Using XC Skiing to improve your swimming

Yes, you read that right.

I’m very excited as I type this because I just returned from my swim workout where I twice swam 100 yards in 1:15, which for me is incredibly fast. So, how did I manage to take 5 seconds off my 100 time?

Last night was the final night of the online swim class I teach and we had a discussion of one of my favorite analogies for understanding the transfer of power from side to side which happens in both swimming and XC skiing. Full disclosure, I suck at XC skiing and roller-blading. BUT I do understand that those who excel at these sports are very good at trusting their lead ski with their weight and are able to transfer the power from the lead ski to the other ski by shifting their weight from left to right and right to left. Even if you’ve never attempted XC skiing you can watch someone who is really good and you can see that the fastest point is right after they transfer from one ski to the other. Their momentum picks up and they glide for a short while. Momentum gradually slows until they transfer the power to the other ski picking up speed once more. The really fast skiers transfer their power prior to slowing down so that they can keep their momentum and speed high. The same thing happens in freestyle swimming.

Learn to feel the acceleration and glide when your hand and arm enter the water and extend out in front of you. Many people erroneously begin their pull as soon as their hand enters the water and they miss out on the acceleration that happens as their lead arm extends forward. Another common mistake, even for those who do have a short glide at the front end of their stroke, is they begin their pull before their other arm is ready to enter. In this way, they miss out on the transfer of power. Stay out on the lead arm until the other arm is ready to take over, when you are ready to shift your weight from one arm pit to the other and create acceleration through this rotation of your upper body and hips.

Notice your acceleration. Notice too your glide. And notice when the acceleration begins to slow down. Next, work on your timing so that you minimize the deceleration. Get your timing such that your recovering arm is ready to take over at the precise time your lead arm is decelerating. Feel the transfer of power from one side to the next. Concentrate on maintaining and enhancing this feel for the water.

Here’s what I did today after my warm up:

4 x 25 FR :20 rest. Focus on the lead arm entering, accelerating in the water and paying attention to the glide as well as noticing when the deceleration begins. Then adjust the timing of my strokes to the point the recovering arm takes over and the transfer of power happens in a place that reduces the deceleration. Feel yourself maintaining the momentum and speed from the timing you’ve created.

4 x 50 FR :20 rest. Focus on maintaining the momentum and timing.

2 x 100 FR :45 rest. This is when I swam each in 1:15. I didn’t have to use extra effort/physical exertion. These were not all out efforts, rather just focused swimming on this particular aspect of maintaining the momentum, tapping into the transfer of power, and gliding on the lead arm.

Give it a try and let me know if you too can feel the difference.