13/2/07 @ Bukit Jalil
Coach Peh + Simon, Jeffrey, Christopher, Michelle.
3 x 100m warm-up [1:56-2:00+ - slow!]
1 x 100m 3/4 catch-up drill
1 x 100m catch-up drill (hands meet in front of head)
1 x 100m shooter drill
5 x 300m [7:00-7:07 - 1 min down on PB, but pace was very comfortable]
6 x 50m hard with paddles
4 x 50m hard w/o paddles [fastest 0:50]
1 x 100 easy cool-down
TOTAL 2,700m
For the last few weeks I have been quite distressed by the sharp decline in my swimming speed. A few solo drill sessions didn't seem to make much difference. After much thought I concluded that the decline co-incided with the time when I stopped doing drills during my weekly lessons, and that something was wrong with my left arm pull. So it was back to drills last night under Coach's watchful eye.
Problems identified -
1. Arm pull (S-pattern) is not pronounced enough. My left arm was in fact pulling towards my body instead of away (the 'S' was almost reversed!) at the start of the pull. Do shooter drills to fix this.
2. Recovering arm entry is too early, and towards an imaginary centreline instead of straight ahead. This is why my hand is entering the water heading downwards, and then moving up in the water as the arm straightens. The arm should enter forward of the head, as far forward as poss without locking the arm straight (i.e. should be slightly bent). Then start a strong pull, pointing fingers down by bending the wrist.
During my main set of 5 x 300m my technique felt much better, although this was not reflected in faster times as I was taking it really easy. My left shoulder will take a while to get back into the correct S pull.
However I did manage a 0:50 unassisted 50m hard towards the end, which was encouraging.
I read recently that swim training should be drill and interval based. I think that a lack of drills has led to a slow but continuous loss of technique that has gone unnoticed. But not anymore.
I really hope I can regain my Nov-Dec 2007 swim speed - and improve further - before A'Famosa towards the end of April. So Azwar and Simon have a good few more months before they need to "watch out" for me!
2 comments:
Careful with that "s" stroke - in Australia anyway, coaches haven't emphasised this for quite a few years:
"When your hand changes depth or moves laterally that's slippage—wasted energy. Focusing on an 'S' pattern pull creates slippage; pulling straight back in line with your shoulder/side is the way to go. Keep it simple. When you rotate your body to breathe, body position as related to your hand/arm changes and in fact this is your 'S' pull pattern."
Also the hand should not enter the water too far ahead of the head...
My swimming has improved heaps since I stopped worrying about the "s" shape and concentrating on body rotation and not dropping my elbow for a strong pull. Cheers Mel
wow - good info! thanks mel
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