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2021/11/29 Lesson Notes
Today we did a tune-up. First thing we look at is the spine alignment and balance
- Arm Switch Timing (Review in Freestyle Fundamentals under Making First Connections)
- Breathing Head Position and Timing (Review in Freestyle Fundamentals under Integrated Breath)
- Recovery Swing Shape (Review in Freestyle Fundamentals under Sending Momentum Forward)
In the Arm Switch Timing and the Breathing Drills, we over exaggerated the delays to massage out your well ingrained muscle memory.
Arm Switch Timing
Aim for a steady, lead arm remain in streamline until the wrist punchers the surface or when you release the engaged sub scapular muscles of the Recovery arm into the Entry and Rotation.
To achieve this we actually had you have the Recovery Arm enter and the side rotate completely before sending the Catch back. For your brain, this made you actually go closer to the ideal arm switch timing.
Note: This was the key to relieving strain on your Catch arm, as you didn’t have the rotation to support it’s shape.
Breathing
Aim to start turning the head directly after Setting the Catch, as the Elbow pops up and out. By the time your catch is at your chest, this is the highest point the head is to the surface and the ideal space to breath in. The head returns to neutral by the same the Catch reaches the “pocket” and before the arm exits for the Recovery Swing. Once the Recovery Arm comes out of the water, the mass above the water will shove the body down and take the head further from the surface.
To achieve this, we had you start in a Balance position, Set the Catch and turn the head to your full range before allowing the Catch to travel and the open the frame with rotation. Then we kept a pause in the “pocket” while you brought the head back into neutral. This way, we massaged out both the turning the head too late and turning the head back into neutral with the Recovery Swing. A really tough muscle memory to break.
Note: I encourage you to keep the pause in the “pocket” during your swimming for as long as you can tolerate to keep breaking the tendency to rotate the head with the Swing. This will take a lot of repetition free up.
Recovery Swing
Aim to lead with the elbow through the swing. We focus on the elbow, but it is actually the scapula doing most of the work to bring the rest of the arm into the high entry position.
The key change here was moving with the traps and deltoid vs the scapula. Focusing on sliding the scapula up the ribs to brace the upper spine instead of on the elbow may help you redirect the discomfort in the joint and deltoid specifically.
Note: If this motion brings you discomfort, just note that the most important position will be the high elbow into Entry position. If you need to modify how that arm swings from the “pocket” to entry that’s fine. Just note that more of that motion is then happening in the shoulder joint vs the scapular muscles.
***Note: As a form of drill work, I recommend dedicating some of your practice time to working with pauses. Pauses at the Entry and Pauses in Streamline. Being able to segment your stroke like this will enable you to isolate your stroke and self correct technical aspect of the stroke on your own. Currently, you have hard wired continuous movements that wont allow you to break or stop the motion on command. Building this skill in will give you more control overtime.
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