work outs for a non-racer

That's a bit like asking why most golfers (or cyclists or tennis players or ballroom dancers, or bowlers etc) wish to improve? Over 40% of my 1-on-1 lesson clients are people who do not compete at all and have no intention of competing. But they enjoy swimming as a fitness tool nonetheless and want to be as good at it as possible - enough that they are willing to pay my confiscatory rates to enhance their skill base :). In my estimation, there are a number of reasons: Swimmers with excellent technique enjoy swimming more than those who have poor technique. To be able to swim with ease, grace, relaxation and precisely ZERO struggle is positively FUN. I do not know of a single person who has learned excellent swimming technique say they do not find swimming very enjoyable. On the other hand, if you line up 100 people who do swim, but profess not to enjoy it, I'll wager that 95 or more of them have poor swimming skills. Vanity is one of the strongest motivators known to the human species. EVERYONE wants to look like they have at least decent skills when they do some athletic activity in public. MOST swimmers would like to look like they are amongst the best swimmers in the pool. Energy consumption - in several ways: 1) Swimmers with excellent technique can swim for relaxation at extremely low energy consumption rates - akin to the amount of energy one might use on a leisurely stroll to the mailbox. Swimmers with poor skills typically must exert large amounts of energy to make any forward progress at all. 2) Swimmers with excellent swimming skills involve large percentages of total body muscle mass in the swimming exercise. Thus, when they are swimming "for a workout" they are enervating more muscle mass and increasing metabolism in more muscle mass (and as we all know, that metabolism remains elevated well after the workout ends). 3) Swimmers with excellent skills can typically endure longer workouts than their poorly skilled counterparts because localized fatigue (especially in arms and shoulders) is much less of an issue for them. Lane deference - I know this sounds weird, but I've had indications from a goodly number of people that now that they have vastly improved their skills, and are swimming faster as a byproduct of that skill acquisition, that the people where they swim seem more likely to move over and give them more/better lane space. A lot of people with poor skills like to swim farther away from th "good" swimmers, perhaps because they won't look so poor by comparison. Of course, I'm sure lots of people seek to avoid the guy whose progress in a lane looks like one big, slow-moving splash/wave machine, too. Also, triathletes who really understand the energy dynamics of their sport realize that the BIG payoff for them in technique improvement is that of energy consumption, not the speed. The typical triathlete can cut the energy consumed in their swim by over 50%. That typically makes a bigger impact on their overall triathlon than does getting out of the water sooner. I'm sure there are other considerations for wanting to improve technique.

That's a bit like asking why most golfers (or cyclists or tennis players or ballroom dancers, or bowlers etc) wish to improve? Over 40% of my 1-on-1 lesson clients are people who do not compete at all and have no intention of competing. But they enjoy swimming as a fitness tool nonetheless and want to be as good at it as possible - enough that they are willing to pay my confiscatory rates to enhance their skill base :). In my estimation, there are a number of reasons: Swimmers with excellent technique enjoy swimming more than those who have poor technique. To be able to swim with ease, grace, relaxation and precisely ZERO struggle is positively FUN. I do not know of a single person who has learned excellent swimming technique say they do not find swimming very enjoyable. On the other hand, if you line up 100 people who do swim, but profess not to enjoy it, I'll wager that 95 or more of them have poor swimming skills. Vanity is one of the strongest motivators known to the human species. EVERYONE wants to look like they have at least decent skills when they do some athletic activity in public. MOST swimmers would like to look like they are amongst the best swimmers in the pool. Energy consumption - in several ways: 1) Swimmers with excellent technique can swim for relaxation at extremely low energy consumption rates - akin to the amount of energy one might use on a leisurely stroll to the mailbox. Swimmers with poor skills typically must exert large amounts of energy to make any forward progress at all. 2) Swimmers with excellent swimming skills involve large percentages of total body muscle mass in the swimming exercise. Thus, when they are swimming "for a workout" they are enervating more muscle mass and increasing metabolism in more muscle mass (and as we all know, that metabolism remains elevated well after the workout ends). 3) Swimmers with excellent skills can typically endure longer workouts than their poorly skilled counterparts because localized fatigue (especially in arms and shoulders) is much less of an issue for them. Lane deference - I know this sounds weird, but I've had indications from a goodly number of people that now that they have vastly improved their skills, and are swimming faster as a byproduct of that skill acquisition, that the people where they swim seem more likely to move over and give them more/better lane space. A lot of people with poor skills like to swim farther away from th "good" swimmers, perhaps because they won't look so poor by comparison. Of course, I'm sure lots of people seek to avoid the guy whose progress in a lane looks like one big, slow-moving splash/wave machine, too. Also, triathletes who really understand the energy dynamics of their sport realize that the BIG payoff for them in technique improvement is that of energy consumption, not the speed. The typical triathlete can cut the energy consumed in their swim by over 50%. That typically makes a bigger impact on their overall triathlon than does getting out of the water sooner. I'm sure there are other considerations for wanting to improve technique.