On The Water

The human body has unlimited potential. We are lucky enough to live in an era where sports physiology has been studied and applied for a long time and has demonstrated with scientific rigor how exercise duration, intensity and frequency can affect muscle composition, capacity, efficiency, energetics and ultimately, human performance. Kayaking shares many aspects with swimming because they are both highly technical sports and require a vast cardiovascular capacity and engagement across all types of muscle fiber no matter the distance or duration of the event. In terms of performance, there is always a fine balance between technique , muscle development (and proper engagement) and cardiovascular ability . The holy triad of any sport as I call it, gives us the opportunity to continue to grow as athletes in any and all of those three aspects continuously. All three are tightly interconnected and while during specific training periods we may focus more on one or another, they all deserve at...

I am definitely not the fastest swimmer in the field but I work hard, smart and persistently to improve my weakest discipline: swimming. Since I started triathlons, I had one and only one motivation line: "If you want to get better in a sport you have to be an athlete of the sport". Do you want to be a better swimmer? Then, you need to do what swimmers do.  Simple and straightforward. I understand that there is a lifelong debate whether triathletes gain benefits from learning how to flip turn or not. I am not a high-performance coach nor a high-performance triathlete to make definitive claims here but this is what I have gained over the years of practicing and doing flip turns consistently and constantly. Practicing flip turns will make you incredibly faster on race day! 1. You maintain the continuity, the momentum and the rhythm of your swim. To give you an example: comparing flip turns with open turns or with stopping at the end of each lane is lik...

For many triathletes who did not grow up swimming, swimming is often their weakest discipline. For that reason, most tend to spend too much time and money on private swim lessons, YouTube instruction videos, internet searches and the rest, hoping to magically improve their swimming for the next season often with very little time in the water actually swimming. However, there is one simple truth that a lot of us either fail to understand or it takes us some time to realize. If you did not grow up swimming, swimming improvement is a gradual process that takes time. Proper coaching with emphasis on the fundamentals will pay dividends that will speed up the process in both the short and the long term. Learning proper technique is fundamental but understanding the theory of proper technique and actually applying it consistently in your swims is the key to success. This is why a great coach can teach you and allow you to focus on one thing at a time and for a long period of t...

I am a triathlete. I did not grow up swimming. Sounds familiar? This is me as this is with a lot of triathletes out there. I never really paid attention during the first year of training and racing-I just practiced and practiced and practiced. My 2011-2012 season showed that I could have some potential in triathlons but it ended prematurely (due to a deep abdominal pain) with my 4th finish at the Collegiate Nationals ( Lili 2011-2012 racing season ). I was hit with and unknown injury (see An unknown injury ) and as a result, I lost the two following seasons trying to resolve my problem. During these seasons, I could not run as much or as fast as I wanted because I was constantly in pain. The good thing though was that I could focus on my swim and on the bike (see How I trained through my injury  and  Swimming technique facts ). With Mike Cantrell The "junk" swim miles got substituted this year with real technique work under the supervision of my husband, who is al...

For most of us, who did not grow up swimming, technique is the key to faster swimming times in the future. I learned to approach swimming with a long-term perspective, work systematically and be patient! I had been swimming a little for some years but I really started swimming three years ago. This is a picture from a swimming analysis video after my first competitive year. What do you see? My elbow enters the water first, my whole body is literally submerged in the water, and I am dragging myself with zero body rotation. BAD. This is a similar picture from a swimming analysis video today, two years later. Things that have changed: More body rotation, almost no elbow drop in the entry and pull stroke phase and high elbow in the recovery phase. Not good yet but certainly BETTER. Lots of things helped me improve. Things that have worked for me may not work for you but here are the four must-dos that improved my swimming technique: 1. LOTS of kick-sets!!! Especially s...