Improve your swim with these sessions from Chris Stirling

Staple drills

I have 4 drills that I use during my warm up for every session, they are simple and work on the catch phase and body rotation/hip drive. I often swim 1 length drill, then 1 length easy focusing on the drills aspect. It’s important to concentrate and try to perform the drill as perfectly as possible, we are trying to build better movement patterns and neural connections so the last thing we want is to be struggling. Top tip, get some Zone3 Buoyancy shorts for this part of the swim, you are still swimming naturally but the extra floatation will allow you focus on the important part of your stroke.

The drills are-

Short doggy paddle - Just like at school learning to swim, keep the strokes short and really focus on using the whole forearm as a paddle to pull you forwards, feel the water and use it. The more vertical you keep the forearm, the better propulsion you will find.

Long doggy paddle - As for the short but reach out a little further in front, then keep the elbow high as you pull back, again getting vertical as quickly as possible. Don’t be scared to play around during this drill, try different positions, get a really good feel for what works.

6/1/6 side kick - 1 stroke, roll to side, kick 6 times, 1 stroke, roll to side, kick 6 times and repeat. The main focus here is on hip drive to initiate the roll, good hand entry and an efficient kick from the hips

6/3/6 side kick - As for 6/1/6 but take 3 strokes between the roll. A very good way to build up to 6/1/6 that also works on bi lateral breathing.

Sometimes I just swim 1 round (200m total) up to 4, depending on the session. Take it easy and rest as much as you need, make sure you arrive at your main set fresh and not tired from your warm up!

Main Sets-

Technique is of course super important for swimming but if we want to get faster, we have to swim faster and work harder to force the training adaptions. We all know that start line feeling, the adrenaline and washing machine effect, all the drills in the world aren’t going to save us here! Try out some of these for your main sets, they all have had me wishing for the end and suffering to various degrees during the winter and spring but going into the race season feeling confident and strong.

I have been lucky to work with an amazing coach over the winter and have turbo charged my swimming. A simple gem of advice has really helped ready me for each main set, no matter how daunting. Before you get in, repeat the mantra ‘Today is going to be a good day’, smile and believe!

Round 1 -

(6 x 100, max effort, 30secs rest between reps), 100 easy back crawl, repeat 3 times (2000m inc back crawl), You could try 2 rounds the first time, it’s a real tough one, mentally and physically!

Round 2

20x100, hard, 10secs rest between reps, try to hold the same time for each repeat, pacing this one can be tricky, slightly too hard and your pace will drop, but each effort should be hard…seeing stars at the end of this one!

Round 3

3x(6x100) as-

1^st and 2^nd 100’s 9/10 effort

3^rd 100, 6/10 effort (tempo)

Last 3 100’s 8/10 effort

10 seconds rest between repeats, 100 easy back crawl between sets.

A race specific, lactic acid bath of a main set, stay in the moment, focus on each rep and don’t let your thoughts wonder into the future, it isn't pretty.

Enjoy, ‘Today is going to be a good day….’ J