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This section is for NON swimmers.  Experienced swimmers…move on, you are past this.

Well you want to do the swimming thing.  Good it is not easy to strip down and jump into an alien environment, where you are floating, (probably not really if you are just trying this now), cannot breath, and need to use your arms to move forward.  Great idea, this will be fun.

There is no substitute for coaching and supervision.  All I offer here is a chance to go through some easy steps towards being able to even have a baseline speed.

DISCLAIMER:  You can DIE in the water.  It is common.  Only those who have proper supervision, proper facilities, and are healthy enough for physical exercise should do any of this.  Being able to touch the bottom of the pool is not enough when you are panicked and choking.  Be smart and don't put yourself at risk.

If you are ready to go, I have set up a very simple plan to get somebody with little experience in swimming, at least on the right track.  It is a six week plan that does not take very much time to do three times a week.  It is a progression of simple body position, body length, and kicking drills.  These are common drills and I have added links to a few youtube videos to help explain the drills.  I have no association with these videos.

6 week start up

The sessions are set up so that by the end, if you do the work, you will be able to do the 400 / 200 test set.  More important though, you should be able to actually begin doing swim practices.  By the end, you would be swimming about a mile.  For some, that is like doing a marathon.

I have a lot of kicking and body work for a few reasons.

  1. if you can float correctly, you can swim…simple right.  Most swimmers sink from very poor head and body position
  2. kicking drives fitness.  If your legs are in shape in the pool, you are in shape.
  3. kicking drives tempo.  Your legs eventually will make your arms go faster or slower.  You need to lay a foundation
  4. kicking helps with balance.  It is true, just don't let your legs balance you, they assist.
  5. kicking helps biking and running.  Ahh, but it is true.  The most frustrating thing watching triathletes do is pull, pull, pull.  Yes, I know you are using a wetsuit and you want to save your legs, but you are going SLOW.  You just spent $4,000 on a new bike that you think will shave :40 seconds but the 4 minutes of slow swimming you could improve on is not worth it.  Sorry a little rant.  You kick from the hips, quads, and core, and guess what, those hip flexors will be getting stronger and more capable from kicking in the pool for sustained periods of time.   Not to mention point #2, your fitness.  I used to kill in Triathlon and I never trained much out of the water like everyone else in the race did, and I would beat them.  My fitness was sooo much superior, that biking and running faster than most others, never really pushed my cardiovascular system to it's unsustainable limits.  Now if I wanted to become Elite, I needed to do the other things that make the difference on the bike and run, but you know what, that is exactly what SwiftDuck is trying to do for all you committed bike/run people that need to get faster in the water.

Well, back to the program.  If you want to get started, feel free to try this out.  It is not fancy or magical at all and won't make coaches stand up and clap, but it works to get you started at least.

I recommend going slow.  Why, you need to learn to do it right, fast is counterproductive, unless we are doing kick set, in which case go FAST.  If you cannot do most of this at slow speeds, you are sinking most likely and sinking is not fast.

I also recommend not using fins if possible.  If you are a life long runner/biker and your ankles are so inflexible, they might as well be fused, I would go with short fins, like Zoomers and work on your ankle flexibility.  If your ego just won't swim without fins because you are going too slow, what can I say, do what you want.  Fins provide so much thrust and propulsion, that it can be counterproductive to learning.  Lots of beginners use them because they feel like they are going nowhere.  Odds are they are right.  But that won't change when they come off again for a race someday.  That being said, if it keeps you in the water, it is better than being out of the water.

You will also notice the use of backstroke.  It is a very smart way to help balance a swimmer in the water, continue to work on kick, add variety, and allow unobstructed breathing.  Plus, doing Free all the time is boring.  Free and Back compliment each other well.