cap on race day. This is because new caps have not been stretched out by a few prior uses, and are thus more likely to slip off the first time they are worn.

Conversely, it is important not to wear a cap you have been wearing for a few weeks, as it could be stretched out to the point of being loose enough to fall off. If the race rules don’t require mandatory color-coded and pre-supplied caps, choose one you have worn a few times that fits snugly but not too tight. Make sure to inspect it along the seam for tiny cracks that could turn into tears.

4. Brand-New Blisters

As devoted cross-trainers, we sometimes end up with cross-training injuries. Most common (and annoying) among these is the fresh running blister that pops open in the water, resulting in that loose bit of skin that burns and flaps every time it gets wet.

While some may hesitate to even call this an injury, anyone who has ever swum with an open blister in salt water can attest that it is excruciatingly painful, maddening and distracting.

Band-Aids are seldom effective, as they slip off within moments of entering the water (especially if you are kicking aggressively). However, a Band-Aid wrapped with waterproof tape has worked for me in the past (I’ve wrapped the tape around my entire foot bridge, or toe, depending on the location of the blister).

Second Skin is a great solution if your blister is a few days old. This product, which you apply to the blister with a small brush, dries over the wound creating a second skin, allowing you the freedom of a painless foray into the water. This product should only be used if the blister is a few days old, as the label suggests.

Remember to monitor your blister in the days before a race and snip off the dead skin surrounding it prior to competition. Although it is never recommended to cut away the skin soon after the blister pops (that may result in infection), after a few days it is safe.

While it still may sting underneath, the removal of the loose skin will eliminate the distracting flapping you might feel under water.

5. Chafing

Chafing is the most easily overlooked Worst Case Scenario that undoubtedly can cause the most grief. Chafing occurs in salt water, where areas of your body rub together and create sports hickeys that can last for days (and sting throughout the rest of your event).

Common chafing areas are the underarms, neck, and around swimsuit straps and openings. Chafing also occurs if you wear a wetsuit, mostly around the neck or armpits.

Vaseline is an easy solution to chafing, and any serious open-water swimmer never packs a swim bag without it. A small amount rubbed around the susceptible areas is all you need to avoid chafing, though Vaseline is not recommended if you use a wetsuit (the petroleum jelly can damage the rubber and cause it to deteriorate over time).

There is a great wetsuit-friendly lubricant on the market that triathletes and surfers swear by, called BodyGlide. Found in most sporting goods stores and surf shops, BodyGlide works as well as Vaseline, without the greasy residue. It also comes in a convenient roll-on stick (like anti-perspirant), with none of the mess that results from the manual application that Vaseline requires.

6. Waves

Open-water swims in the ocean can be a lot more frightening should you face a set of 10-foot shorebreak when the gun goes off (and any sensible race director will consider postponing the race should that occur).

In the event that you find yourself facing down a Perfect Storm-sized behemoth of salt-water force, your first instinct may be to swim over it.

NO!

The smartest way to avoid a breaking wave is to dive directly under it. If possible, dive to the bottom and pull yourself forward by grabbing the sand. This serves two purposes: one, it lets the wave pass overhead and safely keeps you out of range of its pull; and two, it allows you to use the ocean floor as leverage to pull yourself forward while less-seasoned competitors get whitewashed and thrown back.

As frightening as waves look, their bark is always bigger than their bite from the oncoming swimmer’s point of view. Underneath, however, the water is quiet and still, and ideal for bypassing the rush above.

Of course, the above Worst Case Scenarios seem rather quaint for those swimmers who may have encountered a shark or Portuguese Man-Of-War. However, they are common horror stories that require very little of you should you wish to avoid them in the future.

Pre-awareness is the most important step in avoiding these pratfalls and having a great race.

The educational initiative, which runs throughout August and September, is a multi-faceted promotion to encourage youth participation on swim teams and raise awareness of the social and health benefits of swim team membership.

By partnering with Olympic swimmers Michael Phelps, Ian Crocker, Brendan Hansen, Amanda Beard, Aaron Peirsol and Lenny Krayzelburg, the campaign will use in-school promotions, Public Service Announcements (PSAs), a unique Web site (http://www.usaswimming.org/ontheteam), a Teen Choice Awards contest, and club events nationwide to bolster swim team membership among youths ages six to 16.

“Swimming is a fun team sport and a great way for kids and teens to stay healthy while making lifelong friends,” commented Rod Davis, chief marketing officer for USA Swimming. “USA Swimming’s We Want You on Our Team campaign will educate and motivate youths to become active and join a swim team, ultimately helping grow the sport of swimming at a grassroots level.”

USA Swimming will launch a series of PSAs during the August 6th Mutual of Omaha “Duel in the Pool” Broadcast on NBC. The Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool is an annual competition between the United States and Australian national teams. The PSAs will continue airing throughout the fall during The Menu on FOX and will activate youths and teens to join a swim team.

Additionally, in an effort to further boost swim team membership, USA Swimming will host a variety of events and promotions throughout August and September as part of the We Want You on Our Team campaign:

In addition to USA Swimming’s We Want You on Our Team campaign, Toyota — a USA Swimming sponsor — will be hosting swim clinics featuring Olympians Dara Torres
and Rowdy Gaines. Held at select USA Swimming clubs nationwide, the Summer Splash Clinics are open to the public and feature a variety of fun educational
events.

About USA Swimming
USA Swimming (http://www.usaswimming.org) is the national governing body for competitive swimming in the United States. USA Swimming formulates the rules, implements policies and procedures, conducts national championships, disseminates safety and sports medicine information, and selects athletes to represent the United States in international competition. USA Swimming has more than 300,000 members nationwide and sanctions more than 7,000 events each year.

In this “Dance with the Water” article series, we continue discussing the idea that an athlete must listen to the signals the water gives, like a dancer, following the lead of their partner. Move to your own beat, and not in rhythm with the water, and you’re bound to struggle. In this article, we again highlight the concept of pressure and how it can make you faster overnight.

One of the more popular drills among athletes is the fist drill. Ask an athlete what the fist drill is for, and you might get a variety of answers. The main idea of the fist drill is to challenge athletes to use their forearms to catch water by greatly reducing the surface area of the hand.

The biggest problem with the fist drill is it goes against our natural tendencies and desire to swim with our hands open. So naturally an athlete begins to cheat and open their fist, even if just ever so slightly. But if we place a tennis ball in the hand of the swimmer, they have to focus on keeping the hand closed around the tennis ball.

Tennis balls are one of the most effective tools I have found in teaching athletes the concept of pressure in the water. Sure, sometimes my athletes get strange looks at the pool when they pull out the tennis balls, but they normally don’t care once they see how fast they are swimming. The concept of pressure in the water can dramatically and instantly add speed to a swimmer!

Feeling the Difference

The biggest benefit of using tennis balls actually happens when the athlete stops using them. Suddenly, their feel for the water and the pressure they feel on their palms is greatly heightened. They feel like they’re using paddles, when all they are really using is their hands. In fact, this is one of the best warm-up tools for a swim session, or even for a race, for swimmers who are still trying to grasp the concept of pressure.

The other big benefit of using tennis balls is being able to focus on your hand and arm during the length and reach portion of the stroke. With a heightened awareness of the hand and arm during the reach, athletes can better assess how well they achieve maximum length. They can also use the ball in their hand to forcefully throw the hand forward, creating momentum in their stroke and therefore giving them lift and speed.

I would encourage any athlete struggling with the concept of pressure in the water, (also known as catching, or holding water), to use a pair of tennis balls in their next swim session.

If you find this drill makes a big difference in your swimming, then check out my Swim Training Plans. These plans include iPod-compatible videos that demonstrate how to effectively do this and other drills designed to make you a better swimmer.

Once you have found the appropriate amount of pressure with this drill, transfer that pressure to your regular freestyle stroke, looking for and using that pressure on the palm and forearm with every stroke you take. You will be amazed at the difference!

Aesthetically, a flat stomach is on everyone’s physical fitness wish list. But as we get older, a drum-tight set of abs (also known as a "six-pack") becomes more elusive as gravity and age take their inevitable toll.

However, often overlooked in the quest for a washboard stomach are the athletic—not aesthetic—benefits of having a set of strong stomach muscles.

Swimmers especially can benefit from conditioned abdominals (even if their stomach doesn’t look quite like Sylvester Stallone’s or Janet Jackson’s), considering that they are required to execute flip turns every 25 or 50 meters.

Flip turns require the rapid contraction of stomach muscles that tuck the body into a ball for maximum hydrodynamic efficiency during the turn. In addition, strong stomach muscles help keep the body positioned in the water properly, especially in backstroke and when pushing off the wall in a streamline position.

This simple 20-minute ab-strengthening workout not only helps tone and define what lies beneath that layer of skin that seems to get thicker with each passing holiday season, but it also works to make the aforementioned improvements in overall swimming performance.

Abdominal Workout for Swimmers

• Approx. 20 minutes
• 200 sit-ups
• 60 push-ups

Warm-up
Warm up with some light stretching, preferably on a cushioned yoga mat (common ones found in gyms are about an inch thick and made of styrofoam). To stretch out your stomach muscles, lie face down on the mat and prepare to do a push-up with your hands placed as close to your armpits as possible. Push your upper body up off the ground, leaving your hips and legs flat on the ground. This is known as a "seal press." Feel the stretch in your stomach, slowly tilting your head back towards the sky for added abdominal elongation.

50 Regular Sit-ups
Lying on your back, raise your knees off the ground about 12 inches so that the small of your back is flush with the ground and place your hands behind your head. Slowly raise your head toward your knees, making sure not to pull your head up with your hands (your hands and arms are there to add weight to the upper half of your body so that your abs have more mass to lift. They are not there for support). When you curl upward as far as you can go, ease back down to a resting position.

Take care not to relax your stomach on the down-side of the sit-up too quickly the most effective part of the sit-up is actually this down-side, not the up-curl.

15 Push-ups
After the first set of sit-ups, flip over on your stomach, execute a brief seal press to stretch out your abs, and go right into 15 push-ups, slowly and methodically.

Picture your body as a rigid plank, making sure not to bounce your head or only "push up" the top half of your body. Rather, raise your entire body from toes to head. Keep your abs tight and controlled as you execute the push-ups they should burn even though this set serves as a break between sit-ups. Finish with another brief seal press.

50 Left/Right Sit-ups
These are just like regular sit-ups, only instead of bringing your head straight up with each repetition, you are alternating bringing your right elbow towards your left knee, and your left elbow towards your right knee.

15 Push-ups

50 Chair-lift Sit-ups
These are great sit-ups for developing the oft-neglected upper abs. Most sit-ups tighten the lower four-pack of muscles, while this type of exercise places more emphasis on the upper four muscles in the abdominal region.

Lying on your back, lift your legs off the ground in a 90-degree angle as if you are sitting in a chair (only the chair is flat on its back). Again, placing your hands behind your head, slowly raise your head straight up toward the ceiling (unlike the previous sets, do not curl your head toward your knees, but rather reach your head up toward the sky, directly above you). If you do this correctly, it will feel different than the previous sit-ups, because you are working a different set of abdominal muscles.

15 Push-ups

50 Bicycles
"Bicycles" are not exactly sit-ups, but they work the abdominals just as well, if not better, than traditional stomach curls. It is important to do these correctly, in a slow and controlled repetitive motion, to get the most out of the exercise.

Lying on your back, bring your feet up off the ground as if you are beginning a set of chair-lifts. With your hands behind your head, bring your left elbow toward your right knee and then your right elbow towards your left knee, while constantly moving your legs in a cycling motion.

Rather than a series of repetitive motions like the previous sets of sit-ups, bicycles are a smooth, continuous motion as you cycle your legs while twisting your spine left-to-right, alternating elbows-to-knees.

Count 50 controlled rotations, then relax. Or you can time yourself for a minute, executing the motion slowly and methodically. This is the hardest abdominal drill, which is why it is last in the workout.

End with:

15 Push-ups

Upon completion of this dry-land set, your stomach muscles should be burning and an overall tightness in your abdominals will be apparent. When workout time is scarce, this simple set of drills can be done anywhere, anytime. On a hotel room floor in the morning before your shower, or prior to a scheduled workout, for example.

It only takes 20 minutes, but consistently doing this short workout every other day is a great way to strengthen these oft-neglected stomach muscles.

The result will be better form in the pool and a leaner waistline. Who wouldn’t want that?

Fe, as she refers to herself for short (making it a lot easier for me to write this column), has a concern that many of you have written in about: How do you get faster in the pool if youve been swimming at a plateau that you seemingly cant break?

Fe already has a full athletic plate: She cycles four times a week, runs five days a week, and swims four days a week. In addition, thanks to reading Januarys Fitness Makeover, she has taken up weights twice a week. She trains on her own and would like advice on how to improve her swimming speed from a 1:40 per 100 meters down to 1:20.

First off, the twice-weekly weight routine is certain to give Fe the added strength she needs to be a faster swimmer. As I have reiterated before, weights done in moderation as a supplement to your normal swimming, running, and biking routines are a great way to maintain muscle mass (which is easy to lose if youre a dedicated cardio-freak). Weights also build the strength necessary for explosive sprinting at the end of a race.

I will not suggest altering Fes 4:5:4 (cycle:run:swim) weekly workout regimen. If she has the time and dedication to do 13 workouts a week, more power to her! Fe is lucky in that she clearly has endurance on her side; a key component to having speed is first having enough stamina to be able to sprint at any given time during a long race.

Now, how do we get her to drop from a 1:40 to a 1:20 pace per 100 meters? Barring the obvious first-look solutions that I cannot do on-line (such as consulting a coach or fellow athlete to analyze her stroke mechanics, attending a swim camp in her area to make sure her stroke is efficient, or buying a book on proper stroke technique), Fe can add sprint sets to her swimming sessions as a way of lowering her overall 100 time.

Like many of us, Fe is a dedicated and motivated athlete who trains on her own. While this is commendable, it can also be difficult to make improvements without the motivation of a coach or other swimmers to push her along.

Because she does not have the resources to race other swimmers during her practice time, Fe needs to push herself with a different kind of friend: the pace clock. (Here’s a story with a quick lesson on pace-clock reading.)

Here is a set she can try, with the clock as her challenger:

Five times through:
100 meters at 1:45
50 meters sprint at 45 seconds
50 meters easy

This is a set that focuses on speed work while not sacrificing an opportunity to incorporate endurance. The 100s at 1:45 allow Fe to cover some serious yardage while maintaining her usual 1:40 pace per 100 meters, but then she is required to sprint a 50-meter and hopefully push herself to 45 seconds.

Since she has no one to race against or a coach to push her, Fe relies on the clock as her competitor: She needs to beat the intervals I have set and really go for those sprints.

By making 50 meters on 45 seconds, she is halfway to a 100 meters at 1:30. This is already 10 seconds faster than her normal 100-meter pace of 1:40. As she continues to excel at the above set, she can occasionally try putting two sprint 50s together to make up a 100-meter at 1:30.

When this becomes routine, she can modify the above set to doing the 100s at 1:30 and the 50s on 40. Eventually this will get her to the 1:20 pace she wants to do for 100 meters.

Swimming improvements come slowly, and fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Fe should not expect to get from a 1:40 to a 1:20 in three weeks. Perhaps in six months she may only be at a 1:30, but this is still a very significant improvement. Also, in order to do 100 meters at 1:20 she first has to be able to do 50 meters at 40 seconds, and then put two of those together (hence the puzzle analogy).

So by breaking up the goal in bits and pieces, it becomes less daunting, more realistic, and readily achievable.

Another speed set is a simple set of 25-meter sprints. For instance:

4 x 25 at 2:00

This is a tiny set, only 100 meters, and with lots of rest. However at the end of a workout, it is a great way to finish up and get your heart rate going while conditioning your body to sprint when you are fatigued. Fe should incorporate this drill into some of her workouts as well.

Adding up her 4×25 times, she should aim to be at 1:20. In time, she can modify the set to 2×50s at 3:00 (with the added-up 100 time at 1:20), and after that eventually a 100 sprint at the end of her workouts at or under 1:20.

Again, dedication and persistence are essential to making such swimming improvements. Fe has her work cut out for her because like many of us, she trains alone and has little encouragement, guidance, or competition. But by using the clock as a fellow competitor, she can push herself while training alone and gage her improvements accordingly.

If you are interested in being the subject of a Fitness Makeover, please e-mail your questions to Alex, and include a phone number where you can be reached upon your selection.

Get advice for getting back on track with Alex’s Fitness Makeover column

Find and register for a triathlon or swim event in your area!

Dawn Heckman needs little introduction as our next World Class Workout contributor.

Appearing a year ago on Active.com with a list of top 10 tips for open-water swimming, Dawn made a splash with a few of her suggestions, like telling readers to be more aggressive by growing their nails long and clawing their way to the lead of the pack!

Beneath this fierce competitiveness—which has won her gold and bronze medals at the 1999 Pan Pacific Games, a berth on the World Championship Open Water team, and several recent masters world records—is actually a shrewd businesswoman. Last year, Dawn founded Splish, a swimsuit company with a twist.

Splish features racing-quality swimsuits in designs that are not just funky, but outright show-stopping. With names like Blue Bandanna, Cherries, and That 70’s Suit, the swimsuits feature whimsical patterns that deliver high-concept fashion with hydrodynamic performance. Check out the ‘Round the World (featuring a patchwork of countries stitched together to mimic a globe) or Got Suit? (a Ben & Jerry-style cowhide design in shocking pink).

With more than 65 patterns (and still growing) there is something for everyone at Splish and if Dawn has her wish, then open-water swimming and triathlons will soon enough become runways for the individualist athlete in all of us.

Dawn’s World Class Workout was as original as her suit designs: Whereas other contributors focused on big sets that primarily stressed endurance development, Dawn’s workout is short and deceptively simple-looking (but certainly not easy).

“Once a week, I would do a low-yardage, high-intensity set where the purpose was to swim at race speed and lay everything down on the line,” she explains. “In order to be a fast swimmer, you have to practice swimming fast.”

Indeed, many swimmers and triathletes enjoy training endurance because it feels like a real workout (the “no pain, no gain” approach). However with consistent endurance training, it is easy to fall into a pattern of swimming longer distances at slower paces.

Every now and then it is necessary to practice speed and keep your body conditioned to sprint. Dawn’s workout is designed to do just that.

Pre-meet Warm-up

A pre-meet warm-up is whatever it is you do to get ready before a big race. Some swimmers take longer than others and prefer to do up to an hour of drills and light sets. Others like to get their body moving with an easy 1,500 meters and call it quits.

Whatever the case may be, take your time and warm up correctly every time you do the following set. To successfully complete the workout, you need to be prepared to swim fast.

Main Set

8 x 50 ALL OUT as follows:
4 @ 1:10
2 @ 1:00
2 @ :50

This is only 400 meters of swimming, but the challenge is to swim each 50 at race pace. The final time for the 400 meters, when added up, has to equal your goal time in the 400-meter event (those who don’t know what that time would be because they swim different events or compete in triathlons should still focus on sprinting, regardless).

“Every single 50 for me had to be at race pace or faster,” Dawn remembers, “or else it didn’t count and I had to do it again! The intervals weren’t the challenging part; it was making yourself swim really fast when you were dead tired.”

Cool Down

This can be a few hundred yards of easy swimming to flush the lactic acid out of your system, or even 2,000 meters of pulling if you want to inflate your yardage a bit.

The value of the above main set is that it forces your body to perform under race conditions when you may not feel your fastest or your best. If you are in mid-season, swimming a few 50s (let alone eight of them!) at race pace could be really challenging, yet it’s a great way to gauge where you are in your training.

If your body is really broken down and you fail at the set, perhaps it’s time to pare down the intensity of your training and focus more on recovery time to swim fast. If you complete the first half of the set but fail on the last few 50s, then that should be a clue that you need to work on your endurance.

In midseason, Dawn would do this set three times through in one workout, for a total of 1,200 meters of fast swimming. As the season progressed she would do it twice, then only once in the weeks of her taper. Occasionally, she would do the set butterfly (she primarily raced freestyle but felt that butterfly was a greater challenge).

Ultimately, this short set could be the most important drill you do during your season. While endurance training is the pillar of any open-water swimmer or triathlete’s logbook, sprinting is the oft-neglected element that separates the fast from the faster.

The more an athlete is accustomed to swimming fast during midseason training, the more conditioned he will be to rise to the occasion when the gun goes off on race day.

As endurance-prone workaholics, sometimes we need to remember to set aside time for fine-tuning ourselves with sprints, and thanks to Dawn we now have a blueprint to follow.

Blueprint that’s actually the name of one of her swimsuit designs!

With the triathlon season under way and upcoming open water races in our collective anticipatory consciousness, athletes everywhere are beginning to ask themselves a common question:

How do I get faster?

It is a question whose answer remains elusive, confounding both the weekend warrior as well as the athletic elite.

When it comes to swimming, there are lots of ways to improve your speed. Whether the end result is avoiding the end of the pack in the first leg of a triathlon, or achieving a personal best time at a Masters meet, no one will hesitate about committing to self-improvement.

But if the means of getting there are as simple as a basic checklist of things to do, it may require even less work than you had initially thought!

While there are infinite ways to get faster — some complex and others surprisingly obvious — the following list of 10 ways to gain speed in the water will help you achieve a season of success.

You may already be practicing a few of these ideas, but if there are a few on the list that you haven’t considered, then now is the time to try. Let the racing season begin!

1. Improve Your Technique

Many triathletes are forever resolved to the fact that they learned to swim too late in life, and therefore will never be as strong in the swim portion of their race as their swimming-background counterparts. With a shrug of the shoulders, they struggle through Masters workouts with rudimentary (or just plain bad) technique, swimming because it is a necessary evil and figuring they will make up for time lost on the bike and the run.

You can’t make up for lost time; once it’s gone, it’s gone. So why not make the best of your swimming leg and learn to swim correctly? It could mean a weekend stroke clinic, or perhaps a peer-analysis from a training partner.

Maybe you can find someone who can objectively look at your technique and inform you of mistakes: are you finishing your stroke? Is your head riding too low? Simple changes to old habits can result in huge improvements (and if your speed doesn’t improve, then at least you may avoid injuries or unnecessary race fatigue that result from bad technique).

2. Practice Speed Work

Some swimmers are so consumed with covering a fixed amount of yardage in their daily workouts that they pile on the distance sets (e.g. long, medium-paced drills, endurance-testing pulling sets, or several thousand meters of constant swimming at a slow pace).

By swimming long distances at a constant pace, one gains little more than the ability to swim long distances at the same constant pace. One actually learns to swim slowly; and is then unable to know how to swim fast!

It is important to tack on a few sprints at the end of every workout, regardless of your event or racing preference. Maybe 4 x 25 sprint freestyle on a minute interval. Or 2×50 at 30 seconds rest followed by 2×25 at 15 seconds rest.

Speed work not only conditions and develops fast twitch muscle fibers (used for explosive bursts of speed during a race), but it forces a swimmer to elevate their heart rate to very high levels for brief periods of time: this is anaerobic training. In any sport, athletes and coaches strive for a delicate balance of aerobic and anaerobic drills for maximum performance come race day.

3. Kick

Kicking is often neglected by open water swimmers and triathletes, either because of a general disinterest in the bottom half of the stroke or out of the belief that saving their legs will result in a better bike or run. But short bursts of light, fast kicking can leave a pack of drafters in the dust, and can be the difference between first and second place in an open-water swim.

When kicking in a workout, see how long you can maintain an aggressive six-beat kick (six leg-kicks per one full arm stroke using both arms). It may only take 10 strokes before you feel your quads burning, but see if you can’t develop a little more endurance throughout your season by choosing the last 50 meters of every set you swim to try a six-beat kick.

If you can turn it on at the end of a race (even for 20 strokes or so), you will find it’s a great secret weapon to rely on should the need arise to ditch a few followers and drop your finish time.

4. Gain Strength

This Fitness Makeover column I wrote offers a six-week, basic weight-training plan for swimmers looking to gain swimming strength without losing flexibility or putting on bulk.

It is a simple but effective routine, and when combined with speed work (see tip No. 2 above), can result in the ability to swim with explosive bursts of speed without the accompanying fatigue that often plagues weaker swimmers.

By having a hidden resource of extra strength to fall back on when racing, you can challenge a competitor mid-race and come out ahead. This not only puts them behind you and tires them out, but it mentally shuts them down and puts them out of the race for good while you get a confidence boost and keep on going!

5. Improve Race Starts

The race start is a very important part of your swim (be it in a triathlon or open water race, or pool competition), yet is often neglected because it is such a small part of the overall distance of your event. This is a poor excuse.

The start of the race can set the tone for the remainder, by either positioning you in the front of the pack, or by giving you a chance to assert yourself in a crowd of slower folks (who mistakenly and obnoxiously think they should be in front of you). Again, lost time is lost time, and a few milliseconds gained early on can be the difference at the finish line.

Take the time to practice your starts with a coach or trained professional. If you don’t know how to dive off the blocks without losing your goggles, then learn. If you don’t have the confidence to begin a triathlon with a running start (braving the shorebreak and avoiding hidden sandbars, for instance), take a trip to an open body of water and acclimate yourself to the sprint down the beach and into the water.

6. Perfect Your Finish

Masters swimmers who train with a group tend to get sloppy during sets in crowded lanes, gliding in toward the wall without even finishing the lap. Over time, this habit persists in races, where the last stroke they take is one long glide under the flags when a swimmer with tighter finishes can touch them out.

Force yourself to sprint into the wall every time you swim under the flags and have a few strokes left in the lap. If you’re an open water swimmer or triathlete, focus on your transition from swimming to running up the beach.

There is always a moment when your legs turn to jelly and the first few steps on land cause you to stumble. If you can anticipate this feeling and brace your lower body upon exiting the water, you will avoid embarrassing face-plants in the sand and lost time while you struggle with disorientation and loss of balance.

7. Taper

The definition of tapering is scaling back your workouts to fully recover training-fatigued muscles in preparation for a race. Tapering can be considered the reward for a season of commitment; it’s the icing on the cake.

Oddly enough, some swimmers and triathletes avoid tapering before a major race because they fear they’ll fall out of shape. They don’t trust themselves enough to take it easy for a few weeks, and as a result they race tired.

Elite swimmers taper about four weeks before a major event, and this period can be extended up to six weeks. For an endurance athlete, cutting swimming yardage by half in the weeks before a major event will not result in being out of shape. It will allow severely broken down muscles to heal and recuperate while keeping them conditioned with light training.

Come race day, the snap in your muscles that only comes with a few weeks of rest will guarantee peak performance. So don’t be afraid to reward yourself with a few weeks of rest.

8. Sleep

It may sound trite, but getting enough sleep is critical to being faster in an important race. Often, we get six to seven hours of sleep a night during the season and are so accustomed to this amount that our bodies learn to function even if it’s not enough rest time. As a consequence, we gradually break down our bodies so that our athletic performance turns duller and slower without our even noticing.

With today’s busy world, it may be impossible to consistently get the recommended eight hours, but for your taper (at least a week before your big event) you should try to sleep eight hours.

The first few nights may be difficult and you may be restless. Then, for a few mornings you may even feel dull in the senses and sluggish. This is a sign that your body is recovering and you are getting enough sleep! As your clock resets, by race day you should be well-rested enough to feel alert and full of that snap that you may not have felt in a while due to long-term fatigue.

Also, remember that supplementing your taper with a few fast sprints (point No. 2) during this time will help keep your body alert and prevent sleep-induced sluggishness.

9. Visualize

Anticipate your race by picturing it inside your head in the days leading up to competition. Imagine what it will feel like to dive off the blocks or hear the gun go off at the waters edge, and replay the race in your head.

Elite swimmers practice visualizing techniques to the point where they can close their eyes and time themselves in an imaginary race to within 1/10 of a second of their goal time!

Know every stroke you take before you take it. The more familiar you become with the length of the swim and the segments that it consists of, the better prepared you will be to swim your best race.

Also, anticipate any fears you may have (losing your goggles, swimming off course) and visualize coping with such mishaps. Should anything occur during the race, you will know what to do.

10. Carbo-Load the Right Way!

One of the biggest myths about endurance racing is that an athlete can effectively carbo-load in one or two meals immediately prior to the race. While there is certainly nothing wrong with having a healthy plate of pasta the night before your big event, it probably won’t have any noticeable effect on your endurance the following morning.

Rather, attempt to increase your carbohydrate intake in the week before your race, and do so gradually. Granted, your body stores unused carbohydrates as "fat" but you won’t gain any weight if you eat more carbs for a week (you will, however, allow your body ample time to break down those complex carbs and store them as extra energy).

Again, the tips above should serve as a checklist of things you ought to be doing to improve your speed. You may already be doing eight of them automatically, but those remaining two items could be the difference between a personal best and a disappointing performance.

A few years back, United States Masters Swimming issued a press release reminding those with active lifestyles that swimming can be a "rigorous, effective fitness workout—and be fun in the process."

While this may seem obvious to habitual swimmers, there are athletes out there who think pools are strictly child’s play or summer fun. There is also a widely circulated fallacy that swimming is not an effective form of weight loss.

Throughout the year, many American Red Cross, YMCA, and Jewish Community Centers offer classes and organized workouts for the uninitiated.

Therefore, it seems appropriate to offer a brief recap of the reasons why everyone can benefit from swimming as a primary, secondary or alternative form of physical fitness to complement their existing routine.

1. Heart Helper
Swimming provides unparalleled cardiovascular conditioning, provided you practice consistently and with good technique. While other forms of exercise may be more effective at elite levels (such as running or cycling), incorporating swimming into a cross-training routine and pushing yourself in practice will result in overall improved fitness.

2. Balance Your Build
Swimming builds longer, leaner muscles that complement the shorter denser muscles that develop from weight training. These "swimmer’s muscles" also help boost metabolism to keep calories burning longer.

3. Cross-training
Swimming not only boosts cardiovascular capacity while increasing muscle strength, but it also gives your body a break from higher-impact activities like basketball, running, and weightlifting. By creating a balanced workout routine, athletes avoid injury by allowing their body time to heal, while not forgoing daily training sessions.

4. Increased Flexibility
A heated pool relaxes muscles, increasing flexibility and enabling important stretching. Also, after intense lactic-acid-building endurance workouts (running, cycling, weights), an easy swim helps flush out toxins preventing muscle tightness and soreness the following day.

5. Strengthen Your Core
Swimming develops core body strength because it utilizes all the body’s muscles simultaneously. Although 70 percent of a swimmer’s effort comes from the upper body, kickboard and fin workouts can provide an excellent leg workout.

6. Endurance
Swimmers are able to swim longer than they can what they could sustain doing other activities. With the right technique, a swimmer will be able to train for longer periods of time than if he/she were running and, as a result, more calories are burned.

7. Adventure
Swimming has branched out from the darkened, indoor community pools of yesteryear. Many new health club chains offer clean lap pools, and local communities are finding renewed interest in outdoor facilities during the summer months. Seek out available natatoriums in your area (swimmersguide.com) and if you are able, locate a natural body of water (lake, ocean, pond, or quarry) and explore the joys of open-water swimming.

8. Social Outlet
Imagine meeting the man/woman of your dreams, and seeing what they look like without their clothes on for your first date! That’s one benefit, at least, of joining a Masters team or triathlon training group. In addition to the possibility of romance fueled by mutual interests, team programs offer peer motivation and professional coaching to provide you with increased performance results.

9. Weight Loss
"People who consistently swim strenuously enough to be out of breath when they finish and elevate their heart rate do burn calories and lose weight," says Jane Moore, M.D., a physician and active swimmer from Tacoma, Washington. "The key is to push yourself a bit."

"Putting on a swimsuit and appearing in public should also motivate one to shed a few pounds," says Kris Houchens, head coach of the YMCA Indianapolis SwimFit Masters.

Whatever your reason, or whatever the excuse of a friend or partner, that swimming has not been incorporated into a consistent fitness routine, the list above should illuminate the ways in which the sport can add to your quality of life.

Consider making a positive change and research the swimming opportunities in your community today!