If you have had an extended period of time out of the pool, just like any other discipline you need to ease your way back into things. You don’t want to just dive straight in and pick up where you left off last time you dived into the water. That’s a recipe for injury. We need to ease our way in slowly.
1. Start at home
The first step is starting to integrate our At Home Virtual Swim Programs into your weekly routine, these help to recondition the muscles, activate the right ones and start to prep you for getting in the water.
2. Get wet
Next step is to simply get a feel for the water again. For a couple of weeks, I’ll have you simply jumping in without too much structure, and simply get a feel for the water again. Pool aids such as fins and Pool Buoys would be recommended, taking the load off the shoulders and working your way back in. Short intervals >100m, resting as needed. Good time to really focus on the QUALITY rather than the QUANTITY focusing on form.
3. Bring back structure
Next phase is bringing a little structure back in for 2-4 weeks, again keeping intervals on the shorter side, building back the swim fitness and feel. Paddles can start to be reintroduced but in small doses, plus some shorter intervals with a small amount of intensity to boost the fitness if the athlete is ready.
4. Back to routine
By now, we should be ready to go, back into our normal (or new) routines, back in our rhythm, and ready to increase the intervals lengths and duration of the overall sessions including adding in some more intensity and strength with work through paddles, bands etc. And back into our regular swim block for the program phase. Layering on top of this will be the continual inclusion of our At Home Virtual Swimming.
These will continue to be utilised to supplement your time in the pool, allowing you to help focus on form and technique (using a mirror to watch yourself while completing is a great idea) AND are perfect for anytime you can’t get in the pool / open water OR only have the time to swim 1-2 times a week. So they compliment ANY swim program.
POOL AIDS / EQUIPMENT
Make sure you take a stock check of your pool aids and equipment, as a minimum you should have the following and all programs will include these. The ones linked are the ones I recommend:
Pool Buoy – any will do !
Swim Fins
Swim Snorkle
Smaller / technical paddles (about the size of your hands)
Larger / power / strength paddles (larger than your hands) (optional)
Ankle Band (any type of rubber that will hold your feet together is fine)
DON’T HAVE SWIM BANDS?
Make sure you grab some. You can get the whole she-bang in a bundle here:
https://www.eyeline.com.au/dry-land-training-modular-set-se103rd
https://www.aquashop.com.au/nz-strechcordz-modular-set-best-value.html
OR if you are just wanting basic cords you can pick these up from any rebel sports store etc. Which just have the standard cords with handles (which you see me using in the videos) Note that you want light to medium tension only.