Week 8 of 8: Embrace Your Swim-ividuality: The Power of Individuality in Perfecting Your Swimming Stroke
In Summary (TL;DR)
This is week 8: optimising your stroke for you
An individual approach is essential
Swim Types - a FREE program for each
Did you get a chance to tackle some of last week's recommended drills? How did they go for you?
So here goes for Week 8: optimising your stroke for you:
Guidance
Simple pointers for all swimmers, triathletes and their coaches
Have you ever marvelled at the distinct swimming strokes of each athlete during the Olympics or World Championships?
It's fascinating how some swimmers effortlessly glide through the water with graceful technique, while others exhibit a raw power in their seemingly less refined styles. This stark contrast was particularly evident in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, where close friends and successful swimmers, Mack Horton and Gregorio Paltrinieri, showcased drastically different strokes and performances in their respective events.
This begs the question - what truly defines good swimming technique?
The answer is not a universal one, as various factors such as height, build, gender, past swimming experience, physiology, and even personality play a role in determining an individual's optimal technique.
While it may be tempting to emulate the seemingly effortless style of a top swimmer like Horton, it is crucial to recognise that efficiency in swimming is not a one-size-fits-all concept.
Paltrinieri's triumph in the 1500m race exemplified the importance of embracing one's unique characteristics to maximise performance.
When observing swimmers in different pools and clubs, one can clearly see the vast array of swimmer types, each facing their own set of challenges in improving their performance in the water. Attempting to mimic someone with a drastically different physique and stroke can prove counterproductive.
Instead, swimmers should embrace their individual attributes and optimize their strokes accordingly, just like Alexandra 🇬🇷 and Frank 🇩🇪 have been doing this week here in sunny Montenegro, two of our 12 swimmers on our brand new 7-day Swim Smooth Experience:
Appreciating this individuality is essential for enhancing performance and is at the heart of every Swim Smooth Coach's methodology.
To truly grasp this perspective, swimmers should not solely focus on correcting isolated flaws in their strokes. Rather, they should identify clusters of issues associated with different swimmer types, allowing for categorisation into one of six Swim Types.
This approach empowers swimmers to understand their unique challenges and equip them with targeted drills and training sessions to overcome the specific pitfalls tied to their category.
The Swim Types coaching system which we developed in 2008, offers a logical framework to acknowledge individuality and promote progress in the water. When combined with stroke analysis and swim training data from watches, it is now easier than ever to identify one's Swim Type, providing tailored instruction for improved performance based on each swimmer's specific needs.
Understanding
Deeper insight into how to improve this aspect of your swimming
Here's a nice image overview of each of our six Swim Types for your further understanding and self-identification:
And here's how the gender split often works out:
And here's how the adult swimming community is spread:
Routine
Actionable advice with a practical program that works
This week, you can download a FREE Swim Type session from our full library on the Swim Smooth GURU that you can use to refine your stroke based on the key areas holding you back.
These sample sessions are session 1 of 4 from the full sequence within the GURU designed to move you expediently forwards with your swimming - enjoy!
Ultimate
Nothing beats direct - and truly individualised - coaching from one of our Swim Smooth Coaches
Sw-improvers:
Nothing Beats a Real Coach!
The empathetic and expert coaching service being offered to the Sw-improvers is very much what you can expect when visiting any of our Swim Smooth Coaches - consider booking a session with one today by following this link.
Let's see which Swim Type each of our Sw-improvers identified most closely with:
