Andrew Sheaff

Change the way you develop skills. Positively impact your swimmers’ skills, especially when working with large groups. Build the skills that win races while training hard. Easily incorporate these ideas into the workouts you’re already doing. bit.ly/3tdWmdw

Butterflyers need to create propulsion with the arms and the legs if they’re going to fast. Doing so is easier said than done. Let’s help them figure out how to do it. This set is more about skill than speed. The goal is to go faster without taking more strokes. It doesn’t have to be fast, just faster, and the only way to do that is to create more propulsion. During the second half of the set, they’re focus on staying long with rhythm, and then creating length and speed at the same time. When swimmers have the chute on, it’s going to overload the arms, and the arms have to create more propulsion. When swimmers have the DragSox on, it’s going to overload the legs, and the legs have to create more propulsion. It’s a simple way to design an environment that requires swimmers to apply the skills that create speed. Click below if you’re a coach and you want to learn how to build sets like this for free. buildbettersets.com

Using stroke rates is so powerful because it’s a strategy that’s so versatile. And it makes any other strategy even more effective, especially when used in combination with multiple strategies. Whatever strategy you’re using, stroke rates provide instant accountability to performance, especially when speed is included as well. It goes WAY beyond just trying to hit race stroke rates. Some simple stroke rate combinations that can be really useful- Stroke rate + buoy + parachute Stroke rate + power tower + upside down paddles Stroke rate + drill + parachute Stroke rate + closed fist + drill Any of these options can be performed in any training context. And each of the above can be used with different stroke rate strategies. It’s a powerful tool with incredible versatility. There are so many different ways to combine stroke rates to challenge skills while training hard.

Coaches have a lot of options in terms of which skills they could work to improve. And without clarity, it’s easy to get overwhelmed as to which skills should be selected and developed. That problem is solved by being crystal clear about which skills matter most for fast swimming. Not which skills matter, but which skills matter most. By unambiguously knowing what to do, people are more likely to do it. Clarity leads to action and action leads to results. Follow @andrewksheaff for more on long-term skill development.

A lot of swimmers have ‘dumb’ hands. They’re not in tune with the pressure they’re feeling, and as a result they’re not good at creating propulsion. It’s a sensory input problem. Simple solution? Change the input by changing the hand posture. Closed fist, OK sign, single finger, etc. If we change what they feel, we can change what they do. Most swimmers aren’t particularly effective at creating propulsion So, I am going to be using different hand postures as part of an overall strategy to help them improve. There aren’t any swimmers that create too much propulsion. So, it’s a strategy I like to use all the time with all swimmers. It can be done during warm up or warm down to start, then in pre-sets, and then incorporated during main sets. The more skilled swimmers get at using their hands, the faster they will go. The more we can help them feel what they’re doing, the more they’ll be able to change what they’re doing.

Rather than maximizing the backward movement of the arms in butterfly, it’s best to optimize it. While it makes sense to try to pull back as far as possible, and it will create more propulsion, it will compromise the overall effectiveness of the stroke. Swimmers need high hand speed to effectively recover the arms over the water. By pulling all the way back, hand speed is going to drop significantly, which is going to make it much harder to recover the arms. And in a stroke where it’s already difficult to recover the arms, that is a big problem. By sacrificing a small amount of propulsion, swimmers can optimize the overall speed of the stroke. Help swimmers learn to round out the finish and help them learn to swim faster.

While typically used to develop strength and power, resisted swimming can also be used to enhance endurance training outcomes as well. Traditional endurance training does a great job of overloading the metabolic systems but creates relatively less stress on the muscular system. By performing endurance work with added resistance, the balance shifts to overloading the muscular system. This allows for a more comprehensive stimulus that can help swimmers overload their metabolic systems and muscular systems in an endurance context. And it helps swimmers learn to be better hold their skills under pressure. One isn’t better than the other. They’re complementary tools that help swimmers swim better and faster. For more on how to use strategies like resistance to improve skill and speed, click below to check out my free mini course on how to build skills while training hard. buildbettersets.com

Resisted swimming is a powerful tool for improving skills. Resisted swimming becomes even more powerful when combined with other skill development strategies. You can pair resisted swimming with a drill, with a stroke count, with a stroke rate, with a hand posture, or with another training aid. Or with different combinations of all the above. In each case, you get more targeted skill development and a more powerful challenge. Here are some simple examples of how to combine resisted swimming and other skill development challenges. Parachute + upside down paddles = much more effective use of the forearm to create propulsion. Parachute + breaststroke with dolphin kick = more powerful + efficient breaststroke pulling. Parachute + buoy = all the challenge of the resistance goes into the arms. Parachute + stroke count = swimmers have to learn how to create more propulsion per stroke. Parachute + stroke rate = swimmers have to learn how to create more propulsion at a certain stroke rate. Same strategies, better results. And the best part is that resisted swimming is ALWAYS effective training. Better skills and better fitness, all at once.

As you watch different butterflyers, you’ll notice that all of them get the hips up in the front of the stroke. It’s critical for repositioning the body to eliminate drag and to prepare for the next stroke cycle. Great swimmers get back in line every single time. However, different swimmers get their hips up to different degrees. Check out these two swimmers. See how one has a big shift in position and the other has a significant, yet subtler shift? What’s the difference? If swimmers are using faster strokes rates, their tends to be a smaller shift whereas there can be a bigger shift with slower rates. It’s also individual based on physical differences. Different body shapes may allow for or require more range of motion. What matters is finding what works best for each swimmer. Position has to shift. How much is the question. Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

Overload is necessary for improvement, and that is certainly true of skill development. No challenge, no change. And that’s where training aids come in. Training aids change how swimmers swim, and that is going to put more pressure on certain skills. When used with intention, we can place more pressure on the skills that we want to develop. More challenge, more change. A simple example of how to use training aids to overload skills is using a band around the ankles. It’s going to challenge swimmers in multiple ways. Without the legs, the upper body is going to have to do all the work to create propulsion. That’s a challenge. Without the legs, it’s also a lot harder to maintain alignment. That’s a challenge. Depending on the activity we’re using, just adding a band can dramatically increase the skill development challenge, and the opportunity to improve.

Creating an effective skill development system will take a lot of time. It’s not going to happen in two hours, and that is a real obstacle. Know what else takes a lot of time? Fixing skill development or fitness problems that should have been addressed years ago. Dealing with conflict about group transitions. Managing the chaos when age group coaches leave. And so on. Creating a clear developmental system does take a lot of time. But in most cases, not creating one takes even more time.

When working to help swimmers create more propulsion, there’s a simple rule of thumb that can be helpful in ensuring swimmers create as much propulsion as possible. Get the hand deeper than the elbow and the elbow wider than the hand. This applies in freestyle and during the main propulsive phases of breaststroke and butterfly. In backstroke, this is reversed with the elbow deeper than the hand and the elbow inside the hand, but the basic concept is the same. If swimmers can get into these basic positions, it doesn’t guarantee they’ll be able to create more propulsion, but it’s a lot more likely. And if they can’t, it does guarantee that they probably won’t create much propulsion.

Different swimmers go fast using different arm timing and rotation timing. It’s about finding the best strategy for each swimmer. Arm timing and rotation timing are tightly linked. We have one swimmer whose arms move more in opposition. She’s rotating as she recovers so that she hits the water having rotated and is immediately ready to set up her stroke. Our second swimmer is swimming with more overlap in the front of the stroke. She’s entering the water and then rotating. It takes her longer to get into the setup of her stroke. Which is more effective? The one that produces the most speed for a given swimmer. Swimmers can be successful with different stroke timing, especially across middle distance events. It’s all about working with a swimmers’ natural rhythm and taking advantage of their skillsets. Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.

The further away a drill is from full-stroke swimming, the less likely it is to directly improve swimming performance. But using isolated drills may be necessary to help swimmers learn key skills. They may create change, but that change doesn’t show up. That’s a problem. Solution? Use multiple drills that get successively closer to full-stroke swimming to help swimmers connect the dots and move from an isolated skill to an integrated skill. By pairing multiple drills within a set, we can overcome some of the limitations of individual drills. Some drills don’t allow swimmers enough focus to feel the key skills. Some drills are too far removed from full-stroke swimming to directly improve the actual stroke. By combining different drills with different characteristics, we can overcome the limitations of certain drills with the strengths of others. And because the weakness of certain drills is often the strength of others, we can pair drills in a way that is very complementary. That means more skill development and more speed.

Stroke length drives progress in speed over time. Most swimmers are pretty stable with their stroke rates as they develop. What changes? Stroke length. If we know what’s necessary for long-term improvement, we might as well directly address it from the start. How? Stroke counts. Simple and effective. The goal with using stroke counts is not that less is better. It’s about making steady, sustainable progress as swimmers develop over time. Just like we look for patient progressions in speed over time, looking for patient progressions in stroke count over time is going to lead to faster swimming sooner than later. It’s about consistently working on something that matters and expecting small yet consistent improvements.

While closed fist swimming is effective for helping swimmers improve their feel for the water, there are other options that are great to use as well. Have swimmers swim while using 1 or 2 fingers at a time. This can be effective for 2 reasons. First, there’s a lot more sensation for those fingers, which can help to create awareness Second, the fingers have a lot less stability when used in isolation, so there’s a strength and control stimulus as swimmers have to better learn to manage the turbulence that they experience. With a little variety, we can better challenge swimmers’ ability to manipulate the water and create speed. For more on how to use strategies like hand postures to improve skill and speed, click below to check out my free mini course on how to build skills while training hard. buildbettersets.com

While being a great kicker is an awesome start, it’s the ability to use the legs to create speed that matters most. Swimmers need an effective kick while they swim if they want to swim fast. Let’s help them build their legs. The key here is the use of DragSox which force swimmers to kick faster and to kick better. They force swimmers to whip the kick and there’s no way to fake the effort. We’ll start off with some kicking to work the legs. Then, the low stroke count swimming forces swimmers to use the legs to create speed while integrating the arms. Next up, they’ll go fast but they still have to be efficient and they have to kick hard to do so. Then they can just let it rip with the DragSox, again having to kick fast to create speed. Finally, they’ll take the DragSox off and just go. By starting with the least specific activity and slowly getting more and more specific, it’s more and more likely that swimmers will be able to use their legs to go fast. Click below if you’re a coach and you want to learn how to build sets like this for free. buildbettersets.com

A powerful butterfly pull is critical for two reasons- 1. Increasing hand speed is going to help swimmers maintain pressure on the water which is going to create propulsion throughout the whole pull. That means more speed. 2. Increasing hand speed is going to make it a LOT easier to recover the arms over the water. That means sustainable speed. 1 + 2 = fast swimming. Any activity that helps butterfliers understand how to build hand speed throughout the pull is going to help them go faster. Pull focused drills can help. Resistance can help. Stroke rate/count + speed challenges can help. By providing them with a simple framework for what they need to do, the appropriate activities to FEEL the skill, and the necessary challenges to help them learn, they’re going to get better.