A recent observation prompted some new thoughts on the value of sprinting
I ran a training session the other day with a small group of people I didn’t know. The aim of the session was to get people to work through their swimming gears and swim at different speeds.
I noticed something that seemed to fly in the face of conventional swimming wisdom: when they swam faster, their swimming technique appeared to improve.
It wasn’t a technique session, but I wanted swimmers to keep thinking about technique as they tried to swim faster. These are some of the exercises we did (all on front crawl).
Builds: Swim 25m starting slowly, focusing on good technique. Over the 25m, gradually increase speed to a full sprint.
Descends: Swim 4 x 50m with 15s rest after each. Swim each 50m faster than the one before so that your final 50m is your fastest effort for 50m.
Speed contrasts: Swim 2 x 100m steady with good technique and 15s rest after each, then swim 2 x 50m as fast as you can, with 30s rest.
I filmed the swimmers at various points through the session so I could give them technique feedback at the end. But what I saw surprised me.
Usually when we work on technique, we slow down. This gives us time to focus on the movement patterns. It also reduces fatigue, so we can keep repeating the desired movement pattern for longer.
Moreover, swimmers sometimes tell me they don’t like to sprint because they feel ragged, uncontrolled or that their technique falls apart.
But that is not what happened.
And it wasn’t just one swimmer. It was every swimmer in the group.
Improvements I saw included:
- Less rotation of the head while breathing
- Greater coordination between the arms and legs
- Better connection through the body
- Swimming with purpose and intent
Why? One possible explanation is that when you shift your focus to speed, your body subconsciously organises itself to help you achieve your goal. Then, specifically with breathing, when you move your arms faster while sprinting you have less time to turn your head. This encourages you to reduce over-rotation and return your head into alignment more quickly.
Clearly, changing pace is exhausting. Almost by definition, sprinting isn’t sustainable. If you want to swim long distances, you need to conserve energy. Simply swimming faster all the time as a means to improve your technique isn’t going to work.
Also, my sample size was small. I don’t know if everyone’s technique improves when they sprint, but it’s worth exploring whether some aspects of it do for you.
A good way to check would be to ask someone to film you first while swimming steady and then when sprinting. Review the footage yourself and see what you notice.
Many swimmers could benefit from including some sprint and high-speed work in their training for a variety of reasons as I’ve discussed previously, and I wonder if this is another. Sprinting may help you improve your technique, or some aspects of it, rather than unravel it.
Naturally, there are limits. If you sprint to exhaustion, your technique will falter, but doing short, sharp sprints may help you dial into better technique habits.
The challenge then, of course, is how to transfer any technique improvement you experience from sprinting into long-distance swimming.
One thing you could practise is a short sprint followed by a longer steady swim while trying to hold onto the sense of coordination, connection and intent you felt during the sprint.
Pick one thing to focus on at a time, say head position, connection with the water, or the tension in your body. Notice how it feels while sprinting and then try to reproduce that on your steady swim.
Many swimmers are wary of sprinting or assume they can’t do it well. If you haven’t done it for a while – or ever – it will feel strange. But it’s worth experimenting with. You may find it teaches you something new about your swimming.
