Lesson Oct 31 2018

[Mat Hudson]

Hi Doug,

It was great to be back in the pool with you. I hope it was refreshing to review and tune things up after your ups/downs the last few months.

You asked me to observe and make some recommendations on what to work on today…

My Observations

1. Tune up Skate Position alignment down the body line as well as with the lane
2. Catch Shape
3. Catch Path
4. Synchronizing the Catch to Torso and Extension

Overall, I wanted to help you revive that sense of acceleration on each stroke, drawing from the torso rotation, rather than just from the arms.

 

Activities

• Superman To Skate with rubber donut in lead arm
• Superman To Skate without donut
• Superman to Skate, 1 switch to Skate
• Skate to Skate to Skate **
• 6 Strokes focus only on 1 side at a time

** I had you practice a very mindful approach – stay present in this first stroke, and do not think ahead to the next one. If you execute this first stroke as you intended, only then may you take the second stroke, and so on. You earn the next stroke by taking the first one with mindful attention and execute as intended.

 

Skate Position

Focal Points

• Open up the arm pit
• Feel Skate side of the body as one long, straight line, from wrist to ankel
• Balance on that line like balancing on a sliding speed skate

 

Catch Shape and Path

Focal Points

• Armpit remains open (which urges slight internal rotation of shoulder, slight upward turn of elbow)
• Forearm gathers inward, downward at 45 degree angle
• Hand remains on the wide track, in line with shoulder (elbow slides up and outward to allow the hand to hold that position)
• Elbow stays higher than wrist**
• ‘Gathering Guppies’ with that entire forearm (don’t bend at wrist so much), not just the hand
• Catch hand pulls back directly on the rail of the ladder, under side of body (not under the center)

**Beware of scooping the hand up right as you set the catch, bringing it up to the same depth as the elbow. The elbow should stay high, the hand aims down lower, as if draped over a beach ball. Your hand was pulling a bit too shallow and coming inward to the center line of the body.

 

Synchronizing Catch and Torso and Extension

The objective is to hold a place in the water with the catch and then, through rotation, slide the body forward, past that point. The better that the catch is connected to the torso rotation, the easier it is to keep that hand on track, holding its place, thus transferring force into the lead arm which leads the body forward on the other track.

I had you work on feeling the advantage of pulling from the center of the body, which is another way of describing the torso rotation-empowered catch. If you pull more abruptly from the arm/shoulder, then you don’t get that same sense of transfer of force into the other side of the body, even though the torso is turning, because they are not connected so well.

Maintain this connection, this drive from the center, from the rotation, on each stroke. You start with slower, careful strokes. But over the weeks, as your body memorizes the connection and the movement pattern, you should add more power to the strokes to increase strength, and work with gradually faster tempos to challenge the nervous system too.

Focal Points

• Hold and rotate past that point
• Pull from the center of the body
• Hold the catch arm shape (isometric muscle tone)

Zoom out with attention, away from specific parts of the arm, and aim to just maximize how far your body slides forward, past that catch point, on each stroke. This may free up your brain to refine the catch shape, the torso connection, and the transfer into the lead arm without you having to focus on any one part consciously. Your nervous system will reference the individual skills you’ve been working on, since you did the work to put those patterns in place.

 

Breathing Strokes

We did notice that on the breathing strokes, your lead arm was pulling a bit too soon sometimes.

You may work with the 3-Part Breathing Drill, to tune up that lead arm, and the head to turn/return sooner, so that you can keep the same proper arm overlap on each breathing stroke.

You may view this video of the 3-Part Breathing Drill.

 

Video

Lastly, I shot a few videos to capture where you are at currently. I will send those to you in a few minutes…

[Author]

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