Am I Better Leading a Slower Lane or Chasing a Faster One?
Tips on what to do to maximise your squad sessions and where you position yourself in the lane.
Hey up Swimmers!
If I had my way we’d have an infinite number of lanes and a Tempo Trainer for everyone to ensure that everyone is operating specifically at a pace best designed for them.
But we don’t.
We’ve got finite water, finite lanes, and a whole bunch of humans ranging from teenagers to nonagenarians, all wanting to swim better, fitter, happier. So we do what any sensible Swim Smooth Certified Coach does. We reduce the chaos to one simple number.
CSS.
Critical Swim Speed.
Every coach knows it. Every session is built around it. And once you know each swimmer’s CSS, you can rank a squad accurately. Not by ego. Not by who swam fastest on a good day. But by repeatable, honest ability.
In a typical Swim Smooth session, that gives us 2 or 3 groups per lane. Across the whole pool, that can mean up to 12 distinct speed groups, from around one 14 per 100 metres right through to two 30 plus. Ages from 14 to 90. Same session. Same purpose.
That spread demands structure. It demands precision. And it demands a clear answer to a question swimmers ask me all the time.
Am I better leading a slower lane, or hanging on in a faster one?
Here’s the reality. Each group usually spans about 4 to 8 seconds per 100 metres from front to back. Not everyone can lead. So most swimmers follow.
If you choose to follow a faster group, you want to be roughly 4 to 6 seconds per 100 slower than the leader if you were swimming side by side. Any closer and you are not building the true gains your watch might suggest you are. Any further back and you are likely swimming well above the intended effort for that set.
Drafting can reduce energy cost by up to 38 percent. Even if you leave a polite 5 to 10 second gap, you are still getting towed along. Your watch looks great. Your ego feels terrific. Your fitness gains might be quietly stalling.
Which is why my recommendation is simple.
Lead whenever you get the opportunity.
A few years back we ran what turned out to be a failed “social experiment” - we had some new reversible Swim Smooth caps made up: if you wore the cap with the blue facing out, this was designed to tell me you were happy to give it a go and lead the group; if you wore the cap with the orange facing out, this meant you were happy to follow at the back.
And there’s honestly nothing wrong with following - someone has to do it.
But the point was, that whenever you got the inkling or urge to be bold and brave, you’d flip that cap to the blue side and it’d be an instant indication to me that you were ready to give it a go. No fanfare. No big pressure. Just a subtle message that you were ready.
But alas, it ultimately failed - most people just wore the cap with the colour that best matched their bathers!
But joking aside, that so called pressure of leading? Forget it. No one is judging you. No one is timing your every move. The only thing that matters is that you swim your CSS honestly, set the rhythm, and commit.
Take the front. Own it. Do it week after week, session after session.
That’s where the real gains live.
Thanks for reading,
Your Coach, Paul.
Can’t Train With a Swim Smooth Squad?
And if you’re reading this thinking, that all sounds great, but I don’t have a squad, here’s the quiet punchline.
You already do.
Inside the Swim Smooth GURU, our Routine and Ultimate subscribers are effectively part of the world’s biggest swim squad (or WBSS for short!). Each week, at least three fresh sessions land in the GURU every Monday. These are not generic templates dreamed up in isolation. They are real sessions, recently swum in Swim Smooth squads around the world, built around CSS, refined by coaches, and tested by swimmers just like you.
Train solo if you like. Train at odd hours. Train in a quiet lane with no one watching. You are still swimming alongside a global community, following the same structure, the same intent, the same progression, all with your precise targets dialled in automatically.
And for those days when motivation wobbles? Session Roulette has your back. One tap. No decision fatigue. No procrastination. Just turn up, press start, and swim.
You might not have infinite lanes. You might not have a coach on deck. But with the GURU, you’ve still got structure, accountability, and a place in a squad that never closes its doors.
Want to Join Us on a Camp in 2026 to Improve Your Swim?
We’re now down to only a few places remaining on our various Swim Smooth Experiences in 2026. For the full run-down of events where I’ll be coaching, head to:
And There’s More!
All of our Swim Smooth Coaches also offer their own experiences, squads, camps and clinics and can be reached here:
Here’s some highlights from our awesome Coaches:
Lanzarote 🇪🇸 with Coach Marieke 🇧🇪 31 Jan to 7 Feb here
Lanzarote 🇪🇸 with Coach Alison 🇬🇧 15-22 March here
Croatia 🇭🇷 with Coach Marieke 🇧🇪 12-14 May here
Italy 🇮🇹 with Coach Fiona 🇬🇧 27 May to 3 June here
Italy 🇮🇹 with Coach Fiona 🇬🇧 2-9 September here
Canada 🇨🇦 with Coach Mary 🇺🇸 7-11 May here
Greece 🇬🇷 with Coach Lorna 🇬🇧 6-13 September here
Mallorca 🇪🇸 with Coach Tim 🇬🇧 4-8 May here
