A Tip Regarding "Easy" Swimming

Knowing the concept of Neuroplasticity will help you understand my thinking with easy swimming during practice: Neuroplasticity definition from MedicineNet

We must be careful to limit the amount of sloppy swimming we do, because each of our movements creates a certain pathway in the brain (and thus the pathway is created through the entire human organism).  I'll admit up front that there is a big difference between the stroke technique of a dell-done easy 100 between fast 200s in practice, and the stroke technique of an actual 200 IM!  But there are plenty of positive stroke items on which to work during easy/moderate swimming.  Here are a few:

1. Posture.  Carrying a long, stable neck during easy swimming promotes a higher percentage of great posture during practice -- and a lower percentage of poor posture.  Everything we practice, posture-wise, either helps us or hurts us.

2. Walls.  Steamlining past the flags is in many ways easier when athletes are going slower than "pace speed" in practice.  We should take advantage of these swims which are not "timed, fast swims" -- and make sure we are doing all we can to develop our wall.  If we can't accomplish awesome walls during moderate swims in practice, we will have a hard time accomplishing them on the faster swims in practice.  And we MUST be able to work our BEST walls during fast swims in practice to nail the final wall on the end of a 200 IM.

3. Breathing pattens.  Taking 1-2 strokes into the wall with a steady head & flat neck (with no breath) is a great way to practice a steady head going into turns.  A steady head implies not breathing by the way!

Same thing applies to coming off the wall.

Another reason I like to see athletes "keep it moving" during the easy swims has to do with the athlete's heart rate.  If an athlete is doing an "active rest" set (going fast/moderate), it behooves the athlete to keep the heart rate from fluctuating too much.  I expect to see an athlete go from 175 to 160, but I don't want to see an athlete go from 175 to 152.  Too much fluctuation in heart rate overtaxes the body -- and ultimately doesn't allow an athlete to swim fast throughout the entire bout of exercise.