3 Things You Can Do to Get Faster in the Water Now.
Cody Wright
August 16, 2022
We’ve been working with Retired California Lifeguard Ed Vodrazka, in a couple weeks his program will air live on Zoom. This course is an introduction to being an ocean lifeguard presented in the form of seven lectures. Ed will be covering basic lifesaving techniques, dealing with marine life, how to train and a few other essential topics. While reviewing his lectures, I found some excellent advice in his workout section that I had to share!
Training to be an ocean lifeguard requires a unique combination of land and water-related endurance, strength, power and water confidence. In this post we’re going to be focusing in on refining water-related fitness. However, it’s important to note that these principles Ed lays out can be applied to any of your fitness-related goals (improving run times, strength, etc.).
1. Find a Coach/Lifeguard/Swimmer to assess and refine your stroke.
If you’re somewhat new to swimming, this is important to get figured out. The quicker you can get your stroke refined, the easier and faster you’ll be able to excel in training. If you’re a bit more advanced and don’t need the work with a coach on your swim form. Use that extra energy to find a coach or mentor to guide you through some of your weaknesses. This could include strength training, running or ocean related knowledge.
2. Make time during every workout to improve your form.
Set aside 200-500yds each workout to work on some of your weak spots in your form. There are endless YouTube videos you can use to find drills that will focus on improving weak spots in your stroke. This is a great way to end a workout or break-up a long workout by squeezing some form work in the middle.
3. Keep a workout Journal.
While documenting, it’s important to keep track of your yardage each workout/week. Find a benchmark swim and test yourself/log your time when applicable. In Ed’s Lifeguard MasterClass, the 500yd swim is the benchmark. You will use this to see whether your swim fitness/form is improving as the training progresses. Finally, log your progress of your underwater work. You should have the water confidence to swim 25yds underwater. If you can do this, you can track improvements and if you can’t yet, you can log your distance and make notes on stroke issues and areas you need to improve to get this done.
It's easy to forget to log workouts or assume your form is fine and generally get lazy with training. This can lead to stagnation and coming up short of reaching our potential. If you've been in a bit of a lull, use these tips to get back on the right track!
-Cody