Swim faster and more efficiently

Improve your Technique

Do you need to improve your swimming efficiency or become a more confident swimmer for your open water or triathlon races?

Is your technique holding you back?

No matter how fit you get, if your technique is poor you will be limiting your potential.

Through reduction in drag and increases in your propulsive forces, you can become more efficient and more effective.

Improving your technique is not as simple as watching a few videos on YouTube and picking some cool-looking drills.

Adopting a systematic approach with the right focus at the right time is not just a suggestion, it's a necessity to make long-term, permanent changes to your technique, providing a clear path for your performance improvement journey.

Getting fitter involves training sessions to improve cardiovascular fitness or increase swim-specific muscles' strength and muscular endurance.

While a high fitness level can initially compensate for poor technique, it’s important to note that even the most physically gifted athletes will eventually reach a performance plateau. No matter how many hours they train or how many ‘must do’ sessions they complete, they may find it challenging to increase their speed without addressing their technique.  

Swim Technique Coaching

We have a proven track record of developing beginner and elite triathlon techniques, which translates to more efficient and faster swimming.

Using a systematic approach to identifying key issues and an easy-to-follow process for improving technique through drills, poolside feedback, video summaries, and demonstrations, you could be swimming faster with less effort and exiting the water in a triathlon ready to take on the rest of the race.

  • Includes a dedicated lane at the edge of the pool

  • Includes a Comprehensive Video Analysis (CVA)

    • This requires ~10 min at the start of the session to film specific angles

    • 15 - 20 min to quickly cover the key issues

    • The remainder of the session working on the key issues

  • After the session, you will receive a detailed analysis of your stroke via Onform Analysis platform (30 - 50-min)

  • Option to purchase a multipack, which reduces the overall price. There are 120 and 240 minutes options

  • If purchased as a multi-pack, the first session includes the CVA; subsequent sessions are 100% swimming and coaching.

from £125

  • Includes a dedicated lane at the edge of the pool

  • Option to purchase a multipack, which reduces the overall price. There are 120 and 240 minutes options

  • Sessions are 100% swimming and 121 coaching.

  • Ad-hoc video summaries of key exercises and execution during the session, delivered via Onform.

  • Often used as top-up sessions when the CVA is not required.

from £75

Keep reading below for more information on the process and critical aspects of developing your swim technique, including more details on the CVA.

Swim Technique Breakdown

In swimming, two main factors are acting on a swimmer

Drag

As you swim you create a ‘hole’ in the water. The size of this hole will affect how much resistance you must overcome. 

If the technique is poor, this hole can be much larger than it needs to be, requiring a large amount of energy to overcome it. 

Drag is affected by 

- Posture and Core Control

- Body position

- Kick action

- Rotation

- Alignment

- Breathing

Propulsion

To move forward in the water, you need to push water behind you, mainly through your arm action, although some swimmers will gain a small amount of propulsion from their kick. 

If your bodyis not in the correct position at the right time, you will not be able to produce a consistent, forceful action, resulting in expended energy but not much propulsion

Propulsion comprises of 

- Posture and Core Control

- Timing and rhythm

- Alignment

- Catch and pull 

- Kick (for some)

In order to be able to maximise these propulsive elements, the previous drag-related aspects also need to be at a high enough level.

To improve your speed and efficiency in the water you need to reduce your drag and/or improve your propulsion.

  • Rotation

  • Body Position

  • Body Position

  • Alignment

  • Breathing

  • Timing

  • Catch

  • Pull

  • Pull

Video Analysis

Our Comprehensive Video Analysis (CVA) service captures your stroke in high definition from various angles, including:

  • Underwater from both sides

  • Underwater head-on

  • Birdseye view from above

  • Above water, side on. 

A CVA takes this footage, and using the Onform analysis platform, we record an in-depth analysis and summary. This covers:-

  • How you are executing each of the key elements

  • How they may be affecting other aspects

  • What you need to do to begin correcting the issues 

  • Which aspects should not be addressed yet? You cannot do it all simultaneously. 

Typically, this is 30 - 60 minutes in duration, depending upon the amount to discuss.

Do you need a Comprehensive Video Analysis?

A CVA will show you all the faults in your stroke on that day.  Our presentation of these faults is also intended to provide some education on:-

  • Why those faults are occurring

  • What you should be aiming for

  • Why this is important

  • The order in which corrections need to be made

This last point is crucial as addressing the most obvious fault may not be the best course of action.   The fault may stem from issues further back in the technique development process, and our analysis will guide you in the correct order of addressing these faults.

A CVA will NOT magically fix the issues. The trick with skill development is knowing what you want to achieve and the steps. 

The not-so-secret part is devoting adequate time and energy to achieving the goal.

Technique development is like training; one session will not suddenly turn you into a world-beater.  The accumulation of good-quality work is required to make changes over a sustained period. 

Ad-hoc Video Feedback

We capture video in all sessions and make these available via the Onform App.  The crucial difference is that these are ad hoc and can be used for a variety of purposes, including:

  • Providing a snapshot of a significant aspect or change

  • Providing a record of an action you need to repeat at home

  • Before and after comparisons. 

We don’t recommend a CVA too frequently, as the technique will improve and worsen in a natural ebb and flow. Our ad hoc feedback will demonstrate subtle changes and improvements without the expense of a full analysis each time.  

A sample of how Onform can be used for swim analysis with clients.

What happens during a Comprehensive Video Analysis (CVA) session?

Once you have secured your spot for a session, we will send you a brief questionnaire. This is designed to understand your unique journey and goals, ensuring a personalised experience.

We have a dedicated outside lane in the pool, so we have a great vision of you and can easily communicate with you during the session.

Steps

  • After a short warm-up, we capture multiple angles of footage and provide a detailed analysis of your stroke's strengths and weaknesses, covering all the points above. 

    The capture takes ~ 10 minutes to complete.

  • After the capture we will have a quick look at the footage with you and identify the key aspects.

    Our process for analysing a stroke is to address the drag factors first. If your drag is too high, no amount of propulsive improvements will improve your stroke, as you will still have to overcome the drag.  

  • Having identified the key areas to begin improving your stroke, we will begin to introduce drills and exercises to help develop the required skills.

  • After the session we perform a full analysis of your stroke.

Technique Coaching

How do you develop technique?

Our approach to developing freestyle technique is not just a random set of exercises. It's a systematic process that begins with a thorough assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, followed by a focus on foundational skills before progressing to more advanced aspects.

Taking the elements of the stroke outlined above and described in more detail in the articles section of this website, we first aim to address stability and drag reduction before moving on to the propulsive elements.

During a coached session, we use verbal instruction, demonstration, and feedback to help you understand what to do and why. This last point is crucial, as when you return home and continue to practice, you should understand the process and the key aspects to focus on. If you do not know why you are performing exercises or working on a specific aspect, the engagement is less, and your confidence in your actions is lower.

We have an edge lane to the pool during the session so Mark can see and communicate with you easily. Every session is different as the specific issues for swimmers are all slightly different. Also, the way people learn can vary. For instance, some swimmers can correct an issue simply by being told what to do; some need to feel what to do, and others benefit from seeing what they are doing and what they need to do. There is more than one way to achieve the desired end result; we aim to fast-track this by finding your best learning style quickly.

Swimming drills are a common way to help learn techniques, but they are also a very good way of learning poor technique if the drill is executed badly. We use very specific drills when the time is right, but it’s not a simple matter of throwing loads of drills at someone. A single drill performed correctly, at the right time, often enough and repetitively will have a much more significant impact than ten ‘cool’ drills all done poorly. In some sessions, we don’t even use drills; we provide feedback and adjust the full stroke. It all depends upon the swimmer.

How to Book &

Purchase Sessions

We use two pools, Castlerock School in Coalville and Loughborough University Pool.

Castlerock School

 

Availability

Monday and Tuesday, 6 - 7 pm

Sessions can be booked as:

  • Single Sessions

  • Packs of 2 or 4 sessions for reduced cost per session

  • Comprehensive Video Analysis can be added to any session at checkout.

Loughborough University

 

Availability

Tuesday and Thursday, 2 - 4 pm

Before booking, please complete the form below. Due to our arrangement with the pool, we need to confirm availability before making a booking.

Once we arrange the appropriate dates, we will send a link for payment.