Improving your triathlon swim

At TCUK our swim programmes focus on 3 important areas. Firstly we want to help you to improve technique.

While we appreciate every athlete is unique we do also see at our swim squads and when performing video analysis of swimming technique that many athletes make the same mistakes commonly. With this in mind we plan sessions each week with a focus on improving technique.

The second area we focus on is aerobic conditioning. We advocate the use of critical swim speed (CSS) to help determine your current threshold swim pace and then plan your training sessions around this pace. The aim is to increase your threshold swim pace as you would hope to do so when biking and running. Working at CSS pace once a week using a tempo trainer will not only help improve your swim speed but it will have a positive impact on your ability to pace your swim better.

Finally, we look to develop your open water skills - while in the pool. It is common for good ‘pool’ swimmers to not hit their expectations when in open water. These sessions focus on relaxed arm recovery, a slightly choppier hand entry and early catch along with a focus on breathing patterns and sighting techniques.

For those of you that would like to take your technique a step further you can arrange to have a swim video analysis with us in Sheffield. Following the analysis, we provide you with the corrective techniques specific to your stroke and ensure you leave us understanding which part of your stroke is holding you back and with the skills to improve this.