Last month we have filmed 29 members of Glasgow Triathlon Club and are currently working through the footage. The common flaws in no particular order 1. Breathing issues 2. Low hips and or legs, dragging an anchor 3. No catch 4. Dropped elbow 5. Sloppy propulsion 6. Tension and stiffness 7. Ineffective or detrimental kick These are just the common ones. As an example if you swim better with a pull buoy than without..you most certainly have 2 and or 7.

From the video analysis and other questions. How to get more oxygen? Australia version

A cycle can be defined a series of events that happen in a regular pattern so we could say that all 3 legs of a triathlon are actually cycles. Every swim starts with a singular moment. A push off from the wall, a deep water start or a run in from shore. After that start..or ignition it is then a cycle of movements. So once you are flat and extended out in the water, what is the first movement of the swim cycle? If you have got yourself on the surface of the water. The first move is the catch...Next is what is commonly and I think potentially erroneously referred to as the pull...but while both of those start to happen..there is an equal and opposite sequence going on with the opposite arm. The link to both sides is your rotation or body roll. I shall now put the order list wise Reach Catch Roll..and pull Roll..and push Recover Hand entry..and reach..but you can only get full reach if you Roll. So this piece is mainly getting us focused on the rotation. The reach and roll if you will. The favoured approach is to be hip driven rather than just shoulder driven. Hips and shoulders are connected through the core..so if you can breathe..reach and roll baby! Oh and if you don't Roll and swim flat..you are restricted on how high you can lift the arm out of the water. Try lying on the floor flat and see how high you can get the arm up. Now try it rolling onto your side.

Last night we were filming 7 swimmers for Glasgow Triathlon club Perform 26. Swimmers were mixed ability from beginners to mid pack. 4 had breathing issues. The tells seen by the eye. Excessive head turn with a gasping on inhale. Rushing the inbreath in a panicked way. First little tip was to slow down and relax and allow the timing of the breathing to mirror the stroke rate. Breathing every 2 or 3 makes no difference. The key is to get rid of spent air by exhaling under the water. So on 3 strokes its exhale, exhale, inhale..so slowing down and doing this in a relaxed way takes the panic reaction down. Almost yogic. On a 2 stroke pattern it's out in but the exhale has to be more forceful. If not the lungs stay more full of spent gas meaning less new air can be inhaled resulting in a shortage of oxygen to be had. I like to use music as a prompt. For the easy relaxed dial in thing the Blue Danube waltz. For faster swimming think Techno. The key thing about increasing the beat is to increase the speed of the rotation..not the speed of the underwater propulsive phase..there lies 'slipping the water'

What is it and why do we use it? CSS is a test derived metric that provides an estimate of what your speed is over a continuous 1500m swim. It is derived from a test where you swim a 400m and a 200m time trial within a carefully constructed swim set. We first came across it when getting accredited by Swim Smooth and have used it ever since. Your CSS is the speed that is gained swimming at your threshold level and we use it to set pace targets in all of our swim sessions and also for estimating potential race times. Like FTP on the bike we can measure any performance shifts looking at how it moves over time. The right level of training stimulus coupled with attention to improving body position and stroke mechanics will 100% shift it the right way. This does mean that you have to swim often - otherwise it is unlikely you will aquire the skills or the fitness to improve. There is almost zero transfer of ability to your swim from biking or running - this is why good riders and runners can get frustrated with swimming. Riding or running you push harder, you go faster. Push harder in swimming chances are you will go slower over any distance further than 100m. Like all things in life - there are no shortcuts or 'hacks' to improvement, only focus, practice and repetition. How does it go? The definition of madnss Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome !