Lesson Series Fall 2019

[Mat Hudson]

Pool Session – October 8

I noted how we could look at the path ahead in three stages:

• Stage 1: Acquire new technique
• Stage 2: Build strength around that new technique
• Stage 3: Build fitness (speed) around that technique

Even with less practice, you’ve done well in the last few months incorporating the skills we worked on last time (here in your notes from that previous lesson). I think we have been at Stage 1 and moving into Stage 2 for these. I envision adding some complementary skills in the lessons to come. 

Overall, today, I wanted to straighten and tighten up the lines of your body a bit more, to make your direction of force more linear, in the direction of travel. 

Focal Points Review

• Body line balance
• Head position
• Tippy toes spine
• Legs become an extension of the torso fuselage (no hinging or swaying at waist)
• Lead arm slides onto its track, in its slot
• Body lines up behind that lead arm
• Lead arm pulls the hip behind it
• Lead arm remains extending on breathing stroke
• Keep emphasizing lead arm in its slot as fatigue comes

We noted there was a tendency for the right lead arm to drop on the left breathing stroke, so we took special care to work on that today.

Activities 

• Whole stroke, half length, no breathing
• Whole stroke, full length, with breathing
• 1 Arm Swimming, w donut in lead arm, half length, no breathing 
• 1 Arm Swimming, w donut in lead arm, half length, with breathing
• 1 Arm Swimming, w donut, full length, with breathing
• Whole stroke, half length, no breathing 
• Whole stroke, full length, w breathing on side
• Whole stroke, full length, w alternating breathing sides

 

I tested those focal points on a few 50s, and then we tried a couple 75s. We noticed some more inconsistency and a slowing of tempo on the third length. I measured your tempo during the swim at it seemed to be around 1.20, which was much faster than what we used in that lesson in July!

So, I set up a practice set at the end, with a series of 50s under tempo constraint.

• 4x 50 w tempo 1.30
• 4x 50 w tempo 1.25
• 4x 50 w tempo 1.20

And, you did very well with those, remaining consistent as tempo gradually increase, as a bit of fatigue entered in. I think we should include more tempo work into your practice times. 

I offered and you felt it would be helpful if I develop 3 workout plans for you, to fill 1 hour or about 1600 yards. This would give you some options on how to spend your swim time in more productive ways. I will post those below…

[Mat Hudson]

Practice Suggestions

Here are three practice plans you may use. You would continue to work on the same set of skills from practice to practice, while changing the conditions under which you practice them. Each practice works on a different dimension of your performance system. It would be good to cycle through each of these periodically, but you may choose the one that is most attractive to you on a particular day, and you can certainly repeat one of them several times to provoke more improvement in that particular dimension of performance.

 

Tempo Practice

1800 yards

Start off with a very gentle 200 y ‘Silent Swim‘ to let your body and mind come on line, loosen up and connect inside.

4 rounds of (50 + 75 + 100 + 75 + 50) with less than 20 seconds rest between each repeat

• Round 1 at tempo 1.30
• Round 2 at tempo 1.25
• Round 3 at tempo 1.20
• Round 4 at tempo 1.15

Choose 2 focal points to use during this set. Choose focal points that address parts of your stroke that are vulnerable to failure when you get moving faster or get a bit tired.

Finish off with a 200 y easy swim, combining your most pleasing focal points.

 

Stroke Length Practice

1800 yards

Start off with a very gentle 200 y ‘Silent Swim‘ to let your body and mind come on line, loosen up and connect inside. Observe your stroke count on the last two lengths.

When not tuned up yet, you seem to take about 24 strokes per length (SPL). And when you get nicely tuned up, we’ve observed that you can drop down to 18 strokes per length – a BIG increase in streamline and smooth propulsion! So this gives us some range for setting expectations.

Based on what you observed in your warm up, set a challenging SPL goal for the day, something that is within reach with your best concentration. This will be SPL = N.

Choose 3 focal points to use during this set, A, B and C. Choose focal points that help you improve or project your streamline (ease of sliding forward on each stroke).

Swim 4 rounds of (3x 50, 2x 75, 1x 100) with less than 20 seconds rest between each repeat.

• Round 1 use focal point A
• Round 2 use focal point B
• Round 3 use focal point C
• Round 4 blend 2 of those focal points

Count strokes on each length. Your objective is to maintain N SPL on every length or improve SPL, using your focal points to help you do that.

 

Distance Practice

Swim continuously for 1600 to 1800 yards (no stopping to rest). But divide up that distance into ‘mental intervals‘ so that you intentionally shift your attention at regular intervals during the swim.

You may choose one of these patterns:

8x 200 = 1600 y

Break up the swim into 2 rounds of 4x 200. Choose 3 focal points A, B and C.

One first 200 use focal point A, on the second 200 use focal point B; on the third 200 use focal point C; and blend two focal points on the fourth 200.

9x 200 = 1800 y

Break up the swim into 3 rounds of 3x 200. Choose 2 focal points, A and B.

One first 200 use focal point A, on the second 200 use focal point B; and blend two focal points on the third 200.

On the last length of each 200 count your strokes in order to keep an eye on what’s happening to stroke length.

To increase the challenge, you may use a Tempo Trainer, set to a comfortable tempo – maybe 1.30 seconds?

 

[Mat Hudson]

Pool Session – October 15

Hi Linda,

I was pleased with the improvements you’ve made since our lesson last week. They stuck!

I felt it was time to work on improving the propulsive side of your stroke, so you can tap into better power and speed.

 

Movement Equation

I explained that there are three parts to the forward movement equation:

1. the streamline side of the body which delivers force into forward movement
2. the catch/hold side of the body which generates the force
3. the torso rotation which transfers that force from one side of the body to the other

You’ve done the work to build #1, and #3 has been set up approximately by the arm switch timing that you’ve learned already. In this lesson we want to examine how to increase the amount of available force and make sure you’re using the more powerful, longer lasting muscles to generate that.

If you’ve got good streamline on one side of the body, and you’ve got the arm switch timing dialed in, then all that’s needed to swim more quickly is to build more resistance against that catch arm and increase strength to hold it, as you transfer it to the other side of the body and into faster forward motion.

 

A More Powerful Catch

We can think of the action of the catch from two perspectives:

1. We can think of it as pulling that arm against a created zone of water resistance, and
2. we can think of it as holding a fixed point in the water and sliding the body past.

In the first part of our work we’ll use perspective #1 and as we move into whole stroke we’ll shift to perspective #2. Ultimately, the main action of the stroke is to slide the body forward, so the other arm is gripping the water, holding a point of resistance, to leverage the other side forward.

Let’s break the catch/pull/hold action into three distinct steps:

1. Gather with the hand/forearm paddle
2. Then pull (or rotate)
3. Then release that pressure as the hand passes the waist

I had you work on the first two in drill mode in a very distinct, exaggerated way, where you clearly gather then pull as two separate steps. But in the actual stroke the second step will blend in behind the first step for a more fluid movement. But pressure needs to be built up behind the hand and wrist, the hand needs to come closer to the elbow line, the forearm reaching a more vertical plane before pulling too far.

Then the finish of the underwater stroke has your hand letting go of the pressure and going limp as the elbow begins sliding forward on the exit to start the recovery swing.

We took a moment standing up to examine how to activate two different motions of the shoulder joint, using two distinctly different arrangements of muscle activation:

1. the pivot of the elbow around the shoulder socket which uses the smaller muscles around the shoulder
2. the slide of the shoulder from high to low, parallel to the torso, which, while rotating, uses the larger muscles down along the torso

Humans tend to pull against the water using that pivoting action and the smaller shoulder muscles, and thus not tapping in very much to the bigger muscles of the torso.

What we are aiming for is to use the smaller shoulder muscles to hold the catch arm in its better ‘paddle’ shape, then use the bigger muscles along the torso to pull back against that resistance. You initially shape the arm into a paddle, feeling resistance start to build against the forearm, hold that shape firm, then pull against it using the rotation of the mass of the torso. In this arrangement for the stroke you can eventually handle higher resistance with less fatigue.

However, those smaller shoulder muscles need to get fit for this new shape-holding role, and the torso needs to get trained to take over the main load of the pull. This will take some careful drill and stroke work to train your nervous system to prefer this way of swimming. But over the weeks ahead you’ll notice those muscles in the torso working more and getting stronger and bigger.

Focal Points

• Gather with forearm
• Keep straight wrist
• Build pressure up wrist
• Natural spread of fingers
• Keep hand on track
• Drive hand to deeper target
• Gather then pull or gather then rotate
• Rotate torso as one unit, hips and shoulders together
• Hold fixed paddle shape and pull
• Pull with side of torso
• Slide the shoulder
• Transfer force into extending lead arm

 

I also gave you the image of the underwater ladder to help fix the geometry of catch position and path. Imagine the catch arm being fixed to the rail on one side of the ladder while your other arm is sliding straight up the rail on the other side of the ladder.

 

Activities

• 1 Arm drill w donut, half length, no breathing
• Whole stroke, full length
• 2x 25 with focal points
• 2x 25 with tempo trainer and focal points

 

We did 4x 50 at tempo 1.30 then 4x 50 at 1.25 with these focal points:

• Gather, build pressure on wrist
• Hold paddle shape as you pull
• Pull with side of torso
• Transfer force into extending lead arm
• Speed up recovery arm slightly to catch up with faster tempo

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