I managed to improve my swimming considerably by practicing some of the techniques outlined in the Total Immersion Swimming program.

http://www.totalimmersion.net/

Some points that helped me:
- The goal is to swim the same distance but at a much reduced effort. Constantly focus on effort not time.

- Stand outside the water and put one hand straight up (stretched out) and the other hand straight down (stretch out). Get used to that position; this is what you should be doing when you are swimming - switching one arm for another.

- It is critical to get your body balance; so that you can swim / float in the position listed above for a long time with no effort.

- Each stroke should end with a pronounced 'glide' in the position above.

I started out at 22+ strokes / 25m; I am now in the 17 range consistantly and can even get below 15 if I concentrate. All of this improvement is from February of this year. I used to get tired after 200m sets; now I can do 800m sets for what seems like forever; and I get out of the pool refreshed. So yes it really works (if you put the time in). BTW: My 100m splits have improved as well (2:00m / 100 down to 1:45 / 100m).

Just for reference I am signed up for IronMan AZ this November; the training program right now is pretty brutal (10-12 hours per week).

cheers

tecmo
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