FFTW Blog: STROKE CONTRASTS

[Adam Young]

A thread to discuss Feel For The Water Blog Post on "STROKE CONTRASTS".

You can read the original blog post here: http://www.feelforthewater.com/2009/12/ ... -with.html

[Nat the rat aka nuts]

Thanks Adam,
just read it and always enjoy it when we do it with squad. My focus will be on exhaling, bodyroll, catch and timing of breathing the next time I do it. Need somebody at pool side to tell me to work on it, otherwise the old habits are sneaking in again.
The rat

[mr muppet]

Well that was fun! Some interesting feelings going on:

1. Holding my breath - absolutely terrible! By holding my breath I found not only that I was running out of breath underwater and that when I did breathe it was a desperate grab and I had to stick my head out of the water for longer. As this was happening my stroke started to disintegrate and became scrappy.
Of course changing back to proper swimming felt much, much better. I did realise that when I swim normally I don't continuously exhale but tend to exhale on each arm entry. When I do continuously exhale however it doesn't feel any better than my normal swimming is this something I should focus on changing?

2. Swimming with feet pointing down was actually quite hard to do and I kept wanting to point the feet but it was very obvious that they were effectively brakes on my swimming - had some fun pointing and then dropping the feet and feeling me slowing right down.

3. Playing with head position was interesting but ultimately realised that my standard head position was right for me.

4. Swimming with a straight arm - this worried me a little bit as with the others the difference was staggeringly obvious but with this it didn't feel terrible. This makes me wonder whether I get it wrong normally. I'm pretty confident that it's not a fault and think that I was perhaps just being a little dense during this 100m! Maybe I need to 'cock' my wrist a little earlier and in a more pronounced way - I'll have a play with this - any drills I could play with to achieve this?

5. Swimming flat felt terrible and I just wanted it to end as soon as possible!

Overall however, definitely a fun swim set and one that got me thinking about the breakdown of FS in a way I haven't done for a while. Thanks for the set!

Muppet

[Adam Young]

Hi Mr Muppet, glad you enjoyed the session!

When I do continuously exhale however it doesn't feel any better than my normal swimming is this something I should focus on changing?

What breathing pattern do you use at the minute? Constant exhalation is a good habit to get into, it's more efficient so it allows you to breathe less often (breathing always adds drag, so you're faster breathing less often). Also, exhaling more makes your torso less buoyant which means it sits a little lower in the water, this helps keep your legs up and so reduces drag. You might not perceive these benefits immediately but they are there.

Swimming with a straight arm - this worried me a little bit as with the others the difference was staggeringly obvious but with this it didn't feel terrible. This makes me wonder whether I get it wrong normally. I'm pretty confident that it's not a fault and think that I was perhaps just being a little dense during this 100m! Maybe I need to 'cock' my wrist a little earlier and in a more pronounced way - I'll have a play with this - any drills I could play with to achieve this?

This is interesting for you then. Most swimmers do swim with too straight an arm at the front of the stroke during the catch, pushing down on the water rather than bending the elbow and pulling it back. I think this is a big clue that improving your catch is something you need to work on. More info: www.swimsmooth.com/catch.html
Sculling drills and doggy paddle drill are classic ways of developing this elbow bend and an improved catch.

Cheers,

Adam

[mr muppet]

What breathing pattern do you use at the minute? Constant exhalation is a good habit to get into, it's more efficient so it allows you to breathe less often (breathing always adds drag, so you're faster breathing less often). Also, exhaling more makes your torso less buoyant which means it sits a little lower in the water, this helps keep your legs up and so reduces drag. You might not perceive these benefits immediately but they are there.

I first started focussing on breathing a couple of years ago with a 'bubble, bubble, breath' approach which I found V helpful in giving me the cue to breathe out (simple things for a simple mind no! ) It definitely takes a lot of concentration to do continuous breathing and it goes as soon as I start to think about something else, especially in tough sets.

I think this is a big clue that improving your catch is something you need to work on.

Indeed, if it's not being presumptuous, could you have a look at some footage, albeit two years old and see if I'm write about the feeling of needing to cock the wrist much earlier?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV0LCfqsNbM&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpIZ2RXYj7w&NR=1

These two foci could help me in structuring my 'extra 2' sessions a wekk.

Thanks again for the help,
Mike

[Adam Young]

Hi Mike,

No problem!

Do you see how you hold your breath underwater, no bubbles?

Your hands are getting a little near to the surface there and so it's dropping your wrist a touch. Cocking your wrist will help a bit but also you need to be a touch deeper. If you look at Mr Smooth he's a little deeper than yourself, you hand would be near the surface in this position:



Correcting that will help you improve your catch.

Adam

[mr muppet]

Dear Adam,

Deeper catch it is then and more bubbles. My mantra must change from bubble bubble breath to:

I'm forever blowing bubbles,
pretty bubbles in the WATER,
they fly so high, nearly reach the sky
then like my dreams they fade and die.
Fortunes always hiding,
I've looked everywhere,
I'm forever blowing bubbles,
pretty bubbles in the WATER!

Muchas gracias,
Mike