Common Problems with front crawl stroke

Sea Swim Cornwall’s Golden Rules

We’ve been swim coaching in the pool for around 5 years. The bulk of our clientele are triathletes, people that want to push-on and improve their swimming, a few people new to pool swimming, open water swimmers… The following are very common problems with people that generally only swim on the odd occasion, took to swimming late, have come back to swimming after a long break etc.

1.        Poor Hip Position – If your hips are too low in the water, your legs are too low in the water and you end up dragging your legs through the water, rather than having a nice streamlined position on top of it. As well as having a poor leg kick, they also consumer energy and Oxygen, as well as creating drag. Engaging your core and raising your hips is quite a tricky thing to coach. Have a look at the following video  :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQbjMjneBH0

2.        Poor Leg Kick – closely related to the above issue. Quite often you’ll find that it people have a poor leg kick they’ll avoid doing any leg work in a session! You want your leg kick to improve you have to work on them. Common problems are kicking too low in the water, having too greater distance between your feet, bent knees, stiff ankles (all you runners)…

Whilst you have additional buoyancy in salt water (& wearing a wetsuit) you don’t in the pool. If you primarily swim because you enjoy open water and aren’t bothered about the pool one of the things you can do is to simply not kick. It really depends on your personal circumstances however.

Some dry land work - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4gXjneFXuI

The basics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iirZS3oQ-Q&t=2s

3.        Catch. This can be a problem for newcomers and even the most experienced of swimmers. One of the most important parts of your stroke is your catch. It’s getting your hand into a position where your palm is facing your feet nice and early. The longer your palm is facing the bottom of the pool/sea bed, the more your missing out on efficient pull. It’s really important your hand enters the water, you reach your full extension and then you focus on getting your hand into a position where your palm is facing your feet. The quicker, the better.

Check out this slow motion video of Ian Thorpe. Watch how early he drops his wrists and gets in an early catch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b1Fiw9uekM

Swimming St Michael's Mount

We’ve officially lost count of the number of swimmers that we’ve taken around St Michael’s Mount. We’ve swum people to the harbour wall (away from the harbour mouth), we’ve swum them around the Mount, we’ve swum around the Mount as part of a 10k swim, we’ve swum around the Mount and back, we’ve done it at high tide, mid-tide and low tide, big groups, small groups, individuals…. We’ve even recently done it at night! NEXT YEAR we’ll offer assisted swims around the Mount for people unsure whether they’d make the distance. We’ll simply tow you part of the way, on your own rescue board and you can then choose when to jump off and swim sections of this amazing swim.

One thing that never changes is the stunning view. We think the best view available is from the rear East side. It takes in the castle and beautiful sub-tropical gardens.

Despite being a 3km swim, where you’ll be out of site whilst you’re swimming around the back, this is a fairly safe swim (in the correct conditions). It’s never particularly deep, if it isn’t too choppy it’s possible to exit the water at certain points. What we would say is - swim with a friend, take a mobile in a tow float (TAKE A TOW FLOAT), watch out for boats, inform someone of your swim and when you should be back, check the conditions and if you’re unsure don’t swim.

Swimming around the Mount isn’t always possible. There are often small boats ferrying people to the island. Avoid this boat lane.

WHEN TO SWIM IT

You can swim the Mount at any stage of tide. At low tide it’s tricky to exit/enter the water at the east side of the island, as seaweed prevents you from seeing the bottom. It is however, a shorter swim (being low tide), so you can swim the island anti-clockwise then turn back on yourself and finish where you started…the beach.

Mid-tide…from around 3.5m of tidal height entry and exit of the swim is fairly straight forward. Easiest to get out on the causeway. A mid-tide swim is around 2-2.5km in length. Best to swim clockwise around, as you’ll have no issues exiting the water at the beach.

High tide offers around 2.7-3km of swimming. You never really have anything to worry about in terms of currents but I would avoid swimming around on a large Spring tide.

WIND STRENGTH / DIRECTION

The longest swimming stretch around the island is on the west side of the island, running along the harbour wall. This should be one of your main considerations. When looking at the wind direction.

A light northerly is one of the best options as the wind hits the water where you’ll be setting off and doesn’t have a chance to create chop. Be aware though that you will have to swim against the wind on your way in.

In contrast, a strong southerly is the worst wind direct as the wind has hundreds of miles to influence the water and build up lots of choppy conditions. That chop will then hit the land and bounce back…creating carnage!

Generally, you want light wind under 20kmph, with little chance of increasing whilst your swimming.

BOAT TRAFFIC

There are regular small ‘ferries’ to the harbour so you need to be careful if you’re crossing the harbour mouth or their regular route. I’d advise that you where a tow float. The midday sun often makes it quite difficult for the drivers to see swimmers.

Summer Summary

What a year! And it’s not over just yet…we have a few more swims up our sleeves and we’re also looking at winter, cold water activity. Although myself (Tom) and Jo have very low BMIs and we don’t always do well in the cold!!!

So we had to cancel all of our long weekend holidays, although we did put on a couple of private, bespoke group bookings. We ran a reduced capacity 10km event and held a large number of what we call ‘last minute swims’, coaching sessions, private group bookings, private swims and we have supported a number of individuals swim 10km distances.

OUR BIGGEST HITS :

• REMOTE SWIMS : we bought a new device mid-summer that can send out a GPS signal and an alert to the emergency services via satellites. This has meant that we have been able to host swims in more remote areas as we’re no longer reliant on VHF radio and mobile phones.

• ‘LAST MINUTE SWIMS’ : have been an outstanding success. After arranging, re-arranging, rescheduling, cancelling a high volume of swims early on, we flip the way we do things on it’s head. As well as taking booking dates we now look at the conditions on a Tuesday/Wednesday and publish our weekend swims (based on those conditions). We also do this for mid-week swims (peak season).

• KYNANCE COVE : we’ve wanted to hold this swim for a long time and it went perfectly. The conditions were read and predicted very accurately and it was a very popular swim, with fantastic feedback.

• CAVE SWIMS : these came about by chance but have been really well received. It’s something a little different, exciting and part of an already stunning swim route.

• NANJIZAL/SONG OF THE SEA : Nanjizal has always been one of my favourite places in the world. Famous for it’s natural sea pool at low tide. We swam this beauty at sunset and swam through the famous crack in the rocks!

• ST MICHAEL’S MOUNT : We’ve held a large number of swims around this stunning and famous landmark. Some in glassy-flat conditions. We’ll continue to hold these swims long term. Get that bucket list item ticked.

• PENBERTH COVE/LAMORNA COVE : We’ve added to our list of favourites and we’ll take the winter season to explore even more stunning swims.

• MINACK : although we’ve offered swims to Logan Rock for some time for some odd reason we’ve never gone the ‘other way’ and had a good look at the Minack Theatre. We’ve remedied this little issue. Now adding the theatre to our Logan Rock swim.

• CHARITY SWIM : we swam 22km (over 22 beaches) and managed to purchase a wheelchair for the Jubilee Pool. We also discovered some (more) stunning swims - Mother Ivey’s Bay was one of our favourites.

• PETITION : So after some near misses in Penzance we launched our own petition, asking the Government to bring in legislation and update current laws. Recently the petition reached 27,000 signatures…we still have some way to go, however.

• ONLINE SHOP : during lockdown we finally had the time to launch our online shop properly. We’re really happy with it’s progress and have produced a range of products - like Calendars, pocket make-up mirrors, resistance swimming cords, greetings cards, bags, tide clocks, tow floats…. we’re constantly adding to the range.

Kynance Cove - Bucket list material

For the first time we’ll be hosting a swim around the island (Asparagus Island) at Kynance Cove. This Bank Holiday Monday (31st Aug 2020). It’s a rare opportunity to get a guided tour around this stunning area.

For more info visit - https://www.tickettailor.com/events/seaswimcornwall/412048

Recent weekend swims

We’ve been hosting quite a few swims over the month of August. Including loads of swims around St Michael’s Mount, some exciting cave swims at an undisclosed beach near Penzance, one of our faves - Carbis Bay to Porthkidney… swim coaching sessions at numerous locations. It’s been a great month.

Booking available : either set a date and we’ll pick the best swim for that day’s conditions or keep an eye on our social media, where we typically announce what we’re doing with a few days notice.

Swimming Mother Ivey's Bay

A new one for Tom and I can’t quite believe that I’ve never swum here before. Mother Ivey’s Bay was stunning and easily one of my favourite beaches during our charity challenge (and we swam 22 of them so it’s quite the compliment!). We swam it in the perfect conditions and stood on the lifeboat slipway…which is a must!

Avoid the rocks at the end of the point (visible in the middle of the shot below). You can get some weird water movement around and through the rocks.

Last minute swims - Summer 2020

This year we’re putting on a series of last minute swims. We’ll access the week’s weather forecast and by Tuesday / Wednesday we’ll publish where we’re putting on swims for that weekend. We’ll try and include bucket list worthy locations like Porthcurno, St Michael’s Mount, Kynance Cove, the Island in St Ives…

You can book once we’ve published the swims or pre-book a group or individual swim and we’ll match up the conditions with an appropriate swim. This way you get the most enjoyment out of your swim possible, in the safest conditions possible.

£30 per head.

2020 Charity Swim - 22km of Cornish waters

We went and did it again. Another year, another crazy charity challenge.

Tom’s grandma (in-law) is 92 and her health hasn’t been great of late. When trying to find an aquatic wheelchair to borrow to get her into the geothermal section of the Jubilee Pool we really couldn’t find anything. This inspired Tom to dedicate this years challenge to Joyce Cooper. The Jubilee Pool also very generously agreed to let her be the first person to use this new section of a world class lido.

We set ourself the goal of raising £2,500. We didn’t quite make that total but we did reach £2,000 and bought one of our preferred chairs.

THE CHALLENGE : we wanted to show off Cornwall a bit, take in lots of glorious swims and rack up a decent distance. So Tom devised the 1km challenge. We set out to swim 1km on as many beaches in Cornwall as we could, in 1 day. We managed 22 beaches, in the daylight of 1 day. We could have possibly completed more but Tom’s left arm stopped working (it’s still swollen 5 days later) and Jo’s just plain old!

We thoroughly enjoyed the day. Absolutely didn’t train up for the challenge (again!), made what we think is a great video, explored some new beaches and some how only paid £4.50 in car park charges!

HIGHLIGHTS : swimming at Mother Ivey’s Bay, Whipsiddery beach to Porth Beach, always Crantock and the video. We’re really happy with the video.

Sea Swim Cornwall - Safe Swimming Guide. Coverack.

Found way out on the Lizard Peninsula - Coverack is a very sleepy fishing village…or at least it was. Offers nice swimming. There are no obvious swimming routes but the whole area is beautiful and well worth a visit. Best to avoid the harbour mouth and wear a tow float.

Sea Swim Cornwall - Safe Swimming Guide. Rinsey Cove

One of our favourites. A little remote but that isn’t a bad thing. If you’re unsteady on your feet probably best to avoid this one. Avoid the point in the direction of Praa Sands, particularly on an outgoing tide. You can get a .5-1 knot current running along there.

Bucket List Swimming in perfect conditions

Having taken a few bookings for St Michael’s Mount swims that I’ve had to reschedule and cancel I figured we might be doing things the wrong way around. At which point I had a brain-wave.

We’re going to look at the week’s conditions on a Tues-Wed and then put on swims that weekend based on the conditions. This will mean that we can plan swims around St Michael’s Mount, Porthcurno, the ‘Island’ in St Ives, Mousehole Island etc with real confidence that the conditions will be ideal for that swim.

This will effectively mean that you can complete a world-class, bucket list swim in the ideal conditions!

We’ll arrange time slots for that weekend that you can book. Each slot will cost £100 and you can have up to 8 people (6 in some cases) per slot…meaning some swims will cost as little as £12.50 per head. With current Covid restrictions, if you arrange a group of 6-8 we’ll simply split you into 2 smaller groups. * If you’re an individual or couple without a group let us know and we’ll try and marry you up with a few people in the same situation so the swim is affordable.

We’ll also possibly look at evening swim in the week.

WE’LL ANNOUNCE SWIMS THROUGH OUR SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS - SO KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED

Annual Charitable Swim

*** CRAZY CHARITABLE SWIM ***

It's that time of year again. Each year Tom & Jo train up, swim loads, get on the weights, board paddle, run, build some good core strength and conditioning... this typically happens directly after they do a crazy, endurance charity challenge and this year is absolutely no different! 

On Friday 10th July (with the 17th as a back up date) we'll attempt to swim 1km on as many beaches in Cornwall as we can in one day – (hopefully 25-30) to raise vital funds to help other, less physically able people to experience the joys of the water.

Our story starts with my partner's Gran, Joyce Cooper who - at 92 and after a lifetime of open water swimming - is desperate to return to the sea, possibly for the last time. Having gradually lost mobility, she is now in need of all-terrain wheelchair access to the water, and we’d love to generate enough money for the iconic Jubilee Pool in Penzance to have a permanent sand chair so that a range of older and disabled people can be granted easy access into the new geothermal pool and the sea via the neighbouring slipway off Penzance promenade.

Joyce was at the Jubilee’s original opening in 1935 and has continued to swim there with four generations of her family ever since. She is proof of the positive impact that both swimming and seawater have on physical and mental wellbeing – and how important it is that everyone can have the chance experience this.

Wouldn’t it be a fitting finale to her Jubilee Pool story for Joyce to enjoy another sea dip and to pave the way for others to find similar freedom in the water?

Please share her story and donate what you can.

Thank you!

LINK : https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/wheelchair-for-jubilee?utm_term=6kEKPgnPe

US AND 2020

So we’ve had to cancel a lot of our 2020 holidays and events but we’re not finished for the year by any stretch of the imagination! We’re working hard to change the format of our Sept holiday and ensure we hold it. We’re also offering the following for anyone wanting to get a little adventurous :

• ONE-OFF SWIMS & WATER SAFETY : if you have a specific swim in mind or would like to complete a longer swim with water safety get in touch. We can safely escort you around St Michael’s Mount or across the bay at Porthcurno. We’re offering this option to individuals and small groups.

• MINI SWIMRUN EVENT / TRAINING : if you’ve had your event cancelled or fancy a supervised mini-event or training session get in touch. We can provide routes and offer water safety and safely arrange a few energy stations.

• SEPT EVENT : we’re currently looking to avoid cancelling our sept event. We’ll have to change the format a little but it’s still looking like a great event.

• FLEXIBILITY : we pride ourselves on being flexible. If you have an idea or we don’t offer what you’re looking for, get in touch and we’ll see what we can do.

As guidance from the government changes we’ll look to adapt. We’re quite happy to take last minute bookings and arrange things with little notice. Feel free to give us a call at any stage over the summer and we’ll discuss your options.

All the best,

Team Sea Swim Cornwall.

Swimming Mousehole

One of Sea Swim Cornwall’s favourite swims and the area has something for everyone.

1. Simply swim in the harbour at high tide

2. Swim around the harbour and through the harbour mouth and immediate area (be really careful moving through the harbour mouth). Although it is a quiet harbour the odd boat still comes through. With an outgoing tide you also a little current moving through the mouth.

3. Swim around Mousehole island (St Clements Isle)

4. Newlyn to Mousehole

5. Adventurous and longer swim - Lamorna Cove to Mousehole *You’ll need to put some research into this one and take safety precautions, or employ a guide

6. Also a great area to get young kids into the water in a safe environment

Mousehole is a sleepy fishing village tucked away on the outskirts of Penzance. The village is centred around a stunning harbour, that isn’t quite as busy as it once was but now provides a centre point for this stunning area.

The harbour mouth provides you with a stunning landmark to swim in and out of. The island is surrounded by sea life and offers an incredible underwater landscape to look at as you swim over. The best of the lot is the Newlyn to Mousehole swim. Beautiful landscape and underwater scenery. A little pit stop at the lifeboat station on the half way point is worth a stop.

Easily one of our Top 10 Cornish swims.

Mindfulness Colouring Book

*Book available end of June 2020 - £1 from every book sold goes to the Jubilee Pool over the first month and pre-order period CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Tom was looking for a colouring book of Cornish swims and couldn’t find any…so I made my own. Designed for adults but his kids have thoroughly enjoyed colouring them in during lockdown!

We’ve gone and designed an A4 Mindfulness-style Colouring Book. 14 pages of world class swims to choose from. Including the iconic St Michael’s Mount, Porthcurno and Mousehole Harbour. Simply colour in some of your favourite swims using your imagination, view sample images on the internet or use the book as the perfect excuse to visit Cornwall and swim some of these incredible swims….and then colour the pages first hand!

Photos by Salt Water Images / Word by the talented Hannah May

New Products

Whilst on his way to a social-distancing-style meeting with business partner Jo, Tom was stuck behind a VW Camper with a St Piran’s flag (the Cornish flag) sticker on the bumper. He has hit with a bolt of inspiration and designed and ordered a batch of wetsuit and ladies swimming costume shape car stickers, with the St Piran’s flag colours and design. Should be available from around 10th June…although a pre-order option is available now.

SHOP 'TIL YOU DROP!

With the recent addition of a load of stock, we’d like to officially open our online shop. With all of the products and parts sourced from UK-based companies and one of them made in Cornwall! We’ve designed a whole range of products for open water swimmers. We’ll give you a brief rundown and then we’ll leave a series of images below and supply you with a direct link : CLICK HERE FOR SHOP

Pocket make-up mirrors, pin badges, birthday/greetings cards, swimming bags, tow floats, dry-land resistance cords, stunning photographic print, swimming hats…

Our online shop & new products

Tom & Jo (team Sea Swim Cornwall) have been looking to add to the online shop on the website for a number of months. Although we’re obviously very disappointed in number of the events and holidays we’ve had to cancel the lock down situation we find ourselves in has presented us with the opportunity and the time to do this. A few days ago we added our own brand of resistance cords to the shop and are looking forward to introducing a range of pin badges, tote bags, pocket mirrors and a number of other products to add to our greeting card range. All of our products are inspired by open water swimming and feature elements and characteristics of both open water swimming and the type of people that partake and are dedicated to swimming in the sea, rivers and lakes across the country.

In addition to the products we’ve also added instructional videos - particularly around the use of the resistance cords.

HIT THE RE-SET BUTTON!

There’s a lot written about the health and mental health benefits of swimming...particularly open water swimming and swimming in cold water. I usually just switch off when I see an article related to the topic. I’ve read far too many of them and they’re everywhere!

 I have however, made a couple of observations during recent weeks and the lockdown situation we find ourselves in that I’m going to share. Firstly, just how much you (most anyway) take sea and pool swimming for granted when it’s on your doorstep and how lucky many of us are to be in that situation. It seems only now that I’m unable to swim that it really hits home. Secondly, how swimming completely re-sets your brain. I’ve been running and doing a lot of weights over the last few weeks and I’ve found that if something is playing on my mind, it continues to do so through these activities. There’s no respite. When I swim I shut my brain and thoughts off to the outside world. It completely re-sets my mind and mood. Even when I get out of the pool or sea I seem to get a period of ‘peace’. I’m just thankful that I don’t have any major stresses on my mind at the moment…other than the obvious!

 I’ve found myself taking baths and dunking my head under for a minute or so at a time to switch my brain off a little and taking the odd cold showers. Whilst it clearly isn’t the same, it temporarily does the trick.

 We (the Sea Swim Cornwall team) hope everyone is staying safe and we hope to see lots of you in the sea some time soon.  

SUMMER SEASON TRAINING GOALS / OBJECTIVES

Now that the ‘new year’s resolution’ crowd is starting to thin out a bit and hopefully the lanes are less crowded, I thought I’d write a little piece on your current training (probably mainly pool based). At this stage of the year you should be looking at the summer season and figuring out exactly what you’d like to achieve, setting goals and basing your training around those objectives.

I’ll mention the usual bits about setting realistic goals…but what I would like to focus on is making sure that all of your training has a point. It’s far too easy to get into the pool and simply swim up and down, or blindly follow someone else’s training programmes that aren’t necessarily designed to suit your needs. You also need to do is listen to your body. If you’ve hammered out a leg session in the gym or been on a hard run, doing a leg session/set in the pool the very next day probably isn’t advisable. So try and be flexible. I obviously write my weekly session (through the newsletter) but I find it incredibly difficult because I’m writing a session that isn’t specifically designed for an individual. As such, I generally write a session that has bits of everything and try my best to mix up the objective of each session. These sessions are perfect for general swimming fitness but might not suit you…if you’re training specifically for a sprint event or marathon swim. I also regularly mention the fact that my session should be adapted and altered to suit you, your fitness levels, ability and needs. Hopefully when completing these sessions or reading them you look at the structure and sets and start to get a better idea of how to write your own sessions and create your own imaginative sets.

GOALS : Look at your seasons goals and figure out what you need to achieve through your training. If you’re training for an Otillo get the hand paddles out and regularly use them in the pool (along with a appropriate weights programme), on occasion swim more than once a day… If you’re signed up for a few open water events and want to do well, keep in mind that a lot of your open water training will be lower intensity open water swims (during the summer) so make sure you still swim in the pool and hammer out some shorter, high intensity sets and swims. Most swimmer don’t get a lot of drill work done in open water, so if there’s a flaw you need to work on do it in the pool now….

SESSIONS : Like I’ve already mentioned, start to write your own sessions designed for you. Your sessions should follow a basic structure ie.

WARM UP – MAIN SET – KICK/TECHNIQUE – SPRINT WORK – KICK/TECHNIQUE – SWIM DOWN

…but you can throw in a second main set, extra this-and-that. You may need to change up the session if you swim in public session and it’s busy. Always have a Plan B. Keep this in mind.

Don’t simply turn up to the pool and swim “whatever”. Every session should serve a purpose and have an objective. Put some thought into your session.

BOREDOM : My business partner Jo used to hate pool training. Said it was boring. When we started up our training squad and following structured sessions, within 2 weeks he was loving swimming in the pool. If you get really bored in the pool you’re simply not training correctly!

COMPANY – swim with friends, meet people of a similar ability/speed, join a masters group…swimming by yourself can get boring, there’s no competitive element to the training, no social factor. If you’re swimming at a different speed to friends simply handicap the training. Get the ‘fast one’ to wear drag shorts/pair of old shorts (slow them down), or get them to breath every 5 during the session. If you use your imagination, it can be done.  

USE THE CLOCK! – always use the clock when swimming in the pool. Use it for rest periods and take your times. You can even use if to take your pulse (6 secs x 10). Nothing better to get you moving, control your rest periods, make training more of a challenge and chart your progress.

TRAINING AIDS : Use them. Some are great for correcting technique (check out Finis products), some are great for getting you to work harder and longer, some are great for keeping you going when you’re exhausted. Add these aids into a session when you look to write one.

FEAR : There’s no better motivator than fear…as I discovered training for a 40km Otillo a few years ago, my first endurance event, at the age of 36. I’ve never completed as many sessions or trained as hard as I did for that event. Go Big! Enter an event you know will really push the boundaries and slightly scares you.

For all the pool haters out there this is one of the main reasons it’s good to stay in the pool, use the clock and break down the session into sets – even for a limited time whilst you swim the summer season in open water. Let’s say you swim 1km in open water at a 2 minutes per 100m pace…so 20 minutes to complete the 1000m. 2 minutes being your comfortable, go-to pace. Most of the time whilst swimming in open water you’ll use that pace (lower intensity-distance pace). Working reasonably hard, whilst still being comfortable. You’ll swim that pace all summer season long. The problem is that eventually that’s the only pace you can swim. You get fitter but not faster. You get to a race and when you try and shift through the gears and speed up, your body isn’t used to it and you’ll eventually drop back to the safety of the ‘go-to’ speed. Now let’s say all winter you’ve been swimming 10 x 100m (so 1km) going off 2.10, aiming to come in on 1.45-1.50 with around 20 secs rest. Over the winter your body will get used to swimming at this pace. So when it comes to the summer, whilst you’ll struggle to swim at 1.45-50 pace (without that 20 second rest interval) you should still be able to comfortably hold a 1.53-1.55 pace. Thus getting faster and improving your general distance speed, as well as fitness. Plus, if you do a few of those 100s (towards the end of the set) at a faster pace, your body is also used to speeding up and if you need to ‘kick’ at the end of a race, you have the training under your belt to do so.

Also, worth pointing out that you should regularly change up the rest intervals and the times for set distances that you ‘go-off’. In the example above, if you start to get comfortable with swimming the 100s off of 2.10 either increase the number of hundreds (ie. 12 x 100) or reduce the time (ie. swimming off 2.05), or eventually both (ie. 12 x 100 off of 2.05).