If you’re following this program and the comments on the attendant Reader Forum thread you can read, and maybe experience yourself, the stroke problems that are uncovered by some of these drills.
When you have a hard time doing these drills – or can't do them at all – you should rejoice! Imagine if you were sick, and you didn’t know what was wrong with you. After innumerable tests your doctor says, “Sorry, we can’t find anything.” Would that give you comfort? No! You know something’s wrong, and you’ll be much happier having the problem identified (especially if there's a pathway to a cure, which is the case for your swimming).
I always get questions about “banded ankles,” and maybe "bound ankles" is better, because I mean simply tying the ankles together – with a flotation device, to keep your feet on the surface.
You might find a wheelbarrow innertube to work. Or, put a pull buoy between your ankles and if you can't hold it there wrap it with an exercise band (the image further down, and it works perfectly well, and you don't need to own multiple swim buoys).
Below is a TYR Ankle Float. How well does it work? Pretty well. The hole is a lot bigger than my ankles, so it doesn't really grab them. I show this because it is one of a number of products made to help do this drill, and these wouldn't be made unless this was a popular drill with coaches.
What you’re hearing on our forum from your fellows is that even this (bound ankles with flotation) is hard to do because you fishtail. Why are you doing that? Because you have a hitch in your stroke and it’s probably occurring when you breathe. Instead of rolling your body to take a breath, like a log, you’re twisting at the waist. You're contorting yourself. This pulls your body out of line. You compensate by splaying your feet. When you band or bind your ankles you can’t splay your feet. If you have this problem when your ankles are bound together here's what is probably happening: when you breathe to the left your feet fishtail to the left.
What is the remedy?
1. Expose the problem. Shine a magnifying glass on the problem by banding your ankles.
2. Stop fishtailing. Easy for me to say! Still, just keep doing the drill. You will eventually get better and better.
3. Stop breathing! Okay, not practical. But you can stop the way you typically breathe during swimming by doing half this drill with a center mount (or symmetric) snorkel.
Just note that I'm saying you should do only half your bound ankle sets with a symmetric snorkel: the first half to show you what it should feel like, the second half to expose the problem with a very recent memory of how it should go.
Let me tell you what's hard for me when I swim with bound ankles: I believe (I'm not sure) that I swim using a "hip driven freestyle." If you endeavor to swim the way good distance freestylers do, with your extended hand near the surface of the water, not having begun the pull, until your recovering hand is at about ear level, there is a dead spot in the cycle, and I use my kick (bad as it is) to keep up my momentum during that dead spot. Doing this drill exposes that, and I have to deal with that. While some of you swim 5sec per 100 yards faster with a buoy, I swim about that same amount slower, when I have my ankles bound and floated.
NOTE 1: I'm going to start giving you Vasa Ergometer workouts, for those who have one of these, as another way to get some "yards" in when you're not in the pool.
NOTE 2: For kick sets you may, but are not required to, use a kickboard, a symmetric snorkel, zommers, or any combo (but at some point we'll lose the Zoomers).
NOTE 3: Are you getting a feel yet for your leave interval, if the set consists of moderately-paced freestyle, where the set totals at least 800 yards, with 5sec to 10sec rest per 100 yards in between each swim? If you don't have a number in mind, have that number by the end of this week. When I ask you should be able to say, "My leave interval is [1:45, or 2:00, or 2:15]," or if you're a Speedy Gonzalez, maybe 1:20 or 1:15.
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Guppy Challenge, Week-3, Workout-1
Warm-up => 6x50yd freestyle, easy, slow, establish a leave interval that gives you 10sec rest between each 50.
Style + Kick set => 6x100yd, alternate 1-arm pull and 50 kick. You don't need much if any rest in between these.
Main set =>
GUPPIES => down-ladder: 400, 300, 200, 100yd, on your leave.
TARPONS => down-ladder: 500, 400, 300, 200, 100yd, on your leave.
TUNAS => up-down-ladder: 100, 200, 300, 400, 300, 200, 100, on your leave.
Warm-down => 200yd, easy, alternate freestyle and “stroke”.
Total Guppy yards this workout: 2100
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Guppy Challenge, Week-3, Workout-2
Warm-up => 50yd, 100, 150 freestyle, easy! On a leave interval 5sec to 10sec slower than your regular leave interval.
Style set => 8x100yd: 1 x 100 bound, 1 x 100 unbound (x4): Leave yourself a long rest interval so that you have time to deal with the buoy. Think about style. See how much your technique improves every time you remove the buoy!
Main set =>
GUPPIES => 3 cycles of: 150yd followed by a 50 kick
TARPONS => 4 cycles of: 150yd followed by a 50 kick
TUNAS => 5 cycles of: 150yd followed by a 50 kick
Warm-down => 300yd: again, first 50 very slow, second 50 normal, then repeat. Were the “slow” 50s easier to swim, easier to maintain form, than earlier in the workout?
Total Guppy yards this workout: 2000
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Guppy Challenge, Week-3, Workout-3
Warm-up => 6x50yd freestyle, easy, slow, establish a leave interval that gives you 10sec rest between each 50.
Style set => 8x50yd w/Bound Ankles: first 25 the goal is to take the fewest number of strokes to get across the pool; return with a strong freestyle.
Kick set => 4x50yd
Main set =>
GUPPIES => up-down-ladder: 100, 200, 300, 200, 100yd, on your leave.
TARPONS => down-ladder: 500, 400, 300, 200, 100yd, on your leave.
TUNAS => up-down-ladder: 100, 200, 300, 400, 300, 200, 100, on your leave.
Warm-down => 200yd, easy, alternate freestyle and “stroke”.
Total Guppy yards this workout: 2000
— EXTRA CREDIT! —
Guppy Challenge, Week-3, Workout-4 Extra Credit!
Warm-up => 6x50yd freestyle, easy, slow, establish a leave interval that gives you 10sec rest between each 50.
Style set => 8x100yd: 1 x 100 bound, 1 x 100 unbound (x4):
Kick set => 4x50yd, don’t kick hard, relax, just make your way across the pool, rest 5sec or 10sec, go again.
Main set =>
GUPPIES => 4x200yd, moderate pace, leave interval allowing 10-15sec rest between each.
TARPONS => 6x200yd
TUNAS => 8x200yd
Warm-down => 100yd, easy, alternate freestyle and “stroke” and when we simply say “stroke” in swimming that’s parlance for anything other than freestyle (backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly).
Do you have a “leave interval” established yet? I get posts and emails asking, “What’s the leave interval? How do I know? How fast do you swim? You have to determine a leave interval. A typical leave interval for a main set, perhaps a set of 100s or 200s that is 1200 yards long in total, will give you maybe 10 seconds to recover after each swim. Maybe you “leave” every 1min40sec for a 100 (which means leaving every 3min20sec in a set of 200s). Do you know what your leave interval for a typical main set is yet? If not, starting thinking about this.
Total Guppy yards this workout: 2200
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Guppy Challenge, Week-3, Workout-5 Double Extra Credit!
Warm-up => 6x50yd freestyle, easy, slow, establish a leave interval that gives you 10sec rest between each 50.
Style set => 6x100yd alternating 1-arm pull and freestyle, moderate pace, 10sec rest between each.
Main set + kick set =>
GUPPIES => 2 sets of 2x200yd swim, on your interval, 50 w/bound ankles after each set
TARPONS => 2 sets of 3x200yd swim, on your interval, 50 w/bound ankles after each set
TUNAS => 2 sets of 4x200yd swim, on your interval, 50 w/bound ankles after each set
Warm-down => 200yd, easy, alternate freestyle and “stroke”.
Total Guppy yards this workout: 2000
Total weekly GUPPY yardage
If you do the first 3 workouts: 6100yd
These plus the 4th workout: 8300yd
All 5 workouts: 10,300yd
Vasa Ergometer (or Vasa Trainer, or similar land-based trainer): It takes me 17 strokes to get across a SCY pool. Therefore, 68 strokes would equal 100 yards, yes? Sort of. Depends on your "walls". But let's call it 70 strokes for 100 yards. That means 1,400 pulls would give me 2000 yards, right? In theory, but I find that my Vasa trainer is harder than swimming. Therefore, if you cut your Vasa workout down by half, you'll still get plenty of workout. And, do these interval style, so, 70 strokes x 10, and with more rest in between than in a pool. If you do this workout we won't count it as pool yards, but we'll count it as a bona fide workout in lieu of one of the workouts above.
70 strokes x 10 with 30sec rest.
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Image above shows former world best and supercoach Siri Lindley, whose new book Surfacing is one of the most noteworthy a triathlete has written in my memory.]
