To qualify to do the Bronze Medallion you must be able to swim 400m under 9 minutes (or 8:45 at Bronte Surf Club). For some people, this can be challenging, especially if you have not been swimming regularly or if you are a self-taught swimmer.
To work on your pacing, get in the pool and use the clock to work out what your average time is for 100m freestyle. Ideally, you would like to be confident in swimming 100m in 2 minutes or under and be able to hold that pace for 400m, this way even if you do slow down and begin to tire up you will be under the 9:00 or 8:45 mark. If you are swimming at 2:10 and over pace, the best thing you can do is get training regularly and improve your swim fitness to bring your time down. Joining a squad session will help you get the kms in, get used to pacing yourself with the clock and up your swim fitness.
On the swim proficiency swim day, ensure you do a warm up of at least a couple of laps to ensure your muscles warm and ready to go. During the swim, you want to avoid going out too hard and slowing up in the 3rd and 4th 100m. On the other hand, you don’t want to go too easy, leave too much in the tank and wish you had swam faster. To work out how best to pace yourself you need to PRACTICE! The more you practice the 400m the more comfortable you will be with pacing yourself and achieving the fastest time you can do. We regularly do 400m time trials at our Lap Time sessions to keep on top of everyone’s progress.
Another way to ensure a fast time is to avoid losing seconds in the turns. Doing a tumble-turn is the fastest way to turn and will save you so much time over the course of 400m. You can read up on how to do a tumble-turn here. If you aren’t confident doing a tumble-turn, maximise your advantage by making sure you turn as quickly as you can and do a strong push-off each wall in a streamline. This will give you an extra boost at the start of each lap.
In swimming, fitness can only take you so far so if you still find you are unable to swim under 9 minutes then you may need some Stroke Correction. We have a range of options to help you improve your stroke from private lessons to stroke correction courses to suit your needs. Contact us here for more information.
