Swimming Assessment

Your task for the day: Go to the swimming pool. Do the Swimming Assessment. Don’t wait. Don’t put this off. Just get yourself to the pool.

Following the assessment, your coach will decide which drills you need to work on, will discuss with you some good tips for improving your technique and answer any questions you have about your swimming.

This document is a benchmark, a learning tool and a goal creator. Beginners through advanced swimmers can all benefit from this assessment.

The way to get more efficient and faster is to practice consistency and sustainability.

This should give you an idea of what you can do to improve your swimming.

This assessment can be taken as often as you wish. I recommend about once per week to start, but this doesn’t mean you can’t practice the sets given here in between.

The second assessment is about heart rate monitoring and pace. Your ending heart rate is a factor in your overall efficiency. You should see the numbers trending downward here, but it may take a few weeks to get to that point.

This is your stroke efficiency score.

This is your aerobic efficiency score.

There is no one number or range you need to be aiming for. The best thing to do is to get an idea of your stroke count range on the first assessment. Use this as your benchmark to improve upon. You will likely see this range head downward if you keep practicing the drills and workouts in our program.

This might be okay, especially at first. Your overall score should be dropping. This means that you can have two factors going down with one stagnant or even going up slightly. For example, you may see your heart rate dropping overall, and your times getting a little faster, while your stroke count goes from the 22-25 range to the 23-26 range. Just stick with the drills and workouts, and don’t get too obsessed with one part of this.

This is all about pacing. The first indication when you’re swimming will be your stroke count, because it’s difficult to judge time. So treat this as a stroke count exercise at first. Follow directions above, and try to bring rhythm into your stroke. Visualize speed skating, or cross-country skiing which will involve your core body. Be aware of bringing your hips into play as you stretch out with a patient hand, making sure you are using the high elbow pull. Solving inconsistency issues means slowing down- don’t be afraid to slow down. When you achieve your pace, the speed will come back to you.

Again, I recommend not getting to obsessed with any one area here. Heart rate is just part of the equation. If your heart rate is headed higher after a month, you may simply not be following the workouts, or you may be trying to move through the drills too quickly. This would be a good time to go back and practice the basic kicking and balance drills.