Why Swimming is So Hard (and how to make it easier)

ByDave

For those of you training for a maritime career field, you need to be strong in the water.

The problem is that most candidates treat their swimming and water confidence training exactly like their run, ruck, calisthenics, and strength work.

In this edition, I’ll explain why swimming is so hard and how to make it easier.

Why Swimming is So Hard

Unlike with other training, cardiovascular endurance has little carryover from running or rucking to swimming. This is evidenced by the fact most former competitive swimmers, even those who couldn’t run an 8-minute mile, would still comfortably outswim most SOF candidates.

The reason for this is that your swim performance is not limited by your cardiovascular fitness but instead by these two factors:

  1. Technique
  2. Breathing

I’ll touch on each of these in the next section.

How To Make Swimming Easier

Technique


Swimming is a sport of minimizing drag and maximizing propulsion. Only after you’ve achieved minimal proficiency in technique does cardiovascular fitness play a role.

Proper streamlined position

Breathing


For those who are just starting swimming, it’s very common to hold your breath and enter a panicked state.

We typically think about your body movement and cadence as the primary driver of heart rate, as is the case when running. But breathing also plays a major role.

With swimming, you have to consciously think about breathing when you start, so you may swim as slowly as possible, but with improper breathing, you’ll still be gasping for air.

How Long It Takes To Improve

Over time, I’ve actually stopped doing swim programming. The reason why is that the best way to improve your swim is to work with someone in person.

What somebody can show you in the pool in five minutes can save you months of time you would have spent figuring it out on your own. Even micro adjustments like swimming hard into and off the walls can drop a minute from your 500-yard time. Add a proper streamline, and you could easily drop a total of 1.5 minutes after a few sessions.

Swim improvement will take as long as you want it to. If you invest the time to find a buddy in the pool-they don’t need to be experts-and learn the technique, you’ll make rapid improvement.

Related Articles:
Master Guide To Improving Swimming and Water Confidence (2,600 words)
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I'm a coach with a passion for helping athletes dominate the toughest selection courses in the world. Over the years, I've trained well over 100 athletes for Special Operations selection courses, including SFAS, RASP, Air Force A&S, BORTAC, SWAT, and MARSOC A&S. My mission is to bridge the gap between traditional performance training and the unique demands of tactical and military athletes.

I got my start coaching hybrid athletes, blending strength, endurance, and hypertrophy training to achieve peak performance. As I worked with more tactical and military athletes, I realized there was a need for a specialized approach tailored to the grueling physical and mental challenges of SOF selections. This realization drove me to focus on prepping SOF candidates for success, combining cutting-edge research, proven training methodologies, and real-world experience.

Whether you're preparing for selection, seeking to level up your fitness, or simply curious about what it takes to thrive in these elite environments, I hope you'll find the information I share helpful.