After 25 Years of Swimming, These Are My 10 Rules To Swim Faster Using Less Energy — Transcript

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1. 0:00In my 30s, I'm swimming faster than I
2. 0:02did in college [music] by swimming less,
3. 0:05and I'm having more fun in the process.
4. 0:07So, after 25 years of swimming, I've
5. 0:10learned that swimming faster [music]
6. 0:11isn't about working harder. In fact,
7. 0:14working harder can actually make you
8. 0:15slower. So, let's stop wasting energy
9. 0:17and learn how to swim with more
10. 0:20efficiency and go longer using less
11. 0:22energy. These are 10 rules that have
12. 0:25helped me enjoy the sport and become a
13. 0:27better overall swimmer. Whether you're
14. 0:30training for the national championship
15. 0:31or just trying to figure out how to swim
16. 0:33consistently. Let's dive in. The first
17. 0:36rule is literally to swim less but swim
18. 0:39with more purpose. And this word right
19. 0:42here, purpose, we can replace with
20. 0:45intentionality,
21. 0:46specificity. And this doesn't mean
22. 0:48you're going to a competition or you're
23. 0:50focusing on one specific event or race
24. 0:53or stroke, but you need to swim with
25. 0:56purpose. So, when you're thinking to
26. 0:58yourself, okay, let me just work harder.
27. 1:00I'm trying to lose weight. I want to
28. 1:01swim faster. The harder I work, the more
29. 1:04results I'll get. This often times works
30. 1:07until a certain point. Obviously, you
31. 1:08don't want to be lazy. You do want to
32. 1:10work hard, but you have to be
33. 1:12intentional with the way that you're
34. 1:14working hard. So, instead of swimming a
35. 1:17lot in one specific session, I'm
36. 1:18actually going to tie this into my
37. 1:19second point. You want to swim more
38. 1:22often instead of going longer and harder
39. 1:25because our bodies are not adapted to
40. 1:28the water. So over all these decades of
41. 1:30swimming and coaching, I've realized,
42. 1:32which is pretty obvious, that we need to
43. 1:35spend more time in the water on a more
44. 1:38frequent basis as opposed to just living
45. 1:40in the water for one 3-hour session
46. 1:43every other day. So to make this really
47. 1:45simple, you would be better off swimming
48. 1:47for 15 minutes twice per day than just
49. 1:51going for one hour once per week. So
50. 1:54your overall touch points may be
51. 1:56similar, but instead of swimming once
52. 1:58per week or twice per week, if you can
53. 2:01touch the water every single day or
54. 2:04almost every single day, your body is
55. 2:06going to naturally develop a better feel
56. 2:08for the water and you're going to feel
57. 2:10more fresh every time you swim. You
58. 2:13might be thinking, "Well, that's not
59. 2:14really possible. I'm not going to swim
60. 2:16for only 15 minutes. It takes me more
61. 2:17than 15 minutes to get to the pool." I
62. 2:20get it. We have the realities of the
63. 2:22world. You're not going to go and swim
64. 2:23for only 15 minutes twice per day. But
65. 2:25maybe you'll swim for 30 minutes every
66. 2:27other day instead of trying to do two
67. 2:29sessions for an hour and that will
68. 2:31actually make you a more refined
69. 2:33swimmer. So to combine both of these
70. 2:35points, swim with more purpose, more
71. 2:37technical efficiency, more
72. 2:39intentionality with how your hand
73. 2:41literally enters through the water all
74. 2:43the way to the style of workout that you
75. 2:45choose to do, what you're actually doing
76. 2:47in the water. And when it comes to what
77. 2:48you're actually doing in the water, you
78. 2:50want to swim more often instead of
79. 2:53swimming longer. So if you can swim five
80. 2:57times per week, that's actually going to
81. 2:59be better than swimming three times per
82. 3:01week. And to put some actual numbers to
83. 3:03it, let's say this is a 60 minute
84. 3:05session, right? So over the course of a
85. 3:07week, you're swimming for three hours,
86. 3:09but let's say you swim for 30 minutes
87. 3:12five times. So you're actually going to
88. 3:13end up swimming 2 and 1/2 hours of
89. 3:16inwater time over the course of the
90. 3:17week. But this athlete will have better
91. 3:20technique and most likely be a faster
92. 3:21and more fit overall swimmer by training
93. 3:24less. So, just goes to show how
94. 3:26important it is for your frequency as
95. 3:29opposed to your duration. Again, I know
96. 3:32it's difficult to logistically get that
97. 3:34done, but it just goes to show how
98. 3:36important this specific skill is. Now,
99. 3:38if you're trying to compete at a high
100. 3:39level, this is obvious. You're swimming
101. 3:41every single day, multiple times per
102. 3:43day. But you don't want to overdo it,
103. 3:45which I'm guilty of. When we were in
104. 3:47college, we were training 4 hours per
105. 3:48day, an hour and a half in the morning,
106. 3:502 and 1/2 in the afternoon. It was a
107. 3:52grind. like 20 20 hours a week plus of
108. 3:55inwater training and your body gets
109. 3:57broken down. So before you can try and
110. 3:59build up your fitness and really be a
111. 4:01strong swimmer, right? Before you do
112. 4:03that, you have to work on technique. And
113. 4:06this goes to any type of fitness really.
114. 4:07If you're trying to lift weights, you
115. 4:09know, if you're trying to do anything,
116. 4:10you have to nail down the technique
117. 4:11because the technique that you have as
118. 4:14you layer on more training, more
119. 4:15intensity, more distance, more volume,
120. 4:17more complexity of sets, it's only going
121. 4:20to compound what technique that you
122. 4:22already have. So, if you don't have the
123. 4:24fundamentals, right, if if you're not
124. 4:25able to push off the wall in a good
125. 4:27tight streamline, if you can't swim
126. 4:29across a 25 m pool and take less than 15
127. 4:32strokes with moderate efficiency, you
128. 4:35really shouldn't be doing that much
129. 4:36swimming in the first place because you
130. 4:38need to work on the fundamentals. Your
131. 4:39distance per stroke, your early vertical
132. 4:41form, the feel of the water that you are
133. 4:43developing comes before trying to level
134. 4:46up your fitness. And fitness is really
135. 4:48defined by your distance, your duration,
136. 4:51your intensity, and all the complex sets
137. 4:54that you're trying to accomplish. You
138. 4:55don't need any of that until you nail
139. 4:57the technique. Now, swimming is a little
140. 4:59bit different than something say like
141. 5:00biking or even running. When you go on a
142. 5:03bike, assuming it's fitted correctly,
143. 5:05you need to put in the work, right?
144. 5:07There's not that much technique on
145. 5:08cycling as compared to swimming.
146. 5:10Swimming is so mechanical because we
147. 5:13know that the water is 800 times more
148. 5:15dense than air. So any imperfection in
149. 5:18your stroke is amplified 800 times. Not
150. 5:20literally, but sort of. And the faster
151. 5:22you go, the more drag that you have. We
152. 5:24want to swim faster. We got to reduce
153. 5:25drag. And that's why it's so important
154. 5:27that you really double down on
155. 5:28technique. And even the best swimmers in
156. 5:30the world sometimes forget about this
157. 5:32and they wonder why they get slower and
158. 5:34they're not getting any faster despite
159. 5:35getting stronger in other areas of
160. 5:38training. Maybe they're getting faster
161. 5:39in workouts. They're lifting more
162. 5:40weights in the gym. But if they neglect
163. 5:42any piece of their technique, they're
164. 5:44starting to lose that efficiency. That
165. 5:46happens to even the best swimmers in the
166. 5:47world. You also want to make sure I
167. 5:49mention it, but training out of the
168. 5:50water, I call it the minimum effective
169. 5:52dose. Now, what I mean by that in out
170. 5:55ofwater training specifically, it
171. 5:56applies to inwater training. If doing
172. 5:59some kind of total body activity at
173. 6:01least twice per week. So, the minimum
174. 6:03effective dose is the same for any type
175. 6:05of activity. If you want to if you want
176. 6:06to actually be decent at it, you have to
177. 6:08do it at least twice per week. Once per
178. 6:10week isn't enough. If you go to the gym
179. 6:11and you lift heavy weights once a week,
180. 6:14you know, you're just going to be sore
181. 6:15for a few days and then you're going to
182. 6:17restart your body. If you go swimming
183. 6:18once a week, you know, it's kind of more
184. 6:20of a recovery. You're not really
185. 6:22building up your technique. You're not
186. 6:23really building your cardiovascular
187. 6:25system very much. Twice a week, now
188. 6:28we're starting to do something. Three
189. 6:29times a week is better than twice a
190. 6:31week, but there's a huge difference
191. 6:32between once a week and twice a week.
192. 6:34Same thing goes for hitting your body
193. 6:35out of the water. So, when you're trying
194. 6:37to build your strength, your
195. 6:38flexibility, your power, when you do it
196. 6:41twice a week, it's really important.
197. 6:42Now, a lot of workout plans out there,
198. 6:45don't actually do it twice a week. You
199. 6:47might do upper body one day and then
200. 6:49lower body another day, but that means
201. 6:50you're only training once per week,
202. 6:52those muscle groups. So, I'm a big fan
203. 6:54of total body, especially if you're only
204. 6:55lifting two or three times per week,
205. 6:57getting your shoulders nice and healthy,
206. 6:59your back muscle stabilizers, all that
207. 7:01good stuff. Got to make sure you're
208. 7:02hitting the minimum effective dose. And
209. 7:04what I personally do, I do a mix of
210. 7:05swimming and weightlifting, and I do it
211. 7:07several times per week, and I'm hitting
212. 7:09multiple muscle groups every time I I
213. 7:10work out. So that way, I'm just a really
214. 7:13well-fit athlete overall, and that
215. 7:15translates into my swimming very nicely.
216. 7:17Now, perhaps the biggest thing you need
217. 7:19to pay attention to is making swimming
218. 7:22as easy as possible. Now, think, well,
219. 7:24what do you mean easy, right? Isn't that
220. 7:26the goal? We want to swim easier with
221. 7:27more efficiency. I'm not talking about
222. 7:29your technique. I'm not talking about
223. 7:31how you feel in the water or how fast
224. 7:33you go. I'm talking about the simple act
225. 7:35of getting to a swimming pool. You want
226. 7:37to make it a no decision process. Like
227. 7:40you know it's in your calendar. You know
228. 7:42how you so you put your equipment bag in
229. 7:44the same spot. You're very organized.
230. 7:46You don't have to think about you know
231. 7:47what am I going to eat, when am I going
232. 7:49to swim. It's part of your routine. It's
233. 7:51part of your schedule. And so you want
234. 7:53to eliminate all decision- making, all
235. 7:55stress and anxiety because you know who
236. 7:57the fastest swimmer is? It's not the one
237. 7:58who works the hardest. It's the one
238. 8:00who's the most consistent. And you know
239. 8:01how you get consistent? By showing up to
240. 8:04the pool on time every time you're
241. 8:06supposed to swim. Whether that's every
242. 8:07day, twice a week, three times a week,
243. 8:09two times a day, it doesn't matter. You
244. 8:11need to go to the pool. And so by making
245. 8:13it easy and removing friction and
246. 8:15removing decision- making, everything is
247. 8:17going to happen. I mean, I could have I
248. 8:19could talk an hour on each of these
249. 8:20topics. The most important one on the
250. 8:22whiteboard is the one that I just said.
251. 8:24Making it easy to get to the pool and do
252. 8:27a very specific workout that's designed
253. 8:29for your goals. That's why we developed
254. 8:31the My Swim Pro app. You don't have to
255. 8:33think about what you're going to do. The
256. 8:35coach builds the workout in the app for
257. 8:37you based on your goals. If you're going
258. 8:38to a specific event, the distance, the
259. 8:41stroke, what the workout plan is, you
260. 8:43can modify it. You don't have to think
261. 8:44about anything. The coach does it for
262. 8:46you. Check out the app linked down
263. 8:48below. Now, another thing that you got
264. 8:49to pay attention to is training in
265. 8:52seasons. Let me define what this means.
266. 8:54Even if you're not competing, there are
267. 8:56different seasons in the year. There are
268. 8:58different seasons in life. Let's break
269. 9:01those two things down. When it comes to
270. 9:02the year, you maybe have a summer
271. 9:04season, a winter season. Maybe you swim
272. 9:06outside in the summer, inside in the
273. 9:08winter. You swim short course, you swim
274. 9:10long course. If you do compete, you have
275. 9:12certain competitions at different times
276. 9:13of the year. When you train in seasons
277. 9:15and it gives you a more specific
278. 9:17orientation, it keeps it interesting. It
279. 9:19keeps it fresh. When you know you're
280. 9:20going to swim in a 50 m pool for a few
281. 9:22months or a 25 distance pool, there are
282. 9:24also seasons in life. There may be a
283. 9:26certain phase in your life where you
284. 9:28really want to go to competitions where
285. 9:30you really can swim five times a week
286. 9:31and then they other things happen.
287. 9:33There's work, there's school, there's
288. 9:34family, there's there's travel, there's
289. 9:36moving and you're not going to swim as
290. 9:38much. The most important thing that you
291. 9:39can do is let's not forget about working
292. 9:41out. Let's not forget about swimming.
293. 9:43Let's try and find a way that in that
294. 9:45specific season of your life where maybe
295. 9:48you don't have a lot of time on your
296. 9:49hands, [music] you're still able to
297. 9:52focus a little bit of your time on
298. 9:55swimming. If you think about the hours
299. 9:57in the day, right? We all have 24 hours
300. 9:59in the day and maybe in a certain season
301. 10:01of your life, swimming is a big part of
302. 10:03your life. It's maybe 20% of your mental
303. 10:05and time and you're going to the pool
304. 10:07for hours a day. It's a big part of your
305. 10:08life. And then you have, you know, you
306. 10:10have family and maybe you have school
307. 10:13and then you have work and then you have
308. 10:15friends and social life and all that
309. 10:17stuff. Another phase of your life in a
310. 10:19different season, this will actually
311. 10:21compress and maybe you only have, you
312. 10:23know, 20% of what you used to have. And
313. 10:25what's 20% of 20%? It's a lot smaller.
314. 10:28But I'm not saying forget about it. We
315. 10:29don't want this to be zero. We want to
316. 10:31keep it between, let's say, five and
317. 10:3320%. Arbitrary numbers to illustrate the
318. 10:36point, but that's how you train in
319. 10:38seasons. and it prevents you from
320. 10:39burning out. It keeps it interesting and
321. 10:42you'll swim faster because you're not
322. 10:44overly obsessed with the same routine
323. 10:46over and over. And that freshness is
324. 10:48what's going to help you stick with it.
325. 10:49You also want to make sure you are
326. 10:51recovering which ties into seasonality
327. 10:54because different seasons of the year
328. 10:55will have a twoe transformation period
329. 10:58where you know you finish your
330. 10:59competition and now you're not
331. 11:00weightlifting or now you're not training
332. 11:02as much. You take a break, get back into
333. 11:03it. But I'm talking about the recovery
334. 11:06as a part of training. That means your
335. 11:08sleep is on point, your nutrition, and
336. 11:10again, you can't take a break from this
337. 11:12kind of stuff. You got to make sure you
338. 11:13are recovering because the growth, human
339. 11:16growth hormone is literally released
340. 11:18when you're asleep. So, if you're trying
341. 11:20to have any kind of performance gain or
342. 11:22maybe you're trying to lose weight, you
343. 11:23know, I talk about this a lot in my new
344. 11:25book, The Swimmer Body Blueprint. If you
345. 11:27want to have a certain physique, if you
346. 11:29want to have certain muscle development,
347. 11:31performance, you have to make sure
348. 11:32you're sleeping right, you're eating
349. 11:34right, all of that's available in my
350. 11:35book. But also, it's kind of obvious,
351. 11:37right? You get a good night's sleep, you
352. 11:39go to bed at the same time, you wake up
353. 11:40at the same time, the results will
354. 11:42actually show themselves. And you also
355. 11:44want to have a goal, right? I I love
356. 11:46goals. You know what I love more than a
357. 11:48goal? I love setting smart goals. It's
358. 11:51an acronym that stands for specific,
359. 11:54measurable, attainable, relevant, and
360. 11:56time bound. Your goals should have a
361. 11:58deadline. If you're going for a specific
362. 12:00event, the 50 m freestyle, you know the
363. 12:02competition you're targeting. It's very
364. 12:04relevant. Assuming you swim the 50 meter
365. 12:06freestyle, but maybe you don't. Maybe
366. 12:07you swim the 200 fly. Set a time for the
367. 12:09200 fly. But better than the actual goal
368. 12:12in the time, right? We have the time on
369. 12:14a stopwatch. That's cool. What's better
370. 12:16than that is the process goal. So, let's
371. 12:19talk about a process goal. When you have
372. 12:21a process goal, it's the system that you
373. 12:23design to help you get there. Now,
374. 12:25ideally, your coach will do that. You
375. 12:26can chat with the My Swim Pro coach
376. 12:28inside of the app. It'll actually coach
377. 12:30you to building good process goals.
378. 12:32Let's use the 50 m freestyle as an
379. 12:34example. Perhaps you want to do the 50
380. 12:36free in under 30 seconds. How are we
381. 12:38going to do that? We have to take one or
382. 12:39two more dolphin kicks off the start and
383. 12:41instead of five breaths, you're going to
384. 12:43take two breaths. How are we going to do
385. 12:44that? We need to train breath control in
386. 12:46our sessions. We have to do three
387. 12:48dolphin kicks off every single wall when
388. 12:49we train. These are process goals that
389. 12:52are going to get us to our time goal in
390. 12:54the 200 meter butterfly. Got to hit
391. 12:56certain times, certain stroke count,
392. 12:57whatever your specific thing is.
393. 12:59Remember the first letter here is
394. 13:01specific in a smart goal. We got to be
395. 13:04able to measure it. Make it relevant to
396. 13:06your end thing. So, always have a goal.
397. 13:09Now, we talked about that's for like a
398. 13:10competitive athlete. You can have a
399. 13:12goal. Maybe it's weight loss. Maybe it's
400. 13:14achieving the swimmer body, a certain
401. 13:15body fat percentage. Maybe [music] it's
402. 13:17about having a certain mental state. So,
403. 13:20when you go to the pool, you always want
404. 13:21to have a goal for that workout. Maybe
405. 13:23it's you don't want to talk about any
406. 13:24numbers. You just want to swim back and
407. 13:26forth. Totally fine if you want to swim
408. 13:28back and forth. Just know that's your
409. 13:29goal. And then don't all of a sudden
410. 13:31obsess over how fast you're going, how
411. 13:33many laps you swam, be very specific
412. 13:35with what you're trying to do and
413. 13:37measure your progress. Use data. I
414. 13:39already alluded to this quite a bit, but
415. 13:41if you're not tracking what you're
416. 13:42doing, right? Obviously with with the My
417. 13:44Swim Pro app, it's giving you real-time
418. 13:45data, real-time splits, your heart rate,
419. 13:48the amount of time you spent in each of
420. 13:49your zones, and then the My Swim Pro
421. 13:51coach is giving you feedback after the
422. 13:52set. It's actually mind-blowing how
423. 13:54incredible this is. But again, if you're
424. 13:55not measuring it, if you don't know how
425. 13:57far you swam, how fast you swam, what
426. 13:59your heart rate was, all this great
427. 14:01data, well then you're not going to be
428. 14:02as effective at being able to improve.
429. 14:04And you might be thinking, well, I don't
430. 14:05even know how to use that data. Like I I
431. 14:07mean, I could do a workout. I maybe do
432. 14:09it with my pro app. I can't even
433. 14:10interpret it. That's why we built the
434. 14:12Mysum Pro coach because you can chat
435. 14:13directly with it. Be like, what can I
436. 14:15learn from this workout? How can I
437. 14:16improve? How can I do this workout
438. 14:18again? What was the most significant
439. 14:19split that I did in this session? And
440. 14:21you will learn by learning and being
441. 14:23mentally engaged. You're actually going
442. 14:24to get a better experience and that will
443. 14:26help you out. And I've learned this
444. 14:27point over the years how valuable this
445. 14:29is. But you don't want to be overly
446. 14:31consumed in the data. That's why it's
447. 14:33good to always have a goal. You know
448. 14:34what the goal for this workout is not to
449. 14:36worry about any numbers. I just want to
450. 14:37feel the flow in the water. And then you
451. 14:40have to make sure you find your tribe.
452. 14:41Let's think about this long term. This
453. 14:43is all about longevity. I mean, swimming
454. 14:46is great to compete. You can do that
455. 14:48forever. There's age groups, but also
456. 14:50you can do it until your 70s, 80s, 90s,
457. 14:54over 100. How many sports can you do
458. 14:56over the age of 100? How many sports are
459. 14:58going to give you a healthy lifestyle,
460. 15:00are going to give you a physique that
461. 15:01you're proud of, a mindset that allows
462. 15:04you to overcome challenges? That's the
463. 15:06beauty of swimming. So, make sure you
464. 15:08find your tribe, and be nice. If you go
465. 15:10to a new pool, you meet a master's
466. 15:12group, you see other swimmers, you're
467. 15:14probably going to see the same people
468. 15:15more than once. So, be polite to them.
469. 15:17Say hello. Introduce yourself because
470. 15:19you never know. These could be lifelong
471. 15:21friends, relationships that you build
472. 15:23that go on for decades. If you want to
473. 15:25learn how to swim perfect freestyle, I
474. 15:27want you to watch this video right over
475. 15:29here. I'll see you over there and happy
476. 15:30swimming.