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Pool Session – Jan 16
In today’s session we focused on parts of the stroke that may be affecting your sense of stability on your left side breathing stroke. Part of the evidence for this is a wider splay of the right foot as the left arm enters after the breath on that side.
As we worked through some drills to isolate moments of the stroke and examine cause/effect, this list of projects emerged:
- fully extend in Skate and keep extending while turning/returning the head from breathing.
- turn toward air right with start of catch, use the torque to get to air
- delay kick just slightly, to sync with extension (rather than before entry)
- form a more compact kick, using ankle/hip torque
Stability
Activities for Stability
- 1-Arm Swimming (with donut in lead arm), no breathing, compare sides
- 1-Arm Swimming, with turn to air on every other stroke
- Switches, no breathing
- Switches, with breathing on one side, every 4 strokes
Focal Points for Stability
- Fully extend in skate
- Open armpit (keep it open)
- time kick to extension
- Tippy Toes leg extension
- Flick from ankle (reduce kick space, flex knee, don’t bend it)
We were attempting to isolate that moment where the recovery swim passes the head and there is a tendency to bend the knee and splay the heel of the foot wide on the opposite side. I would like you to do the 1-arm drill and actually resist kicking that leg completely and just see what happens – the reaction might be unnecessary for stability at that moment. Or, you may notice your body does want to fall a bit with the recovery arm and therefore you can delay and time that kick to blend in with it later into that fall, rather than come so early.
We wanted to make sure that your Skate side was not collapsing a bit in anticipation of breathing on that side.
Breathing
Activities for Breathing
- Superman to Skate, check R breathing
- Superman to Skate, check L breathing
- 3-strokes to Skate, check R breathing
- 3-strokes to Skate, check L breathing
Focal Points for Breathing
- Make sure head is neutral, weightless position before turning
- Turn toward air sooner, right with the very start of the catch
- Turn toward air more aggressively – head turns a bit faster than torso
- Redirect entry/extension arm force horizontal, so head is not carried down below surface
We want to see your Left breathing action happen sooner, integrated with the torso rotation, rather than lagging behind it. Use the torque of the catch and torso rotation to corkscrew the head into breathing position immediately.
Be careful with forces you direct back into the water on entry, so to not pull the head down underwater with it. Initially enter steeply, but then immediately redirect that arm to level out and reach straight forward. Do many non-breathing strokes with the goal of keeping the back of head steadily breaking the surface on and between every stroke.
2 Beat Kick
Activities for 2 Beat Kick
- Crescent Moons
- Swedish Sequence (especially with arms folded over chest)
Focal Points for 2 Beat Kick
- Crescent Moons (trace that shape with big toes)
- Slight flex of the knee
- Keep knees close together, almost touching
- Arcing toe nearly brushes other ankle
You may review the introduction to the 2-Beat Kick.
Our goal was to have you feel how to form the kick using ‘hip torque’ rather than ‘thigh drive’. This means turning the ankle, or flicking the pointed foot in an arc, with a fairly straight knee (barely flexed, not bent), rather than a bend of the knee. This allows you to press the foot with a long arc in a compact space hidden behind the body, rather than bend at hip and knee and poke the heel and knee out from the profile of the body and create extra drag.
Pool Session – April 4
Based on your report, we took some time to examine your breathing technique and how to conduct a set to challenge and strengthen very specific parts of your performance system.
Breathing
Before we blame age and genetics, we should examine your breathing technique.
It seems you may have room for improvement to shift to a much more diaphragmatic breathing, less in the upper chest.
It is likely that the breathing pattern is less-than-ideal on land, in daily life. It is hard then to suddenly switch into superior breathing in the water, under exercise stress (though it is needed more than ever there!). So, adopting this change in breathing technique in water will go much better if it is also adopted on land.
You need to do it enough that eventually this becomes the preferred manner of breathing (outside of mobilized state), AND you need to do it enough that those specific muscles build up tone and can handle working this way (as they should be able to) for the hour of exercise. It won’t necessarily happen instantly. It will take a lot of concentration for a few weeks to turn this into a new habit.
It would help if you had a diaphragmatic breathing exercise you could do on land, something that was simple, easy to remind yourself to do throughout the day in random moments. Standing in line, driving, preparing food, all sorts of situations where you might notice your breathing and then shift it toward the ideal.
In the water, practice resting at the wall this way…
https://dojo.mediterraswim.com/forums/topic/kb-instructions-diaphragmatic-breathing/
https://dojo.mediterraswim.com/forums/topic/kb-nasal-breathing-rest-intervals/
6x 50 Sets
And, I gave you this idea for being able to isolate and train specific parts of your performance system.
Swim, 1 to 3 cycles of 6x 50, with a fixed but generous amount of rest between each repeat, and a bit more active rest between cycles (like 50 breast or backstroke). I suggested you use nasal breathing at the wall to give you a way to follow your body’s signal that it is recovered, rather than a clock that doesn’t know what’s going on in your body.
For metrics, choose one of these assignments:
- Consistent Tempo + Focal Point
- Consistent Stroke Count + Focal Point
- Stroke Count + Tempo + Focal Point
Which ever one you choose, stick with that assignment for a series of practices so that you can compare your results from practice to practice, noticing subtle improvement.
If using nasal breathing, notice if recovery improves from (for example) needing 8 nasal breaths to 7 or 6 before recovered.
If you provide generous rest plus a challenging technical assignment, then you should hit a neural failure point before you hit a metabolic failure point. But when it’s time to challenge the metabolic, we’ll need to limit the rest, so that the body is provoked to up the metabolic capabilities.
Note exactly at what point in the set you start to experience failure and the nature of that failure. You are actually wanting to encounter failure, and designing the set in such a way that you expect to fail somewhere past 1/2 to 2/3 into the set. (If you can do the whole set without failure, then you made it too easy.) You get three strikes to try to correct and restore it. Even take a little more time to recover, as a last resport. When you simply cannot maintain the assignment no matter what you try (third try), then you are done with the set for the day. Make note of that and look for improvement in practices ahead for how much longer you can delay that third strike. That is your goal.
Backstroke
Focal Points for Backstroke
- Spine remains extremely stretched, extended (arched like a banana almost)
- Rotate torso 1/4 turns
- Pivot around your head (spine)
- Set the entry/catch point wide (easy on the shoulder)
- Swing arm directly from exit to entry point (arcing at an angle, not over the body)
- Pinky finger leads the recovery swing
- Torso turns up to bring recovery arm out of the water
- Torso turns down to take the arm back into the water to a deep-wide catch point
- Torso stays turned down while arm pulls underwater (we’ll study that next time)
Practice with just single arm swimming to get very familiar with connecting the recovery swing to the torso rotation. Right arm on the way down, left arm on the way back.
You may use zoomer fins to help keep the legs up and make attention on upper body easier.
Practice Pattern
You might view your practice cycle as lasting longer than a week. It doesn’t have to repeat every 7 days, it could be longer.
Over the course of a practice cycle, you might include
- 2x Attention/Form Practice working on any of your projects
- 1x Distance Practice with a ‘longer’ continuous swim
- 2x Interval Practices with the 6x 50 set
It would be preferable that you do a couple Interval Practices within a day or two of each other to stimulate the same pathways and be able to compare results while it is fresh in your mind.
Thanks Mat, this is really helpful. I’ll begin a practice cycle this Thursday and I’ll let you know how it goes.
Well my practice was delayed by day as the result of some other commitments but I got in the pool today and after a warm up I stated my first round of 6×50@1.25. The first round was pretty comfortable, probably a little too comfortable, because I progressed through the next two rounds at the same pace ( a little under a minute and the times I checked my stroke count I was @18/19 on the way down and 19/20 on the way back. After the third round I did another round @ 1.20 which also felt fine with about 45-50 sec of recovery as you described it. I swam a number of relaxed laps after the four rounds and let it go at that. I didn’t really hit failure but I’m not sure about what I should do next. I didn’t really do a consistent stroke count but I tried to maintain one of several focal points through out (streamline, early breath, hold skate until face returns to the water). My stroke count was pretty consistent throughout and wasn’t really going up even when I dropped down to 1.20. My heart rate recovery was better than usual-perhaps thanks to the breathwork that I’ve been doing. But I’m not sure about where to go next-more rounds-extend 50 to 75 or speed up the rate even more.
OK. That’s useful information.
So you need to increase the difficulty in some way because the challenge was not high enough. (There was benefit in doing these without failure, to simply reinforce some pathways, but we need to make them stronger so we need more challenge on the system).
We won’t increase total distance or the distance of the single repeats. For now the maximum total volume is 3x 6x 50 = 900, and the repeat distance is 50.
So your choices are:
- Increase the tempo (slightly)
- Shorten and fix the amount of time for rest
- Add stroke counting and hold yourself to same SPL for every repeat.
Choose only one variable to change and work with that for a while (unless it is still too easy).
I may suggest adding the stroke count challenge.
You get one stroke less on the first length because it is usually stronger, but you only get +1 stroke on the second length. So you might hold yourself accountable to 18/19 (first/second length), and then see how far you go before you experience some failure. You have to really concentrate as if every stroke is the only stroke you take and it has to be your best. You’ll soon start to notice when one stroke feels less-than-best and it will be confirmed in a slight increase in your stroke count at the end.
I measure in terms of 1/2 strokes, in reaching the wall. If I get close to the wall but have to glide a bit longer (not quite enough room to take another stroke) then I consider that another 1/2 stroke. Or, if I get there on 1/2 fewer strokes I count that way too.
Thanks Mat. I’ll up the tempo just a bit and count strokes more consistently. If it still seems too easy I’ll lower the recovery time (I was at about 45 sec today)
Well I made it in today and after a warm-up I set the TT at 1.20 and did 6×50 with around 45sec at the wall each time. I didn’t count strokes continuously but when I did I was generally at 18/19. The third set actually felt better than the first, I felt more warmed-up and like I was getting better extension. I feel like much faster than 1.2 and things would start to get pretty rushed so I guess I need to shorten the recovery if I’m going to hit failure. This seem like a workout I could do twice a week say Sun/Thu and just work on technique and distance on my other swim days. Sadly I haven’t gotten very far with my backstroke because I keep forgetting to put my fins in my pack which I’m going to go do right now.
Got to try swimming with the fins yesterday after not using them for over a year-zoom, zoom. Spent most of the time working on the rotation needed to execute the backstroke properly-a good opportunity to work on releasing the neck, with continual access to air I could really tune in to that feeling of letting the water support your head.
During my freestyle laps I spent a lot of the time working on diaphramatic breathing. This is somewhat new to me even though I’ve been familiar with “belly” breathing for along time. As a somewhat anxious person I think I’ve spent the better part of my life breathing in my upper chest so it’s going to take some work to expand the range. I’m taking an online course developed by a free diver named Stieg Severinson as I think it will be helpful to work on this out of the water as well as in the water.
I would be interested in learning about your experience with Stieg’s course. I’ve considered looking for one to try, to learn some techniques for deepening capacity.
At this point I’m just getting started but I’ll be better able to give you a bit of an update by the time of the next lesson. The course I signed up for has 12 modules and he recommends doing a module a week so you have lots of opportunities to do the execises.
After watching on of the more recent video tutorials I spent a good deal oftime today workingon timing the turn to breathe with the body’s rotation. This helped me get an earlier quick breath although I’m still working on keeping the breath short and NOT rushing the arm stroke-Mat mentioned previous video on that issue and I should definitely watch that. I also did 4×250 at1.4 working on relaxed breathing (every three strokes)-during these laps I used a number of different focal points as I cycled through the laps-relaxed neck, tippy toes, holding skate. I like using the TT to reinforce good timing and coordination-even if I’m not always right on the money it helps me maintain focus on syncing the various parts of strokes and swimming with the whole body.
Back again today for another workout involving 3x6x50 (@1.20 with 45 sec rest) for the main set. I need a better sense of what constitutes failure-by the third set my SPL was increasing just a bit-from 18 to about 20 (always better on the way down as my turn arounds are weak. If this did constitute failure I’mnot sure what I should do-I don’t think we talked about that-should I simply continue working at this level until I can maintain the same stroke count throughout all three sets?
I was going to use my rest periods to work on the backstroke but after the second set I started work on the backstroke with my fins on and got a horrendous cramp in my calf-probably since I had way too much coffee in the morning and nothing to drink in the afternoon before my workout-ugh. I was still able to do my third set of 50s and finish with some fresstyle drills but I could tell there was no way I was going to be able to use the fins.
Regarding how to judge failure, you may take a look at this article
https://dojo.mediterraswim.com/forums/topic/instr-working-with-neural-failure/
Since you are going easy on the rest, your challenge is to maintain the best SPL on each length. You may set the first length at N and the second length at N+1 or maybe N+2, and then your job is to do all you can to hold that on every single repeat. When you fail to do that, that is one of those ‘3 strikes’, so to speak. It is meant to push you to do everything you can to correct and avoid the failure again. It’s that strictness that drives you to dig deeper into your resources, and hence, those get stronger. There should be an appropriate level of struggle to achieve the same or a better result from practice to practice.
Since there is generous rest, you make up for that in demanding a lot from your attention and neuromuscular control on every repeat.
Does that make sense?
Yes that makes sense Mat. I did a set today and used breaths to time the pauses, taking 8 deep nasal breaths at the wall and that worked pretty well. It is a struggle to maintain SPL at this tempo, I have to really focus on staying long. On the last two sets I was still holding 18 down and 20 coming back but it was effortful. I swam a relaxed 300 and it felt like my turnover was already a bit faster at a sustainable pace. No leg cramps today thank goodness.
Can you end me a name for the Lancaster club or an address, I don’t know much about Salem but 12 on Wednesday (5/1) will be fine.
After all the recent efforts at pace control I thought I would simply have a nice long swim and cycle through numerous focal points as I worked my way up and down the lanes. After a short warm-up I began a 1×1500 main set with the usual focal points-neutral spine, tippy toes/extension/ quick turn to breath, hold skate while taking a breath. Early on I began to notice that almost for the first time I was very aware of my core when working on extension. It was challenging to hold this awareness but it is the most connected the top half of my body has felt to bottom half since I started working on swimming without fins. This is a new and exciting development and one I hope to continue tuning into and it really happened almost by accident. I’ve always wondered what I needed to do to achieve this sense of connection and usually wound up trying to tighten some of my abdominal muscles but the sense of connection that I felt through the core came mainly from extension.
After the main set I did a number of laps working on maintaining SPL-I was a little tired from the 1500 so this was a good opportunity to work on maintaining form when a bit stressed. Over the course of several laps I went from 21 to 20 to 18 and then down to 17 at the same TT rate. While taking the last few laps I really felt like I had found a rhythm or timing in the stroke that was allowing me to get down the lane with fewer strokes-I don’t really know what was at play here, but I hope to work on this some more since it wasn’t about applying more power but applying what power I had left at the right time.
Here’s the lots more mindful laps.
“the sense of connection that I felt through the core came mainly from extension.”
This is wonderful. If only I could feel what you feel I would know what’s missing and point it out to you sooner. I know I’ve explained these things to you before, and this assures me that your subconscious recorded it and when its time, pulls those things out of the cellar and brings them to your awareness to appreciate. Perhaps certain pieces of the puzzle have to fall into place first, then these other pieces finally find their place.
And, what a difference this improvement in the hidden frame of the body makes on your SPL!
With that internal frame (core) set up more appropriately, the synchronizing of entry, catch, torso and foot will be more powerful and feel more pleasing too.
You absolutely have pointed out the strong relationship between your core, your frame and extension, but as you noted sometimes there are so many other things going on that it’s difficult to notice. It reminds a bit of yoga class when at times I would be baffled by the teachers description of what was going on during the move into a certain posture-I certainly couldn’t feel what they were describing. As the ease of breathing improves I think I’ll be able to tune into to other aspects of the stroke and I’ll actually feel that connection between my upper and lower body-it’s a really wonderful problem to work on-creating tension in relaxation-I could sense my core in the past but whenever I would try to tighten up it almost always lead to gasping and soon thrashing. It’s still a battle but now when it clicks it feels good and integrated.
I’m also working my way through the Oxygen Advantage book-great stuff-at first I was disappointed by my low Bolt score around 20-but then I realized that just means there’s lots of room for improvement. I’ve been an anxious person most of my life so I guess it’s not that surprising that I’m a pretty shallow breather (I also talked for a living) in spite of working out a lot.
See you next Wednesday at noon at the Lancaster location.
Did another pace workout today 3x(6×50) @ 1.20 Worked on backstroke during the rests
Once again I didn’t count strokes on every lap but on the way down I was pretty consistent at 18-19 throughout and +2 on the way back. Once again I didn’t really hit failure so I guess I need to reduce the recovery time even more-I was at 40sec or so today down about 20 sec from where I started several weeks ago. The first lap is actually starting to feel pretty good and then things break down just a bit on the return.
Afterwards I did a cool down 250 at 1.35 and that felt ok-when I first started using the TT 1.35 didn’t really seem sustainable after 1 lap breathing every three strokes and now it feels much better-at first almost felt a little bit too slow.
Still tried to maintain that sensation of core tension which I’ve just begun to be more aware of-it’s getting more consistent but still needs lots of work.
On Facebook today I read your post on the two beat kick and it was a timely reminder about the relationship between the kick and core rotation. Today I swam a lot of singles just trying to focus on the connection between the kick and torso rotation. The review was helpful and I hope to get some video on Wednesday to see what the kick looks like timing wise and with respect to my movement in the water. I should note that you mentioned something about one’s thighs touching and I wasn’t able to do this. I am a little bowlegged and perhaps that’s the problem, maybe we can clarify during the next lesson. Trying to match the foot press with the shoulder dip and feeling it all the way through the core was helpful and allowed to continue to concentrate on engaging the core while also working on the kick. When the timing was good I was able to come up for air earlier on the left side which has always been a problem (seem to always be late and I think it’s because I have been over focused on turning my head and leaving my torso somewhat behind).
Pool Session – May 1
Today we focused upon your 2 Beat Kick.
It may be helpful to review the…
And to examine these sync combinations to help tune up the timing of the kick…
In our lesson we worked through these features of the 2BK:
- Counter-Balanced Foot Position
- Pathway of the kick motion
- Pressure (or rate) of the kick
- Timing of the kick
The main visual I gave you was for the kick to produce a wave of force traveling up the body that has similar speed to the wave produced by the rotating torso. These two waves blend and are magnified. The wave has to be timed just right to blend with that torso rotation, and it needs to be traveling at a similar speed. Coming too late or too early and it won’t blend well. Coming too fast or too slow and it won’t blend well. Improving this is the art of the kick!
Focal Points for Foot Position
- Pigeon toe Skate side foot
- Stack the feet
- Reach the heel to the surface on that Skate side
- Pull bottom foot inward and under, keep it pointed
- Thighs touch
Focal Points for Pathway
- Turn ankles more than bend the knee
- Pigeon toe sweeps outward along ‘crescent moon’ path
Focal Points for Pressure
- Slow the wave down, to more steady pressure, longer lasting press
Focal Points for Timing
- Delay, press the foot to help finish the extension
Your left foot was showing some asymmetry we noticed, likely do to its trained compensation for tightness up your spine.
When it is the bottom foot (on right Skate), turn that ankle to pigeon toe a bit to keep that ankle turned in, which will resist torso over-rotation.
Emphasize the delay on left kick more. And slow that kick down to a steady pressure.
Thanks for that lesson and the video as well. Lots of room for improvement but the kick definitely improved just over the course of that lesson. It was interesting to see the difference at 1.2-I think I’ll work consciously on the various focal points at a slower turnover-at the pool today I did some work at 1.25 and that felt quick enough to build a little momentum and slow enough to concentrate on the different focal points. This is really fun stuff to work on and now and then I begin to get a feel for what it would be like to slip through the water instead of working to get through it.
As far as this summer do what works best for you-if you need to cancel it’s not a problem at all for me. I’m going to get in some lakes this summer one way or the other. Just keep me posted-I’ll be in touch about the next lesson when I get back from Colorado.
It was very interesting to take a closer and longer look at several of the videos,particularly the rear video. I was able to notice that the position of my legs varied during the course of each of the videos. At times they were nice and high, riding close to surface and then they would drop down, dragging my torso with them. I had several thoughts-even though it wasn’t possible to tell what was causing the drop I’m pretty sure two things were involved-taking a breath and also dropping the lead arm too soon after taking the breath. It was possible to see my legs rise as a lead arm extended and I know I’m still lifting my head a bit when I breath and leaving it up a bit too long (though it is quicker than it used to be). What was most interesting was the magnitude of the drop which I’m sure created quite a bit of drag. I could also tell that I was generally using too much force when moving the foot trhough the water-the timing is getting better but still a bit early and moving ahead of and more quickly than the rotation-looking forward to working on all these things-fun to see that there are some changes-ones that can be felt as well as seen.
Really interesting workout today. I started out just doing moderate 25s trying to focus on several of the foacl points from the last lesson. Oddly enough one source of feedback that I didn’t think cold work for me turned out to be very helpful-the felling of the thighs being in contact between foot strokes seemed to calm my legs, help the stroking leg initiate more gently and less forcefully and even helped me hold the stroke to keep it from happening too early. Sense this I swam many 25s with the snorkel just honing in on that sensation and working on the timing of the kick and the intensity. Holding the thighs in contact briefly seems to help keep the leg that has just stroked down and let the other leg rise.
I also returned to breathing drills to work on keeping my head down and turning early (not able to see stroking arm as it recovers
During the 25s I was also working on feeling the rotational force throughtout my body-necessary to have some core tension to really feel this.
Still having lots of fun-I even made a little grid so over the course of several swims I hit all my focal points-it’s easy to get lost on a specific issue and forget about other things that you should be attending to as well. I’m really glad we focused on the kick in that last lesson-that was a great deep dive and the time was right.
After running and swimming three days in a row (it was actually the fifth day in a row for swimming) I arrived at the pool yesterday afternoon a bit tired and not really into working out-what to do-glad to have the snorkel-mindful snorkel swimming, working a few focal points that don’t involve breathing and some easy drills that do involve breathing-nice workout-but it is tine for a day off-then headed to Colorado where it’s hard to find time to even get in a pool.
Interesting workout last night. In spite of my best intentions this was my seventh day in a row in the pool, just wanted to get one more workout in before leaving for Colorado. Decided to do something different for a little variety. After a warm up I did two rounds of 20×25 with just a short rest at the wall after each 25 (around 10-15 sec). I tried to keep a pace a bit faster than a relaxed pace-for me that’s 28-30 sec/25. I used a three stroke breathing pattern and just kept cycling through focal points. Took a short break between sets 200 yards of relaxed breast stroke). I was at 17-19 SPL the entire time and felt able to concentrate on my focal points for the most part. I wouldn’t take note of this workout except that afterwards I felt wonderful. I usually feel pretty good after my workouts (maybe a little too good-not going quite hard enough), but this was special as I was tired when I got to the pool, stressed about leaving town and afterwards took the dog for a nice long walk and felt absolutely great.
I think it was a good workout in the sense that I got practice on my focal points and it was very restorative-a metric we havaen’t talked about much but for me a very important one.
Here’s a linkto a video I watched recently which I think has some important training implications
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6U728AZnV0
This is only one TED talk, but there are some good reasons to give this information some consideration. I think the real gold that TI has to offer is the ability for people of any age to swim comfortably in an exercise range that doesn’t tax the heart and that is very much like walking. Our culture, as are many others, is often obsessed with performance and an achievement metric that may have little to do with long term health. The great thing is that you can work on developing a wonderful freestyle stroke and always find improvements that come from applying focus rather than extreme effort which may in the long run do far more for your health and well being. Just my thoughts on the importance of swimming blissfully.
Yeah, that is an important topic – really, it’s part of the value system that motivated the creation of The Longevity Athlete. There is a convergence of health with exercise when people move from sedentary to active, but then a divergence of health and exercise when they go past some point in their lifestyle.
Youtube offers Dr Tim Noakes thoughts on that just after the video you linked.
They say, fitness and health are not necessarily the same thing.
Hope to see more about that relationship (fitness vs health) in the future. I had a lovely workout today, focused a lot on extension (and connection through the core) and swam a number of laps at 14SPL-nothing I would do ordinarily but nice to know that I can. I also discovered that a bit of core tension allows me to easily cover a 25 yard pool in three superman glides-something that I had really struggled to do in the past. I still recall my first TI workshop when we went around indicating what our main goal with respect to swimming was. Pretty much everybody indicated a distance, a time or race goal and I said I wanted to swim blissfully-everyone laughed and the leader said, “Oh, that’s right, you’re from Eugene.” Well, it’s years later and that’s still my main goal and I deeply appreciate all the help that you’re providing to help me do that.
Did a number of different things today:
500 wu
I did a 250 with the snorkel set at 1.45 to work on all the kick focal points and to try to feel a gentle push with the leg/foot that you’ve described and to get the timing right-the “kick” coming as the lead arm spears forward (it has typically been rushed in my case).
I did include 3x6x50 @ 1.25. I cut the recovery time to 30 seconds which didn’t feel uncomfortable, but I was having trouble getting my SPL under 20 on the way back so I suppose this is a sort of “failure.” My stroke clearly downgrades a bit on the return after a number of runs up and down. I’m still not really sure what to do when I reach that failure point. It doesn’t seem right to back off that much as it isn’t really that hard (or doesn’t seem that hard). It seems like I should just keep working at this level until I can maintain my 18/19 SPL both up and down. On the third set I was still hitting 18/19 on the way down and then 20/21 on the way back-some of which may be due to my turnarounds which are not so good.
250 on backstroke-between 1.25 sets
200 cool down
FAILURE POINT
You define a failure point as that moment when you cannot achieve your assignment.
If your assignment is to swim 50 with 19 SPL on the first length and 20 SPL on the second length, while holding tempo at 1.25 and allowing only 30 second rest, then when you first fail to hold that 20 SPL on the second length, that is your first ‘strike’ against you. During that rest moment, you evaluate what just happened, consider why you added a stroke and then decide on one way you will attempt to correct that on the next repeat. Try again. If you succeed at restoring your performance to 20 SPL on that second length, then keep going onto the next repeat, keeping attention on what you did to correct/protect that result. When you fail again, that is your second ‘strike’. You get three chances to try fixing a failure. If you can’t get it by the third time, then it implies that some part of your performance system has reached its limit for the day. So you stop the set and take note of how far you got. Next time you do the exact same set, you are aiming to beat this result.
But this game only works if you are absolutely strict with yourself about the parameters you’ve set for the assignment. You fix the SPL, tempo and rest interval and then that creates the challenge that squeezes you to rise to a higher level in neural-muscular fitness. If you let go of your standard on one of them so you can keep going, then failure no longer means anything and you don’t get quite the neuromuscular benefit that was intended. When you do that, you’ve failed to get a clear picture of the nature of the failure and a clear measurement of when it happened in the set and where it happened in the stroke – so you’re shooting in the dark again the next time you do the set.
It has to be treated with the kind of rigor one would do a scientific experiment, (set up in a way that you’re having fun with the puzzle).
It could be that the turn and push off was getting worse. Then you need to test that hypothesis on the next repeat, and apply a correction.
It could be that one arm was getting slopping on the catch on the first stroke or anywhere along the length. Test that hypothesis by focusing on better, more consistent catch on every single stroke.
Etc, etc.
Thanks Mat-That’s very helpful and I’m sure you’ve explained that to me previously, but having done a number of these sets now I get it. I also at this point have a clear idea of what a good goal is-19 down/20 back at 1.25 with 30 seconds rest. When I’m able to do that through three sets I’ll start dropping the TT down,probably .05 at a crack and see how that goes.
Looking forward to continue exploring the kick-I’ve been rereading the material on the 2 beat kick on the website and watching the videos-it’s a work in progress but is definitely feeling better
Thanks for another great lesson, I headed back to the pool this evening to continue working on the points you made today. Worked on the counterbalanced position with non-breathing strokes and then for quite a few laps with the snorkel. I also used the snorkel to kick in skate position and really felt it in my rear. I also managed to get a bit of work in on the backstroke as well. There was a small class in the fitness pool so I didn’t get to do the vertical kickboard exercise but I’ll get to that soon. Glad to hear there are a few other folks interested in swim camp.
Managed two more swims spent largely working on aspects of the kick, position, timing, etc. Next week I hope to get back to work on pace. I’ll probably be working on that left side for as long as I’m swimming (both the breath and the kick), but I’m fine with that. I have also realized that I need to be more exact when I do the 3x6x50 at some designated pace if I’m going to get the most out of it.
I’d also like to do some 3×500 sets to work on holding form over distance (using either the TT or SPL)
Back in the pool today, wasn’t expecting much after not sleeping well for several nights (not sure why). Just wanted to get some laps in (not a very TI frame of mind) so I jumped in and just swam a leisurely 1000. To my surprise (and I counted laps carefully this time) I finished in almost exactly 25 minutes. Since I’ve been stuck at 27 minutes or so for some time I was quite pleased even though I try not to focus too much on times. Afterwards I did quite a few 25s working on kick, breathing and timing focal points and left the pool feeling much better than when I got in.
Wanted to check in with you and see if you think this would be a good time to start the 1k class. I’d like to see if with a specific training plan I cold get that 25 min down somewhat, but I’m not sure what is realistic.
Still working on the 2 beat and I think it’s gong well but will need video. I also did some fist swimming yesterday and thought it went pretty well, my SPL jumped up about 5 strokes per lap but I was still moving along ok. Next week looks very busy down here so I think I’ll wait to schedule a lesson until you get back. Will also continue with the tempo work at 1.20
Nice workout today : 500 warm up-relaxed neck torpedo frame and several kick focal points during the warm up.
3x6x50 at 1.25-holding 18 down 19/20 back- once or twice it slipped to 21, but I think that was a poor take off from the back wall or simply a loss of concentration. I guess losing concentration constitutes failure but on the next 50 I was back to 18 up/ 19 down. This set is challenging, probably neurologically more than physically. I’m going to do it again in few days at 1.20 and tryto count strokes each lap as I did today-several times I simply lost count, not sure why it just happened, it takes a lot of focus to count strokes on every lap. Recovery time today was 30 sec which didn;t seem to be a problem-that was usually about 6 breaths.
Did some kick work between 50s and then cooled down with 300 yards of backstroke drill
Ah, yes. The set, when done strictly, with all that counting requirement, exposes the weakest link in your performance system, which might be ‘attention’!
If you lose count, you lose control over pace, because then your stroke length can start slipping without you realizing it, though you feel OK keeping up with tempo. By requiring both tempo and stroke counting, then you can see which one you start to struggle holding. Some people will find their body more loyal to SL and have a harder time keeping up with the tempo, and others are opposite. It tells you what side you need to work on.
In general, it is harder to hold consistent stroke length because that requires sustained strength. Behind that strength of muscle is strength of attention…
I think you’re absolutely right about the attention, which is why this is such a good set for me. I can’t say I look forward to it as much as my leisurely distance swims but it’s great workout for me. Maybe at the next lesson we can work on turns a bit as that’s where I sometimes lose focus. On days when I don’t do the set I am working in more leisurely way on hitting 18/19 without pressing which also takes a lot of concentration because pretty much all major forms have to be clicking for me to do that.
I’m assuming that if I can get through the set without three strikes then I would lower the TT by .03 to .05 sec. I think we said on a tempo podcast that after you get to 1.20 or so it may be necessary to lower by less than .05. I’ve done a set at 1.20 but my stroke counting wasn’t consistent so I’m going to stay at 1.25 until I complete a strict set and then move on.
My main goal now is to keep working on my focal points and my turnover rate get to the point where I’m comfortable swimming 2k. I’ve done it and wasn’t exhausted but I’d like it to become more comfortable.
No need to write back if we are on for next Thursday at 11 at Battle Creek. Thanks for the feedback
Ok, this time I made it through the set counting strokes on every lap. I made it through the set 3x6x50at 1.25 with 30 sec rest) without striking out. I did have two strikes by the end-one time I had a bad turn and started stroking very early and wound up taking 21 strokes-another time I got a mouthful of water and lost count about two thirds through a lap. I was able to hit 18 down and 19 back consistently with a 30 sec rest between each 50. It would seem that I have two options-I can lower the rest to say 20 sec or drop the TT by .03, not sure if it matters much which I go with this-I may wind up trying both-or I could wait until I do the set with no strokes-it’s a good workout in itself.
I also did a little work on backstroke and about 400 yards working just on breathing left-still trying to keep my head down and keep that skate arm stable until the left arm enters the water and extends
Yeah, you could go either way, reduce rest or increase tempo.
At 19 x 1.25 (and add 3 seconds for the pushoff), that’s 26.75 per length. Not bad.
Let’s see what happens when you reduce rest to 20 sec.
Suonds good. I have realized that I need a little recovery time after one of those sets-I managed it, but it was a challenge and I was a bit drained afterwards so I’ll be giving my self several recovery days with no swimming and predominantly drill work mixed with silent swimming in the interim. You were right about it being a muscular drain as well as a cognitive drain-you need to keep extending and pulling to keep that SPL down while you’re counting and that’s a job.
Relaxed workout today-lots of 25s using different focal points. Still working on keeping those legs in my body’s slipstream-the hint about keeping the thighs touching has been quite helpful.
Also working on neutral spine and keeping my head mostly in the water when I breathe-something that I’ll need to work on for some time. I also worked on lifting my arm from the elbow on the recovery and rag doll arm. And as always on holding skate until the opposite hand enters. Coordinating the kick with hand entry and extension to skate is feeling better and legs are feeling more coordinated.
Also did some relaxed 25s with the TT at 1.35 which now almost feels slow and was varying between 16/17 stopping briefly at the wall after each 25.
Very enjoyable workout today. I started with a comfortable 1k warm-up rotating through a variety of focal points that are very familiar by now-release head, neutral spine, hold skate until opposing arm/hand enter, delay kick until entering arm begins to extend. I have the feeling that I still lift my head too much on the left side (probably still on the right side as well but the left side is worse and it’s difficult to hold the leg that has just kicked down on the left side (to bring that right foot up), quiet hand entry and wide tracks. Plenty of time for lots of focal points when I do a 1k warm-up.
Then I did 1×500 with the snorkel at 1.30 just to practice holding a slightly faster pace than I’m accustomed to over an extended period of time and to devote time to working on the kick-position, timing, etc. SPL was generally 20 I think largely because I was really trying to relax at this pace
Next I did 20×25 at 1.15 just to get a feel for what it’s like to speed it up. Took about 20 sec at the wall and maintained 19 SPL throughout (3 beeps at push off). I do this now and then because it’s fun and given that I’m able to h old 19 SPL I don’t think I’m thrashing, but it’s also true that I can’t sustain it-50s would be quite difficult at this pace, but I think I’ll get there.
Finished up with several hundred yards of drills 4 strokes breathe left-working on keeping my head in the water and holding my skate arm-4/6 stroke drills are a nice way to cool down after a workout.
Back in the pool and the focus was the 3x6x50 @ 1.25 with a 20 sec rest. SPL was to hold +/- 1 18 down nineteen back. I didn’t strike out until the last round on the fifth time down so I finished the set. I didn’t really feel difficult this time and 1.25 is almost starting to feel good, but I had several awkward returns and lost count twice and one hit 21. I do glide into the wall at times so my stroke counts might be one stroke higher than I think but at least they are pretty consistent and I can generally hold them. Twenty seconds felt like enough time to recover but I feel like I should stay at this point for several workouts-it’s definitely feeling much better than when I started, I sort of enjoy them now and I wasn’t that enthusiastic about about this set to begin with. Afterwards I did some 25s working on extension and really holding that skate arm until the other arm enters and was often hitting 16/17 SPL (no TT).
Looking forward to that next lesson and getting some video to see how the legs are doing
Great! Sometimes the coach has to nudge you into something you will end up appreciating, but not at first.
And, by challenging to hold that SPL consistent under tempo constraint, it makes it easier to hit longer strokes when there is not tempo constraint. Take the load off and watch him fly!
20 is a decent amount of rest for sprints. So, when you feel ready to click up the challenge, tempo would be the one to adjust next, probably just to 1.22.
Yes, that nudge was needed and appreciated and I do think it’s speeding up my turnover when I don’t have the TT on. In addition to the kick I’d like to spend a little time on keeping my head down. I read on the site that if you take a bit longer to breathe you may have to hold the following stroke back just a bit in order to hold skate. I tried doing this consciously the other day and it did seem to allow me to coordinate setting the catch and starting the pull with the entry of the opposing hand into the water. I’ll get one more workout in before myself and work on this a bit more.
It’s been interesting to go back to previous video and take a closer look and it seems that each time I look I see something else that could be worked on. While watching the underwater video taken on May 2 which I was watching closely to see how my legs were doing I couldn’t help but notice that my hips really dropped when my skate arm took off early-I thought my position in the water was about my head coming up too much, but it’s pretty clear that dropping that skate arm has even more impact so this is something I’ll be working on in the weeks to come. I know we’ve talked about this during several lessons, but it’s been a difficult fault to correct-better on the right side than left (the video makes this pretty clear) so I think it’s going to require some structured drill to correct.
Pool Session – June 13
Today we worked on some finer synchronization details, improving the connection of the foot to the extension.
I examined the lead arms and observed that the right lead was often hitting a too-shallow target and more dramatically so on the (left) breathing stroke, yet it nicely extends straight forward despite being shallow. And, I observed the left lead arm hitting about the right target but then drifting down a bit rather than extending straight forward. So, you need to add the best feature of each arm to the other side.
I explained how we want to create an extremely linear sense of movement, lead arm and catch sliding in the same plane, like Norditrack skis. That lead arm enters, curves down to target depth and then extends straight forward at that depth, never drifting deeper, like a ski would hit the snow and slide straight forward.
Then our attention moved back to the foot action. We want to have you feel the press of the foot happening at the right time and at the right rate in order to assist with the extension of the lead arm – you want to feel the wave of force traveling smoothly from ankle to wrist, the torso rotating at the same speed as the wave is flowing through it.
Yet, the foot was having a hard time delaying to time with the extension (more suitable to tempos slower than 1.20), and the rate of the kick being a bit too snappy, too quick. The left foot was particularly early and snappy. We suspect some sort of perceived instability or distrust in balance so the brain seems to be forcing some foot motion right before the entry.
We were seeking two things:
- to understand why the brain was having the feet fire a bit snappy and too early
- to override that pattern and replace it with a new one you can control
I don’t think we uncovered #1, but we created a sequence of drills that helped you override and then set a new pattern for timing the kick and controlling the rate.
Sequence of activities to gradually increase complexity:
- Superman Reach
- Torpedo Rotation plus Foot Press
- Superman Reach plus Foot Press
- Short whole stroke repeats, no breathing
- 25’s with snorkel, buoyant fins and band around the ankles
- then remove the band
- then remove the fins
- then remove the snorkel
We had you practice etching a symmetrical, low angle skate position in Superman Reach.
We had you practice making a firm connection between foot press and torso rotation in Torpedo Rotation, which made the foot-hip-shoulder connection obvious and easy to control. Then you extended your arms back into Superman and continued to maintain that same connection.
But when we added strokes, that early-snappy foot reflex popped up again. So, with the previous drills you know what you are aiming for. Then we created a sequence, using buoyant fins and band and snorkel, where you could first practice intentionally overriding that reflex (turning off the early snap) with the band around the ankles providing feedback. With that old reflex suppressed, I had you imagine the later, more suitable moment to trigger the press of the foot, but without actually moving the foot. Then we took off the band and had you practice sending a new signal for a delayed press with a slower rate of press.
With a few repeats without the fins, you were doing better at delaying and slowing the rate of the press. In whole stroke, that left foot showed to still be a bit farther behind than the right in responding to the changes, but we saw in the drill sequence that you could override and get that foot into the new pattern. So, we know you will get there.
Lots of drill work the past two days following up on Mat’s comments and the issues we worked on during my lesson this past Wednesday. Sticking with focused repeats in several modes (w snorkel, w flippers, ankles together w flippers and snorkel, etc.) I think I’m starting to feel that connection between the kick the entry and extension and the hip drop-but it takes a lot of focus and lot of concentration to interrupt the rushed response by the skate arm and the kick. Although we didn’t identify the source of the instability I also did an interesting exercise today that I picked up online (from a TI instructor)-the drill involved fist swimming with a pull buoy-no kicking-concentrating on full extension and holding skate-I felt VERY unstable breathing to either side but was able to improve over a series of repeats by adding core tension and thinking about staying long and keeping my head low when breathing. Seems like this drill has a lot of potential-pretty interesting in terms of the discussion we had about conventional swim practice sets and TI sets.
For the past two days I’ve been swimming outdoors as a result of the annual pool closure at my club. It’s been delightful to swim outside and fortunately I’ve gone to the pool when it isn’t terribly busy. I’ve been doing lots of 25 and 50 repeats with the focal points generated at the last lesson and things are feeling better. In fact, I almost feel as though I’m about to fall into a very comfortable rhythm linking extension, core rotation and the kick (foot flick). I’ve done quite a few laps with fins not kicking at all and just rehearsing the kick by saying now as the hand enters and drives forward. With breathing it is still a challenge to consistently time that kick to delay it until the recovering arm is extending to its target. Today with the fins and snorkel on and not kicking I was consistently getting across the pool in 14 strokes and not having to exert that much energy to do it which tells me that the improvement in my body position in the water due to the fins makes a very big difference. I probably can’t duplicate that without the fins but it points to the importance of improving my alignment in the water. So the mystery continues to evolve offering new puzzles to solve at every turn.
After my swim yesterday I’m afraid my posts are going to be more about metaphysics than swimming. Not really, but I had a very interesting workout. I started with the snorkel and the fins, no kicking, just trail my legs behind and swimming quietly, slow turnover,nice glide, just feeling the weight shift that comes with the entry and extension of the skate arm. It felt great, I was gliding across the pool in 14 strokes with very little effort. After a while I added the verbal commit to kick without actually kicking as we practiced in the last lesson. I did that for quite a few laps and then added a very small kick. At that point it seemed possible to time the kick to accompany the extension of the skate arm along with rotation of the core and it all felt like it was working together. There was no urgent early kicking on either side and I felt like I could swim that way all day-not really TI swimming-using a snorkel and fins-but I felt like my legs were finally relaxing and that I was finding that timing that has been so hard to execute. I swam this way for the remainder of the workout-it felt too good to stop, but now I need to transition first to snorkel, no fins and then no snorkel or fins and see if I can maintain this lovely rhythm and keep my legs from acting independently and feeling the stroke from the tip of my toes to tip of my, well, fingers. It’s been cool here this week and I’ve been able to grab a lane every day, the only down side is that I’m already developing a tan. I’ll be back again today for a little more aqua joy.
That is great to hear! Even with the aid of the devices, you know what you are honing in on now. The use of the devices enabled you to get things simple and stable enough that you could override old patterns and tap into that new control and flow. The removal of those devices is just part of the process of expanding the range of conditions in which you can enjoy. If we think of TI is a learning method, a training method, then those devices are a useful part of the process getting you into that wonderful state of swimming. Nothing to be embarrassed by in our tribe at least.
Enjoy the outdoor pool!
I can’t say I am suffering in the Med right now, though it is quite hot without much wind blowing. The water is dreamy though…
Thanks Mat, appreciate the feedback and support. I made a bit of a progression yesterday-I cut a traditional pull buoy in half and after starting with the fins which provide quite a bit of buoyancy I switched to the pull buoy, At first I worked on just keeping my legs still and ten timing a very lite flick with the rotation and extension. This went fairly well and I did discover that my legs are less twitchy when I keep my head and spine aligned-looking at the bottom of the pool instead of looking up-even looking up a bit seems to mess with my balance. I also worked on fins/no kick and no snorkel just to work on keeping my head aligned and in a good position and working on lifting less and catching the bow wave.
Glad you’re enjoying the Med, that water sounds really nice. Hope all goes well with the camp-I’m back indoors, not as much fun but a bit better for the skin.
PS-Enjoyed the last longevity post-a good reminder for me-I’ve had several episodes like the one you described with caffeine and have always been pretty sensitive to the stuff-stupidly I always go back to drinking it (in my case coffee) but that post inspired me to make another run at quitting
Really nice workout tonight. Nice warmup breathing every three strokes, felt good so I just kept going and did a 1k, a bit faster than usual even though I was trying to relax and sync my kick with the skate arm extension most of the time. It felt quite good, wasn’t at all tired and did some drills for another 1.2k after I finished. I worked with the snorkel maintaining 1.25 and holding the sync I worked on in warm-up. This pace is starting to feel pretty good,not rushed like it did when I first began. I’ll do the 3x6x50 @ 1.22in few days working to hold 19 spl. The sync is feeling better (legs are more calm and I think I’m keeping them in the crescent moon configuration a lot of the time) but the first two swims with no fins I felt like I really slowed down-that is steadily improving. I didn’t want to use then too much since I was once so dependent on them and it would be easy to fall into relying them again. Also worked on neutral spine, head on the pillow of water when breathing-this also seems to be getting better.
Nice big group in Turkey-hope everyone is having a great time.
Just when I think I’m getting somewhere with my kick timing I manage to tweak my right hip doing some calisthenics at a nearby park. I do just fine with my little shaved down pull buoy, but when I transition to normal swimming it’s pretty uncomfortable when the left leg kicks. It doesn’t bother me out of the water, I can even run, but there something about that kick in the pool that sets it off. I made need to stay out the water for a few days and see if that helps, if not, it’s back to the PT.
I did make an observation that should help down the road-when I adjust my left arm skate (we noticed a the last less that it was a bit deep and wide) it makes kicking with the left leg easier because it’s in position. It’s always felt hard to kick left because the leg never seems to be in the right place, but changing the position of the left skate arm seems to put the left leg in a better place to kick.
After that relatively uncomfortable swim I got back in the water today to see how my hip was doing and things felt pretty good. I really wanted to double down on switch timing and the kick since the two seem very closely connected, if you start to pull too early it seems like the leg is not in position to kick and the kick feels very awkward. Today I tried swimming 25s and being very patient with the switch timing making sure to hold skat4 and not start the catch and pull until the other arm was extending into skate. I also worked on making sure that I was breathing early enough to get my head back in neutral before I started pulling. This effort really seemed to pay the kick felt compact and comfortable and fairly well timed and SPL was generally 17, which is good for me. I took three breaths at the wall and did another. I took a break after 750 to do about 300 with the snorkel trying to fell the connection from toes to finger tips with the rotation sending the recovering arm into the skate position. I finished with more 25s with short three breath rests (no snorkel), still felt good 17 SPL pretty consistently and the kick felt the best it has-except for that one time with the fins and the snorkel. I want to really dial this timing in, so I may repeat this workout several times before I return to the TT. Excellent workout.
So here’s my dilemma at this point-I think I’m beginning to feel that connection from fingertips to toes and to time the kick to go with the extension-the kick feels much less awkward now and more controlled (most of the time) and the skate arm is holding and not starting to pull before the opposing arm enters and begins to extend (still need some work on getting that early and quick breath). This is all well and good but I need to do this very deliberately and at a relatively slow turnover rate-when I get down around 1.3 things seem to revert to previous form (I can actually feel my knee bending now when my legs start getting twitchy and moving out of my slipstream which I was unaware of in the past). I’d like to maintain the form I think I’ve found (video needed) but I would need to proceed slowly and deliberately and work on getting my turnover down around 1.2 much more slowly-perhaps this will come along faster than I think and I won’t be stuck in low gear for that long.
You’ve got a grip on that sync, even if at a ‘slow’ tempo.
Here is where a gradual tempo adaptation process is effective. You just went through a process of creating that smooth connection at a certain tempo, though you may not have measured it. Get a measurement of tempo at which you can hold that smooth sync, consistently, for an entire set. Then increase tempo just a bit (maybe just -0.03 seconds) and take time to smooth out the sync until it feels like what you have now. And then increase tempo again…
Actually a tempo ‘step-ladder’ might work well too, and be more interesting.
Take a measurement of the tempo where you feel in control right now, and I’ll suggest a tempo step ladder set for you, and explain how it works.
Tempo trial. Breathing left every two stokes 1.35 feels ok-it can break down but with focus it’s starting to be more consistent. The left side is still a problem-I’m sure it’s related to what happens when I breathe because it feels fine and well timed when I use the snorkel. When the snorkel comes off that left leg loses it’s place and when I go to kick with the left leg as the right arm spears the kick isn’t there-the left leg isn’t in place to kick if I’m preparing to breathe-if I just stroke it feels fine so I must be doing something when I turn to breathe to become unbalanced-hopefully we can take a dive into this at my next lesson. The stroke feels so good on the non breathing strokes that it’s very frustrating (I didn’t notice it as much before working on delaying the kick and coordinating the timing). SO I can work on a tempo step ladder just breathing right, but to work on it breathing left or every three doesn’t make much sense until I can figure out what is going on
The left side problems are definitely related to the breath. I went back to the snorkel (no need to return to fins) today and the timing felt pretty good on both sides. I spent most of the session just working on the timing doing a few drills from Terry’s Freestyle Mastery program. Most of the drills felt pretty good and I progressed through to whole stroke w snorkel pretty quickly. I’m going to keep working this for a workout or two to really dial in the muscle memory-patient lead arm is critical as all the timing and balance stuff is nearly impossible when that arm drops too quickly which generally results in over kicking and splayed legs.
Sadly, I left my tempo trainer at the pool yesterday and it has not been turned in. I’ll order another but it won’t arrive until I get back from Colorado
Saw a PT again yesterday for an issue unrelated to swimming and in response to a question about the difficulty I have had with the 2 beat kick she indicated that both my quads and hip flexors are very tight-without going into a lot detail this makes it quite difficult to fire the leg from the hip and to achieve the position desired for the kick-having the leg to kick next above the other other leg as it prepares to kick. I’m out of the pool until next week as I’ll be in Colorado but she gave me some exercises to start stretching these tight areas. Getting my legs to ride behind me and assist in rotation has been a huge battle and I am seeing progress, but man what a struggle.
I had a chance for a brief workout while in Colorado and got my wife to do a very brief video and there go my legs again-splaying sideways-less than before,but still a good ways to go to produce a nice two beat kick. I returned to Eugene and had a workout swim that focused on relaxing my kick using the snorkel. The timing definitely feels better but it’s still an effort to calm my legs. I need to really develop the muscle memory and confirm that my legs are staying in my slipstream.
If your brain is still not used to stabilizing everything from the center, then this would keep triggering the appendages to step in to help.
On deck, there’s some tests we can run on your core/pelvis stabilization and strength to see how that may be affecting your control in the water too. When we meet next week I’ll pull a pad from the gym onto the deck and we can examine some things before jumping in the water.
Thanks Mat-I’m sure there is something like that going on, I’ve been working at this for too long. When I played several ball sports I was pretty coordinated and also had little trouble with the movement patterns needed for climbing but this kick business has been incredibly difficult for me. I’m seeing a PT and core issues are on the table so hopefully I can get some help there as well. Can you remind if my lesson next week is on Wednesday or Thursday-either day at 11 works for me.
Wednesday works for me, but if you need to switch it to Thursday just let me know. Two days of work with the snorkel and I had a friend do a few videos and I have been able to calm the legs and keep them in the slip stream with the snorkel and breathing every two or three strokes. Adding breathing makes it difficult but it’s doable, I just need lots of focused practice and maybe some core work as well. The timing is better with the snorkel and I always feel rushed when I add breathing I feel like I don’t have enough time to get a breath-the leg driving the recovering arm really wants to fire. At any rate I’m not as discouraged as I was after viewing the videos taken in Colorado and it seems that progress is possible I’m just going to have to be very deliberate about it.
Nice lesson today, I feel like I’m finally making some progress with the kick and keeping my legs in more of a slipstream behind my body. I went to the pool this afternoon to work on a few of the things we discussed during the lesson. Working on the recovery went well with the snorkel and I felt like I was able to work on stacked legs and the recovery at the same time and swam some laps that felt very, very nice. After the snorkel work I worked on adding breathing trying to keep head turned properly when breathing left. This is more challenging and I did a number of four/six stroke drills before moving to whole stroke swimming. This will be a work in progress but it was feeling better toward the end and when I can manage to control the recovery I do feel more stable when I breathe left and I may even be able to control that leg in time and hopefully the stretching will help as well. Thanks for the lesson and if you would remind what you put in your goggles to keep them form fogging up.
Pool Session – July 24
We first discussed role of hip flexor mobility and glute strength in helping hold the CBF.
Since mobility improvement takes so much time (exercises 4 to 6 times a week, holding strengths position properly, for 3 to 5 minutes, can take up to 10+ weeks for measurable increases) we were looking for a cue to help improve foot position and keep it more stable.
I recommended that you focus on pulling the lower leg in, since the two legs have to pull against each other to hold their position.
Think of stacking the feet, with upper thighs touching, knees almost touching.
While you were swimming I observed that both feet at stacking but R heel does come to as high of a position at the surface as the L heel does.
And, there is still a bit of a R leg flare, legs scissoring on that L recovery swing.
We added a band around the feet to offer some form of feedback on where the feet are going – this may help you first sense where the feet are, and which direction their are pulling, relative to each other. And you may work on firing just the kicking foot, without spreading the opposite foot to make it happen.
We moved to the front to see what might be causing the instability that triggers that R leg flaring.
We checked the L side breathing head turn. It is possible you need to turn the head a bit more perpendicular to the direction of travel – you may be looking slightly ahead. The cue to help may be to ‘find air in a pocket by your shoulder’, but without going too far in that direction.
It was obvious that there is a bit more tilt upward of the head on the L side breathing position. The upper head may be out of the water as much as 1 inch more than the other side. You may work on pivoting at C1 vertebrae, tilting upper head down, chin upward just a bit as side of the face breaks the surface.
What was more compelling to examine what the asymmetry of how the arms exit the water to start the recovery swing.
The L elbow is being pulled upward out of the water, coming behind the plane of the back, and more so on the breathing stroke. So, you need to adjust how the arm is finishing the underwater pull, then how it exits the water, especially on the left side.
Finish the underwater pull with the hand sliding down the thigh. Pause in Skate for just a fraction of a second, with that arm snug against the body, most streamlined it could be. Elbow should still be underwater.
Then nudge elbow out (nudge your buddy!) directly out from the side of the body. Do not try to make it clear the water first. The rotation angle of the torso should have the side of your body pointing at an angle out of the water anyway, so if the elbow is following that plane, it will gradually rise out of the water too. The elbow nudge means the elbow leads while the hand lags behind.
Make sure that lead arm on the opposite side is on a wide track, extending fully, with hand at proper target depth. This lead arm provides the counter balance to the swinging arm. The two must work together to make it easier for the internal torso muscles to do their stabilizing work.
Baby shampoo for the goggles!
We’re not yet sure what is the main cause of that R leg flaring out and flaring prematurely on the L recovery swing and especially the L breathing stroke. But as you cycle through these correctives above, you may notice which have more of an impact on reducing that (what we interpret to be a) instability reaction of the R leg. Working on the head and exit focal points in the front while having a band on the feet behind may provide more apparent feedback on any effect.
Glad you enjoyed all those fine details.
You really are swimming so nicely! Be proud.
Thanks Mat, appreciate the analysis and the support.
Working hard on that recovery-lots of laps with the snorkel-it has seemed comfortable to work ont he recovery and keeping legs in line, generally with thighs touching and even though the right foot isn’t as high as the left it’s feeling quite stable during the recovery with the new trajectory of the right arm. At times the rhythm feels quite good and like I’m getting a good deal of movement for not that much effort. I’ll keeping working on this and then add breathing in the next few workouts.
I have a plan that I’ll be trying out over the next few workouts to see if it helps me move the stroke rate out while holding form.
In addition to a warm up and some drill work on breathing-head down, particularly on the left side, I’ll be doing the following as part of my mainset.
Start with TT at 1.6
Swim 100 with snorkel-concentrating on two focal points-recovery with elbow moving out, not up and relaxed kick timed with extension and keeping legs in the slip stream.
Repeat without snorkel.
Drop TT .05 and repeat.
Each 100 will allow me to dial in those focal points and then try to hold when I transfer to breathing with whole stroke.
The goal is the continue on down to 1.20, but if things get shakey before that point I’ll stop there and work on repeats until things improve. I plan to use SPL and a subjective sense of my performance as a metric.
Should be fun to see how this goes, I may be working on this for a while.
I like that plan. You are in the right spirit of how to do this. Such experimentation is the nature of good self-coaching.
I started the sequence last night at 1.60, a pace that’s slow enough that it’s almost hard to execute. It requires that I be quite deliberate or things feel very awkward. I soon hit 1.5o and for whatever reason just decided to keep swimming on the snorkel round because I felt a kind of a groove-it was slow and still a little awkward but there was a rhythm to it and I had the strange sense that I had finally been able to really release my neck and let the water support my head. This is a very basic proposition in TI and I’ve tried to release the tension in my neck but it’s been difficult. I decided to just keep going with the snorkel to dial in that sensation at 1.5o and wound up swimming 1k at that pace very comfortably with my neck staying relaxed most of the time I was still able to attend to my recovery and kick timing as well. I finished by bumping the TT down to 1.40 and swimming another 500 without losing that sensation of a really relaxed neck. I have no idea why it’s been so hard to release that tension and I’m sure I have managed to do so at times but it’s been difficult to sustain. The real challenge will be to add breathing and sustain that feeling. I think sometimes you need to be able to really relax to experience some things and swimming at 1.5 with some other issues under control allowed me to do that.
Enjoyed the recent post on learning, particularly as I’m still working on developing my own approach to the process of learning to swim.
I followed yesterday’s workout with another 2k swim, 1k at 1.5 and then 1k at 1.4. Both were done with the snorkel. I don’t think I’ll become overdependent on the snorkel, and it’s really helping me develop a sense of what muscles I need to use to create good stability and timing in the kick , rotation and stroke. Perhaps some folks figure this out relatively quickly, but for me it’s been a real journey and adding breathing will bring a new challenge (in the sense that I would like it to feel as good while breathing as it does with the snorkel). Today it was easier to keep my legs counter balanced and not over eager to fire and it was also easier to keep my neck truly relaxed. Elbow out recovery is becoming more consistent as well. Several times at 1.4 I hit this really nice rhythm that felt great and very easy to maintain. I did the whole workout continuously and felt great afterwards. After a bit more of this sort of slow focused work I’ll add stroke counting and begin to add back breathing
Yeah, your process sounds good. The kind of strokes you can achieve with the snorkel can be a reference point, and standard to set, for when you add the Rhythmic Breathing back in. The increased challenge you feel is the obvious indicator that the turning of the head is causing other body parts to deviate from your ideal. Your nervous system is building a strong preference for this ideal and will be more sensitive to slight deviations, and you will be motivated to identify and correct them!
I am glad to hear you are discovering more relaxation in the neck. It brings up a curiosity for me…
One thing to point out about the snorkel, if you haven’t noticed this yet – the submerged air-filled portion of the snorkel pushes back up against the face a little and may make it harder to keep the head in the complete spine-neutral position it would be in if one were doing the ‘weightless head’ focal point in Superman. Because of this I find the snorkel a little uncomfortable myself. So, I am interested in hearing how you might compare relaxed head with snorkel to relaxed head without.
Another 2k plus session today. Feeling experimental I mixed up the format just a bit. Warm up.
Then 100 ws (with snorkel) then 100 wos (without snorkel) 5 rounds at 1.5 then
five more rounds at 1.4
The 100s without snorkel were all done breathing right-didn’t want to work the difficult side yet. Breathing right things felt quite nice, good leg position, timing felt good, nice rhythm at times. Turning my head to breathe made it difficult to feel that relaxed neck position so I relied on my eyes-looking more down than up, working on finding a position that was comfortable and allowed me to maintain good balance. I’m hoping to get some video soon but things are feeling quite good. With the snorkel I got a really nice rhythm going on many of the 100s, the weight shift from side to side seemed well coordinated with the pull, but as always some video verification would be nice-it’s feeling easier and easier to hold that skate arm until the recovering arm enters and spears-the most difficult time is during the breathing stroke-challenging not to pull until head has returned to water, but as noted, it’s getting better. I ended with a 100 at 1.35 just to see what it felt like-this is where the work on speeding up stroke rate should be begin. I can hold on to the form I’m working on, but it’s definitely more challenging and difficult not to get a feeling of being slightly rushed. Just for fun I also did a 50 with the snorkel at 1.15 and it felt quit good-actually almost easier to keep my legs in line than at the slower pace, but I know things would fall apart if I tried breathing at that pace.
The turn of the head could be affecting the position of body parts, which requires the body to not react to the shift, but anticipate the shift and brace against it milliseconds before the shift takes place. That is an issue of timing and neural response.
And the turn of the head could be affecting the sense of orientation, even the sense of balance, which then the brain has to take a moment, and perhaps a slight struggle to sense where the body is at while turning and after the turn, and that subtle disorientation may cause both stress and hesitations in the movement pattern.
To work on the first one – you may do some reps with breathing where you are going to identify ways you need to consciously brace your spine and arm position and leg position in the moment just before turning the head toward air.
As your body gets better at bracing just before the turn, just before the threat to stability is encountered (‘feed-forward’ it’s called, versus feed-back), then you may notice your body can resume the movement pattern more quickly, more confidently as the head returns, because the body is still holding the stable position you left it in when you started to turn the head.
I thought I posted something here earlier today,but it’s not showing up-probably an error on my part. I worked on bracing when breathing left today-started by doing a leisurely 1k beathing right on the way down and left on the way back. Breathing right it felt good to brace and like it faclitted a smooth breath but breathing left it was a struggle to brace and keep that skate arm extended until the recovering arm enters the water-the catch and pull always seems early without a really intense effort-turning my head to breath must make me feel unbalanced with that right arm in skate. I tried to extend and hold but legs want to fire and feel quite uncoordinated-very different than when breathing right. My body really wants to come out of that right extension and not hold it while it feels quite comfortable to hold it in left extension. This probably relates to stiffness on my left side,when I rotate left my body really wants to unwind.
The 1k was still nice even if breathing left is still messy. After that 1k I worked with the TT and did about 6 100s with the TT set at 1.6-this slow tempo forces me to hold positions that are difficult when breathing-this is easy with the TT in the range 1.2-1.3, but at the upper end it lets me focus on stretching and holding the position that feels so awkward when I breathe. I should also note that breathing left is easier when I breath very three-it’s just breathing left that seems to lead to poor coordination. Just one more challenge.
That was a really good progression which isolated the trouble spot, making it obvious. The question is how much the careful swim training like this will improve that stability versus how much tissue work may still be needed. But the pool work can only help you.
Yeah, uncomfortably slow tempo work is really hard (good) work!
Thanks Mat-What a journey. I’m sure some tissue work will be involved, but I’m exactly sure how I’ll get it. It’s hard to describe the issue to a PT and there is no pain involved so several times I’ve gotten a response like, hmmm, not sure what that might be. My plan is to get serious about a mobility routine for hip and shoulders and to keep working on that slow tempo in the pool.
Today I did a 500 warm up breathing only right, well balanced, kick did not feel rushed and I was able to maintain that light thigh contact following each kick that puts the leg to kick next in the right position. The right foot comes higher,but that is also my tight side and is just a bit harder to hold in that position, but I’m finding that leg position to provide a nice sense of balance, also with the thighs touching my legs don’t seem to feel the need to wind-up in order to kick.
After the warm-up I did a long snorkel drill working at very slow tempos-started with TT at 1.7o and swam 100 yard at each 100th on the way to 1.60. I can feel the core tension that tends to have me unwrap early (making the leg want to fire early) and that was much better today, so I’m optimistic that this drill with some flexibility/bodywork will get me where I would like to be. Following up on the warm up I worked hard to maintain that slight touch of the thighs putting the leg in counterbalanced position to lead the rotation of the hip without a fierce kick-this seemed to work well-after a few more workouts I’ll get my friend to do another video. When I checked SPL I was generally at 18/19.
Back in the pool after about a week out due to a family visit from my beautiful granddaughters-and-yep, another cold. We all got this one, but the little ones got it going. I’ve had three colds this year and every one of them was given to me by one of my granddaughters-ugh. The last two workouts have been easy as I’m still getting over that little bug. The first day I worked only with the snorkel going through the progression from 1.6 down to 1.2. I need some video but thins eel quite nice-I think my legs are staying in streamline and my extension is syncing with the kick quite well most of the time. I feel like the work at very slow tempos is great for building the stability I need when breathing is added. The second workout I added breathing and breathing right things felt very comfortable down to 1.3. Recovery becomes more challenging when breathing is added and when breathing left holding skate is still challenging but getting better slowly but surely. When that stability gets a bit better I’ll be ready to work on speeding up my turnover and get back to the 6×50 at 1.25 to 1.20.
I loved the TI post of a 2013 article by Terry that came in my email today. The article focused on the importance of a slow catch and its overall relationship to swimming speed. I’m not obsessed with speed (good thing in my case) but I related to the importance of work at slow tempos to improve balance and streamline while also working on speeding up the recovery or at least time the recovering arm is out of the water. I’ve been swimming a lot at 1.5 with and without the snorkel and I feel like it’s helping to stabilize my legs and improve my balance almost more than anything else I have done. I think some patience here will really pay off and I always include work at some faster tempos in the course of my workouts. I need to be more consistent about counting SPL as that is probably the best metric to evaluate the improvement in stability and streamline.
Just trying to get a good deal of pool time this week before the open water camp. The snorkel work seems to be making a difference in several respects-breathing every three at 1.30 now seems pretty comfortable and sustainable for more than a few lengths. Playing with the TT I worked on 25s at 1.1 and actually felt pretty good-not sustainable but the actual swimming felt pretty good. my legs seemed to trail and balance isn’t as much of an issue as the tempo goes up-I really like to be able to swim in a relatively relaxed manner at 1.2 or even 1.15 and that seems possible, it’s just a matter of removing more inefficiencies from my stroke. I swam twice yesterday and will do that two more times before camp just to get a feel for it-not tired today so that’s a good sign. Also wanted to note that yesterday during warm-up with the snorkel at 1.4 I hit a groove that felt great-no lag-continuous propulsion yet very relaxed-it felt so good my 500 warm up became 1k.
Was going to take a day off, but it was cloudy and the city outdoor pool was empty so I talked my wife into a swim. After a 250 warm up with the snorkel at 1.35 I did 3×500 at 1.35 breathing every three strokes. Several months ago sustaining at 1.35 was quite difficult and felt like the stroke was falling apart. I focused on the usual-holding that right skate, counterbalanced legs, quick sip of air and good strong expulsion. It’s always a challenge to identify places of tension, but when I find one and relax it makes everything feel easier. With three beeps I was close to 19 spl throughout. Some things that need lots of continued focus :
neutral spine-looking up even a bit increases tension,
counterbalanced legs-really noticed that when my legs were counterbalanced I was in better balance and it was easier to delay the kick until the recovery arm was in the water and extending;
Also on the legs-less tension is better-as balance becomes better I don’t need to use muscular tension as much to control my legs.
strong exhale-this really keeps the CO2 buildup feeling away.
Finished up with a few hundred yards of snorkel work at 1.1 just to get used to a faster tempo-this wasn’t hard to maintain with the snorkel, but would be with breathing added even though 1.1 feels pretty good for 25 yards.
I’ve been swimming very day this week but will only post a note on the short swim I did today. While watching video I realized my recovery arm was swinging a bit aggressively on the breath stroke cycle-it was more back than out to the side and definitely a bit different than during the non-breathing strokes. After a short TT warm up I focused on a good recovery during the breath and immediately felt more balanced. I was also able to recognize that if I really extended the skate arm and did a conscious set up it stayed in place until elbows were aligned or at least it felt much more like that. This is another example where less is more-aggressively swinging the recovery arm was probably putting me a bit out of balance resulting in the skate arm diving (particularly when breathing left). I worked on this doing 25s at 1.4 and it felt quite good. After camp I’ll do some TT ladders and 6×50 repeats at slightly faster TT rates and try to hold 18/19 SPL. And now it’s off to camp-yahoo.
I’m not sure how to make a post standout when you make as many as I do,but I’d like to remember this on as the day I discovered my lats. Using the full extension focal point that Mat discussed with me on the last two days of swim camp my lats seemed to wake up-I could actually feel them as I pulled along with the tension in my obliques-the extension really seems to be the key. When I also added the arm switch timing focal point my SPL dropped by two strokes from 18/19 to 16/17 at 1.35. Having used the TT for some time I’ve noted that at 1.35 my 25 time is almost always around 30 sec whereas today it was 24-25, which seems like quite a jump. It takes focus and energy (at least at this point) to get that extension so that wasn’t something I could sustain. At 50 yards my time was 53-54 so dropping over a longer distance. I was also feeling more of a rhythm with the arm switch timing, really feeling the rotational power a bit more than I ever had. Now I’m certainly not at the point where I could do any of this for 500 yards, I’d need to drop back to my relaxed slow turnover style, but it was exciting to see these leaps. Right now focusing on extension speeds me up,but for some reason it also makes pace control difficult and I wind up going a bit harder than I owuld like, I need to be able to execute that extension and switch timing at high and low intensities.
I’m going to need some time to get the metrics down for the sprint class-noting lap times while counting strokes and going hard all the while is going to be a real challenge. Perhaps at my next lesson we could work on that a bit (even though you did provide strategies within the lesson material)
Thanks Mat, it has taken a good bit of time hasn’t it. I still need to work on being able to extend and activate those lats without it causing a lot of tension in other places or perhaps it’s a little tiring just because I haven’t used those muscles much. I worked with the TT today to keep getting ready for the sprint workouts trying to identify a good SPL. I started at 1.3 and went to 1.6 by .05-started at 18 SPL and ended at 15. Going back down I held 15 SPL all the way to 1.35 and then slipped to 17. Following a suggestion from an older post of Terry’s I tried .9,.95 and 1.0-all felt very rushed and had me around 22-23 SPL. I want to do the sprint course mainly to increase my efficiency and work on my VO2 max a bit and to become more comfortable with a more rapid turnover like 1.2 or 1.25. My real goals are around greater distance-being able to swim 3K or more comfortably.
Hopefully Heather and I can get in some workouts together and work on this critical focal point.Short session
250 WU
10×25 Working on SPL
Push off, first stroke on three beep
1.3 (17), 1.4 (17), 1.5 (16), 1.6 (15), 1.55 (16), 1.50 (16), 1.45 (16), 1.40 (16), 1.35 (16). 1.30 (17)
Managed to hold 16SPL on the descent down to 1.35. Takes a good deal of focus and effort so not sustainable, but the extension is definitely helping to lower SPL.
10×50 at 1.3 holding 17 SPL
Cool down (can’ recall what I did).
Still searching for a pace that is comfortable with that extension. Doing better keeping head down and not looking ahead and turning head to side. I’d like to get a quicker breath without it speeding everything else up. Holding skate is going better and I returning my head to neutral before pulling.
I’ve been working a lot with TT, searching for that sustainable pace that will let me swim longer distances a bit faster. I’ve realized that my main goal is to be able to swim longer distances 2K, 3K somewhat faster than I currently do. I haven’t been able to find much info about how to set reasonable goals, perhaps that info is in the 1K and 2K programs. I was interested in the sprint class mainly because I would like to speed up my distance swimming. I’m off to Colorado about the time you get back from Turkey so if I return healthy I’d like to set up a lesson the week of the 22nd. Yesterday I swam a relaxed 1K with the snorkel at 1.4 and that wound up taking 25 minutes. I would like to get my 1K time down to 22 minutes or so and that doesn’t seem impossible but I’m not sure how to go about it. I think I’ll sign up for the 1K class and get started with that so we have some info by the time of that lesson in October.
With the whole winter ahead I may recommend that you work on power (sprint) work for 2 or 3 months. Then transition into a 1K program with that new level of power on board, 3 months. Then transition into 2K or 5K training in the spring. If we can see your 100 times come down well below 2:00/100m then that means you have a much better chance of coming to see a 22:00/1K (10x 100). More power means you have the muscle fitness to sustain higher moderate speed (distance swimming) with less effort. So, that would be a good foundation. You’ve got great streamline already. Time to build the engine on top of it.
OK, I’m happy to follow your advice but I’ll need a little help with the metrics when you return. Counting strokes on each lap and noting time will doing so seems pretty challenging. I guess with a bit of stop at the wall to note elapsed time I could manage it, but with a typical turnaround it seems near impossible. Maybe I’ll have to figure out my swim watch which I pretty much only use to count laps. I’d also like an idea of what “well below 2:00/100” is.
I think I shied away from the sprint training because slow and steady is my default mode ,but if I want to be less slow and still steady then the engine probably needs an upgrade. I hope the weather in Turkey is better than what we’re having here.
I reopened my 1K class, but you can just put that on hold while I get busy with the sprint training.
Thanks for getting back to me and safe travels.
I’ve read through the prep materials for the sprint class and I will get started very soon. I think I’ll try to get some video support for the test swims because the trickiest part of the metrics is timing each length or lap (SPL counting is getting to be part of my routine). The pace clocks are not at the end of the lane and it’s hard to get a decent look without stopping for several seconds and although I have a swim watch my vision with googles is not good enough to read the watch quickly. I’ll play with getting both metrics the next few times I swim. In terms of stroke mechanics I feel like I’m working on all of the ones that were identified so perhaps when I have my next lesson you could help me identify which are perhaps the most critical until then I’m going to choose : neutral spine, consistent extension with tippy toes, switch timing-maintaining skate. All that said, it’s off to the races.
PACE CLOCK
What I did was order a cheap, large digit kitchen timer from Amazon and put it in a watertight pouch (a ziplock would work) and then snuggle it in the end of one of my fins and position it right at the edge of the pool so that it will be right there for my eyes to see as I get to the wall and lift my face up to look.
RECORDING
Next time I see you I will give you a laminated sheet and a grease pen, or give you a waterproof notebook (and you can use a pencil) so you can make quick notes about things you measure in each repeat. You can scribble quickly during the rest interval. You just need enough scribble to jog your memory when you go to transfer it to a more formal note later on, if you want.
SPRINTING AND STROKE PATTERN
So, when we get into sprinting, there won’t be much bandwidth for foundational skills, because the propulsion skills (syncing body parts) will need most of that. But they will definitely be drawing from those foundational skills and other parts of your brain can keep an eye on those.
We’ll identify certain focal points for propulsion that you can cycle through, ones that will specifically help you protect and correct what most easily fails under high power and fatigue of sprint efforts.
You’ll have to get a sense of your recovery time, and maybe your body will tolerate 2 consecutive sprint workouts and then need a more restful practice the third session. And then we’ll have to get a sense of how many weeks in a cycle that your body can handle (intentionally stressing it up to a point) then recover for a week or so, before going for another cycle. Maybe 3 weeks and then a rest week? The rest needs to be just as quality as the sprint efforts, so you can get genuinely stronger over a few cycles.
The cycles need to be customized to you quite specifically. That’s why this course does not spell out a specific number of practices and cycles – it is open ended, intended for students who will listen and respond to body signals and needs, and design the plan according to just the balance their own body needs.
The Stage 2 assignments are meant to help you get started with approximate metrics (stroke count, tempo and rest intervals) and then experiment to fine tune those before getting into Stage 3. It is apparent that coach guidance would be helpful… but I give the option for folks to go through it on their own, if they like figuring this stuff out for themselves.
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