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First Session – April 5
In our session this evening we examined your entry, extension and catch. I pointed out the importance of keeping the elbow pointed ‘outward and upward’ throughout the recovery-entry-extension so that it is poised to ‘set the catch’ in the right way.
We determined that by keeping the elbow in this orientation will help prevent your elbow from bending into double-jointed extension.
Focal Points
Entry Focal Points
- High elbow entry (tent over the head)
- Forearm angled down, and pointed straight ahead on its track
- Keep elbow pointed outward as you enter
Extension Focal Points
- Extend with the shoulder, expand the armpit
- Keep forearm and fingers soft
- Shoulder rolls inward as you extend
- Arm is ready to slide ‘over the ball’
Catch Focal Points
- Keep hand on track as it touches the ball
- Elbow slides outward and upward to make room
- Gather water inward
- Slide hand over the ball (when sliding through water with a little velocity)
- Elbow should stay high, closer to surface
- Aim for moderately vertical forearm
- Hold catch shape with shoulder muscles, then power the pull with the torso
- Pull from the hip (don’t pull from the shoulder) – this requires the slightest hesitation after you set the catch in order to get the torso moving
Breathing Focal Points
- Connect turn-to-breath with earliest moment of the catch (turn toward that arm)
- Turn toward air sooner rather than later
- Finish inhaling sooner rather than later
- Connect turn-to-breath with entry arm (turn away from that arm)
- Keep extending the lead arm until head has returned to face-down position
And these are the progression of activities you may use…
Activities
- 1-Arm Drill
- Swing Switch with pauses at entry moment
- Swing Switch with no pauses
- 8-strokes, no breathing
- 8-strokes with breathing
- 1 whole length with breathing
Work on the skills in this order of priority…
Skill Priorities
- Elbow direction during entry
- Elbow direction during ‘set the catch’
- Catch shape
- Catch pathway (hand staying on track)
- Timing of Entry and Catch
- Catch and Breathing
My left elbow feels good, if not better, right now. It started feeling better each time I didn’t hurt it in the pool, that is, each time I successfully kept the shape of the arm during the entry or catch without stiffening my fingers and forearm. Tomorrow I might be sore. As I age my injury response is delayed.
One thing I discovered for myself was trying to feel the tricep and back muscles as part of the expanding of the armpit. If I could place my attention on my upper arm, I did not hurt my elbow most of the time.
As I worked my way through the focal points on entry and extension, I focused on sensing my fingers and wrist and forearm and upper arm and armpit and serratus, teres, lats etc. with each focal point. It was also crucial to retime the pull so that my hip initiated the pull. And if I could extend “over the ball” then it felt like my shoulder and back muscles were working instead of my fingers and forearm.
It was fascinating and uplifting to see I could change habits that were hurting me. And it was uplifting to trust that the steps you gave me would be the fix.
I would not have been able to focus on multiple sensations during the execution of one focal point if I had not taken MCB. MCB was my first introduction to the TI way: preparing for a practice session way before I get in the pool by reading, studying, and structuring a practice session, bringing notes to the pool, and learning, with each focal point, how to focus. It became clear to me as I went through MCB that focal points were entirely achievable if I went through them step by step. I watch myself progress slowly and surely. Until I could no longer ignore the pain in my elbows and any movement, micro or macro, in water or out of water was causing a reaction.
I mention my newfound adeptness at focusing because I want to emphasize that I feel new to the TI method and I want your opinion, Mat, on taking a course that is more rudimentary than MCB. Some critical stages I have never practice, never been exposed to in a methodical way. Today was the first time I practice going from a tent like entry to moving on track to a target. While relaxing my fingers and forearm. It was a revelation. And I have never practiced drawing my hand back on the track toward me. So do you think I should take a course that would cover these basics?
If I’m going to teach this stuff I need to be fluent at doing it and articulating it to someone else.
Today’s swim was the best swim I’ve had since Turkey. There I discovered fluidity and ease. This swim was even better because I knew more what I was doing and therefore could dial up and dial down things, such as, there is even more tension and stiffness in my left thumb and index finger than I thought. While I skated on the right, I could maintain the shape of my arm and feel connected to my shoulder and to my torso and legs. But not on the left.
I have a fair amount of unconscious tension on the left side that takes me out of a streamline position.
Still, this swim felt rehabilitative to my sore elbows. I’ve noticed for years that when I swim mindfully the pains and kinks and self defeating muscular habits from other activities work themselves out.
I worked my way through the focal points and got to “internally rotate the shoulder” on the extension when I saw it was impossible to hyperextend my elbow. Internal rotation pushes the elbow out and up. Hallelujah!
And a most remarkable event happen. The second real turning point since I’ve been learning TI with you since last August. During the workshop in Salem I learned the two beat kick and the beginning of counter balancing with the legs. That connected my legs to my torso and created a lot more ease and glide.
Today, while focusing on “expanding” the armpit and preparing to reach over the ball on the entry and internally rotating my shoulder I felt my arms connected to my shoulders and torso for the first time. In my life. And for the first time, I felt the swim/walk gait.
The activation of my shoulder muscles narrowed the space between my head and neck and shoulders and made me more streamline. This, combined with draining the tension and muscular strain out of my fingers and forearms gave me more energy. It was as if I were swimming in a warm salt water ocean, under blue skies and I was a fish.
Wonderful report!
This is the kind of magic we expect when those individual pieces are pulled together and fine tuned – the whole body experiences a much more efficient transmission of signals and a much smoother transfer for force – the sense of effort goes down and the sense of fluid harmony with the water goes up.
I am so glad you are tapping into this finally!
Second Session – April 12
This evening we made some interesting discoveries in your arms…
Hand Focal Points
- From entry through extension keep hand in line with forearm
- Keep fingers relaxed (draping slightly)
- During extension, aim with knuckle of your ring finger (like shooting a laser out of your knuckle)
Extension Focal Points
- Extend with upper arm (as if there is no forearm)
- Internally rotate shoulder and elbow as you extend the arm, anticipating the slide down over the ball to set the catch
Catch Focal Points
- Make hand and forearm ‘one unit’ – permit slight flex at wrist but do not bend
- Arc this unit downward and slightly inward to get a grip on ‘the ball’ (elbow must rotate upward to accommodate this motion)
- It is a smooth arcing motion, not an abrupt pull
- Feel the pressure evenly on palm and lower forearm – grip the ball with that whole unit evenly
And, you wanted to be able to feel the loading on the torso – to ‘pull with the hip’ – at lower tempos. To do this you may regard that ball of water as a bit more fragile than before – lower pressure of the catch to avoid ‘popping the ball’, but keep steady pressure all the way through. Keep pulling from the hip, but slower and steady.
The pain in my elbow is dissipating after today’s swim and yesterday’s lesson. It’s amazing how resilient my elbow is after consistently injuring it for over a year. The stages of accepting and ignoring the injury, and finally figuring out how to no longer injure it, while trying to make progress in the TI method, has been fascinating.
What I need to learn really shows up. At no point have I ever taken a break. At no point have I ever felt I wasn’t making progress. It’s just not in the way I thought it would be.
This stuff, the TI method, is a blueprint for life. I’m learning how to learn. I’m learning how to engage in a long term project and pace myself and stay riveted to the process. A byproduct is learning how to swim
Yesterday’s lesson was invaluable for learning, from you, Mat, how to have the patience and insight and presence to figure out a problem. I am not only grateful that I think the problem was a tense wrist and fingers; I am happy to have learned how to figure out how to fix a problem.
The first stage to figuring out the problem was definitely tuning my nervous system to the task at hand: swimming. I need to learn to practice warming myself up. Otherwise there is no way to drain tension, aggressiveness, mental and emotional residues of prior activities from my body.
The second step, after investigating different options of ways I was hurting myself was to take me all the way back to superman glide and check my alignment there. You noticed the flexion of the wrist before then but that’s when I was able to notice it, when I wasn’t involved in full stroke.
The images of superpower rays shooting from my knuckles, and, shaping my hand over a large boulder as in rock climbing work very well.
The next problem to figure out is how to sustainably continue these lessons.
4.16. 17: My left elbow was still hurting up until today, sometimes as much as ever, and yet I haven’t swam in three days. This leads me to observe two things: 1. The injury occurs in other contexts besides swimming. I’ve known for a while that daily, mundane, random and predictable movements hurt my elbow and that the injury remains acute despite taking time off from swimming and modifying my technique. 2. The flexor muscles of my forearm, connecting from my elbow to my fingers remain fairly rigid and twisted and bunched up in certain places. Jacked and disorganized. And, in not performing their pulley and stabilizing functions, they are preventing my elbow from healing.
So today I was in a good mood after a swim that progressively got better. During most of the swim I kept hurting my elbow until I made the decision that no matter what the focal point I chose, I would also have to focus on internally rotating my shoulder and reaching for the ball and having an exaggeratedly soft shape (for me) of my left arm on the catch. These three actions eliminated pain. They are essentially pointing the elbow out, extending with my whole body and not just my fingers and using the torque of my torso to go forward as opposed to aggressively pushing water out of the way.
I would much rather have one focal point but my injury dictates that I bundle up a few together, keep those in the background, while trying to bring another focus into immediate attention. This worked. And the goal of always going forward engendered a moment of inspiration when I later did some dry land training an hour later.
I was passing the TRX straps, which I have avoided for a few months, because I thought they would exacerbate the elbow problems. I do standing lat pull ups. Today I looked at the straps and stood there and did not want to pass them up. I had an unarticulated hunch, not a coherent thought, that I wanted to do the lat pulls but also something else, something that I didn’t know what but that I craved.
I tested some lats pulls and they did not hurt my elbows. But then I discovered what I was desiring: my arm flexors wanted a passive, deep stretch. They wanted to be pulled away from the fingers and wrists.
All my attention in swimming has been going forward with my arms. What I needed, to release these very tight muscles, was to go backwards, away from fingers. The effect, to just hang my body weight, while standing, from my hands grasping the straps (trying palms down, palms up and palms facing) was to readjust the alignment in my arms. Something got terribly off. I passed by TRX straps, had a hunch, and now I’m pain free.
More wonderful discoveries you are making.
And, when we slow down and purify our bodies to a degree, then we can listen and trust some of these inarticulate urges we feel. I suspect it is true for nutrition as it is for physical activity.
The process of retraining the wrists and hands will take some time until it becomes automatic (unconscious), but you don’t have to focus on it all the time. However, your elbow pain or threat of pain will be a perfect kind of motivator for keeping your eye on certain focal points. As you say, it is by necessity that you must focus on these things – but this is where an injury is also a blessing. It forces us to pay attention and do the work we would otherwise neglect.
Brief update on injury: it’s still there, but my elbow is in much less pain. Critical to rehabbing it is stopping the flexion at the wrist and relaxing my fingers, dry land rehearsals to remember the feel of a non-bent wrist and relaxed fingers, and physical therapy exercises with resistance ropes that replicate the entry and pull while having a neural wrist and relaxed fingers.I’m also doing exercises with Indian clubs, swinging the arms back and forth and around over head to create muscle memory of non-bent wrists and lengthened forearms. I love how the Indian clubs combine lengthening, opening and rhythm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIEOWh87ahYThose indian club exercises look wonderful for the joints… if done correctly. It would be fun to try them.
The more I think of it, this manner of shaping the catch arm with minimal-necessary tension is really a fine art.
Now that physical therapy and body work (cupping and light massage) have gotten me out of the acute phase of my injury, I am proactive in backing off on frequency of swimming, duration of swim and focusing on the internal rotation of shoulder and elbow, leading with the upper arm and not the fingers and finally, monitoring the shape and feel of my fingers during the elusive catch and the mysterious pull. I am at the cusp of changing a habit and I don’t quite grasp (some sort of pun intended) the theory but I’m beginning to feel a less aggressive catch/pull and it’s adding to the ease of my full stroke.
TI swimming is a lot of unlearning of how I use to swim. Getting over old muscle memory patterns and honing in on real time sensation and the effect of what I’m focusing on. I’m not quite sure I understand the catch/pull. I can definitely add and subtract more and less resistance on the pull. Is the idea not to pull to propel myself forward but rather to stabilize the ball of water as I move past it? This means I am to refrain from pulling and let the torque of my hips channelled through my spine and arm get me through the water?
Does this mean the water is NOT pulled and pushed back in TI? The catching arm keeps it’s round shape stable and is moved backward at the shoulder by the body moving forward? It’s not that passive but somewhere between pushing back water and letting the rounded arm be moved backward?
You are getting down to the art of the catch/hold. Rather than ‘pull’ it is more helpful to think of it as a ‘hold’ or ‘grip’ on the water, so that you can then imagine sliding your body forward, past that point.
The idea is not to simply add or reduce pressure on the catch, but to apply it so carefully that you create a larger ball of high pressure which resists your forearm pushing back. The greater that pressure zone is pushing against your forearm, combined with superior entry and extension into Skate, the easier your body will slide forward on each catch.
You reduce pressure of the catch at first in order to learn how to shape the arm for a fuller catch, then learn to apply pressure smoothly so that you do not ‘pop the ball’ so to speak. The art here is to learn how to increase power of each catch stroke while applying that increased power in a way that does not pop that ball. Most people are collapsing their catch shape as they try to increase power and this creates massive power leaks.
So, you work on getting that sweet connection ‘steel cable’ between the arms at lower tempo, lower pressure, and then gradually (over weeks) work on increasing tempo and/or pressure while preserving that really solid catch feeling (the subjective evidence), and keep a close eye on your stroke count (the objective evidence) to resist adding a stroke as you increase tempo and/or pressure.
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