{"id":25964,"date":"2023-09-26T13:08:49","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T11:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/?p=148911"},"modified":"2023-09-26T13:46:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T11:46:00","slug":"how-to-maintain-your-swim-skills-during-hard-training","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/rss_feed\/how-to-maintain-your-swim-skills-during-hard-training\/","title":{"rendered":"How to maintain your swim skills during hard training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting the balance right between fitness gains and skill improvement can be tricky, but luckily swim coach Andrew Sheaff has the strategies you need to achieve both at the same time\u2026 <\/p>

By Andrew Sheaff\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 26 September 2023 at 11:08 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Swimming can be really challenging because you have to be physically fit and possess tremendous technical skill. The problem is that working really hard to develop your fitness can lead to poor skills, and focusing exclusively on your skills can lead to a loss of fitness. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a really tough balancing act that\u2019s hard to get right. However, by using some specific strategies designed to solve this specific problem, you can definitely accomplish both at the same time.<\/p>\n

Use reminders<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The simplest strategy is to include skill reminders in between hard repetitions, or a series of hard repetitions. For instance, you could perform three rounds of 4 x 100m freestyle, and in between round four, you\u2019d perform 4 x 25m of Paddle Cap Freestyle<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n<p>By using this strategy, you\u2019re ensuring that you\u2019re continually getting technical reinforcement between hard repetitions. Even if your skills fall apart a little bit during the 100s, you can get them back on track during the 25s.<\/p>\n<p>Without the reminders, you might find that your skills continually get worse and worse over the course of a set. Instead, you can use the drill work to help you refocus on what really matters, helping you keep your skills in check.<\/p>\n<section class=\"highlight \"> <div class=\"highlightcontent editor-content\"> \n<ul>\n<li><strong><a class=\"standard-card-newarticle-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/how-do-i-know-if-my-swim-skills-are-improving\/\">How do I know if my swim skills are improving?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a class=\"standard-card-newarticle-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/simple-tricks-to-help-triathletes-improve-their-swim-skills\/\">Simple tricks to help triathletes improve their swim skills<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a class=\"standard-card-newarticle-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/two-swimming-drills-that-improve-every-skill\/\">Two swimming drills that improve every skill<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <h2><strong>Perform drill\/swim repetitions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Another way to accomplish the same objective is to perform repetitions <a href=\"\/training\/swim-training\/how-to-combine-drills-and-full-stroke-swimming\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>where drills are included in the repetitions themselves<\/strong><\/a>. For instance, you could perform 10 x 100m where the first 25m is <strong>Underwater Recovery<\/strong> and the remaining 75m is performed at a strong effort.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\"Underwater Recovery\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YdwsAeCR8rs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<p>Or you could perform 10 x 200m alternating 25m <strong>Stroke and Roll<\/strong> with 25m fast swim.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\"Stroke and Roll\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mlfzMH7JRRg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<p>In both cases, you\u2019re getting technical reminders throughout the set, helping you focus on the key skills when you\u2019re pushing the effort during the swim portions.<\/p>\n<p>And because you\u2019re getting constant reminders, it\u2019s much less likely that you\u2019ll experience any sort of technical decay over the course of the set. That way you can train hard while knowing you\u2019ll be able to swim well.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Find your sweet spot<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>How much drill work should you include? As much as necessary and as little as possible. You want to be able to perform as much hard swimming as you can, but you don\u2019t want to let your skills fall apart.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re better off including too much drilling at first to ensure that you can maintain the appropriate skills as much as possible. Once you\u2019re confident in your ability to do so, slowly decrease the amount of drill work while increasing the amount of swimming.<\/p>\n<p>As long as you\u2019re maintaining your skills, keep pushing it. However, if you notice that your skills are falling a part to some extent, take a step back to ensure you stay on track.<\/p>\n<section class=\"highlight \"> <div class=\"highlightcontent editor-content\"> \n<ul>\n<li><strong><a class=\"standard-card-newarticle-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/how-to-use-swim-drills-more-effectively\/\">How to use swim drills more effectively<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a class=\"standard-card-newarticle-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/whens-best-to-do-swim-drills-in-a-session\/\">When\u2019s best to do swim drills in a session?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a class=\"standard-card-newarticle-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/how-to-make-your-swim-drills-more-challenging\/\">How to make your swim drills more challenging<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <p><strong>Top image credit: <\/strong>Jan Hetfleisch\/Getty Images for Ironman<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Getting the balance right between fitness gains and skill improvement can be tricky, but luckily swim coach Andrew Sheaff has the strategies you need to achieve both at the same time\u2026 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":25965,"template":"","categories":[1,23],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/how-to-maintain-your-swim-skills-during-hard-training.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/how-to-maintain-your-swim-skills-during-hard-training-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/how-to-maintain-your-swim-skills-during-hard-training-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/how-to-maintain-your-swim-skills-during-hard-training-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/how-to-maintain-your-swim-skills-during-hard-training-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/how-to-maintain-your-swim-skills-during-hard-training.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/how-to-maintain-your-swim-skills-during-hard-training.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Getting the balance right between fitness gains and skill improvement can be tricky, but luckily swim coach Andrew Sheaff has the strategies you need to achieve both at the same time\u2026","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/25964"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}