Of the swim, bike and run that make up the triathlon, often times the swim portion can be the most daunting, especially for those who didn't learn to swim as kids. Worry not! This article will explain the basics of swimming and get you started. For those that have some swimming in their background, this article will help you to develop a training plan. The start of the article is geared more for beginners, and as the sections proceed there is more useful information for those swimmers who know what is going on.

Getting Started

When you first get in a swimming pool, you may be able to do just one length before feeling tired. So let me say right off the bat- that's ok. Just like running, it takes time to build up endurance in swimming. But it will definitely come in time, if you can commit to swimming 2-3 times per week.

Pools are typically 25 yards in length. However, and this is especially true in San Francisco, some pools are "off" lengths: most 24 Hr. Fitness pools are 20 yards in length; the Hamilton Pool in Pacific Heights is 33 yards long, as is the Olympic Club pool in Nob Hill (good luck getting in!); and of particular interest, the Sheehan Hotel pool in Nob Hill is an unconventional 21 yards in length. Only wierdos swim at these odd-length pools. (You can find me at the Hamilton and 24 Hr. Fitness on Mondays and Wednesdays, respectively.)

For most pools, one length is 25 yards- one lap is 50 yards. However, you will sometimes people describe lengths as laps. If a swimming distance described in laps sounds ridiculously long, then likely the person meant lengths. People often use the term "laps" when they mean "lengths," but it's usually clear by the context of the workout they are explaining what they mean. For example, if you are swimming with a friend and he says, "Hey, let's swim 500 yards straight, it's only 20 laps" he really means 20 lengths- 20 laps would be 1,000 yards, a distance far greater than what most swimmers do in a single set even in masters classes. (A masters class is where a bunch of hard-core or semi-hard-core swimmers work out under the tutelage of a coach, and they usually practice the wierdo strokes, like butterfly and backstroke.)

If you jump in a lane at your pool and see people swimming up one side of the lane and then down the other side, they are circle swimming. Keep to the right side of the lane as you are swimming, touch the wall somewhere near the center, and then swim back down the pool, again keeping to your right. Leave the flip turns for later, when you start swimming like one of the wierdos in the masters classes.

As a beginner, you might set as a goal to finish 20 lengths of a standard pool, or 500 yards. In time, you will likely swim total yardage somewhere around 2,000 yards in a workout. The single most important thing at this stage, either as a beginning swimmer or a swimmer just getting back into the pool, is to remember the combination to your padlock in the locker room. It's a real hassle to have to call a friend or roommate to bring clothes to the pool for you.

Stroke Basics

What makes getting from one side of the pool to the other so hard? It comes down to this: with every pull of an arm, you want your body to propel through the water as far as possible, and with the least energy expended by executing the arm pull. The speed with which you swim is governed by a simple equation: stroke length X stroke rate. For example, if you move forward 1.2 yards with each pull, and you are taking 55 pulls per minute, then you will swim 66 yards per minute, which translates to 1:30 per 100 yards.

But enough with the fancy math!

Stroke Basics - Useful Information, Not Math Mumbo Jumbo

As a beginner, the best things you can do to swim more efficiently and faster are: (1) keep your body (from extended hand to pointing toes) as long as possible, and (2) maintain proper balance (body close to level at the surface of the water and swimming a straight line). The idea is to reduce the amount of drag your body creates in the water to as little as possible. Also, the frontal area that your body presents to the water should be as small as possible. Finally, you want to pull as much water as you can behind you- thus propelling you forward.

The two "more efficient and faster" items above translate right away into the most common problems a coach sees in new swimmers.

• body length- not extending the hand fully; bending the legs too much during the kick
• balance- using too large a kick; not rotating the trunk of the body; hands crossing the body's center line

To "fix" the problems above, concentrate on doing the following things. Work on one thing at a time, integrating additional fixes as you go on.

• body length- pierce the water with your thumb and index finger pointing downward, and reach fully forward in the water to lengthen your arm
• body length- keep your legs almost (but not completely) straight, kicking from the hips and ankles (in fact, ankle flexion is a key contributing factor to body drag in the water)
• balance- use a small, fast kick
• balance- "Red Cross" swimming taught many of us to swim face-down as kids; when you swim, your body should rotate from side to side, driven by hip turn; body rotation should occur most when you breathe
• balance- enter your hand in the water farther out to the side from your head than you think you should; your hand should enter, roughly, in line with your shoulder; as you scull water, your hand should not cross your body's center line underneath the water

Drills

Instead of just plugging along lap after lap without getting more efficient, take the time, especially at the start of your workout, to do drills, and then apply those drills to the yardage you do toward the end of your workout. Do drills to develop better technique, and then you will swim more easily, and then faster, as you apply them to your freestyle stroke.

These are some of the drills with the most bang for the buck:

• kicking- with both hands at your side (not extended over your head, as you may think), kick:
  • facedown- concentrate on staying level on the surface of the water, using small, fast kicks, and staying relaxed; your toosh should break the surface of the water, and you may feel like you are swimming "downhill"; push your sternum down, keeping the waterline centered on the top of your head; take a breath by doing a single breaststroke when you need one
  • on your side- face up toward the ceiling, and remember to use a small, fast kick; your upfacing shoulder should be in the air, as should your matching hip; the goal of this drill is to be as relaxed as possible, especially in the neck and head, as you move down the pool at a moderate pace; don't try to kick hard to go faster- the goal is balance, not speed; alternate left and right with each length
• catchup- begin by kicking down the pool with both hands extended fully in front of you, one hand overlapping the other (as if you had just dove in the pool, although of course, you didn't, because you know better); do one pull with your right arm only, and then return your right hand in front of you; continue kicking small and fast, and after 1-2 seconds, do one pull with your left hand; continue this way down the pool, concentrating on being fully extended with your arms, kicking small and fast, and keeping your body as level as possible on the surface of the water
• golf- although this is not really a drill per se, the benefits you can get by playing this game are amazing; to begin, swim one lap as you normally do, and count the number of strokes you take (each arm pull counts as one); now, swim another lap, and this time count the number of pulls AND record your time; your golf score is the sum of your pull count and your time in seconds- for example, in a 50 yard pool, you might do 46 pulls and cover the 50 yards in 58 seconds, for a score of 46+58=104; now, try to lower your score by either (1) swimming "longer" and lowering your stroke count, or (2) swimming faster, which may increase your stroke count; by experimenting with your golf game, you will discover a swim style that works best for you, and that ideally leads to a lower stroke count for a given effort and time; note that lower golf scores often mean increased effort, so your goal should be to lower your score without having to swim appreciably harder, hopefully by lowering the number of pulls you require to cover a lap

Off You Go

And there you have it: everything you need to know in order to become the next Mark Spitz or Dara Torres.

One topic not covered above is breathing. It is very difficult to diagnose from person to person what makes breathing hard while swimming. For some people, it is a matter of not liking to be face down in the water. For others, the worry about snorting water through their nose is a concern.

A very general description of how you should breathe while swimming is: look to the sides of the pool, not the ceiling, and try to keep your head as low to the water as possible. As a beginner, you will likely want to lift your head up out of the water for each breath. Ideally, the surface of the water will strike a line across your face as you breathe, passing just below the edge of your mouth, along your cheek, and over the edge of the goggle lens that is closest to the water. Hard to describe, but that's the idea. Check out The Thorpedo, Ian Thorpe, as he churns through a pool with a built-in tidal wave machine.

The most important thing you can do, once you've covered the material above and memorized your combination lock number, is to swim consistently. Twice a week is enough; three times a week is better, but might be hard to squeeze in, especially with bike and run training. Like any sport, you do need to spend time practicing, and swimming once a week unfortunately won't make you a much better swimmer over time. So, if at all possible, try to fit in at least two swims a week, and stick with your swim training- over time, swimming will become easier, and you will get better.