Master Class 1K Vidya.sp

[Mat Hudson]

Hi Vidya,

You may leave reports on your practices and questions, and we may discuss your progress in the course here.

[Vidya Spandana]

Hi Coach! Sounds great, looking forward to it. I’ll dig into the reading material today and attempt to complete one of the practice sessions/baselines today.

[Vidya Spandana]

Did the baseline swim today – stats are below

https://www.dropbox.com/s/70mogj4w9cdr0mv/2018-11-05%2019.48.02.png?dl=0

 

30min, 800 yds

[Mat Hudson]

Hi Vidya,

Good. Got your first baseline test done. Is it really a 20 yard pool?

You slowed down a little in the middle and then sped back up toward the end.

On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your perceived effort level at the beginning, middle and end?

And, along the swim, how did the sensations in your body change? Any tiredness, heavier HR or breathing demand, or discomforts… or did it feel all steady and good?

[Mat Hudson]

Will I see you tomorrow (Wednesday) 4:30pm at Turtles, or Sunday 11am?

[Vidya Spandana]

Hi Coach,

Yes, I just double checked with the pool and turns out it’s 20 meters, not yards but a yard is almost a meter isn’t it?

I got tired in the middle, and realized that I wasn’t really swimming with good form and then increased my focus and attention towards the end so the times improved.

I’d say my effort levels were:

Beginning – 6

Middle – 8

End – 7

 

Mostly my arms got tired, I think my form dropped first and then my arms got tired. There were a few moments in the beginning and at the end where I really really felt like I wasn’t putting much energy out and still feeling relaxed. My head also started hurting towards the middle/end and I don’t know if it might be my goggles on too tight or something. The tiredness in my arms also started messing with my breath. Or maybe it was the reverse. I think my breathing wasnt well paced and I’d feel out of breath a lot – my heart rate was higher but not at any levels that were uncomfortable. I think the out of breathness also contributed to my tiredness. The funny thing is, the slower and more measured my movements the faster I *felt* – not sure if I was actually faster. But I did move slower at the beginning and at the end so maybe that perception was true.

It didn’t feel as steady as I’d like, plus I would have liked to get to 1000. I just felt pretty tired and did t want to push myself since I wanted to try to swim every day this week.

Yes – I’ll be at the Wednesday practice, not on the Sunday one! I’m planning to do the first practice today – wish me luck!

 

See you tomorrow.

[Vidya Spandana]

Attention Practice 1.1

Here are stats from my first practice: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dxhxavkf5gij9ut/2018-11-07%2008.17.42.png?dl=0

Tried to relax and I think that paid off in being able to do 1000 without tiring. My arms weren’t nearly as fatigued as the day before.

I just tried to bring my attention to each of the focus points in the main sets while I did the 1000m – didn’t do any specific drills. The main set 1  allowed me to relaxe my neck/head more – lower into the water and that conserved a bunch of energy.

Main set 2 – was a bit trickier in that I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right. I did notice that my breathing was easier because I rotated more onto my back to breath – with a straight spine and that felt wonderful.

Main set 3 was the most challenging because I didn’t really know how to engage those muscles while still being loose enough to move – felt like I was being too stiff.

Overall, I think I’d like to work all three of these main sets again and get the attention points feeling totally solid before moving on to the next thing…looking forward to chatting with you this afternoon!

[Mat Hudson]

Pool Session – Nov 7

Tempo Practice 1.2

In today’s coach-guided pool session, I had you do the Tempo Practice 1.2 and modified the repeat distances, because this was your first time working with the Tempo Trainer.

3 cycles of 3 rounds (25 + 50 + 75)

Each cycle you had a different skill theme:

1. Head
2. Spine
3. Hips/Legs

Then for each round, within that cycle, you chose a specific focal point within that theme:

• Head – weightless head, aim tip of torpedo
• Spine – Shishkabob spine, Solid Torso Unit
• Hips/Legs – Tippy Toes, legs streaming behind

Personal Notes

You did about 1500 yards in this practice, and that took up about 80 minutes, with our occasional chats.

I set the Tempo Trainer to 1.35 sec tempo and that appeared to be comfortable for you during the entire set. You may use that as your starting tempo as you begin to use the Tempo Trainer.

I noted how much gap there was between some breaths, as much as 8 or 10 strokes. You may feel more ease when taking more frequent breathing pattern, every 4 or 6 strokes.

Some things to work on for increasing respiratory ease:

• Exhale underwater, from nose
• Make a partial exhale, about 1/3 of lung volume, not massive

You had questions about catch depth and shape:

• Imagine the ladder under your body – set the catch at a shallow depth, just below the body and hold that point (hold that depth) as you slide the body over and past it. This results in the arm having an ‘arm-wrestle’ bend at the elbow as it passes under your torso.

I made some observations on your recovery swing, which will be addressed in the weeks to come in the MC1K training plan:

• Need a bit wider elbow recovery swing
• Need a bit more elbow lead, finger drag behind
• Need a slightly wider entry point

You have done well quieting down the legs and keeping them streaming and slender behind th body. At some point in the next couple months, we need to train them in a new, supportive role – we should do a lesson on learning the Counter Balanced Foot Position and 2 Beat Kick.

I noted that you can repeat practices in the training plan if you like, if you feel it could benefit you more. You could either add another practice to the week, or stretch out the progression for more weeks if you like (because you inserted more than 3 practices in a cycle, which required more than a week to cover), but don’t skip ahead because the complexity and volume are gradually increasing from week to week. You can go through the progression slower, but not faster.

I commented that you may consider getting a long-lasting polyester swim suit that will hold up to chlorine for months, compared to the regular nylon suits which last weeks.

 

Tempo Trainer

You may pick up a Tempo Trainer (often we abbreviate that with TT) online on Amazon, at Swimoutlet.com or locally at JD Pence by the sw corner of the Hwy 217 / Hwy 26 intersection.

There are a lot of articles in the library about using a Tempo Trainer and working with tempo. Once you get a TT you may read Tempo Trainer Basics to introduce you to the device and to tempo training in general.

 

[Vidya Spandana]

Sweet, thank you for all these notes. Thank you also for the videos! I see what you mean about my lead arm going lower into the water when I breathe, definitely something to work on. I’d love to review these videos together in person actually and see what you noticed. I’ve never seen video like this before so I’m not fully sure about what to look for.

I ordered the tempo trainer, should hopefully get it this week! I did another practice last week for the distance practice 1.3 –

Thursday: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s722czqnmsfnoyr/IMG_2066.JPG?dl=0

and one today for the attention practice 2.1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4oo6pgl1vqndqkk/IMG_2067.JPG?dl=0

The practices from last week are feeling more solid this week. The skate-hand position felt pretty good today — I am definitely not consistent with my hand positions so thats something to dial in. The leg alignment felt better/easier, and when I engage my lower belly/align my hips to shoulders as I pivot from one arm to the next, the legs felt more naturally in alignment. The turns were the hardest. I didn’t really get to actually go full speed towards the wall, either I forgot and slowed down or really couldn’t re-program my mind to keep going fast towards the wall. Will focus on this one tomorrow. I also felt a bit more comfortable going 1000yards today, I did take breaks but I’d like to work towards a good pace to complete a 1000 without any breaks.

Also, I will be attending the 4:30pm practice this Wednesday.

[Mat Hudson]

Good report. This leaves me some ideas for what to look at tomorrow.

I think we may work on stroke length, and stroke counting, to get familiar with how you use that for feedback and specific strength.

You’ll get to that continuous 1000 soon. You’re going about a process which will be building strength around very specific movement patterns so that achieving that 1K will be done a lot more smoothly (more efficiently) that you would otherwise.

[Mat Hudson]

Pool Session – Dec 5

I took an example of a Distance Practice (Distance 1.3) from your training plan to have you experience how to do that one. It also gave us the opportunity to gauge some things about how much distance per repeat you can handle and what kinds of failure appear. These will guide us in customizing your practices and identifying weaker points that your training can then focus on more intently.

I had you swim about 200 for warm up and then swim 4x 25 to count strokes and estimate a stroke count ‘N’ (SPL or strokes per length) that we can use for the main set.

You came up with 24 to 26 SPL, with a consistent distance for your push off and glide to that first stroke.

 

Main Set

Swim 4 rounds of the following set, one round for each focal point:

• 2 cycles of ’50 + 75 + 100′
• Count strokes
• Aim to maintain N SPL or less than N
• Rest about 10 seconds between repeats

Focal Points

1. Wide tracks (lead arm on Skate)
2. Fully extend into Skate (extend from wrist to ankle)
3. Swing elbow wide on recovery (go wide at the exit!)
4. Drag the fingers (or ‘paint a line’)

 

Some observations

You seemed to have a harder time holding SPL on the third and fourth lengths, so we noted a type of failure. The next step is to consider what the cause of that failure was: attention failure, control failure, muscles tired, breathing hard, etc?

It seemed to be a neural failure (attention and/or neuromuscular) – attention and control are like muscles too, in that they need to be conditioned to stay strong and consistent. They tired out too, and it often the first limiting factor we work on.

I had you spread your recovery arm even wider, and especially focus on sending that elbow wide right as it exits the water – do not bring it up, behind your back (recall how I held the boogie board against your back as a barrier).

You noted how extending into Skate was related to the recovery swing, freeing that part up to move more freely, with more momentum. Good! Appropriate tension on one side permits relaxation and smoother movement on another.

 

[Mat Hudson]

Pool Session – Dec 9

We decided to repeat the same kind of Distance Practice you did last time, to continue with the use of stroke counts as feedback on the effect of your focal points and fitness progression.

 

Main Set

Swim 4 rounds of the following set, one round for each focal point:

• 2x 50 + 2x 75 + 1×100
• Count strokes
• Aim to maintain N SPL or less than N
• Rest about 10 seconds between repeats

Focal Points

We chose to focus on the Recovery Swing, according to the topic of Week 3 of the MC1K practice plan:

1. (upon exit) elbow swings WIDE
2. send the dot (on the elbow) forward (versus ‘drag the fingers’)
3. keep shoulder internally rotated

 

We were working on making your recovery arm swing both wider, to the side of the torso, and having that forearm end up swinging forward, lined up on its track at entry. Your entry position was previously set up with a low elbow and forearm pointed inward toward the center line. Now, with a wider start of the recovery swing, an emphasis on pushing that elbow forward with forearm hanging passively behind – this urges an internally rotated shoulder, and brings the arm to a high elbow, straight-and-steeply aimed forearm at the entry moment.

Improvement to this recovery/entry shape and pathway will notice that you generate a bit more linear momentum through that arm swing, and have a bit more sense of acceleration when you slide that entry arm down into the water and slide into Skate Position.

[Mat Hudson]

Pool Session – Dec 12

This is the practice set we did this evening…

Swim 4 rounds of…

• 2x Swing Skate left
• 2x Swing Skate right
• 2x Swing Switch
• 2x 50 count strokes
• X 50 with Tempo Trainer at 1.60

 

Focal Points, one per round

• Wide lead arm + swing elbow wide
• Push the dot
• Swing the bag
• High elbow entry

 

Then swim 1x 100 with TT at 1.45 for each of those focal points.

[Mat Hudson]

Pool Session – Dec 19

Your Recovery Arm Swing looks better. You’ve been practicing obviously!

 

Some things to work  on this evening:

On breathing stroke, you may lower rotation angle in two ways:

• Hold wide lead shoulder to resist over rotation
• Be careful to swing elbow wide (out to the side) on exit rather than upward

And I observed that at the very finish of your extension, each hand is going too wide at finish, on both sides. You’re arm initially comes to a straight position, lined up with the shoulder, but then veers outward at the last moment.

Focal Points

• Straight track at finish of extension
• Keep shoulder internally rotated, on entry and extension (or keep elbow angled up and outward)
• On breathing stroke – keep lead shoulder wider (beside the head, not under it)
• On breathing stroke – (recovery) elbow exits to the side

 

Main Set 1

Swim 2 rounds of

• 3x 50 focal point A
• 3x 50 focal point B
• 3x 50 focal point C

Round 1 without Tempo Trainer

Round 2 with Tempo Trainer at 1.45 sec

Focal Points

• A – wide lead shoulder on breathing stroke
• B – swing elbow wide on breathing stroke
• C – straight extension arm at finish

 

 

[Mat Hudson]

Pool Session – Jan 9

Warm Up

6x 50 easy swim

 

Main Set

Swim 5 rounds of…

• 2x (25, 50, 75)
• Breath every 3 strokes

 

Focal Points per Round

• R1 sync entry + hip
• R2 sync breathing + entry
• R3 sync catch + hip
• R4 sync breathing + catch
• R5 sync entry + catch

[Mat Hudson]

Pool Session – Jan 30

You were ill last week, but it was good to see you return for this evening.

Since you asked about the legs and we had time at the end of our practice time, I introduced you to the Counter-Balanced Foot Position which is the preliminary step to developing the 2-Beat Kick. You seemed to have picked up on the foot position quite easily with the couple drills I showed you. Good job. You learn quickly.

Stick with drills and a few switches to make CBFP familiar and easily coordinated with rotation of your torso, then work on drawing that into your whole stroke swimming. Just work on putting the feet in position on each stroke, without thinking about kicking yet. Once that is established, then you can work on adding a little pressure to the downward press of the foot to start assisting with torso rotation. We can work on synchronization of the feet later and refine the leg motion further.

 

Main Set

Swim 4 rounds of the following sequence, with a new focal point on each round:

Swim 2x…

• 25 LEFT 1-Arm Swimming (with donut in lead hand)
• 25 RIGHT 1-Arm Swimming
• Use 3-Part Breathing as needed to make head return independent of arm swing

Swim 2x…

• 25 whole stroke, RIGHT side breathing
• 25 whole stroke, LEFT side breathing
• Try to breath every 4 strokes so you can compare non-breathing stroke to breathing stroke
• Use 3-Part Breathing as needed to make head return independent of arm swing

Swim 100 with breathing on every 3rd stroke

Focal Points

• elbow lead on recovery
• turn the head to air ASAP
• take a quick sip of air
• your choice

 

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