On my recent  Strel swimming trip I met Sophie from Germany.

She was in the ‘slow’ group with me and another lady. Sophie clearly loved being in the sea and was a very competent head up breaststroker.

For our first proper swim I breaststroked keeping fairly good time with Esther’s crawl and resting or looping back to make sure Sophie didn’t get too far behind.  She kept going really well for the whole of the 2k plus swim. But it was clear that as Esther and I got into our stride, she wasn’t going to be able to keep up.  Despite her lovely stroke and confidence, keeping her head above the water simply made her stroke less efficient than everyone else’s.

Luckily, we were a small enough group that our guides could cope with our now 3 speed groups and Sophie continued to enjoy her swims without going as far as the rest of the group. She very quickly decided to do something about her “so slow” swimming on her return to Germany.

I had a few minutes with Sophie to give her a few tips. Here they are:

Drop your forehead to the floor (in this case to the seabed!).

This opens up your neck, your breathing, your buoyancy, your freedom of movement and generally makes it all wonderful.

Sophie was able to breathe out of her nose underwater but tended to close her mouth on crossing the surface. By keeping it open she avoided the stop/start action which interferes with a natural breath.

Something I encourage in the pool at Croft Farm! In the Montenegrin bays seeing the fish, and generally just looking around, helped Sophie relax.

By letting the weight of her head, arms, chest carry her forwards and leaving her legs to trail loosely behind, Sophie was able to feel a glide.

On the way out to breathe, seeing her hands in front of her meant Sophie had the time and support she needed to allow an in-breath.