Tuesday and Thursday are easy swim days where I warm up, do Total Immersion drills and then swim for ease and speed. This is a great cool down swim after a run or bike. The swim helps my body temperature cool down so I don’t sweat for the next hour. The swim helps the blood in legs get back to the heart which aids tired, old legs. The swim gives me the speed work I need to increase my steady swimming pace over time.

1) Warm up swim of 100 – 500 yards with a pull buoy to warm up easily. I prefer to swim with my fists lightly clinched so I immediately start catching or anchoring my catch with the forearm and upper arm. When I then switch to open handed swimming, my hands feel like paddles and it feels great.

2) 50 yards of my prefered basic swimming drills.

a) Balance drill with both hands at my side, face up and face down in the water. The simplest yet hardest drill to do well.

b) Balance drill with one one arm leading. Adding a leading arm makes this drill easier. Memorize perfect balance and correct swim position.

c) Underwater swimming. The arms moving under us has us rotating left and right while always maintaining a lead arm.

d) Finger tip drag swimming. This drill makes the elbow higher than the hand and teaches an earlier hand entry.

3) Fast yet easy 25 yard swims. Faster or as fast as ideal race pace. Do not sprint. Aim for an excellent, quick stroke. In between, do 25 yards of backstroke to recover. Before tiring quit and save energy for tomorrow’s distance swim over a half hour.

Modify this easy workout to make it an easy workout where the focus is drilling for technique first and then converting drill technique to swim technique.

If the above sounds like Greek to you and you are interested in learning more, try coming to my two day workshops in Atlanta.