Today, when you mention the word Triathlete nearly everyone knows what it means, a race where the competitor completes a biking, running and swimming event. I have been an avid watcher of these competitions but have always noticed that where swimming is concerned a lot of energy is wasted.

I teach all sorts of people how to swim in my private pool and have come across a lot of men and women keen to take part in a triathlon.

Some have no idea of how to swim, others do have a stroke but have been taught by the old fashioned methods of ASA when they were children.

In every instance the person swimming thinks that they have to pull back with their hand with the recovery arm pushing the water towards the feet, this causes the person to use huge amounts of energy and puts a great strain on the shoulder joints. Also, the very nature of pulling back makes the body rise instead of slipping through the water, thereby losing precious seconds.

The very word recovery means just that, of course the recovering arm should have a form of encouraging the body to move forwards but the main thrust is the leading arm which should be pushing forwards, this means that the swimmer can slip through the water causing the water to give way, rather than the huge feeling of resistance pushing back with the recovering arm.

The most important arm is the one cutting through the water and pushing forwards.

In order to do this effectively the swimmer MUST understand how to balance in the water. The triathlete would not get on a bike and race without understanding how to balance and I am sure that all of the competitors can ride slowly because riding the bike slowly means the person has to balance to keep upright.

The same is with swimming, it is IMPOSSIBLE to obtain an effective swim without understanding the balance.

In my observation when watching people swim, they use their arms and legs to balance.

When a novice is being taught how to swim and they have not yet got their balance, in every occasion they either open their arms or legs to make themselves feel comfortable in the water instead of shifting their weight forwards towards the centre core. So, if they have not understood how to balance and use their arms and legs to do so, what happens when they swim? They have to move their arms and legs very quickly, not paying attention to the technique because they are more concerned with getting through the water and this causes them to claw their way through the water using huge amounts of energy.

Shifting the weight forward means that a person has to understand how to relax their shoulders, neck and arms and being streamlined at the same time, in other words the relaxed pose should not introduce a sloppy arm structure. The need to shift the weight forwards is to stop the water from reacting to the air in the lungs, and as a swimmer is balancing air on top of water weight is needed to achieve this.  A person cannot simply push themselves down into the water as this movement is counter productive and uses wasted energy and the thrust of the forward movement is lost.g

The next technique to understand is the stretch. Why does a person have to stretch in the water to be efficient?

In the past I spent quite a few hours trying to understand this and have come to the conclusion that, although the water is dense and therefore can hold the body up, it does not correct the slouch that all of us have unless we are a proficient athlete, ballroom dancer and service man/woman. In all of these occupations it is necessary for a person to lift their rib cage and stand tall. This can be done by pulling the tummy in, as depicted in the advert for larger, where a couple of lads are slouching against a wall holding their glasses of larger and a stunning female walks by in a bikini. What do they do? They pulled their tummies in and thought tall! That's what a swimmer has to do all the time in the water because unless a person is stretching forward the body does not move effectively in the water and the arm and legs movements cause the body to bend in the middle.

There is something else that a proficient swimmer needs to pay attention to and that is the kick. When I was in my infant stage of teaching I just could not understand why some people stayed in one position in the water even though they were kicking like mad! In fact they looked like beached whales!

I had to go home and do some thinking before their next lesson. After messing about in my pool I came to the understanding that in order to get movement in the water the kick should be aimed at the surface of the water because that is where there is less resistance. What does that mean?

Well, the kick (when horizontal on the tummy in the water) should be a backward movement, not a predominately downward movement. This can be easily rectified by practice, holding on to something. At the same time of kicking the swimmer should NOT LOSE THEIR STRETCH, causing them to slouch in the water by bringing their bottom up.

Now, I know most people who are reading this may feel that they cannot think of all of these points whilst trying to swim at the same time, but I need to point out that this is where drilling come into play. Each part of the stroke can be practiced, time and time again until a person feels like a fish in the water.

The EMPHASIS IS NOT ON THE STROKE but on the drills, this is the only way to learn the stroke and this is how I taught myself how to swim efficiently. In fact, 3 months after drilling and stroking I came 2nd in my age group for the mile swim in the county. The person who came first had been swimming all her life, I had started swimming 2 years earlier at the age of 56!

I can give a triathlete the benefit of my understanding of how the water works with the body and the technique to knock minutes off their timings.

Please look under 'lessons prices' at Swimming Lessons for Triathletes for prices and timings.