As a coach you learn that there are many ways to get faster in the pool. But you also realize that fast swimming takes a lot of time, dedication, and patience. The biggest time drops tend to happen at the end of the season. So if you haven’t seen a change in time, don’t call it quits just yet. I’ve got three recommendations that should definitely help you add some speed to your stroke!

1. Try to add intervals to your training. Intervals allow your body to understand what fast swimming feels like. You can use a wrist watch to keep track of the time if you don’t have access to a deck clock. The clock doesn’t lie in terms of time, so you can track your progress. Believe me, dropping a second is great and a victory in itself. It will take time to see a huge time drop, but in swimming that’s why we get so excited about a couple second time drop.

2. Focus on improving one aspect of your stroke at a time. If you execute a drill, make sure you can really see and feel the change. You don’t have to use the point of view from on top of your body. For example, if you’re trying to correct your arm placement, use the line at the bottom of the pool. That line helps guide swimmers to stay in their lane and is a great indicator as to how even your stroke is. You don’t want to cross over the line because that means you’re hurting your shoulders by pulling harder on one side than the other. Another great way to make changes to your stroke is to get someone to tape you in the water.

3. Try planning out the season. You can plan it month by month or week by week, but I guarantee if you plan out your workouts you’ll definitely do more yardage then if you just show up to the pool by yourself with no clear cut plan.

That’s all for now. Keep up the great work and the results will follow!