Expand your range of swimming gears

How swimming slowly could help you swim faster

Go to a typical masters swimming session or public swim. Most people, it seems, swim within a narrow speed range. In a masters session, it’s something like the fastest pace they can manage to get through the session. Sometimes they get it wrong and blow up before the end of the session. It’s not often you’ll see them swim a lot slower than they can. In a public session, people seem to settle into a steady, comfortable pace.

Swimmers who’ve had formal coaching, especially ones who have worked with a Swim Smooth coach, tend to be more targeted in their pacing. They will know their Critical Swim Speed (CSS) and base their training around that, adding a few seconds per hundred metres for endurance swims, and maybe knocking off a few seconds for sprints.

Your CSS is roughly the maximum speed you can sustain for a 1500m swim. You can estimate it by doing a 400m and a 200m time trial on the same day with a 5-minute rest between them. Subtract the 200m time from the 400m time and divide that number by 2. This is your CSS pace per 100m. By default, club swimmers seem to do the bulk of their swimming at CSS, plus or minus a few seconds. Typically, they will settle into a similar pace (CSS plus a few seconds) when they take their training outside. A slow pace might be CSS + 10s per 100m.

There are good reasons for this. Deliberate training based on CSS is effective. It feels comfortable. Sure, it gets tough towards the end of a set but it still feels right. You’ve done it so much that you’re completely tuned in to its timing and rhythm. It’s satisfying to reach the end of a CSS-based training session feeling tired but strong. It’s a speed that reliably delivers a swimmer’s high. You get a nice hit of feel-good hormones by pushing up against your speed limit.

Consider the alternatives

I had a revelation when we hosted a webinar with Neil Agius. Neil can swim much faster than me, and much further, and much slower. He’s an Olympian and holds records for long distance swimming, having completed swims that last more than 50 hours (that’s not a typo). He mentioned that his long-distance training pace, is something like 50 seconds per 100m slower than what he could do. I found this astonishing.

His point was this. Imagine you are going to swim 10km. If you want to swim it at a constant speed, which is usually considered the most efficient and fastest way to cover the distance, your pace at the start will feel slow. Holding that same pace near the end is painfully hard. Neil aims to swim multiple miles (his longest swim to date is 125.7km), so needs to start even slower. He calls it his “all-day pace”, by which he really means sustainable for 24 hours or more.

How to swim slowly

After listening to Neil, I tried to swim at his slow speed. I found it almost impossible. I started to sink, I felt uncoordinated, I got out of breath, and I still went too fast. It was a bit like trying to walk slower than my ‘natural’ walking pace, only worse, or riding a bike slowly. I’ve asked other swimmers about this, and they mostly say they experience the same.

Still, I’ve persevered. And as I have slowly got better at swimming slowly, I’ve discovered some benefits.

• Swimming slowly gives you space to observe and think about your swimming technique. It’s easier to focus on how your hands move through the water when you do it slowly.
• Swimming slowly forces you to concentrate on timing. When do you start your catch, when do you exhale, when do you turn your head to breathe. It also gives you scope to experiment.
• Swimming slowly increases your awareness of your body position and buoyancy. Any imbalances are amplified when you swim slowly. You learn to correct them by controlling your breathing, holding tension in your core and adjusting your head position.
• Swimming slowly allows you to do more training. You might not get the same buzz from a slow swim as you do from a well-paced CSS set, but you’re also not so exhausted. This allows you to swim further or add in extra swim sessions.
• Swimming slowly is relaxing and meditative. Once you’ve overcome your struggles with balance and coordination, slow swimming is easy, comfortable and surprisingly fun. Stretch out and enjoy it.

Extend your range

I’m not suggesting you give up sprints or CSS training. However, I’ve observed that many swimmers stick within a narrow speed range. Interestingly, the fastest swimmers can also often swim the slowest. Try mixing it up more. Instead of adding a few seconds to your CSS pace, try adding 25% and then 50%. If you extend the range of comfortable speeds you can swim downwards, you may find it increases your top speed too.