Swimming Focus- Technique or endurance?

Swimming is one of my stronger suits, and have been competitively swimming since I was six, so I have a solid background. I focus on endurance, I do drills and all, but I don't lose sleep at night thinking about how I can improve my swim technique. Running is my weakest, and in this area, I do concentrate on technique (faster cadence, turnover).

Plus it just seems the huge gains are not made on the swim (hope I am not opening a can of worms) I often see back of the pack, weak swimmers win triathlons or their age groups, and competetive master swimmers fall back badly on the bike and run.

Unless you plan on just doing sprints, you really need to work on your endurance. You may have been 20th our of 200, but that was a sprint race. If you were to do an olympic you'll probably find the competition is much better in all 3 disciplines.

Honestly, looks to me like you could cut more time off your race by working on the bike.

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Honestly I think since you want to go IM I would worry about technique. Sounds like you need to worry more about bike and run but I would still work on your swim techique and then when the others have caught up your techique should be pretty good where then you can work on more endurance. I am amased how faster I am and how easier swimming is when the techique is there. Its made me decide I need to go back to my running and work on the techique right now.

well I been working on my swim for the last 2 weeks in a master swim class and Wow I can see so much difference already. I can swim 1.2 miles in the same time as 1 mile and I feel great instead of exhausted. thought I let you know that techique is so important.

Technique is huge in swimming.  Don't underestimate the impact of becoming more streamlined, improving your body position, and developing an efficient stroke.  Endurance is also very important and working technique and endurance aren't mutually exclusive.  In fact those are probably the two easiest aspects of swimming to work on together.  Someone mentioned that the swim is a relatively minor component of a triathlon and that is generally true but think about the benefits of improving your swim technique on the rest of your race.  Better technique means a more efficient swim so you either swim faster for the same amount of energy or swim the same speed but exit the water fresher.  Either way you're setting yourself up for a faster race.  Technique is free speed in that it doesn't require any additional fitness to become faster and/or more efficient.  Increasing your endurance without also improving technique just means you are able to sustain a relatively inefficient stroke for the length of the swim...that means you spent more energy than necessary to cover the distance at a given speed.  The nice thing about working on endurance is that you can be focused with your technique since you aren't concerned with maintaining any specific pace such as when doing muscular endurance or threshold training.  Endurance sessions in the pool are very much like LSD runs/rides.  You can swim at a slow easy pace and pay particular attention to your body position, catch/pull, and recovery.  Start with a warm-up and a few 100m of drills 25m at a time and then swim a main set of longer easy intervals (5X300 with 30sec recoveries for instance) focusing on one particular aspect of your technique with each repeat.  This will let you develop endurance while reinfircing the techniques that you practiced in your earlier drills.  It's also a good idea to put for drill work at the end of the main set once in a while.  This will force you to focus on technique while your body is relatively tired...very important for longer distance triathlons.

Once upon a time, I was a long distance competitive swimmer (mile, 2 mile etc). What I will say is that focusing on technique will help you stay un-inured, more efficient in the water, and thus increase your endurance. I had a calc teacher who said, "work smarter, not harder". Swim smarter, not harder. Obviously, technique needs practice...lots and lots of practice. Which means yardage. Also technique isn't something that gets fixed in x months. It needs regular reevaluation and check up to make sure you're not adopting some funky quirk, or to fill you in on the latest swimming techniques.

Swimming efficiently is a wonderful feeling. I feel so much more efficient at 1200m then at 200m. Distance swimming is awesome for setting a pace and just going for it.

If you've got access to one of those Endless pools, try using the mirror in the bottom of it...it helps a lot, like dancers watching the mirror in the studio. If you don't have one of those, there are some tethers they make that tie around your waste...hook it to the starting block, and stroke. You can use a mirror here too (they sell them to swim teams and make a fortune). IT really helps to see whats going on past the entry point.

Good luck.

My first bit of advice would be to go to swim classes or have some private lessons with an experienced coach. It can be difficult even for experienced swimmers to pick up little problems in their stroke without input from a coach.

I swam competitively for 10 years and always found that any major improvements in PBs came after something 'clicked' in my technique. There is no point in training for swim stamina if you are doing it with bad technique. Swimming with a technically good stroke is pretty hard to begin with anyway and you will find that you'll get a very good workout even though you are focusing on technique.

Also: STRETCH. All the great swimmers are extremely bendy in their arms, shoulders and backs. We spent tonnes of time stretching when I was swimming and the main thing I struggle with when I swim now, is the lack of suppleness (oh and being 33 not 18 years old).

With regards to your energy being better spent improving your bike and run I couldn't possibly agree. I'd rather you didn't hand me a severe beating at those Thames Turbo sprints next year!

B.T.W. Here is an interesting article about swimming fast but smooth ala Popov:
http://www.limmatsharks.com/svl_swim_like_a_fish.html

Jens