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April 02, 2007
I finally get it!!!
I've been wrestling with swimming for oh, about 4 and 1/2 years now - true, I am getting slightly faster, but since I started at a glacial pace, I'm still pretty much "back of the pack". I've bought and read books, read/watched the Total Immersion book and Video, had three different coaches work with me, and still, 2 minutes per hundred yard. I know, in my current level of fitness, I SHOULD be able to be down close to 1 minute, 30 seconds per 100 yard.
I watched a new video this weekend, that shows Olympic Gold Medalist Bill Kirby demonstrating proper swim technique. I watched the video several times over the weekend, and really tried to sort out what was different between his form and mine - and suddenly it came to me. Bill was making an effort, on every stroke, to raise his shoulder out of the water on his recovery. I've known every since reading the TI stuff that you are supposed to rotate your body to make it more efficient - and I would rotate every 4th stoke, when I took a breath. But, the other three strokes I was dead flat in the water, making me much less hydro-dynamic.
Watch the video here
I practiced this technique in the pool this morning, and what do you know - it works!!! Even though it was pretty new to me, it felt really really good. I was also able to watch a good swimmer in the lane nexto to me, and he was doing the exact same thing.
My sets went really, really fast - and even my sprint work felt really good with my new technique.
Hopefully this will be a major piece of the puzzle - to help me move from the back of the pack, at least up a little closer to the middle of the pack.
Posted by Dennis at April 2, 2007 10:39 PM
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