Can a Swimming App Really Improve Your Swimming Technique?

Can a Swimming App Really Improve Your Swimming Technique?

You have probably seen the adverts: download an app, follow an AI generated plan and become 20 or 30 seconds faster per 100 metres within a matter of weeks.

That is a big promise from something that has never seen you swim.

For some swimmers, particularly beginners with a significant technical issue, large improvements may be possible. Correcting one major problem could make an immediate difference. However, no responsible coach could guarantee a particular improvement without first seeing the person swim.

Progress depends on your starting point, technique, fitness, consistency, confidence and swimming history.

Swimming apps can create sessions, monitor your progress and adapt what comes next. But is a plan really personalised if it cannot see your technique, understand how you felt or know what else is happening in your life?

Swimming is different from cycling and running

Apps can be useful for creating structure across all three triathlon disciplines.

In cycling, power provides a measurable indication of how hard you are working. In running, pace, distance and training load can be used to plan progression. Technique still matters in both sports, but athletes can often become fitter and stronger by following a sensible training programme.

Swimming is much more dependent on movement quality.

Your balance, body position, breathing, rotation, timing, catch, pull and push all need to work together. A small problem in one part of the stroke can affect everything that follows.

You could complete every session an app gives you, become considerably fitter and still make very little progress in the water. In some cases, you may simply become better at repeating the same inefficient movement.

A generic drill cannot solve an individual problem

Swimming apps often prescribe drills using a generic progression, a problem selected by the swimmer or data recorded by a watch. Most have never seen the person swim, so they cannot know whether the drill addresses the real issue or what is causing it. Two swimmers may appear to have exactly the same problem, but for completely different reasons. Low legs, for example, could be caused by head position, breathing, balance, timing, a poor push phase or a combination of these. Giving both swimmers the same drill is unlikely to address both causes.

A drill intended to improve body position may help a swimmer whose problem comes from poor balance. It may do very little for someone whose legs are sinking because they have a weak push phase.

The drill itself may be perfectly valid. It may simply be wrong for that swimmer, or they may not be performing it correctly.

Mobility, timing, coordination, balance, confidence and swimming experience can all influence what is happening in the stroke. Until you understand the cause, it is difficult to choose the most appropriate solution.

This is one of the biggest differences between following instructions and receiving feedback. An app can demonstrate a movement, but it cannot tell whether you are achieving the intended outcome.

An app cannot feel what you feel

Developing good swimming technique requires proprioception, which is your awareness of how your body is moving. It also requires what swimmers often call a “feel for the water”: the ability to sense pressure and understand whether your movements are helping you travel forwards effectively.

These skills are difficult to develop alone because what you think you are doing and what you are actually doing can be very different.

You might feel as though your arm is entering straight when it is crossing the centre line. You might think you are keeping your head still while lifting it every time you breathe. You may feel as though you are pushing the water backwards when your hand is actually slipping through it.

Your watch cannot measure that, and an app cannot see it.

A coach can watch your stroke, explain what is happening and help you connect what you see with what you feel. Over time, that helps you recognise when a movement feels right and make corrections for yourself.

Is an AI generated plan truly personalised?

An AI powered app may use data from your previous sessions to adjust your next workout or following week of training.

It may be able to see how far and how fast you swam, your stroke count and whether you completed the prescribed session.

It may also use heart rate data from your watch, but this should be treated with caution. Most watches estimate heart rate using an optical sensor on the wrist. In the water, the swimmer’s arm movement, the movement of the watch against the skin and the water itself can interfere with that signal.

Even if all the recorded data is accurate, it still only tells part of the story.

An app cannot automatically know how you felt during and after the session. Were you unusually tired? Did your shoulder begin to ache? Was the session technically controlled, or did your stroke fall apart towards the end?

It also cannot understand everything happening outside the pool. A difficult week at work, poor sleep, illness, family commitments, an upcoming event or general life stress can all affect how you respond to training.

Unless that information is recorded and interpreted correctly, the app is creating your next session using only the information it can measure.

Most importantly, it still cannot see how you swim.

More training is not always better training

If the data shows that you completed the session successfully, an app may increase your distance or intensity.

But what if you crossed the centre line with every stroke? What if your elbow dropped during the catch, your breathing disrupted your body position or your technique deteriorated significantly as you became tired?

The data may suggest you are ready for more. Your movement may be telling a very different story.

Adding volume to an inefficient movement pattern can reinforce the habit. It may also place unnecessary stress on the body. Repeatedly crossing the centre line, for example, can place additional strain on the shoulder. Adding more metres does not address the reason it is happening.

Fitness is important, but becoming fitter is not the same as becoming a more efficient swimmer.

Technology can help, but it needs context

Apps, watches and AI can all play a useful role in training.

They can record sessions, monitor consistency and provide a plan to follow. A programme created by an experienced coach can also introduce different areas of technique in a logical order and give swimmers a useful structure for their training.

That does not make online training ineffective. It simply means it has limitations, and those limitations should be clear.

Video can be particularly valuable because it allows you to see parts of your stroke that are impossible to observe while swimming. However, the footage still needs to be understood and interpreted correctly.

The problem is not technology itself. The problem comes when it is presented as a complete replacement for individual assessment or coaching.

Training data tells us what happened. It does not always explain why it happened.

Get your technique checked first

Our recommendation is always to have your technique checked before adding more speed or distance.

Absolutely use an online programme to give your swimming structure, but first make sure your technique is efficient and identify any movement patterns that could cause problems as your training load increases.

In an ideal world, coached sessions and online programmes should go hand in hand. One provides individual feedback based on how you actually swim, while the other gives you the structure and consistency to continue working between sessions. One should not be treated as a replacement for the other.

If your progress is being limited by a technical problem, you will usually find that simply completing more app generated sessions does not produce a significant improvement. The app cannot see the problem, identify its cause or tell whether you are correcting it successfully.

In many cases, the swimmer eventually ends up in front of a coach anyway. Having your technique checked first can prevent months of practising the wrong thing and give the rest of your training a much clearer purpose.

So, can a swimming app improve your technique?

Potentially, but it depends on what the app contains, how the programme has been designed and what it claims to do.

An app may give you structure, encourage consistency and provide sessions to follow. What it cannot do is independently see how you swim, understand everything happening outside the pool or guarantee that the next automatically generated session is right for you.

Personalised using your data is not the same as personal coaching.

Use technology for structure. Use feedback to make sure that structure is taking you in the right direction. If you are following an online programme or training independently, a swim analysis or one to one sessions can help identify what you should focus on. At Swim Station in Raynes Park, we use above and below water video to assess your stroke and give you clear priorities to take into yo

ur training.