As you may know by now, I am a big fan of Total Immersion, so I thought I would share one of my favorite drills and some insights I have had while doing it.

This drill (or drills) is the “Gear Changing” drill located in Chapter 15 of Triathlon Swimming Made Easy. The basic idea of the gear changing is you go up and down a scale of stroke rates for each length of the pool. For instance, the first length could be 15 strokes, the next 16, then 17 and 18. The key concept is you are learning how different turnover rates feel and accustoming your body to the one that is most efficient. My standard for these drills is to start at 13 and progress on up to 17 strokes per length. At 13, I really have to put a lot of emphasis on the kicking, resulting in my legs going out beyond the slipstream created by body. At 17, I have to turnover fairly quickly (not necessarily going any faster, though) in order to get all 17 in. The realization you come to, after doing this for a while, along with the other gear changing drills in Ch. 15, is that you have a sweet spot that will allow you to swim most any distance at the same stroke rate. If you want to go faster, you can stroke faster (but don’t lose your form) or you can kick harder. It is much easier, in my mind, to stroke faster than kick harder. Kicking harder , while effective, means a lot more energy exerted because you are forcefully moving water to the side at your feet. I find a smaller kick, that stays within the wake made by my body is almost as effective as a larger kick. In fact, when I swim for speed, I find myself doing a modified 2 beat kick. On every rotation, where I need to drive my hip down to rotate I kick a little harder, followed by a much smaller, quicker kick in between. Something akin to KICK, kick, kick, kick, kick, KICK, kick, kick, kick, kick. Repeat. This kicking action, combined with the rolling of the body and the stroking results in a very fluid and fast motion for me.

So, next time your in the pool practicing TI, give the gear changing drills a goal.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 1st, 2006 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Misc., Swimming, Training, Triathlon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.