Andrew Sheaff (@andrewksheaff)

It’s not hard to move the arms fast, it’s not hard to swim long, but it IS hard to do both at the same time.   Here’s a set that forces swimmers to figure out how to do both.   The idea is simple. 
We’re going to cap swimmers’ stroke rates and then ask them to swim faster within each segment.   The only way they swim faster is by swimming bigger because they can’t move their arms faster.   As the distances get shorter, the stroke rates get faster.   Across each round, the repetition numbers drop and the stroke rates get faster.   That means swimmers should be able to swim faster and the only way they’ll be able to do that is by swimming better.   And the objective numbers let them know exactly how successful they are.   That drives learning, and learning drives performance.   If you’re a coach and you want to learn how to build sets like this, grab my free Build Better Skills While Training Hard mini‑course – the link is in my bio.

Making sure all the important skills are developed every week is simple. 1. Plan the week. Not just the training components but which skills are going to be addressed as well. 2. Log the week. Write down what actually happened and compare it to what was supposed to happen. It’s a simple habit that most coaches are already doing, especially with their training. Add the skill development piece and now swimmers are learning the skills they need to succeed with the fitness they need to execute those skills under pressure. Simple. Follow @andrewksheaff for more on long-term skill development.

Every swimmer is structurally different, so rather than teaching the perfect freestyle recovery, it’s critical to help swimmers learn the optimal recovery for them.   Great recoveries are fast, direct, and effortless.   But exactly what that looks like can differ from swimmer to swimmer.   Let’s help swimmers find the best recovery that helps them create the most speed.   4 Rounds through   50 Freestyle as 25 bent arms + 25 straight arms 50 Freestyle as 25 straight arms + 25 rounded arms 50 Freestyle as 25 rounded arms + 25 bent arms 50 Freestyle   Each round gets faster.   By exposed swimmers to the extremes of arm position, we can help them learn how to recover the arms in a way that is most effective for their unique anatomy, while still respecting basic physical principles.   By adding a speed expectation, the emphasis isn’t just on aesthetics, but performance.   In this example, we just manipulated the position of the elbow.   We can take it further by changing how high the arm is recovered and any other number of variables.    This helps swimmers discover recovery patterns that are fast, direct, and effortless, which create the most speed for them.   If you’re a coach and you want to learn how to build sets like this, grab my free Build Better Skills While Training Hard mini‑course – the link is in my bio.

One of the biggest mistakes swimmers make with their kicking is failing to keep the leg straight when kicking backwards.   Too many swimmers bend the knee when it reality the leg should remain completely straight.   It may not feel like it, and initially, it may not look like it, but that’s what’s happening.    By recovering the leg back straight, it allows swimmers to snap the whole leg forward, creating a lot more propulsion than if they kicked from just the hips or the knees.   By recovering the leg back straight, it also creates significantly less drag than if the knee was bent and the foot dropped down.   The key is to help swimmers feel this skill and train the muscles on the back of the legs to ensure that swimmers have the fitness and the skill to hold an effective kick throughout their races.   Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

If breaststrokers breathe poorly, they’ll ruin the rest of the stroke.   Breaststrokers have to breathe at the right height in the right way to create as much speed as possible.   And they have to breathe at the right time.   A poor breath can compromise both alignment and propulsion.   The challenge is that the ‘perfect’ breath is going to be different for everyone.   Here’s a simple set to help swimmers figure out.   Have swimmers go 4 rounds of 5x25 at 200 pace effort.   #1 is no breath #2 is head up, #3 is breathe every other stroke, #4 is head up every other stroke, #5 is normal.   By asking swimmers to go fast with different breathing patterns, we’re challenging them to explore different styles of breathing.   Over time, the clock will let them know how to breathe in a way that creates the most speed.   Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

If you want to help swimmers learn underwater kicking skills that actually create speed in races, development has to occur over the course of a season.   That requires consistency and variety.   There needs to be consistency so that the same skills are challenged with speed and fatigue, and there also needs to be variation so that swimmers continue to learn.   Here’s how to make it happen.   Take the exact same exercises and perform them in different ways, preferably more difficult ways.   Vertical kicking while moving backward is a great way to help swimmers learn to kick through the center line.   Start simple and then add speed, add kick rates, add DragSox, add weight belts, go in streamline, add duration, and build it into sets.   It’s the same basic exercise but it’s performed in more and more difficult situations, which not only helps swimmers learn better skills, it helps them learn how to make it happen in races.   If you’re a coach and you want to learn how to use these concepts to build sets, grab my free Build Better Skills While Training Hard mini‑course – the link is in my bio.

Swimmers have to swim big to swim fast, but most have no idea what that means or how to do it.   Here’s a set that demonstrates a really effective concept that you probably haven’t tried.   We’re going to have swimmers use a 200 stroke rate here, fast but controlled.   For each repetition, they’re trying to get as FAR as they can.   If they go farther at the same stroke rate, they go faster.   It’s a great option to challenge their skills that takes the focus away from just times.   We’ll adjust the stroke rate a bit to provide some variability and to further challenge swimmers’ skills.   At the faster rates, the goal is to get the same distance as the slower rates, and therefore go faster.   It’s simple.   If they go farther at the same stroke rate, they go faster, and it allows them to understand that they can use LENGTH to create speed.   If you’re a coach and you want to learn how to build sets like this, grab my free Build Better Skills While Training Hard mini‑course – the link is in my bio.

Improving skills is often an execution problem as much as it is an education problem. Once coaches know what to do, finding ways to ensure it gets done is the limiting factor. This is especially true when there are a lot of skills that could be improved, but what really matters is improving the skills that are most important. By committing to work on those key skills more times per week, coaches ensure that the important work gets done first so that swimmers are learning the skills they need to go fast. Follow @andrewksheaff for more on long-term skill development.

If backstrokers can hold water longer, they will go faster.   The best way to NOT continue to hold water?   Lots of up and down sweeping motions.   Instead, it’s about getting the whole arm facing backwards as early as possible.   Then maintaining that position for as long as possible.   When swimmers try to do more, they end up doing less.   Keep it simple. 
Set it up.  Pull back.   Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

If breaststrokers can’t get the hips up and keep the hips up, they’re going to create a lot more drag and a lot less speed. The hips are going to drop when swimmers breathe. The question is how much are they going to drop, and how quickly can swimmers get everything back into position. Getting the hips back up requires aggressively lunging forward, shifting the center of mass forward to shift the hips up. The more effective swimmers can be with managing their hips, the faster they’re going to go. While that’s the principle, the specific application can differ across swimmers. Check out these two swimmers. Pay attention to how much the hips drop and how much they come up. Who has more range of motion? Which swimmer changes positions faster? It’s important to be able to see and understand the concept, as well as see how the application can different across swimmers. That allows us to help swimmers learn the foundational skills in a way that works best for them. Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

Practical education is incredibly effective for helping coaches become better at their roles.   It’s even more effective when that education is targeted toward what they need to know how to do to fulfill their exact role.   That type of targeted education isn’t going to come from anyone other than the program they coach in.   If coaches know:   Exactly what their swimmers need to improve. Exactly how to help them improve those skills. Exactly what swimmers need to be capable of doing.   They’re going to be a whole lot more effective than if they’re left to figure it out on their own.   Follow @andrewksheaff for more on long-term skill development.

To go fast, swimmers have to learn to create propulsion with the arms and the legs, and they have to do it all at the same time.   Rather than simply telling them what to do, it can be helpful to put them in environments where they have to do it.   We’re going to use the resistance of the cord to challenge swimmers to create more propulsion.   We’ll use the stroke counts and speed goals to ensure that they’re creating propulsion efficiently.   We’ll use the fins and the paddles to influence where that propulsion is coming from.   It all works together.   Rather than just asking swimmers to go fast, we can create sets that require swimmers to problem solve and go fast with great skills.   It’s the swimmers that swim well at high speeds that go the fastest.   It’s a matter of helping them figure out how to do it.   If you’re a coach and you want to learn how to build sets like this, grab my free Build Better Skills While Training Hard mini‑course – the link is in my bio.

Swimming fast backstroke is as much about keeping drag low as it is about holding tons of water and creating propulsion.   Keeping drag low starts with effective body position and posture.   The challenge is that many swimmers struggle to feel and understand these positions.   And simply swimming more backstroke doesn’t always get the job done.   Here’s a simple way to help facilitate change.   Have swimmers kick on their back with the arms by their side.   The goal is to keep the body on the surface while letting the chest sink down, creating a posture resembling the hull of a boat.   This position can then be challenged with speed, resistance, DragSox, or anything else that helps swimmers learn how to maintain the position.   Alternate it with regular swimming so that swimmers can learn to find and sustain effective posture while they swim.   It all adds up to less drag and more speed.   Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

Better starters make less splash.   Why does it matter?   More splash means more water contacted by the swimmer.   More water contacting the swimmer means more drag.   More drag means less speed.   It’s a simple test for an effective start.   Rather than worrying about all the details, get the outcome down.   Make sure swimmers are entering the water cleanly.   Then start adding some force to it.   If they can enter cleanly, they’re almost certainly doing a LOT right.     Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

Skills build upon skills, and if there isn’t a progression in emphasis over time, swimmers are going to run into trouble.   It’s difficult for swimmers to maximize propulsion if the limbs aren’t in the right position at the right time.   It’s difficult for swimmers to get their timing right if they can’t control their body position and alignment.   It’s difficult for swimmers to control their body position if they don’t have basic floating and stability skills.   Just like there should be a progression in emphasis over time with training, so too with skills.   Change the emphasis to ensure long-term progress.   Follow @andrewksheaff for more on long-term skill development.

There is one word to summarize what’s required for effective skill development season planning.   That word is patience.   It’s very difficult to change skills and get them to show up in competition.   The same skills need to be addressed in the same way in progressively more difficult situations.   To help backstrokers master their rotation timing, the key activities for improving those skills need to show up on day one.   Whatever drills or exercises work best, start there.   Then patiently increase the speed, patiently increase the distances, and patiently increase the fatigue.   It’s just like training.   Start with what they need to do and start with what they can do and patiently progress over the course of the season until they can execute it like they need to in competition.   It doesn’t have to be fancy.   It has to be patient, and it has to be progressive.   If you’re a coach and you want to learn how to use these concepts to build sets, grab my free Build Better Skills While Training Hard mini‑course – the link is in my bio.

It’s easy to pay attention to obvious drag problems like really high head position or sinking hips.   It’s harder to see the impact of smaller yet still significant mistakes like poor entries.   Regardless of the speed swimmers are going, they want the entries to be as clean and direct as possible.   If there is splash going all over the place in every direction, swimmers are creating more drag than they need to, and they’re likely compromising the setup of their pull.   Obviously at faster speeds, there’s going to be some splashing.    The key is to ensure that it’s controlled, it’s not unnecessary and swimmers are doing everything they can to enter as cleanly as possible regardless of the stroke rate.   The better they can be, the faster they will swim.   Be direct with the recovery and it leads to more effective entries.   Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

Most breaststrokers mess up the pull before it even starts.   They have to slide the arms out wide to get into position to pull effectively.   The hands are together at the start of the pull.   Swimmers have to get the arms outside of the shoulder to start repositioning them to create propulsion.   It takes a LOT longer to get into position relative to the other strokes because the arms have to move a lot farther.   If swimmers rush the slide out, or they simply skip it, they’ll be in a much less effective position to create propulsion.   That means less speed.   Even when swimmers are trying to go really fast, they have to wait until the arms are in position before getting them facing backward and applying pressure.   It’s the ultimatel challenge, patience while trying to be as aggressive as possible.   Following @andrewksheaff for more on the most important skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

To swim as fast as possible, swimmers have to find the right amount of undulation.   Too little and the stroke doesn’t flow.   Too much and swimmers will sacrifice stroke rate and can actually create more drag.   Let’s take a look at a set that helps swimmers learn how to control their undulation to create more speed.   3 Rounds   8x25 Butterfly             ODD flutter kick EVEN swim             Descend in pairs from solid to strong 50 Butterfly             Descend from strong to stronger   The idea of this set is simple.   We’ll have swimmers use a flutter kick to flatten their stroke out a bit.   They’ll alternate between the flutter kick and regular swimming by 25 to give them the opportunity to apply what they feel during their regular swimming.   They have to go faster as they move through the 25s, all while continuing to apply these skills.   Then, they can see if they can put it together on the 50s.   Again, it’s simple.   Help swimmers feel the key skills and they give them to chance to apply those skills at speed.   Take the concept and make it your own.   If you’re a coach and you want to learn how to build sets like this, grab my free Build Better Skills While Training Hard mini‑course – the link is in my bio.

One of the simplest ways to help swimmers improve their pulling is to take away the legs with a band.   But just swimming with a band isn’t enough.   How it’s used matters.   The key addition here is we’re going to combine the band with various stroke count and speed challenges.   Swimmers have to use the arms effectively and efficiently if they want to accomplish the set successfully.   In every case, swimmers have to be efficient by maintaining or even decreasing their stroke count.   And they have to find ways to go faster as they work their way through the set.   At the end, swimmers will take the band off and let it rip to see what they get can do.   The goal is to maintain efficiency and find more speed across the rounds.   It’s a simple and effective way to help swimmers learn to use their arms to create speed.   If you’re a coach and you want to learn how to build sets like this, grab my free Build Better Skills While Training Hard mini‑course – the link is in my bio.

When it comes to improving skills, there is a lot to do and not much time to do it in.   That requires using the most effective skill development tools available to help swimmers learn a given skill.   What works best? What works fastest? What works the easiest?   Those are the tools that help create the most change which leads to the most progress.   Follow @andrewksheaff for more on long-term skill development.

We’ve got two Olympic Champion freestyle sprinters, and as you can see, we’ve got two different arm actions.   What differences do you see? Who holds more water? Who has better pull timing? Who gets more depth? Who sets up the stroke better? Who holds the back of the stroke better? Who is more direct with their pull? Which pull do you think will be more effective for more swimmers? What else do you see?   Bottom line...who does it better in your opinion?   More importantly, why?   Let us know in the comments below.   While it’s not necessarily about better or worse, it IS about being able to see the differences.   Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

The more swimmers can use their whole arm in butterfly, the more propulsion they will be able to create.   A bigger surface area means a bigger paddle which means more speed.   Here’s a simple set to get the job done.   3 Rounds 4x50 Butterfly as 25 closed hands + 25 open hands      Descend 1-4 Round 1- closed fist Round 2- horns Round 3- OK sign   If swimmers want to go faster, they have to be better at setting us their stroke and using their whole arm.   With the different hand positions, their hand will be much less effective, so they have to use their forearm.   It’s a simple way to help swimmers learn to use their arms to create more speed.   Take the concept and make it your own.   Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

Kick timing changes when swimmers change speed and there is a simple way to understand what’s happening and if swimmers are using effective kicking timing. The kick helps control rotation, so it’s all about timing. Swimmers change their arm timing when they try change speeds, so the kick timing needs to follow as well. Check out these two swimmers. When sprinting, the arms move in opposition, and swimmers tend to kick on the same side when they enter the water. When they swim over longer distances, there is more overlap in the front of the stroke, and swimmers tend to kick on the opposite side when they enter the water. While different swimmers can time their arms differently across different speeds, the leg timing and arm timing should sync up. When they do, swimmers are more likely to create efficient speed. Watch the entries to understand what they’re doing, and help create change as necessary. Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

A huge mistake swimmers make is extending the arms all the way down the thigh. It feels strong, and it makes sense, but it’s just not fast. Here’s why. Swimmers use their whole arm to create propulsion. At the end of the pull only the hand can still face backward. And only the relatively weak muscles of the arms can do the work. That means not much propulsion. And by extending the arm, the arm is going to stop. That makes is a whole lot more difficult to recover the arm quickly and effortlessly. This swimmer is nailing it. Squeeze the arm to the side and then let it swing around. Optimize the finish, don’t maximize it. Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

While the top priority may differ slightly, most clubs have three goals: Provide a great experience Go fast, perform, and win Consistently make enough money to keep the doors open They’re all achieved by providing a consistently awesome product. If swimmers are learning the skills and developing the abilities they need to achieve, each and every day, accomplishing these goals is going to be a whole lot more achievable than not. Follow @andrewksheaff for more on long-term skill development.

While the legs get all the love in breaststroke, if swimmers don’t have a strong pull, they’re going to struggle to maximize how fast they can swim.   Not only do swimmers have to hold water with their arms, they have to do so within the rhythm of the stroke.   Here’s a skill set that helps them learn how to make it happen.     Each round transitions from pure pulling to full stroke swimming as swimmers move from 50 to 50.   Within each round swimmers will have a different goal to achieve, working to hit different stroke counts and speeds.   Not only are swimmers challenged to integrate the pull into their stroke, they have to learn how to use that stroke to perform.   The objective numbers guide swimmers’ skills and help push them to build a stroke that’s built for efficiency and speed.   If you’re a coach and you want to learn how to build sets like this, grab my free Build Better Skills While Training Hard mini‑course – the link is in my bio.

While swimmers still need to pull back in breaststroke to move forward, it differs from the other strokes in that there is a significant inward component as well. The arms end up much wider when setting up the stroke, so swimmers have to bring everything back to the body. Too many swimmers simply sweep the hands in rather than actually pulling the arm into the body. Here’s a simple way to improve this skill. Have swimmers place their arm on the deck and squeeze the whole arm into the deck or gutter. This allows them to feel the position they need to create, and how to apply force through the whole arm, rather than just sculling in. This exercise is a lot more effective when combined with other pulling activities that help swimmers understand how to use the arms to create speed. Feel the skill, apply the skill, go fast. Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

Fast butterfly is impossible without effective body movement. While the arms and legs deliver force to the water, it’s the body that’s driving the show. Watch the rhythm and flow of the body motion here. You can see the wave of undulation that travels down the body twice per stroke cycle. That wave is key for fast swimming. If swimmers can’t get that wave flowing, and they can’t add the arms and legs on top, they’ll really struggle to swim fast. While the arms and legs certainly matter, making sure the body is locked in is key for fast swimming. Create the wave, ride the wave. Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

When coaches are starting out, the amount of information coming at them can be overwhelming, especially if they’re actively trying to get better. But in many cases, much of that information isn’t relevant to them. Or worse, it’s contradictory because they don’t fully grasp the context or it’s just wrong. Programs can fast-track their coaches’ development by creating a standard operating procedures document for each group. What needs to get done and how it needs to get done. Rather than leaving coaches guessing, they know exactly what they need to know, and any questions they have are laser focused on solving their current problems. Coaches can become very effective, very fast. Follow @andrewksheaff for more on long-term skill development.