Going slower to go faster

It seems to me that with a lot of sports, to make steps forward, sometimes a step backwards is required.

This is even more the case it seems in the more technique driven sports.

The thing that got his idea ticking over in my head was the current renovation I am doing on my swim stroke.

I come from a swimming background that spanned from around ten years old until I returned to competitive swimming for a season after “retiring” from triathlon at about age 18. I would like to think I was a pretty handy swimmer and I was able to be in the first two or three out of the water, or there abouts in the majority of the triathlons that I did.

I have found recently that I still swim pretty quick, compared to the age group triathlete population, however nothing like how I use to swim.

I have spent the last 18 months hunting for my old stroke, which use to see me to much quicker times in the pool. As yet I have not found it.

More recently I decided to stop hunting by feel and to start getting a little more scientific in my approach; I have been consulting with a number of sources and have started to develop my understanding of what good technique is.

Previously I was one of those athletes that didn’t care and didn’t want to know why, I just wanted to be told what to do and how to do it and don’t bore me with details. I think this is a real shame, because all the guidance and information that I had access to through some pretty stellar athletes/coaches in the past, is mostly wasted. I have little idea about the theory behind anything I did back then and have almost been learning from scratch this time round.

I have learnt that if I question why and research the theory, eventually it clicks, I have an “aha!” moment and I can apply the theory myself and generalize the concepts, rather than relying on someone else to hand it to me on a platter.

Back on topic – going slower to go faster. Bilateral breathing. I have been ignoring the message from almost every coach I have trained under to bilateral breath. When at my fastest, I only breathed on one side. However, recently I have followed the trail of technical inefficiencies in my stroke back to my one sided breathing (among other things – flexibility etc). I am not going to go into the technicalities of the problem here, as I find explaining swimming technique in writing similar to reading the articles in a penthouse, you really need to see it live to get whats going on and a picture is worth a thousand words. But the point I am trying to illustrate is that I am currently trying to breath bilaterally. I am finding this straight forward enough at easy to moderate pace, but when the pace is wound up, I feel short of air and find it hard to find the rhythm I am used to.

I am finding it easier over time, but I am having to swim slower at times to maintain what I feel will be a faster more efficient stroke once I have it nailed down.

Sometimes in the interest of going faster you have to take a hit in speed, check your ego and work on technique, at a pace that you can maintain, then start to wind it up again when you have it down.

A word of warning: I wouldn't recommend doing this too close to your 'A' race, as there may be reactions from your body to the new movements both injury and fatigue wise. Which you don't want in race season.