Private Lesson Dec 24

[Mat Hudson]

Pool Session – December 24

Improving The Catch

Today, we examined your catch, with particular concern for relieving strain on the left right shoulder.

Our goal was to improve the quality of the left arm catch so that it was sharing more of the load, and to improve your loading of the torso rotation, so that the smaller shoulder muscles were not doing as much of the pulling action as they have been. This will build a much more suitable, long distance swimming stroke pattern.

Focal Points we examined:

• Left catch – a more ‘shallow’ catch pathway (keeping hand closer to torso during catch/hold
• Right catch – ‘scoop’ water first, before pulling
• Both sides – keep forearm flat against the direction of force (directly backward)
• Both sides – pull with entire side of the body (emphasize lats)
• Both sides – apply steady pressure all the way through the pull
• Both sides – scoop-then-pull-with-side to load the torso

 

Practice Progression with Quantities and Qualities

We did a series of 14x 75 repeats.

On your way toward a continuous 1000y swim, your progressive objectives are:

• swim up to 14x 75, with as much rest as you need
• swim 14x 75 with fixed (limited) rest
• swim 14x 75 improving catch with focal points
• swim 14x 75 improving strong side breathing with focal points
• swim 14x 75 with at least 1 breath on weak side on each length, using same focal points

You may need to work on the exact same set for 3 or 4 practices in order to get to the point where you feel you have successfully accomplished the objective. Success is defined by reaching 13 to 14 of those 75s before you feel too much failure. ‘Too much’ failure is measured by reaching your standard of quality with the focal point for more than 40% of the strokes. You are aiming for consistency over all 14x 75. Failure could be provoked by either muscular fatigue or neural (attention) fatigue. Likewise, fitness is defined by both of these – your ability to maintain strength and your ability to maintain attention and your ability to maintain precision.

When you feel more fit in these ways, then you can increase the challenge by increasing the distance of the repeats, which also means reducing the frequency of rest:

• swim 10x 100 and follow similar FP progression
• swim 7x 150 and follow similar FP progression
• swim 5x 200 and follow similar FP progression
• swim 4x 250 and follow similar FP progression

It is possible that you will feel some breakthrough physically and mentally and might be ready to graduate to 10x 100 repeats sooner than later. When you feel that urge to try longer repeats, go for it and see what happens. You may be surprised you can handle more than you thought, or you will run into some form of failure and learn something new insights about your strengths and weak spots.

Does that outline give you enough detail?

 

[Jill Hummelstein]

So I notice my left leg/foot are not participating in the stroke. They drag and stray, while my right leg and foot help with stability, balance and, if I time the small kick/ankle rotation right, drive me into the extension.

I believe part of why I’m injuring my right shoulder is because I lose stability and balance and momentum on the right side when my left leg does nothing, nothing to assist. I might compensate in the loss of momentum and balance by pulling harder with my right shoulder muscles.

In today’s swim I began my warm up with fins. This gave my shoulders a break while I gathered evidence about what was happening with my ankle rotation, my kick and the timing of the kick.

I noticed my timing was good or the right, the ankle could rotate and there was no splash. The sense of going forward was spot on.

On the left my timing was off (the kick was right at the entry, not into the extension, or while I was flat), I was barely rotating my ankle, and I splashed with an uncontrolled motion upward that I did not intend. The leg was drifting all over the place after an ill timed kick.

Also there was a slight confusion or indecision in both legs: should I keep the legs separated; that is, always one leg slightly up, one leg slightly down, both compact, or, should I return the legs together, briefly, after a kick? I experimented with both ways.

After I took the fins off I tried to replicate the ease of the timing of the kick. The fins did help with figuring out timing. The exaggerated motion produced by the fins helps to transferred over the timing without the fins.

But the biggest way the fins helped was the feeling of purchase or push from the top of the foot and outer ankle across to the big toe. This push on the top of the right foot is what gave me stability and balance and drive. On the left foot there was no push. Just bubbles and slippage and a drift outward.

After a while I was able to get a feel for the stretch from the outer left ankle, across the top of the foot, to the big toe on the ankle rotation. A slight wap of the whole leg completed the kick.Balance returned. And stability. And drive. Problem somewhat solved.

I’m still experimenting with bringing the legs and feet back together after a kick versus maintaining one leg up and one leg down compactly. I like the feeling of the legs joining together after the kick but since it’s so unfamiliar to execute it throws the timing of the whole stroke off. Still, I think to draw the legs together after a kick feels very smooth and I’m going to practice that.

I know that cultivating awareness in my left foot is going to take some dry land training.There is restriction in the fascia. That particular corner of the body, the fascia feeding into the foot from the inner and outer calves takes a beating. I know how to restore ease of movement through Hanna Somatics.

[Mat Hudson]

A few years back I was bugged by the fact that my right foot kick did not feel as effective as the left. I did likewise and carefully explored how that ankle was working and realized it was not rotating internally as far. It took a few months to really retrain it to feel close to as effective as the left.

Fins for increasing awareness of the kick pressure is good too!

In my approach to the 2BK I advocate that the feet should make one smooth motion to switch positions into their opposite Counter-Balanced Foot Position (CBF) and then lock in this position, awaiting the next arm switch. Just as the front of the body is locked into asymmetric Skate position, the feet are locked into asymmetric – but counter-balanced – position in the rear. If one brings the feet back to the center after the kick motion: 1) the legs will sway side-to-side slightly as the rotational force wave drifts through them, and 2) the legs can more easily get confused as to which one is suppose to be where for the next kick moment. If you just finish the single 2BK motion, then both feet should be right in position poised for the next kick; no reason to move them anywhere. They are just as streamline in a ‘stacked’ and asymmetic position as they would be side-by-side, but they have the advantage of increasing stability of the rotated torso too.

That’s my argument in brief. Try these for more explanation:

https://dojo.mediterraswim.com/forums/topic/instr-counter-balanced-foot-position/

https://dojo.mediterraswim.com/forums/topic/instr-2bk-intro/

But, I do support you in experimenting. That is one of the best ways to understand pros/cons of each approach and be convinced of one or the other, by observation of cause/effect. I went through this process with the kick to come to my conviction about how to form the kick, though I state that there are a few options for the 2BK with pros/cons to each – you can see variations in Shinji’s, Terry’s or other models.

But overall, as you describe, you are looking for a 2BK that feels intimately connected to the hip rotation, that it feels like it is truly contributing to the rotation, not merely happening coincidentally.

[Jill Hummelstein]

Thanks for brilliant response, Mat. I look forward to seeing if my kick is coincidental to the  hip rotation,  or, if the kick causes the hip rotation, or,  the hip rotation causes  the ankle rotation.

I found a couple of other clues related to my shoulder pain. First, the pain has lessened considerably since the last set you gave me, coupled with Hanna Somatics. But working  methodically to build up stamina within 1000 yards, I still feel a heaviness in my shoulder and some soreness after a swim. Not during, but after. Every day mundane movements  cause more occasions for pain than swimming. The pain shows up in a complex that shifts, lately from under my armpit to my pec and collar bone. Now it’s in my acromioclavicular joint, the space right below the end of the collar bone and near the shoulder.

I saw a chiropractor today who did some neurological reprogramming and I feel like a new woman. Probably the most competent person I’ve ever seen (and he lives on Whidbey, swims in the ocean, does TI!, and told me within the first minute to read the Oxygen Solution.) All he did was very light taping, muscle testing and held my occipital bones. I believe that healing can be sudden and spontaneous, if you cultivate the space for it.

As for the other clue, today’s swim showed me I’m not rotating evenly in my hips. I rotate too deeply to the left and hardly rotate to the right. Because I feel slowed down in the right skate, I compensate by pulling too hard with my right arm.

In addition to a wandering left leg, I’m barely pulling my right hip back. There’s no left kick to drive my right side forward and there’s no torque from my hip to give any momentum to a right skate.

You’ve talked about firing all the side muscles, lats, obliques, ql’s on the pull. I’m seeing I need to engage my psoasis on the right to pull back my right hip. It’s hyper tonic, always tight and I saw today that I’m going to have to focus on evenly rotating my hips if I don’t want to hurt my shoulder.

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