I Answered Your Biggest Swim Questions

Hi guys, I'm Dasha, a forward swimmer and a coach with over 15 years of professional swimming experience. And for the past couple of years, I've been coaching swimming online. And I always have many DMs and comments where you ask swimming related questions. So this video, I decided to dedicate on answering these questions. So stay tuned, because I think that you're going to find something helpful in this video, and you're going to leave as a better swimmer. Let's go. Question number one, how often should I train to go from two minute per 100 meters to 145 per 100 meters on long distance swims? Thanks. First of all, 15 seconds to drop on 100 meters is a lot. And now you're looking at perfecting your breathing. First of all, if you want to go sub two minute pace per 100 meters, you need to make sure that your breathing is perfect and that it doesn't break your entire stroke. You want to make sure that your head is really low and that the top of your head is breaking the water in front of you. So when you breathe, you don't have difficulties to take that side breath. Yeah, you're not breaking your stroke. Another thing that you're looking at is improving your catch and pull. So your underwater stroke, because you're moving in freestyle or any other stroke, mostly because of your pool underwater. Yeah, yes, above the water part is important, but you want to perfect your catch. You want to make sure that you're really having a high elbow catch and that you're grabbing the water in front of you and that you're pulling all the way back and not cutting your stroke short. Like, for example, at your waist that you're pulling all the way back to your thigh. Yeah, these are the two things. But also, I'm not able to actually see a stroke. And that's why you can send me your video for a video stroke analysis and the link you can find down in the description below. So I'm able to actually see how your stroke looks like and create an exact program for you. So you're able to follow and improve. Many of my students did improve and dropped 5, 10, 15 seconds. But now you're the majority of them. They improve their breathing, their high elbow catch, and they stop cutting their stroke short. So these are the three things that you can focus on. Next question. What drills do you recommend using in paddles? I actually got a couple of questions about drills in paddles. So let's unpack this. My favorite drill to do in paddles is the fist drill. So you can do that without paddles where you close your hand in a fist and just swim freestyle. Amazing drill to work on your forearm and on your catch in the water. The same applies when you do it in big paddles. Yeah. So you're going to do what you're going to do. You're going to grab the paddle. Yeah, like this. So you're going to be pulling and catching with the fist and the paddle is going to be like this. So you're not actually able to even drop your elbow because you know, the paddle is limiting this motion to drop your elbow. That's drill number one, the fist drill. Drill number two is the Pac-Man drill. I love this drill. What you're going to do, you're going to extend your arm by using a paddle, but by taking a paddle, grabbing it right here. So you're not going to do this. Yeah. You're not going to put on the paddle like usual. You're just going to grab it right here and swim with both paddles. So that gives you a little bit more, like increases the surface area of your catch and of your pool. But it's really difficult because you're going to waddle. So make sure that you're not really dropping your elbow and not bringing that elbow close to your body and that you're actually able to grab, to have the high elbow catch and to pull all the way back. And the third drill that I have is swimming regular freestyle, but only in one paddle. So you're going to put on the paddle on your, on your non-dominant arm. So for example, my dominant arm is right. I'm going to put the paddle on the, my left arm, and I'm going to swim regular freestyle. Usually left arm or your non-dominant arm is weaker than the dominant arm, but with the paddle, you can pull with much more power. And it gives you this idea of like, if I could improve my non-dominant arm, I would probably fly in the water. So these are my top drills. And if you know more drills to do in paddles, or you have your favorite drill to do in paddles, let me know in the comments below. Next question, high elbow catch. I, and I have a lot of these like just high elbow catch or, or, or pool. This is not really a question, but we're going to break down the high elbow catch. So as soon as you enter the water, yeah, you have that entry. You're going to have that glide. Yeah. As you do the glide, you're going to start pointing your fingertips at the bottom. And then with that motion, you're going to have your high elbow formed straight away. And with that, you're going to be able to pull back. Now, as you point the fingertips down, I want you to not point your wrist. Yeah. Because this is not the high elbow catch. The high elbow catch is when you point your fingertips and together with that, your forearm. So you're actually able to form that high elbow catch. The idea is that you want your hand and your elbow facing back. So you're able to pull back, not down. Yeah. And as you're pulling in your mid pull position, you're, you're going to have like a power triangle or power diamond form from your hand, your elbow and your shoulder. And that's how, you know, you're actually pulling and not dropping your elbow. One of the most common mistakes is drop elbow because it's easier. Yeah. It's easier to pull. And actually you can even swim 140 or even 135 per a hundred meters having a drop elbow. Now, if you are going to have the high elbow position, if you're going to fix that drop elbow, I guarantee you're going to drop 10, 15 seconds from your hundred meters. And how you're going to do it is by literally thinking and actually looking at your stroke as you're swimming. Yeah. Every time you swim freestyle, every time you swim drills, you're going to look at your arm pulling underwater and make sure that you actually have a high elbow catch and then you're not dropping your elbow. And if you want to build speed and swim faster, I've made five swim practices to build speed. You can find them in the link down below. Absolute for free. Go check this, go steal and go get faster. Next question. Do you have a skincare routine and how do you protect yourself from infections by infections? I think you mean chlorine. So I actually don't have any skincare routine. I use simple cream, like moisturizing cream. I apply it on my face after the swim practice. And because right now we're traveling in Asia and it's really hot and sunny here. So we do use SPF all the time. But other than that, I don't have a favorite brand or a favorite product. So if you do have some recommendations and you are a swimmer and you're using something that's super helpful and you recommend, comment down below and I'll be happy to know. Okay. Next question. Drills, drills, drills. Not a question, but okay. Drills to improve your technique. And I have a lot of questions about drills. So let's unpack this. Drills are great and you should use them and you should do them every single practice. Primarily you're going to do the warmup and maybe then the pre-main set. So in that pre-main set, you can do drills, or if you don't have a pre-main set, you can do the drill set in the warmup. I also put some drills and kick sets in the cool down in fins for my athletes. My top favorite drills to improve technique is a dope paddle drill. I love this drill because it helps you to get that really nice early vertical forearm to make sure that you're actually finishing the stroke, that you have a strong pull. You're going to do this drill without taking your arms for the recovery out of the water. You're going to just keep your entire stroke underwater. And another drill that I personally love, but you need someone else to swim this drill with. So one person is going to swim freestyle and the other one is going to hold that person on the feet. Person at the back is going to kick and the person in front is going to pull. And it's like two people doing this freestyle stroke together. I think it's a really nice drill because it's really difficult for the person in front to pull the entire body, your body, and one more person. And it's a great drill to really like give you more weight in the water and practice that power and pressure on the water. And another great drill I personally love is kicking in general, kicking in fins or kicking without fins. And there are different variations you can kick. You can kick on your stomach. You can kick on your back. You can do a side kick. I love kick around the world where you can do by 50s or by 25s. You kick on one side, for example, on your right, then you're going to kick on your back, then you're going to kick on your left, and then you're going to kick on your stomach. A great drill. So it's like 360 kicking. These are just the three of my favorite drills, but there are many, many more. There is a single arm drill for beginners, a catch-up drill if you have a crossover mistake. I have two videos on the drills for beginners and for more advanced swimmers. You can check them right there. But in general, every practice that you have is supposed to include some sort of drills before your actual main set, so you're able to activate that part of the body that you're going to focus on, and make sure that you're swimming correctly. Next question. Training in the pool for a five kilometer sea swim. What should I focus on more? Okay, that's actually a really great question. I think many of the swimmers prepare for their open water swims in the pool, and I think the majority of swimmers don't know the exact drills or main sets that you're supposed to incorporate in your swim practices, and you're just swimming 50 and 100 meters, which I think is not really beneficial for you. So what you really want to focus on is the right drills. The drills that you're going to do for the open water. A is sighting. Specifically, you're going to sight every fourth to sixth stroke, where you're just basically taking your eyes out of the water and sighting where you're swimming. This is going to help you avoid zigzagging or swimming additional meters when you're swimming in the open water. Another great drill is just variating different breathing patterns, yeah? Because in the open water, especially if you swim in the sea or ocean, the waves can be super unpredictable, and you don't know when you're going to have the chop and on what side you're going to be able to breathe. So if your comfortable side is right, make sure you also do practice breathing on your left. Make sure you also practice breathing. For example, my favorite breathing drill is 2-3-2-5, where you're going to take two strokes, breathe on one side, take three strokes, breathe on the other side. Again, take two strokes, breathe on the same side, and take five strokes and breathe on the opposite side. Amazing drill to practice. And another drill that you can do is just swimming without the walls, yeah? Actually, in the open you won't be able to push off the wall, you won't be able to have dolphin dive or flip turn, yeah? Or push off the wall. What you really want to do is you want to make sure that you swim without the walls, whether in a main set or you do it as a drill, yeah? Where you actually, instead of pushing off the wall, doing this kind of deep water start, where you're just paddling and kind of gravitating in the water, and then starting without the wall, but just from the deep waters. And when we're talking about the main set, I think your main set should not be shorter than 200 meters. Even 100 meters, I think it's too short if you're preparing for even a 700-meter swim in the open water, yeah? But if you're preparing for a 5-kilometer swim in the open water, I think what you're looking at, your main set is going to be around 70% of your practice, yeah? A little bit of warm-up, a little bit of cool-down, but the majority of your practice is going to be imitating the open water swim. So we are looking at 10 times 200 meters with 10-15 seconds rest, yeah? We're looking at, let's say, 400-meter swims, 500-400 meters, yeah, with also very minimal risk. Also swimming in the zone, too, like not really pumping up your heart rate, but making sure that you can sustain, you can hold that form, you can hold that pace for 5-kilometer swim. And there are many things that you can do in the pool to prepare yourself for open water. And if you want to work with me, and you can work with me, so check the link down below. Question from my favorite friend, Gareth. How long should be the glide in the long distance? One second. First of all, you can count this, yeah? Because different swimmers, for example, they have different height, different weight. Also, they have different technique. In the long course, yeah, I'm assuming that you're going to have a little longer glide in comparison with like a 50- or 100-meter freestyle, yeah? Because there you need to really top up the cadence. You need to make sure that you're moving your arms and your legs quite fast. In the long distance, you want to make sure that you do the glide, and until you actually take a breath and then put your face back in the water, you're not starting that pull underwater, yeah? You take a breath, you twist your head, inhale, bring your head back in the water, and only then you're pulling. You're almost able to see that arm, to see that hand pulling underwater. That's number one. Another thing, I don't want you to over glide as well. I don't want you to glide and actually stop your stroke. I don't want you to swim like a robot, yeah? This is also not swimming, yeah? You want to make sure that you're swimming in a cycle, yeah? That you're swimming in one continuous cycle. If you do a two-beat kick, most likely, you're going to have a little longer glide. If you have a four- or six-beat kick, means that you're swimming a little faster, means that your glide is going to take you a little shorter time, yeah? But you don't rush the glide, because I know how you swim. Do not rush the glide. Make sure that you're really gliding and getting that nice glide with pointing your fingers down, taking that breath on the side, and only then pulling. Next question. How to avoid the fear of the water? I've been trying to learn, but still feel scared. I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry to hear that. But the way you can do that, yeah? So first, you're coming to the pool, you're gonna just sit on the deck. Instead of actually just even emerging yourself in the water, what you really want to do, you just want to sit on the deck and only like put your feet, put your knees in the water. And that's it. Maybe that's the first day. Maybe that's your first even week of really getting to know the water, getting to know this feeling of like being emerged in the water. As soon as you get comfortable with this, you're going to get inside the pool and stand next to the edge, yeah? Next to the deck. Hold the deck and stand where the water is shallow. I'm talking your waist, yeah? Not going anywhere deeper than that. And you're just gonna stand, yeah? Maybe you're just gonna walk a little bit holding the deck. You're gonna walk front, walk backwards. And then as soon as you feel more comfortable, you're going to emerge yourself until shoulders. Still keeping the deck. And then as soon as this feels comfortable, you now can start to put your face in the water, yeah? Holding your breath and then just putting your face for one second, then getting up. Putting your face for one second, then getting up, yeah? And you can take it step by step and it doesn't matter if it takes you like a week, a month, or even half a year to get used to it. As soon as you're gonna get used to it, you will understand that you're going to float. You're not going to sink and this fear of the water is going to disappear. Next question is I can't seem to do one goggle in, one goggle out of the water when I'm breathing. I always end up with mouth full of water. Okay, this is a very common mistake when you're starting to learn how to swim and how to breathe. Breathing is the number one thing that you should learn, you should focus on before actually even moving to arms, even moving to giggle or anything else. You need to learn how to breathe. First, you're going to stand next to the deck and just inhale and exhale. Try to twist your neck, twist your head. The next drill that you're going to practice is you're going to take fins, take the board and kick with the board and the fins and just do the side breathing, practice side breathing. Here you want to make sure that you keep your breathing as natural as possible. Many swimmers, they try to really do this big inhale because they're like like this because they're really scared that they're not gonna inhale enough. But what you really want to do is you want to keep your breathing as natural as possible and this is going to give you this feeling of like, I'm okay, I'm not, I'm not gonna get out of air, you know. If you don't break the water in front of you with your, with the top of your head, you're not gonna have an air pocket to breathe on the side and that's how the water is going to get in. So when you actually take your full head out of the water thinking, okay, I'm gonna inhale more, you end up not breaking water in front of you and that's how you have water in your mouth. What you really want to do, you want to make sure that it's close to the surface of the water and sometimes it's okay to even take both goggles out of the water. I do that, yeah. My mistake is that I'm over-rotating when I'm swimming. I'm aware of this, yeah. So I'm always trying to practice this like close breathing but you don't have to be taking your head or your full face out of the water in order to inhale. I think this is going to be the biggest for you and if you want more advice on breathing, then I have seven days to improve your breathing in swimming. You can check in the link down below. Tips how to wear swimsuit without showing off your nippies and how to wear swim cap easily. Okay, for the first question. Girlfriend, I feel you. To be honest, there is no way you can avoid this in swimming. The only way that comes to my mind is wearing a black swimsuit. Maybe it's going to be less noticeable and make sure that you choose the swimsuit with two layers, yeah. So that it's not just one layer because it tends to be more transparent that you have actually those two layers. Maybe it's going to be darker and thicker and it's not going to be that noticeable but yeah, girlfriend, we're all here. And the next question. How do you wear a swim cap easily? So there are two ways you can do that. Number one is you're going to make sure that the top of your cap is facing the forehead, yeah. It's facing. It's on the top of your head. It's on the top of your forehead. For example, look. One, two, three. Even with my hair like this, you saw it. Did you see? It took me like, took me three seconds. Okay, another way. Of course, obviously, you're going to have like in the bun or a ponytail your hair done. What you're going to do, you're going to put both of your hands inside the cap. You're going to stretch it and do the same, yeah. You're going to make sure that you're kind of sneaking in that cap and then take the hands out of the cap and that's that's what you have. Make sure that you put on the cap on your dry head because it's going to be way easier than if you would put on the wet hair on the wet head. And if you are a beginner and you want to learn how to swim and improve your technique and feel of the water, I have a six weeks program to take you from zero to 500 meters. Check the link down in the description below.