Boost your speed and power in the water

Our new contributing coach Nicola Butler has passion for the pool and a lifetime of sporting prowess and experience. This month Nicola shares why it’s important to have a purpose for each pool session, and how to boost your speed and power in the water

Lacking speed and power in open water? The pool could be the answer…

At the beginning of 2025, I rediscovered my love for the pool after spending over 20 years out of competitive pool swimming. I was still coaching clients in the pool and enhancing their overall training regime with pool power sessions, open water endurance and strength and conditioning but I was deliberately missing the pool out of my own training regime after what I can only explain as having a personal negative energy and approach to the pool after spending my whole childhood training morning and night… up tumble, down tumble….! So, with my first master’s competition looming at the end of the month, how did I change my way of thinking, get back up to physical and mental speed in four months and enhance my open water swimming performance through being back in the pool?

Have a purpose or a plan for each pool session (mental performance)

If you just turn up to your local pool, hop in a lane and swim up and down a few times a week, the only thing benefiting is the leisure centre! Before each session, try and think of the reason you got out of bed at the crack of dawn and what you want to achieve from the session. It could be to improve technique, fitness, speed or simply completing a valid session that your coach has written but ask yourself – could I have gone faster, did I really try my best, what did I learn from the session?

If you dedicate your mind and body to purposeful training during your pool session time and finish knowing you achieved your objectives, then every session becomes more rewarding and enjoyable each time. This adapted approach to pool training will really aid your overall performance in open water sessions, too, making each session feel purposeful and beneficial. This is how I approach every pool session now. It’s not about ‘just turning up’ it’s about putting the effort into achieving those goals and targets to improve personal physical and mental performance. Obviously having a written session helps, a good community around you or a coach on deck for motivation so check out your local swimming club for a master’s section or online coaching.

Make every session varied yet focused (physical performance)

With the open water swimming season underway, why bother with the pool you ask? We can spend hours in open water looping 400m, 800m, 1km … and really boost our aerobic fitness but what about our anaerobic fitness and speed/power in the water? This is where the pool can really help improve overall performance in open water swimming, especially for those who may be doing an open water swimming competition.

Here is an example of how to train in the pool for sections of open water races that we really struggle with such as mass starts and sprint starts/finishes You can complete this session on its own or include it with some additional aerobic/technique work that you may already have planned:

1000m speed and power session – pull buoy, fins and clock/watch needed

• 200m with pull buoy breathing rhythm every 3,5,7 strokes continuously – last 50m power pull hard
• 8 x 50m as 30m SPRINT (power push and glide, no breathing for first 5m and last 5m in and out of the wall then cruise steady for last 20m) REST 20 secs and repeat
• 4 x 25m as Underwater FC kick with fins (no fins optional) – hold your breath for as long as you can underwater each length kicking as hard as you can. Rest 15 secs and repeat • BROKEN 100m – as 4 x 25 SPRINT with only 10 secs rest at each end – max effort
• 200m with pull buoy breathing rhythm every 3,5,7 strokes continuously – first 50m power full hard.

Top tip: Shallow water swimming – sharpens your catch

If you are on holiday, in a leisure pool or in the shallows of a gradual sloping beach then use the shallow water to force a bend in the elbow. This helps and encourages you to initiate a high elbow catch too.

Kit corner: pull buoy

If you haven’t got a pull buoy in your pool kit bag, then grab one straight away! They are easily purchased online at a range of shops. They retail between £8-£20 depending on the brand and size. You just need regular size to begin with. Here is why this is an essential piece of kit:

• The main purpose of a pull buoy is to increase buoyancy in the lower body, keeping your legs higher in the water. This allows you to focus on building upper body strength and refining arm technique. It can also help replicate the buoyancy from wearing a wetsuit in open water.
• You can focus on certain training techniques such as practicing proper hand placement, arm extension and pull, which all aid over all power and speed.
• Whilst maintaining a smooth rhythm and body position, natural rotation of the body can occur during each breath.
• Helps with utilising the core as the body works with the pull buoy to help strengthen and stabilise the body.

Nicola’s passion for sport, health and fitness began from a very young age. She works, trains, coaches and swims on the Norfolk/Suffolk border and operates Peak Fitness and Training and Peak Open Water Sports across the East Coast. You can contact her at: peakopenwatersports.com