How To Swim Kilometers While Still Feeling Strong: The Secret Few Talk About

You hit the wall and you're done. You're gasping, legs heavy, and you've done two lengths. Instinct says run more, hit the gym, go for a bike ride. But here's the thing, swimmers who go forever aren't all super fit. They're simply conserving energy. This video covers the four steps, which is what genuinely builds lasting swim stamina, not the sort requiring months of, but the sort caused by correcting your movement. Hello, I'm Alex Koch. As an ex-Olympic athlete, today I'll reveal exactly what's sapping your energy and how to end it. At the outset, virtually every swimmer, by that I mean almost all, starts with getting air. So the majority of people don't even realize they're holding their breath below the surface. So each length leaves you gasping for air. Now, the reason is this, it's not about your fitness. Most adults swimming don't breathe while their face is underwater. They inhale while rotating sideways, that works. But then they keep every last bit inside until the following breathing cycle. I'll show you exactly what it does. So in effect, carbon dioxide builds up in your lungs, and your brain interprets this. Carbon dioxide, an asphyxiant. That feeling is precisely the alarm after every lap, those breathless gulps. Now, here's this. This occurs since nobody says to breathe out while submerged. On dry ground, every time you breathe in and out, it's a smooth loop you don't think about. But in the, in the pool, that rhythm breaks because you're using different breathing patterns. Breathing is more controlled and depends on how well you execute your stroke. It's the time you spend in the breath cycle. So swimmers do what feels natural to them. They hold the inhale and wait for the turn. So honestly, it makes sense. Yet the same holds true if you sense you're drowning. It's exactly like trying to pour water into a full glass. Unless you let it all out, nothing new can enter. Basically, your lungs work the same way. You're retaining carbon dioxide, so the oxygen you just inhaled can't go anywhere because it's filled to the brim. And the fix here is simple. Keep breathing out nonstop while submerged, letting bubbles escape your nose in a slow, controlled flow. Or mouth. I prefer nose the whole time your face is down. After that, every time you rotate for a breath, draw air in quickly and let it out gradually. And there you have the rhythm. On solid ground, begin by rising to your feet, inhale deeply, then exhale slowly out through your nose for four counts. And try to feel that pace. Feel it now? That is precisely the outcome you're aiming for once you're in the water. Four, then ten reps, fast in, slow out. You can do this literally right now while watching this video. Now let's put this into practice in the water. Push off the wall. Focus on nothing but exhaling. Keep a constant stream of bubbles, roll to inhale, and ignore your arms for a single length. Do only about four lengths like this. This lets you sidekick while sinking your breathing. In fact, the majority report 30 to 40% less breathlessness. After fixing this in one session. Not one week, one session. Now let's move on to step two, body position and drag. Your body position here acts like a parachute in the water. Here's how to close it. When your hips and legs drop even a few inches, you're not swimming forward. You're swimming uphill. Watch any struggling swimmer from the side, the feet. Stay low throughout. Your chest keeps trying to rise because your lungs are naturally buoyant. So the legs want to sink. But nobody told your body what to do when it hits this clash. It ends up losing. That's because the sensation isn't clear. You're not really sinking, just slightly diagonal. And diagonal in the water means enormous drag. You're fighting water resistance with every stroke, as opposed to merely gliding through it. And it's essentially comparable to operating a vehicle with. It's like a huge parachute tied to the back of your car. You can still move. But everything else is, in this case, 800 times harder than on land. So fix your position. First to remove that parachute. The fix is simple, and I've mentioned it. I've covered this often in these videos. Drive your ribcage down under the surface near your head or your chest. That small pressure shift tilts your hips up, and your feet follow automatically. You don't have to force your legs up. The physics. I'll do it for you. On land, lie face down, on the floor or a bench, with your arm extended forward. Press your chest down onto the surface. Feel how your lower back flattens slightly, and your legs want to lift a bit. That's the chest press sensation you can practice right now. That's what you want to chase in the water too. Same shape, just in the water. In the water. Push off and streamline and hold the glide as long as possible. No kick. Don't use your arms, just glide. And if your feet drop while you're still moving, then your position needs work. Keep pressing your chest down. Do about six glides and see how far you get. Fixing this body position alone can cut drag by 50% or more. After several weeks of this drill, most swimmers extend their glide by three to five meters. Let's move to step three, releasing tension. You're using muscles. At this moment, you don't have to. In essence, they take everything from you. Your grip's too tight, your jaws clenched, your shoulders are tense, and you're pretty much just switching on muscles that do zero proportion doesn't help you. But they burn lots of oxygen, the very ones that actually move you forward. At this point, I've done hundreds, if not thousands, of video analyses for swimmers. Almost all of them swim tight. You can see it in their shoulders. They're lifted, locked, braced like they're about to get hit. Anxiety and physical effort trigger the same response. Tension in the water amplifies that anxiety. Face down, your breathing is limited by moving through a shifting medium. So how does the body respond? It defaults to rigid. That's why it seems hard, it genuinely is, just aimed at entirely the wrong thing. This is like running a race with every muscle clenched, jaw, fist, stomach, shoulders, and so on. Sure, you can keep going, but you'll be spent after roughly 200 meters. Relax those muscles and the same pace suddenly feels like nothing. Same speed, completely different experience. The fix is simple. Relax your hands and jaw, drop your shoulders, and avoid hunching. Between strokes, let your recovering arm feel heavy, not stiff. So use your hands like flat paddles, not clenched fists. No, actually, picture them as floppy paddles. Let your hands stay limp, feel, don't grab. On land, stand up and lift your shoulders all the way. Right up to your ears. Let the shoulders fall, then shake out both hands. Notice that? That is what release feels like. And that's precisely the spot you'll aim to reach in the water. Now drive one arm forward. Slow freestyle recovery, elbow slack, hands heavy, no tightness anywhere down the arm. And you're aiming to complete 10 reps in exactly this way. In the water now, swim a length and monitor your jaw, shoulders, and hand every stroke. One full stroke cycle. At this point, you'll likely have to remind yourself 10 times over that length, but that's okay. It'll become second nature after just a few sessions. Swimmers who resolve the tension typically lower their heart rate by 10 beats per minute at. Keep the same rhythm and velocity with less strain, that's how genuine stamina is built. The fourth step is the fishin' kick. Your legs are burning up oxygen, yet they barely push you forward. Here's how to correct it. Overbending your knees makes your kick too wide, so you drive from your quads instead of coming from your hips. If any of those occur, your legs turn into the biggest drain on your energy in the pool, for nearly. They get no propulsion back. I notice it constantly. Swimmers wear themselves out from the hips, down wondering why they're tired. The answer is, we kick the way we walk or run, from the knees. That's natural. But in the water, effective. The true driving force begins at your hips and passes through an extended lever with pliable ankles at the end. But most people invert it, stiff ankles, bend at the knee, and tight hips. They move water sideways or just up and down, and call it a kick. Kicking from the knees in freestyle is like sweeping a floor with just your wrist instead of your whole arm. You're doing lots of motion, none with power, and basically ruining the tiniest joint for the least possible payoff. The fix, kick from your hips. Your knees are just about fully extended. There's a slight natural bend, but don't reinforce it. Simply let it happen organically. Ankles loose, toes pointed, and the motion starts from your hip flexor at the top and flows down into your feet. Tiny, steady ones, not big, flashy ones. On land, sit on the edge, a chair, or a bench, your choice. Stretch one leg out in front. Now do a small flutter kick, knees bent no more than 10 to 15 degrees. Feel your thigh drive the motion, not your calf. That's it. In the water, grab your kickboard and kick one length, deliberately. Slow. Keep your knees almost straight, toes pointed back. Right here, you should. Notice the sensation just ahead of your hips. If your quads burn, your knees are too bent. Adjust and try again. A kick driven by the hips can cut most swimmers' energy use by around 20 to 30 percent for each length. That's the difference between stopping at 400m or pushing past 600m with the same fitness. Just wanted to say, I make these videos because I get a lot of online queries. So I create these videos based on your questions and responses. These are a few questions I'm often asked. Alex, I empty my lungs and still can't catch my breath. The thing is, you're probably exhaling too fast. You need to take it slower. You need to slow down. So keep breathing out as long as your face stays beneath the surface, not merely for a couple of seconds. My hips lift, yet my arms continue to tire. That means you're pulling too hard, lighten your catch, lengthen your reach. Put simply, you're trading one energy leak for another. I aim to stay loose, but as soon as I rotate for air, my body tightens. It's essentially worry-centered on breathing. Try bilateral breathing in drills, it gives you more air options, which helps curb your panic reflex. It still lacks power, even with a hip-driven kick. Essentially, your toe should be pointed a little more. Your ankles deliver most of your forward drive, so loosen them up at the pool's edge. Before you start, I can get through all four in one drill set, but the moment I swim my usual stroke, everything crumbles. And there is nothing unusual about that. Pick just one focus for each length, or one for the entire session. Not all four at once, that's too much to hold. So, if everything falls into place exactly, you ought to sense a constant resistance growing against your palms as you pull. It's a strong catch, not a smack. So during the glide, you need to feel your chest pressing down into the water, as if you're, like pressing down on a mattress. When your shoulders creep up near your ears, that signals tension. Drop them and relax. If your quads burn on a light kick, your knees are bending too much. The feeling to always chase is a long stretch from your fingertips all the way to your toes, with nothing clenched that shouldn't be. Get all this for even one length, and you'll know what you're working toward. So next week, get in the water, push off the wall, and instead That tiredness? You keep swimming endless laps, not because you became super fit overnight. But since you stopped resisting the water, and I've watched this change countless times. With an excess of grown-up swimmers, they hit the water twice weekly, pausing at the 200-meter point to regain their wind. And six weeks down the line, they can manage 800 meters without a break, identical conditioning, altered mechanics, now. These four things take about 45 minutes per session to practice. This isn't a complete review, just small, deliberate adjustments. Breathe all the way out, push down through the ribcage, let the tightness go, and drive the kick from the pelvis. It takes two to three sessions to feel any difference. And they generally need about 14 to 21 days to truly take hold.