When Adding a Glide to the Swim Stroke is Good!

This post is in response to the recent SwimSmooth blog post entitled "Blinded By Aesthetics: The Definitive Guide To Why You Shouldn't Be Trying To Pause And Glide When You Swim"

I have a vital caveat to the "No Glide Ever" philosophy: I believe it is dead wrong and even counter-productive for absolute beginner open-water swimmers.  Giving these folks a glide greatly hastens their initial progress, which soon supports elimination of the glide.  And by "soon" I mean after 4-12 sessions, and certainly after their first couple of Sprint-distance triathlons.

By "absolute beginner" I mean someone who has no open water swim experience, and who can barely survive swimming one length of a pool.  While this is most often due to a simple lack of technique, it can also be due to poor muscle and cardio conditioning and/or poor oxygen update (e.g., asthma).  I have found getting such folks into a triathlon wetsuit as early as possible makes a massive and immediate improvement, greatly encouraging that initial drive to overcome open water fears and weaknesses, and to become a true swimmer.

The largest issue is simply raising the body up so breathing becomes simpler and easier.  That's it.  Hundreds of times I've seen the joy on the faces of previously struggling swimmers (and non-swimmers) when they get their first few strokes while wearing a wetsuit.  That joy often triggers an enthusiasm for learning to swim better that makes my task much easier.

Such folks, who are true triathlon beginners in every sense of the word, are often unready (or unwilling) to add the fourth triathlon training regimen: Strength Training.  So I combine technique and conditioning.  For me, this means making every stroke powerful, to build both "feel for the water" as well as stressing the body just hard enough to encourage rapid conditioning

Few, if any, absolute beginner swimmers can crank out 25m of powerful strokes.  Many coaches advise letting the athlete "back off" to focus on form (a smooth, continuous stroke) and distance/endurance.  I have found this to be counter-productive.  It's like teaching them a "useless" slow stroke, and reinforcing all the associated "useless" muscle memory, rather than taking the shortest path connecting the starting point to the desired beginner end point (typically the first two sprint triathlons).

But even absolute beginners can do a few powerful strokes, even with poor conditioning.  I have found it FAR more productive and effective to simply add some recovery time (a glide) between powerful strokes, even over relatively short drill distances.  That is, I try to bring standard muscle conditioning techniques (load, reps, recovery) into the open water.

A powerful stroke with a glide also helps ensure proper rotation.  A weak stroke often leads to flailing and wriggling to get a breath, or breaking the stroke to add a side thrust.  Successful open-water breathing comes primarily from two sources: Height in the water and a solid extension for good rotation.  That's another reason to teach a strong stroke first, with a glide on one's side for easy breathing.  To emphasize this, we also teach "no neck rotation" to enforce body rotation, with the initial motivation being to avoid painful and unsightly "wetsuit hickies".  Later on, we refer to full rotation as "swimming skinny", which makes it easier to get through dense packs.

Note: To be clear, we tell beginners to stay wide of packs and turn buoys.  But shit happens, so beginners must cope with it, rather than become startled, afraid or confused.  The goal is to complete the swim course no matter what happens, and no matter how slow their progress, always to "just keep on swimming".  (To emphasize this, in later drills instructors will bump into them, swim over them, and even get tangled up with them.  We call it "sharking the drill".  We also do nasty things like go off course during later drafting drills.)

Once their stroke looks good, with however much glide is needed to cover a significant distance (say, 100m), I then add two drills: "Form to Fatigue", where I have them select their own initial glide duration, then go as far as they can while maintaining stroke power, rate and glide.  Being caught in a form break is the ultimate no-no: They must stop when their form suffers, which means becoming very aware of what a good stroke feels like, both in the body and in the water.  Any stop before the finish means adding more glide during the next attempt (not backing off on the force of each stroke).

Remember, the initial goal is to simultaneously build strong swim muscles and cardio, as well as develop a stroke that will be ready to make instant and full use of their rapidly improving conditioning.  Nothing but the "final" stroke is taught, with glides initially present only while the body develops.

The second drill is "Glide Reduction".  Once they are able to do "Form to Failure" over a Sprint distance swim, subsequent drills focus on maintaining that power, form and distance while gradually reducing the glide across subsequent workouts (not within individual drills or workouts).

I do not time their drills (though they are free to time themselves).  I only monitor their form, see where/if they stop, and check how they feel after each drill.  The ONLY exceptions to this are occasional Time Trials, where we record their time over a Super-Sprint distance, and give silly prizes only for "Most Improved" by percentage gain from their prior TT, never for place or time.

Teaching absolute beginners to vary glide instead of backing off on stroke effort has several benefits, especially in the Sprint distance.  First, it gives beginners a usable burst stroke, such as to get through a slow pack or catch a draft, simply by temporarily eliminating their glide and changing nothing else.  If they overdo it, they can add in whatever glide is needed to recover.  But underwater, The Stroke is always The Stroke.  This is the KISS Principle applied to absolute beginning open water swimming.

For some absolute beginners, especially older "casual" triathletes, this is all they want or need, at least for their first several races.  If they are going to stop instruction early, I want it to be with at least a good, reliable and powerful underwater stroke, with or without a glide, and in a wetsuit.

Then there are those absolute beginners who quickly become Monsters of the Swim.  I've seen several absolute beginners go from zero to fast in just 2 sessions.  Most are kids, who I promptly refer to a youth coach.  The rest are referred to intermediate coaches and clinics.  Basically, I kick them out so I can focus on the other absolute beginners.  The feedback I get from other coaches is that my graduates are among their most determined and compliant clients.  Those who insist on sticking around become coaching assistants.

There are always some absolute beginners who have trouble swimming a Sprint distance, even when their stroke is good and their fitness is adequate. It's often more of a psychological limitation than physical, but I believe a physical approach works best even here.  For these folks I add in a "Super Glide", where they can glide so much as to nearly come to a complete stop (if needed), so long as they "never stop swimming".  Which is practical only in a wetsuit.  The goal is to always be fresh and alert, and never let the stroke fall apart.  The glide provides moments for brief reflection, refocusing, and making that next stroke perfect.  Typically, 1-3 Super Glide drills gets them past any psychological block.

Understanding the glide also helps with open water spotting/sighting, where it may occasionally be necessary to press the extended arm down to get the eyes high enough to see over waves.  Some beginner triathletes with smooth continuous pool strokes have trouble integrating a "high spot", where gliders seldom do, even after they have eliminated their glide.  This is especially valuable to absolute beginners during their first races, even if in a sheltered bay or lake.

This is very different from how I teach beginner run and bike, where I emphasize a consistent high cadence first, last and always.  Adjust stride length in the run as conditioning improves, similarly for the gearing on the bike.   I never emphasize stroke cadence with absolute beginner swimmers (I mention rhythm as feel and consistency, not as cadence or time); the emphasis is always on a powerful stroke underwater.

I want to emphasize the glide is only intended to be a temporary expedient, to be eliminated as soon as muscular and cardiovascular development permits.  But it's not a top priority, especially not compared to simply finishing the course. Some folks come to prefer the Zen-like feel of a long glide, and choose to keep their glide forever, which is absolutely OK!
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A number of my absolute beginners eventually became familiar podium finishers in local races.  After one race that had particularly brutal ocean conditions on the first half of the swim, I overheard one graduate exclaim to his neighbor on the podium: "It was so rough out there I had to add in a glide after the first buoy!"  Made me proud!  Even if not desired under normal conditions, it's useful to have a glide in one's bag of tricks.

I believe it is better to do whatever is needed to get through a rough spot, then add some glide to recover after.  I see way too many swimmers who are fast in calm conditions fall apart when things get rough for a while.  I see them become unable to sustain their customary stroke, and simply start flailing at the water and fall behind, or come to a complete stop to recover.  I strongly believe a glide is an ideal fall-back to use when the unexpected happens.

I do not teach absolute beginners how to swim in the open water without a wetsuit.  Instead, I encourage them to join pool groups and clinics.  To me, there is no reason for an absolute open water beginner to enter a non-wetsuit race!  Which makes getting rid of the wetsuit a solidly intermediate skill.

There is much more we teach our absolute beginner open water swimmers, particularly race skills and tactics, but a powerful strength-building stroke with a glide is always where I start.