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Lesson 1: Tuesday, 2021/06/22
Welcome to the Dojo! It was a pleasure meeting you and beginning our work together. You did amazing during our first session. Next session we will introduce the streamline shape on which the freestyle stroke is built upon and the Interrupted Breathing to allow you more movement and freedom during drills and activities. You’ll find your notes from the first lesson below.
Each section is structured with an
- Intro to the Subject
- Lesson Review
- Practice Set.
As I mentioned, our New Swimmer course site is still under construction. In your notes, some of the content is linked to another page and some is directly listed below. I apologize for the less than elegant use of the notes at this time. But I thank you for participating. You are helping us to continue the refinement of the notes. Please let me know if you have any questions or difficulty accessing the information via email. Otherwise, questions, comments, anything you want to share or ask about the course, session, notes, your personal practice time, etc can be shared in this forum. I’ll respond each week to your comments.
Air Management
Unless there are related pre-existing health issues or injury, a New Swimmer and Experienced Swimmer alike can experience breathlessness or a feeling of constraint or tension when under stress in the water that doesn’t necessarily pertain to their level of fitness. That is why we first explore what the sensation in the body are like in the various stages of the oxygen and C02 ratios and exchange.
Intro to Air Management
Lesson Review and Practice Set for Air Management
On Dryland
You can rehearse better breathing practices for the water. In an active stroke, most take a breath every 3-6 seconds, varying for effort level, energy, pace and comfort. This dryland breathing exercise will mimic a breathing rhythm found in active swimming. At home, in the car, by the pool you can practice the following:- A quick inhale through the mouth, a slow steady exhale out the nose. During inhale, allow the diaphragm to expand. It doesn’t need to be filled completely. As you exhale look for an even and gentle expulsion. In the water you will have more immediate feedback from the water on the level of force you are applying to the exhale, as the water provides more resistance than the air will.
- Deep diaphragmatic breathing exercises.
In the Water
Depending on your comfort level, you can try the breathing exercise with the arms raised above the head to anchor you under the water or use a support structure to maintain balance and stability. Here is more on suitable Support Structures. You can revert to Support Structures for the Balance Basics, Build the Frame and later the Streamline activities
- Fully inhale above the water, then hold you breath underwater only until you feel a slight discomfort. This is to feel the effects of C02 limits and sensations. Only do this activity once or twice.
- Fully inhale above the water, then expel all air to then hold with an empty “tank” under water. Again, only hold until you feel the slight discomfort. This mimics what happens if you exhale fully too soon or have to skip a breath. Only do this activity once or twice, unless this causes distress. Then reduce to suit your level of comfort.
- Fully inhale above the water, then switch between slow steady exhale and holding the breath. This activity can be repeated as often as you like. It mimics the exchange during active swimming.
*Note – Unless you have a water watch, most pools have a clock on the wall. You can use this tool to observe how long it took until you resurfaced. Comparing and contrasting which was most effective for you based on the duration. For your safety please try to avoid being competitive with yourself and pushing for a longer time. This is merely an observational tool.
Balance Basics
Intro to Balance Basics
Balance Basics is about exploring and playing to build your proprioception in the water. Besides the drills we did in our lesson, most forms of playing in the water, especially were you feel a little off balance and need to rely more on your body and the water, are very helpful in building a subconscious understanding of where you are in space and time throughout the water. This builds an intuition of how to move in the direction you want, to know how your body responds in the environment when not in distress, and re-introduce and desensitize some disorientation you can get from that water in your eyes, ears, and nose.
The more play, the better. The sillier, the better. Finding a carefree activity to start and end your “work” time in the water can be helpful for positive reinforcement and serve as a reset when the mind, body, or nervous system starts to become overwhelmed or tired. The Balance Basic activities are just a few activities to try. There are a host of more we can explore in lessons together. You might even make-up one of your own. Whatever it is, I encourage you to allow for some play in your practice.
Lesson to Balance Basics
Beach Ball
- First try holding both knees and balancing.
- To introduce instability, jump up to grab you knees, like a cannon ball jump. Gravity will push you down under the water and buoyancy will bounce you back to the surface until your body balances into a neutral zone.
- One hand hold while the other arm paddles side to side. Try spinning in a circle. Then switch
Touch Toes
- Just as it sounds, touch to at least your knees or lower. The feet will pick of the ground and you’ll feel a slight rocking motion until the
*Note – If you find coming back to standing to be awkward, here are a few helpful videos on return to standing more smoothly.
Build the Frame
Intro to Build the Frame
Lesson for Build the Frame
*Note – we did not do strokes during our session. You can skip this part unless you are curious and would like to try it on your own.
Practice Set for Build The Frame
Skills To Develop
- To maintain a neutral head position
- Hold long, straight, firm frame
- Keep arms connected to torso through the scapula
You want to feel your head and upper body fully resting on the support of the water. You want to feel your spine in neutral (good posture), from head to tail, including the legs streaming straight behind. You want to feel as if your body, from head to ankles, is one long, firm fuselage. You want to maintain this sensation as you take strokes.
Practice Set
Choose 2 or 3 of the cues from the lesson to work on today.
Then, for each cue, work through these activities, as far as you can go successfully. Take one cue and work through the list. Then take the next cue and work through the list again, and so on.
- 4x Balance Position (time of comfortable breath hold) examining one section of the body at a time.
- 4 rounds of starting in Balance Position for 3 second, with exhale through the nose. Build to 6 seconds
- 4 rounds of ‘4 whole strokes’ holding the same focal point (no breathing, just exhale)
Tuesday, 2021/06/29
You’ll find your notes from the second lesson below.
Each section is structured with an
- Intro to the Subject
- Lesson Review
- Practice Set.
Form The Streamline Shape
Intro to Form the Streamline Shape
Lesson on Form the Streamline Shape
Practice Set for Form the Streamline Shape
Skills To Develop
- To maintain balance skills and…
- Hold long, straight, firm Streamline, from fingers to ankle
- Hold low, stable rotation angle
You want to feel long, straight, sleek and stable at a low-rotation angle in Streamline Position. Along with the sensations from Balance skills, you want to see that you can slide parallel to the line on the bottom of the pool and to slide farther, more easily, the more streamlined and stable your body is. Sliding in Streamline for 6 seconds with these positive feedback signs is a good goal to work towards.
Practice Set
Choose 2 or 3 of the cues from the lesson to work on today.
Then, for each cue, work through these activities, as far as you can go successfully. Take one cue and work through the list. Then take the next cue and work through the list again, and so on.
- 4x on each side Balance Position To Streamline for 6 seconds (time of comfortable breath hold)
- 4 rounds of starting in Balance Position for 1 second, then Streamline Position for 2 seconds, then take 4 strokes
- 4 rounds of ‘6 whole strokes’ holding the same focal point (no breathing)
- 2 rounds of ‘4x whole strokes, Interrupted Breathing, 4x whole strokes’
Interrupted Breathing
Intro to Interrupted Breathing
Tuesday, 2021/07/20
Here is a direct link to the Freestyle Fundamentals Course where you will find all links. You should also be able to navigate to this page from the Dojo Homepage after logging in.
We are doing a lighter version of this content, so you may find some of the Practice Samples more than you need at this time. Please feel free to customize the Practice examples to suit you.
Generate Forward Momentum
Intro to Generate Forward Momentum
Lesson on Generate Forward Momentum
Practice Set for Generating Forward MomentumBefore progressing to whole strokes without pauses’, add complexity by adding your nasal exhale during each drill and activity.
Should you feel ready to move past whole strokes with pauses’, here are some guidelines for moving to whole stroke without pauses’
Progression From Drill To Whole Stroke
You may follow this progression in Streamline Switch Without Pauses to gradually raise the arm up above the surface (while fingers keep contact) while maintaining the qualities with cues:
- Full (relaxed) forearm is submerged
- Half of forearm is submerged
- Watchband is submerged
- (soft) Fingers are submerged, dragging through the water
- Fingernails are just brushing the surface
As a useful permanent standard, you may keep your fingernails every so lightly brushing the surface during your recovery swing, all the way to entry. I like to call this ‘dragonfly fingertips’, like a dragonfly skimming the surface of a pond.
Interrupted Breathing
Intro to Interrupted Breathing
Lesson on Interrupted Breathing
Practice Set for Interrupted Breathing
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