Australian swimmer and world champs competitor Sam Ashby talks about what to eat before swimming and prior to a race. The entire Skype interview with Sam is available inside the Mastering Freestyle program.

“I love training!” – This is a phrase you can either relate with, or completely disagree with. But if you think it’s something you don’t have a choice in…lay back on the couch and finish off that bag of chips. You’re already ruled out.

Loving or hating swimming training comes down to the type of workouts you’re doing…and understanding what each type of training is for.

The Problem With Swim Workouts

You see, most swim workouts suck! They are boring, tedious, monotonous. They don’t work the different energy systems. They are designed to fill in time and keep you busy for 60 or 90 minutes.

This isn’t your fault or your coaches fault. Most coaches do the best they can with what they know. I’ve been guilty I’ve writing sh*tty programs on the spot because I haven’t planned the workout in advance. I’ve put up boring sets of 400′s to fill time.

Whether you write your own programs or have a coach who does this for you, bad workouts are all too common.

Clear water: Nothing but space to train!

Supercharging Your Swimming

Imagine a car race. You turn up in and old beat up, dent-in-the-hood Ford Escort. Paint is flaking from the passenger-side door, the bumper is hanging to one side and you can tell by the sound of the engine you might be pushing the car over the finishing line.

Enter your competitor, an F1 car. It’s fast, it’s shiny and the high-pitched roar of the engine makes you slightly weak in the bladder. You know deep down no matter how much time you spend on your beat up Ford Escort, no matter how hard you try…winning “just ain’t gonna happen”.

This is the same scenario as structured and planned swimming workouts vs traditional time-filler workouts. If you know what to do in a session to make you fitter, stronger, faster…you’ll be driving that F1 car right past the paddock bomb in a few short weeks.

Training Speeds Explained

All training boils down to three types of swim speeds.

1. Speed
2. Back end speed (a.k.a quality work, pace work)
3. Aerobic

The video above explains each of the training speeds and how you can use them in a swimming workout.

How To Improve Your Swimming

After spending more than 8,000′s in the pool and on pool deck (coaching), I’ve come to realise the importance of swim workouts. They’re not all the same.

The best workouts are specific to what you’re training for (be it a pool competition, triathlon/open water swim or general fitness) and they include speed training, quality work, aerobic work plus all the skill work required for good technique.

You need the right amount of recovery and rest in your main sets. Too little and you can’t get the most out of the set, too much and your heart rate will drop below the training zone you’re working on. This sounds confusing but don’t worry…it’s easier than it sounds.

I’ve trained with Olympic swimmers, world record holders and coached more than half a dozen swimmers to national master’s records. The workouts we do play a large part in their success.

When I surveyed our newsletter subscribers the second most requested information was swimming workouts (behind swimming technique).

Results from our survey

Now Available

I’ve decided to share the workouts that have help create national champions and that I’ve learnt from elite swimmers, triathletes and coaches. Each workout has been adjusted to suit beginners, intermediates and experienced swimmers, so whatever level your swimming is at you can use the workouts.

The swimmers I coach in Melbourne pay up to $104/month for the workouts. Because I’m not physicallly required to be there when you use the workouts you can get a month’s worth of workouts for much less than that.

To see if Effortless Swimming Workouts are suitable for you go to EffortlessSwimmingWorkouts.com or ask me any questions in the comments section below and I’ll answer them for you.

If you found this article helpful please share it with a fellow swimmer or triathlete. They will thank you for it!

You know that not everyone has swims with the same style or rhythm in freestyle. This video provides a great breakdown of the different freestyle techniques. There’s more than one way to swim, and any coach that tries to tell you that there is only one is incorrect.

We’ll be covering which technique is right for you in updates from our Mastering Freestyle program.

These are the three types:

1. Hip-driven technique: Hip-driven freestyle is used by Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett, Larsen Jensen and  Libby Trickett and is a slower-stroke-rate freestyle. It is typically swam at 60 to 70 strokes a minute.The hand holds the water in front after the entry before beginning the propulsive motion backward. The slower time of the arm pull cycle allows the swimmer to get a bigger hip turn and generate a larger counter force to pull against. This increases the distance from each stroke. It’s better swum in distances over 200 meters and a strong six beat is needed to swim it fast.
2. Shoulder-driven technique: Shoulder-driven freestyle is used by Peter Van den Hoogenband, Janet Evans and Alexander Popov and is a higher-stroke-rate technique. It’s swam at 80-110 strokes per minute.The entry hander catches quicker and the release is done sooner which results in a faster stroke rate but less hip rotation. Not as much power is generated from the pull but because there is more strokes it makes up for the power difference. The shoulders typically rotate more than the hips in this technique. Two beat and six beat kick are both acceptable, though only a six beat kick should be used when sprinting
3. Hybrid technique: In recent years a number of swimmers are drawing on elements of both techniques. It is becoming increasingly popular for middle distance swimmers (100, 200 and 400 meters) who draw on the advantages of both techniques and opt for a hybrid freestyle.They use one arm with shoulder-driven technique and the other arm uses a hip- driven technique. It has become popularised by Michael Phelps. It requires a very strong kick and breathing to one side and can be used in open water swims if you have a strong kick

We’ll be covering which technique is right for you in updates from our Mastering Freestyle program.

We’ve used your answers to create Effortless Form: The step by step guide to swimming backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. It will be released sometime next week.

It’s now possible to increase your strength and endurance without slugging away at the gym for hours. By being smart and doing the exercises which work specific muscles, you can save time and squeeze in quick exercises before a swimming session.

I traveled to Queensland to visit Australian swimmer Sam Ashby and see what he was doing for strength training. I discovered the exercises they had been doing:

• Got results within days, not months like most gym programs
• Didn’t take 2-3 days to recover from, so you could get into the pool and feel fresh and strong
• Could be done almost anywhere so you weren’t restricted to only doing strength training at the gym

This meant that you didn’t need to hire an expensive personal trainer, you didn’t need an expensive gym equipent and best of all swimmers of any age could do the program and get results fast.

I confirmed that these were the strength workouts that Australia’s best swimmers were using when I chatted with Jeremy Saunders who trains with numerous Olympic swimmers.

Most of the exercises can be done without any equipment, but they also use swiss balls and strength bands.

This video shows three exercises you can do in under 5 minutes before any training session. It will build strength and increase power if you do it consistently for a few days.

We’ve put together a video program of the most effective way to build strength for swimming, using the same exercises Australia’s best swimmers are doing. It’s called SwimGymPRO and is available now.

Yes! I want buy SwimGymPRO to improve my swimming.

The solution comes down to two things.

Your stroke (swimming technique) and your breathing technique (ability to control your breathing). The breathing technique is rarely spoken about, so I thought I’d shed some light on it. Here’s a video which explains the correct way to breath in freestyle.

Limited time only: Get 2 months FREE swim workouts

The most popular course is the Mastering Freestyle program. If you are sick of hearing the same old tricks and you’re ready to completely revamp your freestyle so it’s easy to swim and you glide through the water like a hot knife through butter, this is for you.

New Drills
In the program I introduce a series of drills which will radically transform your technique, even if you really struggle in the water. The program runs through 4 separate modules; balance and body position, rotation, arms and pull, the whole stroke. These step-by-step lessons are the ultimate technique development program.

Complex concepts made simple
Freestyle technique is a combination of many different elements. The catch, body rotation, kick, breathing and recovery (just to name a few). Often this is overwhelming when learning to swim freestyle. Many coaches and instructors will teach you the separate elements, but fail to put them all together. The Mastering Freestyle program teaches ‘feeling’ the water and automatically linking each part of the stroke together (you won’t even know it’s happening).

Proven system
Learning to swim smooth freestyle shouldn’t be an ongoing struggle. Most swimmers and triathletes will persist with the same technique for years. Training harder isn’t the most effective way. Improve technique. Improve speed. Improve times. Mastering Freestyle is an easy to follow system which rapidly changed even the ugliest of freestyle into a long and relaxed stroke.

This stuff works
After putting hundreds of people through the program, I know the program works. The three recurring themes I commonly hear about the program are; swimming becomes easier which has increased my endurance, my speed has increased in both short and longer swims, I’m get much further each stroke which has reduced my stroke count. From novices to experienced swimmers, huge improvements in freestyle have been made.

Limited time only: Get 2 months FREE workouts

What is drafting? Drafting is using the wave and current created by another swimmer to help pull you through the water.

Why should you draft?

• You conserve up to 15% more energy than when your not drafting
• Speed is increased by 3% over 400m
• It’s a FREE ride!

How to draft:

Sit behind a swimmer so you feel their bubbles. Avoid touching their feet, it slows them down which slows you down.

Another alternative is to position yourself so your head is even with their ribs. You can then ‘ride’ their wave. The best example I have ever seen of this was by Duncan Armstrong in the 88′ Olympics.

He rode Matt Biondi’s wave for 150m and conserved his energy for the final lap. See what happened.

In your next open water race, try drafting a swimmer slightly faster than you. It will help you keep up with them and increase your speed without using more energy.

The only other swimmer I think has rivaled Phelps in technique is former world champion Alex Popov.

Popov held the 50m freestyle world record before the Fastskin suits were introduced. If your a sprinter or a long distance swimmer, Popov is the ideal person to model in your swimming. The video above gives a great explaination of the freestyle stroke.

If you want improve your freestyle technique then I highly recommend securing a copy of Mastering Freestyle Technique here. It’s a fast and easy way to become a good swimmer. I use the exact program with the swimmer’s I coach.

I wanted to share something with you that I learnt on the weekend from Australian swimmer Sam Ashby. He came along to our Saturday training session and assisted with the coaching on the day. He ran through a number of drills which focused on one hugely important part of freestyle. I worked on this one thing during my own training session tonight and was swimming 2-3 seconds quicker per 100m than usual without increasing my energy output. I’m not kidding, so I had to write this for you ASAP!

Want to get the right body position in freestyle swimming? Body position is vitally important to a smooth and effortless swim stroke. It’s a key ingredient for swimmer who wants to take their speed and times to the next level. A greater improvement in overall swimming will come from correcting body position more than increasing fitness. Each training session work on swimming with the correct body position rather than exerting more effort in the pool. You will not only feel better in the water, but your technique will come more naturally and your times will improve with less effort. The are 3 steps to achieving a killer body position in swimming which will blow your competitors away:

1. Lengthen your body – The reason many swimmers hit a plateau is because they get too ‘caught up’ with where they should be pulling with their arms, how hard they should be kicking and many other ‘minor’ issues compared to their body position. The swimmers which focus too much on the other things usually aren’t lengthening out there body. The longer your body is in the water, the quicker it moves and the less resistance it creates. Think of your body as a long yacht which glides effortlessly through the water, and avoid being a big wide barge which is slow and cumbersome.

2. Rotate your shoulders – To move more easily through the water in freestyle, you must rotate your shoulders. No doubt you’ve been told to rotate in the water, but too often swimmers are told to rotate the entire body as they take each stroke. This is incorrect. Elite swimmers work on keeping their hips relatively still with only minor rotation. This allows the hips to generate a powerful kick and provides a strong core for the upper cody to leverage from. The shoulder should rotate to the point where the shoulder is out of the water as it is taking a stroke. This reduces frontal resistance and allows for a high elbow recovery which is a key part of freestyle.

3. Stay flat to the water – Resistance increases exponentially as you get faster. This is why it’s important to reduce your total resistance created by your body. Keep your body flat to the surface or slightly raised at the front, but don’t allow your hips and legs to sink. This creates resistance on your lower body and makes it difficult to swim faster. Remember, the easy way to swim faster is to reduce your resistance.

In your next session, why not focus on improving your body position by lengthening your body, rotating your shoulders and keeping your body flat to the surface. This will help you swim faster, smoother freestyle. Discover how to master freestyle technique and turn even the ugliest of strokes into smooth and efficient swimming. Sign-up right now Brenton Ford’s FREE online newsletter to find out exactly how to do that – Go here: http://www.effortless-swimming.com