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Pool Session #1 – March 7
In today’s session, I had you swim a few lengths so we could review your stroke, and to examine your left side breathing in particular.
When I had you swim with bilateral breathing, alternating from strong side to weak side, I did not observe any dramatic structural differences between those sides.
So, we worked through a few tune ups that may have some effect on your sense of stability and ease on that weaker side.
Better Spine Alignment and Tone
I had you focus on ‘Tippy Toes’ to make sure you were fully lengthening the torso and legs, until you felt the stretch and tightening of the abdominal region – creating a better Torpdeo Frame of the body. As a result the legs should slide straight behind the body, and ride slightly higher in the water.
Kick Timing
In combination with that improved Torpedo Frame, a better timed kick can give you better acceleration and better lift of the legs.
You had the general 2BK timing, but not connected tightly with the more ideal moment. It was kicking before you initiated the entry. At slow and moderate tempos the kick will have a better effect if it is timed later, to use it to help you finish the extension. You will feel more sense of acceleration on each stroke. That kick will help you feel like you can reach forward a bit farther than before on each extension forward to the target.
Exhale
Out of suspicion I had you check that you were exhaling sufficiently before turning to air on the weak side – just to make sure the anxious anticipation of a breath on that side was not causing you to subconsciously hold or restrict your exhale. A sufficient exhale, completed just as the mouth touches the air will allow your lungs to be primed to immediately inhale, saving time.
Earlier Turn To Air
I observed that your turn to breath on both sides might be described as a bit ‘casual’ and that would be problematic in any faster tempos. And, it seemed slightly more delayed on the weak side. So I had you work with turning a bit earlier and a bit more aggressively. Get to air sooner and get it done sooner.
Entry Triggers Turn
I had you experiment with using the entry arm as a trigger for starting the turn of the head toward air.
Catch Triggers Turn
And, I had you experiment with using the set of the catch as a trigger for starting the turn of the head.
It seems you found the Entry-Trigger more effective.
Keep Lead Arm On Track
I observed that, on breathing strokes, both sides, your lead arm was drifting inward about 3 inches, as your head turned to the side.
I first had you work with Tippy Toes to straighten the body line. Then I had you focus on extending more fully in Skate Position, stretching that side like an elastic band, from wrist to toes so that you were sliding on a side of the body that was long, and straight as an arrow.
When I mentioned the lead arm drifting, you seemed to be capable of putting these all three together and making a straighter body line from wrist to ankles, with the lead arm now staying on track on the breathing stroke.
Good job!
Challenge Set
I set up a set for you that would intentionally impose a little aerobic stress on your system. The intent is that you would then be urged to employ one or two of these focal point tools to reduce the stress. By alternating sides for breathing you would have one opportunity to apply this on the easy side, then apply it on the more difficult side next.
2 rounds of 6x 50, with 3-stroke breathing pattern
Choose 3 focal points: A, B, and C. Stick with one focal point for a few repeats to test its effect on ease and improving it. Then use the next focal point for a few repeats.
Rest about 8 deep nasal breaths between repeats. Consider what just happened and reset your intention for the next repeat.
I recommend that you do some sets like this to put some useful stress on the skills. This puts you in a position where you are urged to use your tools to reduce that stress and allow you to sustain the work a bit longer.
Hi Mat. My beautiful granddaughters managed to share a few of their germs with me so I’m going to wait until the 28th for my next class. I should be back in the pool by this weekend. I wondering if you think the 1k class would be appropriate for me. I think it would be fun to see if I could cut my time with a specific training plan.
Hi Alex,
I get a notice anytime, anywhere you leave a message (at least I expect to from the way this is set up!).
I am cleaning out my lungs too, from a nasty chest cold this last week. Yuk. I’ve got such a headache from coughing!
I’ve noted you are aiming for the 28th. That’s fine.
The 1K course could be a really timely fit for you. It would introduce you to an effective weekly practice pattern.
Thanks Matt. Sorry to hear you had a bug as well. Do I just add that course in the same way Inpay for lessons. I’ m looking forward to getting started on the workouts.
I tried to sign up up for the self guided 1k class and when I hit sign up now it just kept refreshing back to the same box. I tried several times, but it wouldn’t progress to a place where I could pay for the class.
Sorry about the confusion, this is probably an issue of generational incompetence (on my part). I realized I needed to check my cart and when I did all three 1k classes were in the cart-I’m not sure why since I’m pretty sure I didn’t select any of those, but it was easy to unselect them. It wouldn’t let me select the 1k class because there were already 3 different 1k classes in my cart. Once I eliminated the others I was able to proceed. So I added the 1k self coached class and paid for it. I’m looking forward to getting back in the pool tomorrow or the next day and start working on the material for this class as well as all the focal points and left/right breathing.
I’m sorry to bother you about this so soon again but no 1k membership shows up when I log into my account. I paid for the class on Paypal if that makes any difference, there is also no indication of any recent order.
My bad again, I guess I didn’t complete the process, not used to completing a form after paying with paypal, but it’s all good now. You may want to think about limiting my exposure to the website considering the difficulty I’ve had 🙂
Pool Session #6 – March 28
Today we worked with short segments, isolating certain focal points and testing each one on your left side breathing stroke.
Activity:
- 4 to 6 non-breathing strokes, then one breathing stroke, and continue with another stroke
- Insert 3-part breathing (slide to Skate, pause recovery, with turn/return head, resume recovery)
Focal Points:
- Stroke overlap
- Keept frame straight and stretched along abdomen-hip-thigh zone
- Fully extended Skate Position, from wrist to ankle (feel it down the hip flexor)
- Turn toward air ASAP (a bit sooner, a bit more aggressive than torso turn)
- Head on neutral line before and during turn/return
- Leaning on stretched Skate while turning/returning (no foot movement)
Practice Set
You can do an entire, choosing 3 or 4 focal points, working with one focal point at a time, doing about 300y for each focal point. Include enough distance on each in order to provoke some stress which will reveal breakdown points in the stroke during breathing.
Swim 4 rounds of:
- Tune up with 4x 8-stroke segments with 1 breath on each
- 2x (25 + 50 + 75)
Choose 4 focal points from this list. Use one focal point per round.
Thanks Matt-The last 25 felt like some real progress was made. I’m anxious to get back in the pool and work on these sets with the prescribed focal points. As usual I responded by email rather than posting where I should. See you next Wednesday.
Alex
Hi Matt-Sadly my little bug has turned into a wracking chest cold and I probably shouldn’t be anywhere near a pool for several days. If this stuff can get out of my lungs by Wednesday I might be able to make it, but that’s not a good bet at this point. We can leave it open or you can reschedule me for the following week, I’ll leave it up to you with the understanding that there’s a good chance Wednesday won’t work. Sorry about the inconvenience, I rarely get sick, but I’ve had two bugs this spring-UGH.
I sincerely hope it passes quickly, but mine stayed raging for a whole week and then this lingering little gunk in the top of the bronchial tubes has stayed for 3 weeks. Likely I won’t see you Wednesday, although, if your fitness club has a steam room I found that the only thing that offered me relief from the painful coughs.
May you rest up and heal up!
Thanks Matt, appreciate the tip. I think I’ll head into the steam room tomorrow and hope that it helps me expel a bit more of the gunk. I also have a few more sessions with the PT and am doing exercises to keep opening up things on the left side. I’ll email on Wednesday morning, if, as I expect, I won’t be able to make it.
Alex
I was just reading over some of the blog posts on breathing while I’m recovering from this crappy cold and it prompted me to track a link regarding interval training and mitochondrial repair. You may be familiar with this study (conducted by a researcher at OSU) but it highlights the benefits at the cellular level obtained by interval training and amazingly older adults seem to benefit even more than younger adults-yahoo.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170307155214.htm
Great article! I’ve saved the link in my Knowledge base.
These last couple years I’ve narrowed down and am focused in coaching on health/longevity for older adults. So athleticism, technique, strength, power, speed are viewed as goals which serve that end. We just need to be careful that our goals serve the higher value rather than compete with it.
Let’s keep it up!
Love the focus, and glad you found the article useful. I’m better today but probably still 1 day out from getting back in the pool so I’ll plan to come up next Wednesday at the same time if that works for you.
I posted here this morning at around 7 that I wouldn’t be making it up today. Sorry if you didn’t get that. I was in this zone, left a brief message and hit submit. The msg showed up under the one above, but when I checked back later it wasn’t there. Hope that next Wednesday at the same time will work. Hope to get back in the pool tomorrow
Alex
Managed to get back in the pool today even though I’m still a little congested and was pleasantly surprised by how much the PT has helped with breathing left. I’m not swimming completely comfortably breathing every three strokes but it’s much better, swam a few fairly comfortable 75s which I have not been able to do previously and the mechanics don’t feel like they are constantly falling apart. I did a bunch of dryland exercises based on your videos and also learned some things about the way certain physical limitations might impact my stroke.
BTW-great blog post on nutrition and depression, lots to think about there, you’ve really created something special with this website.
I look forward to hearing about what PT did specifically. I wish I could have a PT evaluate every swimmer I work with so we could pinpoint potential trouble spots and work on them from the start, in conjunction with the swim lessons.
Thank you for the compliment and encouragement about the website. It’s been a labor of love for many years.
Hi Mat-This is turning out to be the worst cold I’ve had in years, at least in terms of my recovery. I’m still coughing and blowing my nose and I’m not sure I’ll be good to go on Wednesday. I hate to ask you to reschedule again but I don’t feel good about getting in the pool when I’m still this congested. I thought I was getting better but after a little climbing and a swim I regressed and got even more congested. It’s killing me to not be able to put my PT to use in the pool, but the pool will be there when this congestion passes. It’s better every day but I really want to be over it when I get back in the water. Let me know what you think.
No worries. This may be that nasty cold that sinks its claws into the bronchial tubes. Do what you need to rest and recover! Let’s postpone to the next week and see how you are doing.
Hit the steam room if you can!
Thanks Matt, I plan on getting into the steam room today, but prior to that I was coughing so much that I didn’t feel comfortable getting in there. This cold is definitely making the rounds down here. I’ve run into several folks who’ve gotten it or know someone who has-it’s a nasty bug. I’m almost certain I’ll be fine by next week and in the meantime I’ll keep up my PT exercises and dryland TI. Hopefully I’ll be back in the pool in a few days.
The TI website reposted one of Terry’s blogs making a strong case for bilateral breathing on the basis of aesthetics (and balance) and recounting a magical swim he had in Turkey-inspirational stuff.
Finally back in the pool and feeling a lot better but perhaps not quite 100% (hell of a cold). Breathing left is going better but still a work in progress and I have more PT planned. It seems really helpful to get a quick sip rather a leisurely turn up to air -better for balance, less interruption of the stroke. I do need to learn how not to let the quick sip hurry everything else up too much. I should be fine for Wednesday at 12:45 if that works for you.
Alex
Pool Session #7 – April 25
In today’s session we reviewed your stroke (after the chest illness!) to see what tune up project presented itself.
Fully Extend Skate
I observed that your Skate Position did not appear fully extended as it might be so I had you work with some focal points to tune up that side of the body:
- Reach with the shoulder – feel the stretch of the ‘elastic band’ from wrist to ankle
- Feel stretch in side of abdominal and over pelvis, particularly
- Feel wrist pull the hip along (with that elastic band)
- Feel hip push the wrist forward (corkscrew effect)
This long, fully-extended Skate position is an active position, not passive. We keep extending, keeping that side of the body taut, like a well-tuned guitar string. The firm frame provides better support to the breathing action. And the long, stretched frame permits more momentum to flow through that side of the body. The flow allows us to preserve velocity longer, during the recovery swing. If the Skate side is not fully extended, then it absorbs more of that force rather than transmit it.
Also, I pointed out the pulsing sensation you will feel on each side of the body as you stretch the elastic band then contract it on each stroke. That stretching is what pulls on the pelvis and holds it firm to the torso, making a single (slightly flexible) unit. Each stroke, as you extend then contract, is a bit of an abdominal muscle toning exercise.
Recovery Swing
Then we shifted to the Recovery Swing, since you mentioned your curiosity, and noted that we had not covered that previously.
You may view the outline for the standard Send Force Forward Through The Recovery Swing lesson.
We just started the introduction to this, and I showed you quickly how to do the Skate + 1 Arm Swing and Alternating Swing drills, and how to use alternating swings to gradually transition to whole strokes at normal stroke speed. In drill mode the forearm and elbow are underwater, in order to stay properly positioned relative to the torso, but as you very gradually speed up the motion, you may gradually lift then forearm out of the water.
I had not addressed Recovery Swing with you previously, because what you had going was sufficient for you to use while we focused on other more urgent features of the stroke. But since you now bring it up, we can work on some improvement points in yours.
Here are some focal points that I would like to emphasize in our next lesson:
- Drag the knuckles (elbow leads the wrist at the start)
- Swing the bag (to create fluid momentum)
- Let the arm ‘fly’ weightless (to prevent pushing the head down at the end)
- Come to a High Elbow entry position, with Steep Angle Forearm
I look forward to working on these with you in a couple weeks!
Thanks for the write up Matt and thanks very much for all those video clips, it’s very helpful to get a look at what you’re actually doing as opposed to what you think you’re doing. I think some patient work on the recovery will really help reduce the leg flare that I observed since that seems to be closely related to the recovery stroke tipping the boat a bit too much (and also with my head being too far under water). Looking forward to some constructive workouts and my next lesson.
Alex
After several viewings I have some good take aways from the videos you shot at the end of the lesson. I’m sure you can see lots of other things but two of the big ones I noticed were.
Legs-still have a pretty pronounced scissors kick -the recovery really seems to get it going and it’s much bigger than what I think I feel in the water so figuring out how to get some feedback while swimming on what my legs are doing would be great. In conjunction with the scissors kick I’m often starting the catch and pull before the opposite arm enters the water. Several times it seemed like I was in a nice extended skate position and then broke it almost as the recovery started then the legs flare-streamline gone. I did notice on the underwater shot that I’m running close to the surface and seem to have a much better line than I once did, legs not sinking much, just still creating lots of drag with the scissors. Head position is getting better when breathing but as you noted the recovery drives it down at times. I’m going to stick with the synchronization class because I think that’s a big one for me. I’ll take care of that and let’s keep the 1k on hold for a bit. I think it would be helpful if we could take 10-15 minutes to look over these videos prior to the next lesson if that’s ok with you, if we need more time I’ll just pay for a 90 minute lesson next time. Back to the pool-lots to do- see you in two weeks.
Some observations after getting back in the pool. Breathing left is easier but still seems to disrupt the stroke. After looking at the video I could tell that my left arm recovery was pulling up well behind my waist and turning my shoulder enough to over rotate quite a bit (hence the sense of poor balance) At the pool today I worked on the recovery drills from the last lesson and also tried to do a better job of maintaining a strong skate position while taking a breath and returning my head to the water. I noticed that doing a better job of holding skate reduced the instability considerably, but it was still difficult to start the recovery as prescribed-that arm really wants to go back, perhaps just out of habit. At this point I’m working a lot on 25s-up breathing right, down breathing left-holding skate and trying to maintain good head position. I feel like this is something I could work on for a while and will certainly do-as Matt pointed out in another post breathing comes first-I was a bit disappointed to see the return of the big scissors kicks in the recent video, but it’s not surprising since I have been so focused on the breathing left problem.
I’m using this discussion zone as a swim journal at this point so I’m not expecting any feedback on these posts.
At the next lesson want to be sure to take a look at the beginning of the recovery when taking a breath. The recovery seems more manageable when just working on the stroke with no breath so I will continue to work on that in my drill sequences.
First time to swim on two consecutive days since I got that wretched cold. Nice workout today, principal focus was on breathing as I’m still working to nail down a comfortable and stable breath to the left. In the last lesson we worked a good bit on securing extention on each stroke and bringing some stability to the core. I noticed today that when I extend on my right side (tippy toes) it helps initiate the turn to the left and this facilitates getting a quick sip of air. It allows me to breathe earlier in the cycle, but I still need to get the head back in the water sooner. I felt like maintaining skate while turning for air was better today and I worked on synchronizing the catch with the return to water of the recovery arm. Did a bit of recovery drill as well. Relaxing while breathing every three strokes is improving but I’m still feeling the need for more air after 100 yards unless I don’t worry about anything but getting a breath each time. Nonetheless the breathing and 3 strokes breath cycle feel a little better each time.
Just to clarify – you would like to keep open the Master Class Sync course, but hold off on the MC 1K? I can open the MC Sync back up. I see it expired.
Here is another thing to check on both sides: make sure the catch thrust, just as you slide into Skate and turn to breathe, is similar on both sides, in terms of both amount of pressure and the direction of that thrust, keeping your head sliding at the surface.
Great point. I’ve had the sense that there was a lack of symmetry there, but it has improved since the PT, I’ll take a good look tomorrow and see if that should be an added focal point. Appreciate the note re 1k and I will probably begin with that when we return from Europe.
Well if it’s not one thing it’s another. My daughter is struggling with child care so my wife and I are going to Colorado next week and we’ll be back just a bit before we leave for Europe. If possible I’d like to just put that one lesson in the bank and get in touch when I get back from Germany (June 14th).
I’d like to keep the 1k class going, probably uncoached at this time as soon as the current one expires that way I’ll still have access to the Dojo (or will I). This sucks but family comes first and I’m just not going to be able to swim much for the next six weeks-I’ll get in the water whenever I can, but it’s going to be pretty limited. Let me know what you think.
Alex
Thanks Matt- I had a pretty good workout today, managed a 250 with lots (around 40%) breathing left. As per a recent comment of yours I’m trying to work on symmetry all the way around. It seems when most aspects of the stroke are very similar on both sides that everything feels much better. I’ll be able to get a few more swims in before I leave and between trips and will continue to post comments on my workouts here.
Appreciate your patience.
I would like to restart the Master Class on Synchronization as soon as I return from Europe (second week in June), until then I will hardly have the option to swim. I can get online and do that as soon as I return and set up our next lesson as well. After some more work on fundamentals I’ll be ready for the 1k class and set to dig into more distance work in the pool. I’ve always loved endurance training so I’m looking forward to that and in the mean time I’ll be getting a good bit of distance in while I work on fundamentals.
OK. Let’s sort it out when you get back Stateside. No worries.
But, there are nice pools all over Europe. I’ve been in some! If you have any bandwidth for it, maybe look ahead and see if you can find a pool occasionally. You know you’ll appreciate keeping the swimmer body moving a bit with all that sitting on planes and trains. :))
Sounds good. I do have one very nice pool lined up during a few days in Zurich and it’s at a health club so I may be able to get there later in the week when we’re staying in another part of the city. I’ll definitely be missing my water time and very happy to get back to my workout pool.
That video you shot revealed that I’m still overturning by a good bit when breathing left, it’s better but when I take a breath my shoulders are almost perpendicular to the ground. With the increased mobility I should be able to get a breath with considerably less rotation and this is going to be a big focus in workouts to come.
Looking forward to continuing with lessons this summer.
That video also shows that the scissors kick is considerably more pronounced when breathing left, the recovery arm is coming high and the opposing leg seems to go wide probably to create some balance, working on a better recovery on both sides should also reduce the pronounced scissors kick. I seem to be able to maintain streamline when stroking right, but the scissors returns when I breath on either side, just more dramatically when I breath right which makes perfectly good sense.
That video was really helpful.
I will make some time to more deeply review and offer comments on the video soon…
You might like looking at the guided practice and breathing focal points I used with a student yesterday. You can view the notes of how I set up this practice for him.
https://dojo.mediterraswim.com/forums/topic/lesson-series-may-2018-douglas-no/
He is also feeling like that left side is just uncomfortable and gets more water in his mouth on that side. You can systematically work through the same focal points (or add your own) and use the same process to reveal and isolate certain details that you can work on to make the weak side feel more like the strong side.
Thanks Matt. I will definitely use this material this weekend for my workouts. I had a pretty frustrating workout tonight-stroke feeling better but I can’t seem to get past feeling out of air after 50 to 75 yards. It dosn’t help that occasionally I do get some water in my mouth breathing left. The worst part is that I don’t feel like I’m working that hard and I’m still feeling winded which doesn’t happen when I just breath right. The good news is the stroke is feeling more stable and I think I’m doing a better job of hilding skate while I breath and not starting that down swipe the second I turn my head up. I also felt like I was able to quiet my legs a bit tonight by not starting the pull until the opposite hand was in the water. Oh well, I’ll carry on-much patience required-appreciate your help a great deal.
Alex
Back to the pool for more analysis today. I haven’t figured it our yet but at this point I have determined that there is something about breathing left that causes me to tense up in a way that is very difficult to regulate-even breathing every two strokes I get that feeling of needing more air whereas that simply doesn’t happen when I breath right. When I alternate sides in a cycle of three right/three left I can literally feel my body relax when I begin to breath right. At this point the most helpful thing seems to be to drill left (three to four stroke and try to get a relaxed breath and relaxed recovery and gradually add left breaths into the regular swimming. I can get up and down the pool breathing every three strokes but after two laps I need a break so this doesn’t seem that helpful at this point. It has always been harder to trun left to breath and I’m going to ask the PT about other structures (since my neck is much better) that might make that the case.
OK, I followed some advice you offered awhile ago (somewhere on the site). I went to the pool today and had a pleasure swim, or I swam for pleasure before even thinking about drills or working on breathing left. I wound up swimming 1200 yards , not fast, but very comfortable and I only stopped because I wanted to do some drills before I needed to leave. It felt wonderful to just swim and work on comfortable focal points.
When doing some drills a bit later I noticed that I definitely have a harder time rolling on the left side, my head struggles to reach for air even though the range of motion of my neck has improved considerable. I also feel that unless I really hold a firm sakte position that my body wobbles and then my right arm swipes in an awkward manner. When I hold skate the catch and pull feel much better, but it takes a lot of concentration and tends to make it hard to achieve the level of relaxation I need to swim while breathing every three strokes. I am learning a little more each session about what the problem is and what I can do to fix it, but I also lerned that I really need those pleasure swims as well.
Worked through the suggested focal points again and noted that I definitely have difficulty achieving the same degree of rotation on both sides. My right hip is much tighter than the left and this may impact hip drive. No matter what cue I use to turn left for air I’m usually late which leads me to lift my head, get water in my mouth and twist my body. I’m going to work with the PT on the hip issue and just keep plugging away. It is getting better but VERY slowly. I also discovered after my wife do another video that I have a very hard time telling if I am doing a scissors kick which tends to happen much more on breathing strokes. Just something else to work on.
Off to Colorado and probably out of the pool for a week or so, but today the PT identified a sticking point on one of my lumbar vertebra that he thought was probably responsible for the difficulty I have turning to the left in the water. For years I’ve been told that I breathe late on that side but no matter what cue I’ve tried I still find myself often (not 100%) getting there late which often results in over rotating, the arm dive the whole deal that has me feeling so out of sync breathing left. He feels we can make some real progress with this issue and I’m looking forward to continuing my work with him when I get back and seeing how it affects my breathing on the left side.
Quick Video Analysis
I think it is really good that you are scanning your body and getting PT attention to look for internal restrictions and obstacles to making the left side breathing feel easier.
Looking at the video, at your external features, I don’t initially see blaring discrepancies between the two sides while breathing.
You are sending your extending arm to good targets (depth).
Body line looks really straight, stretched, firm.
On the non-breathing strokes you are doing better about keeping superior arm overlap and arm switch timing. But that lead arm drops on the breathing stroke. The goal is to have the non-breathing strokes and the breathing stroke look and feel identical.
You need to keep that lead arm extending during the entire breathing action – turn and return of the head – so that there is the exact same amount arm overlap and timing of arm switch. That lead arm is dropping early. You should see your lead arm extended in front, with your own eyes BEFORE it starts the catch. But your recovery arm is reaching entry point and spearing in while the face is still aiming sideways, on both breathing sides.
This requires that the turn and return of the head happens earlier. That head has to be turning back to face-down position before the torso rotates. If it is waiting for the torso to carry it, then you won’t be able to get back to face-down position before the recovery arm gets into position for the arm switch.
You noted that the restrictions found in your PT work may set up a later turn, and so you know what you are aiming for as this restriction is reduced through therapy.
And, things will go much better if the head is sliding along on the neutral line on the non-breathing strokes, back of skull just barely breaking the surface, so that it is already positioned at the surface for the breathing action. I showed you some things about using the trajectory of the catch thrust and the aiming the lead arm to help you keep the front of the body driving forward on the neutral line, head brushing the surface.
The timing of the kick is approximately OK on the non-breathing strokes, but with the breathing stroke it is waiting for the entry arm while the catch/pull arm has already gone more than half way through the pull before the kick is engages, thus missing any opportunity to contribute to the pull.
Order of priorities:
- Arm switch timing on breathing strokes
- Head position in neutral between and at the start of the breathing stroke
- Start the turn of the head to air a bit sooner and turn it more aggressively, thus making it easier to get the head returning before the recovery arm swing.
- If the arm switch timing is preserved on the breathing stroke, then the kick timing should be approx OK for the breathing stroke.
Thanks for the thoughtful and thorough review of the videos you took at my last lesson. I think your observation re the lead arm while breathing is right on. I’ve started working in that in the few times I’ve been able to get to the pool. Consistency with regard to switch timing also seems critical and I’ll continue to work on that as well. My PT is ongoing and he has identified some physical issues that help to explain the late turn to air. I’ll work with the progression you specified and just keep after it. Thanks for all the help
I tried a somewhat different approach during my workout today after struggling a bit the last few times trying to relax while breathing every three strokes. Breathing left continues to feel awkward so I decided to try simply alternating left and right breathing every 25 yards breathing every two strokes and rotating through a set of focal points on both sides
(maintain skate until head returns to water, weightless head, quick turn to breath, turn to breath when non-skate hand enters water).
This worked pretty well and I was able to swim 1000 yards continuously without much fatigue. I continue to feel a little off balance returning head to water when breathing left. I’m not sure if it’s a balance issue or that my torso doesn’t turn back on time so the catch and pull with the right arm feels slightly out of alignment. At any rate things improved a little over the 1000 rather than getting worse so I think that’s a good sign and I left the workout much less frustrated than I have been lately.
I’ll be ready to start up my 1k class as soon as I return from Europe (June 15), but I’ll be in touch just to let you know I’m back. Hope your swim camp goes well.
Well I wasn’t really expecting it and I don’t fully understand it, but after a few days of doing those alternate 25s (breathing right on the way down, left on the way back) I got int he pool tonight and after a few relaxing ;aps I swam a 500 breathing every three strokes. I was sort of blown away since I was still struggling after 50 yards just a week ago. Now when I get back from Europe I can start the 1k class and do all the workouts breathing every three strokes. Thanks again for all your help.
Great article by Terry in the latest edition of the open water swimming magazine published in the UK. It helps explain a lot of the difficulty I’ve been having breathing left and why it didn’t improve automatically once my range of motion was better. That state of involving the whole body in the act of swimming is one of my big long term goals.
Well, we have some ideas from science that the body will adapt with some rest and turn around and do better the next time we try. But it also seems quite mysterious how that works. Glad you are experiencing these improvements both with effort and without!
I am glad to hear you’ve gotten in some longer uninterrupted swim distances too. Really, there are things we can more break through only after going a few hundred or thousands of strokes, as long as you’ve got focal points at hand in the tool box ready to apply when an insight appears – which you do.
I look forward to your return from EU!
Hey Mat-I’m back from my travels and ready to hit the pool. Didn’t get many opportunities to swim in Europe, but I did have a nice (but short due to thunderstorms) swim in lake Titisee.
I’m ready to start up the 1k swim class and I think I have one lesson left when your schedule allows.
Welcome back! Glad you are feeling eager.
I un-paused your membership in the MC 1K.
I could do tomorrow at 12:45 if you like. I could do 10:15 to 11:15 on Thursday. And then I depart for Turkey Monday, 2.5 weeks (busy on the weekend before). I will be back, ready for scheduling on the second week of July.
Thanks Mat-I’ve got conflicts on both those times so let’s set something as soon as you are back from Turkey. I’m pretty clear on the focal points I need to work on the most and hopefully that concentration will continue to help with breathing left and breathing every three strokes. The blog posts have been great. Have a wonderful trip to Turkey, I hope one day I’ll be ready to join in on one of those trips.
Hope the camp continues to go well and the weather holds up for you guys. It’s been lovely here, still cool and sunny, still probably a little chilly for river or creek swimming. I’m enjoying the 1K workouts but got a little fatigued after #2 since I also decided to start running again this week. I may not be able to stay on schedule with the workouts but I’m not really concerned about that. I think when you return I’d like to check schedules and do a four class repeat of the introductory sequence but with one hour classes. I think I have one lesson left in the bank for starters. I really think it would be good to return to the beginning and work on refining everything. I’ll continue with the 1k workouts with a format I’ve worked out (3 days a week are for the 1k workouts, two other days are easy days just doing drills and very relaxed swimming). Let me know what you think and we’ll get something worked out when you get back.
Alex
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