Swimming 'Eureka!'? 7/13

As I've mentioned in a couple posts over the past couple weeks, I've been trying to fix my swim technique - as I've determined that there is more to my being slow in the water than simply lack of muscle power.

In trying to analyze my technique, I've been on a bit of a roller coaster in terms of results. Initially, I started by doing the catch up drill, which really brought to light what it feels like to roll from side to side during the freestyle stroke. Prior to toying around with that drill, rolling more than I had always rolled seemed excessive. However, I was definately able to sense that there was less resistance - especially when the endless pool speed was cranked up pretty high. Then came a series of drills from the DVD that just concentrated on balance and honing the skills to roll from side to side.

So this past weekend, I went to the pool (the real one) to try some of this new stuff out. I was going to concentrate on really reaching far ahead with my hand as soon as it entered the water (to try and elongate the stroke), and I was also going to concentrate on making sure I rolled from one side to the other more.

Unfortunately, things did not go so well. I found that I became winded pretty quickly, and ended up reverting to my old style for the rest of the workout. It was partially due to frustration that I ended up leaving a bit earlier than I was hoping - I didn't even bother to tally up distance because it just didn't matter. One thing I did do before I left, though, was to count the number of strokes per length. In the 25 yd pool, my right hand entered the water between 11.5-12 times - equating to 23-24 strokes per length.

Later that day I went to the local book store and picked up a book on Total Immersion swimming. In reading various forums and such, it seemed like it was a pretty highly regarded method of swimming that primarily centered around the idea of lowering the strokes per length count. I spent a few hours Saturday afternoon reading it.

There were three main concepts that it presented that stuck out - one was the idea of 'pressing your bouy', another was what is referred to as Front Quadrant Swimming, and the last was the idea of using the body roll to generate the power to swim forward as opposed to the shoulders.

The bouy concept was brought up as a way to help convince complete non swimmers that they will not sink, but it also discussed how you can 'push' on it to make yourself feel like you are swimming downhill. This was an immediate attraction to me - as I've always felt my legs, due to my poor kick, were being more of a drag liability than a help. Basically, any kicking I've ever done was simply to try and keep them as horizontal as possible. However, if I could 'swim downhill' and raise my legs - then maybe I could reduce some drag in my form.

As for Front Quadrant Swimming - the basic concept here is that one of your arms should always be forward of your head. The reason for this is that a longer body induces less drag (think of throwing a football vs throwing a softball) - so if you are able to keep one of your arms outstretched in front of you at virtually all times, the 6' human body suddenly becomes more like 7'.

Finally, the use of the rolling action to generate power. Any time I've wanted to swim faster, I've had to really pull, which quickly wears out my shoulder muscles. Part of my old thinking was 'Well, if I want to get better, I'll just have to strengthen those muscles'. Yes, that can be partially true, but I had to face it - the shoulder muscles in a human body are just not nearly as adapt at inducing movement like the other muscles we humans have that actually are - like virtually all of them from the hips and below. The majority of mass in our bodies is tied up in muscles that are dedicated to movement - and now I'm trying to take these puny muscles near the top of the body and ask them to move me through a fluid that is nearly 800x more dense than air?

Today, I felt like it finally started to dawn on me. After some simulated swim strokes in the air, I found that I had been starting my catch immediately after getting my hand in the water - which was oftentimes just before my other arm finished its stroke. The way the timing of my arms worked, I was doing a poor job of making my body longer.

So I went to the endless pool for a brief trial of keeping my extended arm out just a little bit longer - consciously trying to keep from starting the pull until my recovering arm was at least past my head. This also had another effect - by doing so, the timing of the roll coincided with the beginning of the pull, which resulted in the roll providing propulsion. This critical timing was lacking when I was at the pool over the weekend and got frustrated - I was still generating much of my propulsion from my shoulders.

It is hard to say for sure whether this will do anything dramatic to lower my strokes per length - as I need a real pool to check that. However, it really felt like a couple pretty major things 'clicked' that can improve my swimming.