10 ways to make swimming fun!

I’m often asked how to maximize pool time and prevent boredom. My answer is simple: Make It fun!

Here are 10 ways to make swimming fun

1. Switching up the time of day you swim can have a huge impact on your performance and overall mood.

2. Swim with your friends. Meet your pool mates.

3. Speed up. Give intervals a go. Speed workouts may hurt, but I promise you certainly won’t be bored!

4. Mix drills with your swimming. I find personally that half the reason for boredom is when I – or clients – swim aimlessly up and down. By giving particular lengths a focus, you can improve your technique and make your swimming fun by association.

5. Swim other strokes. Swimming freestyle and doing the same drills all the time can get pretty monotonous – especially if you’re in the water more than once or twice a week. Doing a bit of backstroke might help get rid of that awkward shoulder niggle, doing breaststroke might help improve your touch turns or egg beater kick. Doing butterfly should help improve your power, rhythm and coordination (or just give you a bit of a laugh!).

6. Share the journey. There’s is large triathlon community out there that wants you to succeed — so talk about it, and post about it with them! Social media and sharing options on various training forums are a great way to connect with like minded individuals to make your time swimming fun and keep you accountable.

7. Keep a written log of your life as a triathlete. Track your progress through spreadsheets or website, as you continue to improve and feel more comfortable in the water, you’ll be able to look back and have tangible notes of your training progress.

8. Reward yourself. Sometimes there’s nothing like some new gear to get us going. New training kit will make me want to swim faster and longer. Sometimes, I buy either a new pair of swim shorts or a google that acts as a reward for all of the hard work that I’ve done up until then.

9. Challenge yourself. Mix in sprints, mid pool turns, tumble turns, or something you don’t work on often. Can you beat personal bests?

10. Take a break. Sometimes, time off and taking a step back will help you go two steps forward.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to get in touch; either by email, facebook or leave a comment on here! Remember, you can always get your swimming reviewed in the endless pool with our video swim analysis packages.

See what’s up next week for our #SwimTechTues tip!