SwimPath Blog

For many swimmers, learning how a pace feels and being to hit that pace consistently is one of the hardest but most important things to achieve in training. Translating that pace into a race is also crucial, as you want to be able to feel what that pace is like in order for you not to go out too quick, and instead swim a consistent race and know that you are on track. The tempo trainer offers a great couple of ways to help assist you with this by beeping in different ways to give you feedback, as it sits underneath your swimming hat.

• Mode 1 – Stroke Tempo
  • A great way to do improve your consistency is through practising stroke tempo
  • Stroke tempo is the interval of time between each of your strokes
  • For example, you would input 1.1 if you wanted to do a stroke every 1.1 seconds
  • The tempo trainer will give you feedback by giving a simple beep every interval, which would be every time you should be initiating a stroke

• Mode 2 – Interval Mode
  • Input an interval time which causes the trainer to beep every time that interval passes
  • For example, if you were doing an aerobic swim and wanted to rep 34 seconds every 50m, you would be able to gauge if you were on track with the assistance of the tempo trainer.
  • If you are behind the beep you know you need to speed up!

• Mode 3 – Stroke Rate
  • Stroke rates are the number of strokes you swim per minute and is similar to stroke tempo
  • The tempo trainer will beep every time you are meant to start a stroke
  • For example, swimming a set where one of your aims is to maintain a 38-stroke rate. This would be the stroke rate that you know you can hit a certain time with
  • Simply by continuously practising swimming with your goal rate, it will become easier for you to gauge your pace when swimming.

Get yours at SwimPath today!

Hey, I’m Tom Derbyshire and I am the latest former GB international swimmer to join the SwimPath team. I recently retired from swimming after 10 years in the sport. Over those years I represented Great Britain at both junior and senior level as well as England at the Youth Commonwealth Games in 2015.

Some of my career highlights include winning European Junior gold and silver at the 2016 European Juniors, these were in the 1500m and 800m freestyle respectively, along with winning gold at the Youth Commonwealth Games in Samoa. I was also able to represent Great Britain at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow.

For the last four years of my career I was able to train alongside Olympians and World Champions at the British Swimming National Centre based in Bath. For me, this was a dream come true and I was able to learn and train with the best whilst pursuing my own goals.

As a distance ‘specialist’, my best bit of advice to any younger swimmers looking to tackle the longer events would be to really practise consistently hitting your pace in training and to make everything as even as possible. When racing the longer events, it is important that you don’t start your race to fast and that you are able to maintain a consistent pace throughout. There is no worse feeling then realising that you have gone out too fast after the first 200m or so. You should always aim to finish the race as strong or even stronger than how you started.

I am looking forward to working with SwimPath and helping other achieve their goals in the sport.

SwimPath are delighted to announce the launch of TriPath - Specialists in the Swim Leg of Triathlon competitions!

"TriPath specialise in the Swim Leg of triathlons as this is a critical part of the race which is sometimes overlooked. Our Team of Triathletes offer the full training program for Swim, Run and Bike and are available for Coaching. Our products are designed for performance swimming and the training equipment required to perfect your technique . Products include competition wetsuits, trisuits, goggles and fun swimwear. Our coaches offer expert advice for everything a triathlete needs!"

Vist TriPath Here!

Breaststroke is one of the most technical strokes and one of the trickiest to master. It's important to remember that Breaststroke is all about skill and efficiency so if you just move faster that doesn't mean you're going to move quicker. This post is designed to give you a couple key tips and things to work on at all levels to ensure that you are able to get the most out of your training time. 

• Your Body Position after each stroke on the glide phase should be as flat as possible. The glide phase is when you are moving the fastest so being as tightly streamlined and flat as possible will result in be even quicker and is one of the easiest things to do.
• Spend time sculling using a snorkel to see your hand movements ensuring they go wide enough. They should be in a Y position at their absolute widest, remember not to go too wide as most of the forward momentum comes from our kick.
• 2 kicks 1 pull drill is the perfect drill to ensure that your body is in the correct position after the pull. This drill should not be rushed, by slowing it down you will also be adding a small amount of Hypoxic element to your training which will help your under waters late on in races.
• Whilst kicking ensure that your legs snap back together at the end of your kick, this is made easier by squeezing your bum towards the end of the kick. Doing this will also put your legs are in the correct and most efficient position.
• The Breaststroke Pull Out is something that shouldn't be rushed, the movements should be quick and snappy but they each one should start when you feel yourself slow down after the previous movement.      

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