EZ Swimmin'

Slow easy swimming is the best way to practice technique. Recently, I have been working on hand entry. I’m aiming for a cleaner hand entry so that there will be less bubbles as I pull through the water. The less bubbles the more efficient the stroke.

My right hand entry is the one that I’ve been focusing on. I have an old habit of dropping the pinky side in first. To compensate, I’ve learned that I must make it feel completely opposite and aim for the feeling of dropping my thumb in first. By doing this, I will eventually train myself to enter correctly… which will be somewhere in-between.

Today I started easy with the Stability Snorkel. The use of a center mounted snorkel allows me to focus on technique without having to think about the timing, rhythm and rotation for the breath. This gives me the opportunity to work on hand entry exclusively, looking for the best way to enter with the least amount of bubbles. After I getting into a good rhythm, I remove the snorkel and add an additional skill… breathing.

Yes, breathing is a skill. When done correctly, we maintain good body position and balance, getting the most “bang for the buck”. In a previous post, Early Breath, I describe it in more detail.

I finished todays workout with easy swimming, concentrating on hand entry and the early breath. It seems to look better. All I need to do now is to keep practicing it slowly until it becomes second nature.

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Turnin'

The Turn

We aim for fluidity in a turn. The movement should appear as one continuous motion with the end result of changing 180* in direction. Here’s some of the fine points.

• get as close to the wall as possible. aim to have your feet directly on the wall as soon as you flip 180* so that you can push off immediately.

• when flipping over, your feet should go straight over your head.

• as your feet hit the wall, you should be in a squat position with your back flat as if you were lying on the floor and upper body and arms in streamline position.

• as soon as your feet flip over 180* you should push off immediately, like jumping from a squat in streamline. even if you find that you are a little too far away from the wall, just pretend the wall is right there and push off. eventually you will learn to judge this distance and get it right. in the video, I was a little long on the turn and could have been closer to the wall.

• after pushing off, do at least one dolphin kick off the wall before trying to rotate over to your stomach.

• keep a tight core from the squat position through the breakout of the stroke.

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Taking Stock

We’ve been able to swim regularly for the last few weeks. It’s a blessing with mixed feelings. I do need swimming for health and fitness, but the benefits towards mental health outweigh the physical benefits. Knowing this I try to keep a positive attitude with our new culture of swim reservations and the limited access that it entails. Mostly, we are grateful to be able to swim and to have reconnected with a swim community that we have been absent from for too long.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve managed a few short workout sets, a lot of drills and easy swimming, and a few short swim tests just to see where I’m at. I’m getting a better feel for the water and inching closer to where I once was. I’m not sure how long we’ll be able to sustain this under current circumstances. So, we’re trying to take it one day at a time.

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Today I did some freestyle pulling with fins as a combination of easy swim, scull and a fast 50. I like pulling with fins because it does not provide the buoyancy of a pull buoy. This requires you to engage your core for better balance and rotation. I also kick off the walls, working on streamline and building up the kick. As soon as I breakout and start a stroke, I stop the kick and focus on the pull. Pulling with fins is also a lot of fun and a way to get the feeling of fast swimming! The fast ones were within 1 sec of where I once was… so, not too bad for a few weeks of work.

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I just recently started to work in a few drills and very short swims with fins. This is a great way to ease into the rhythm of the stroke. One of the drills we call “Stone-skipper”. It’s a way to break up the stroke into two parts… the recovery phase and the pull phase with a long gentle glide in-between. It’s great for rhythm and timing. I also did a dolphin kick breaststroke. This also helps with the rhythm and timing of both breaststroke and fly.

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A 50 yard sprint kick with fins is another thing I like to do to gauge where I am at. I was surprise to find that I’m within a second of my best time here as well… very happy with that! 💪🏽

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Core Connection and Body Position

Core connection and body position are essential for balance and easy power. Some of these drills come from the University of Arizona in Fast Lane Freestyle. This video gives excellent instructions and tips on many essential drills with world class swimmers demonstrating technique. The Elevation and Bow Drills are two that I do regularly. They are also the foundation for all the other drills from UA. The idea here is to hold a body position at various points of the stroke to gain better balance, strength and understanding of how to move through these points while swimming. A snorkel is the one essential tool for these drills. It allows us to hold these positions without being interrupted by the breath. Finally, the kick. If you do get to watch Fast Lane Freestyle, you will find that all these drills are kick heavy. The kick is the anchor to our stroke, giving us something to leverage against and provides us forward momentum.

• Elevation Drill- bottom arm relaxed at your our side, top arm with finger tips to elbow in the water, bicep just out of the water, and elbow near the top of your head. In this position the elbow is above forearm, forearm above wrist, wrist above finger tips.

• Bow Drill- bottom arm reaching forward about 10 inches below the surface, top arm with hand held just before the entry point about 10 inches above the water.

• Rotation Drill- a very slow and deliberate freestyle stroke with a body position pause into a quick, snappy rotation.

• Easy Swim- put it together and stretch it out, maintain a quick and snappy rotation.

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Early Breath

What is an early breath… and why?

Breathing in Freestyle is the one point in the stroke where most swimmers fall out of alignment, no longer balanced with their bodies in that perfect line. It happens a lot and to almost everyone. As I’ve mentioned in Rotation Drills, the snorkel is the best tool for training with, whether it’s hard sets or drills.

But back to breathing. Most swimmers tend to take a long breath that follows their recovery arm from exiting the water to reentering the water. I like to call this “breathing with your hand” because one watches the full recovery stroke while breathing. This way of breathing causes many problems with balance from front to back as well as side to side. When this happens, swimmers compensate in ways that make swimming inefficient.

An early breath is taken much earlier in the stroke than described above. It also allows us to keep a much better “line” with our bodies, giving us more power with less drag. It’s about efficiency. As swimmers, we want to get as far as we can, as fast as we can with the least amount of work.

The timing for an early breath is like this: the breath should be taken at the peak of our rotation on the breathing side. This is just before our recovering hand exits the water. The breath is a quick sip of air so that we can return our head before the recovery hand enters the water. At the same time that we return our head into the water, we should be seeing the beginning of the pull from the hand on our non-breathing side. This will take some time to get used to, but give it a try. Once mastered, you will find that the breath is quick and easy. Your breath will be lower in the water so that one goggle is underwater at all times. Most importantly, you will find that your swimming will be much more effective, getting more bang for the buck!

btw… can you spot my breath? what side am I breathing on?

Go Swim has a video with Scott Tucker. In that video there is a section titled Hide the Breath. You need to have a membership at Go Swim, but this is great footage of an early breath with tips.

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The Fifth Stroke

In order to become a contender these days, you’ve got to have an incredible underwater dolphin kick and streamline. I’m not even close to that league but I still try to be the best that I can. Here’s some great videos from The Race Club showing how it’s done with some tips… Butterfly with Roland Schoeman and UDK with Olympic Swimmer Marcus Schlesinger

We would like to thank Barry and Sue for our swims today!

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Kick like Thunder

It’s all in the kick!

The kick is the foundation to a good stroke. It gives us leverage for the rotation and the power in the pull. These ideas are not new and I certainly did not come up with it. If you look at the many videos from the great world class coaches you will see that they all discuss this. It may not be the same exact words, but these ideas are all in there. If you get a chance, watch Fast Lane Freestyle with University of Arizona swim coaches; Frank Busch, Rick DeMont, August Busch and Greg Rhodenbaugh. This is where Frank Busch talks about a great kick as setting up body position and Rick DeMont talking about the kick is the anchor for leverage in our stroke. As Coach DeMont says, “Kick Like Thunder.”

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Rotation Drill

There are many drills designed to help with core connection and rotation in freestyle. In this video I’ve combined many aspects of these drills into one. It’s basically a very slow and deliberate freestyle stroke with a body position pause into a quick, snappy rotation.

If you had to choose only one piece of swimming gear, what would it be? I’ve been asked this question a number of times and my answer is without a doubt the center mounted snorkel. FINIS was the first company to introduce this gear back in 1995 and they are always improving it. The snorkel is the best tool for all of these drills and for doing long hard workouts. Why? Technique! It allows us to keep our heads centered in the optimal position for balance and rotation.

Breathing in freestyle is the moment where most swimmers fall out of alignment, throwing our balance off causing drag and slowing us down. This is why the snorkel is so great for technique.

Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

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a morning swim... a little test

In the past, the sets below were ones that I would do regularly as pull with fins.  I like pulling with fins for 2 reasons; 1) fins do not provide the buoyancy like pull buoys and require you to engage the core for rotation, 2) it’s fast and fun to kick off the walls with fins while working on the underwater streamline kick, but no kicking after the breakout.  

When I was last in swimming shape, 7 months ago, I would begin with a 32-31 sec 50 then work it down to a 22-21 sec by the last on.  Today was my first attempt at anything resembling a workout, managing only 5 rounds of the second set.  I think I’m about 4-5 sec slower… oh well, got something to work on!

10 Rounds: Total 500 yards

• 50 pull with fins @ 1:00, descend effort by 1 sec/50

10 Rounds: Total 1000 yards

• 50 pull with fins @ 1:00 EZ Distance Per Stroke

• 50 pull with fins @ 1:00 Descend Effort by 1 sec one even 50’s

Thank you so much Luke for the morning swim!

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