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2012-11-14 2:35 AM

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Subject: The GatorDeb Swim Discoveries Thread

Decided to just make one and bump instead of starting a new thread each time

My tri coach is a freaking genius.  We were doing weights about a week ago and she had me do this exercise where I started in a plank position with arms extended then twisted first left, then right, reaching up with the hand.  She reminded me to twist my feet also while keeping my legs straight.  She said I was doing it to help my swimming technique.  This was around 8a.

Fast-forward to that night (last week Wednesday) and I had a ooooohhhhh moment and loaded up Mr. Swim and lo and behold your feet are supposed to rotate when you swim.  I didn't know that, I thought only your upper body rotated.

So I've made a few changes:

*  "Plank from side to side" when I swim - I think back to the exercise and keep the whole body in a straight line as I rotate the whole thing, feet included.
*  I've started to do a 3-beat kick, getting into the rhythm of it, kick, kick, kick/breathe, kick, kick, kick/breathe.  Now that I've synchronized my kicking with my stroking, I've found that if I increase the frequency of my kicks it speeds up my stroking
*  Make sure the front arm is straight to get the most out of the glide.

Along with everything else, of course, but those are new additions.

Had a warm-up and surprised myself with a 4:31 for 200 or 2:15 pace.  Last week I did my timed 1000 at a 2:30 pace.  I can now hold 2:20's for 100 easily.  I've had ONE sub-2 100, 1:58, and a handful of sub-1 50's but I can easily do sub-30 25's if I sprint it.

I "learned how to swim" (i.e. I knew how to swim, but not HOW to swim) in late December 2011, early January 2012 with 4 lessons with another coach, then swam by myself, then started group lessons (small group, 3-5 people at a time) with this coach in late May 2012.  I was doing 3:00/100m at the beginning of the year and last year I was doing 1600m in 1 hour 5 minutes (that's over 4 minutes per 100).

Found the catch about 1-1.5 months ago.  Have to remind myself to kick with the upper legs instead of the calves.  It's a work in progress



Edited by GatorDeb 2012-11-14 2:39 AM
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