Glide
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1010 days
NotAsFast posted 14 weeks ago.
Its a good feeling having a break though like that. Now it is to figure out when you get that feeling. You mention every 3-4 strokes, if you bilateral breathe or breathe every two strokes, you may be rolling more on your breathing, and hence the better body position.
Makes you think more about body roll as well as actually getting your butt higher in the water.
Great breakthough. Keep it up.
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CadenceGuy posted 14 weeks ago.
Great work!! Sounds like your on your way to finding the 'glide' in the pool. +1 on the bilateral breathing. I bilateral breath every-other-stroke and it helps me out personally soo much.
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iamtb13 posted 14 weeks ago.
That's great!! Body position is the number one way to get "free speed" in the water. Swimming is all about the hips...keeping them up and rotating them well. Great job!
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FlashRedGLS1.8T posted 14 weeks ago.
As a person with swimming as my absolute worst of the 3 events, that's awesome!
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stewarba posted 14 weeks ago.
iamtb13 wrote:
Swimming is all about the hips...keeping them up and rotating them well. Great job!
+1 on the great job
I heard someone once say that swimming can be likened to a golf swing or baseball swing in that the initial movement starts from the hips and allows the torque from the hip rotation to help eleveate the stress on the shoulders and redirects it more towards the Lats. The Lats are a much stronger muscle group than the shoulders so you get more power and endurance this way.
Unfortunately I haven't mastered that yet!
Goals in writing are dreams with deadlines – Brian Tracy
2008 Sprint Tri A race goals
S: 500m in 10:00 – FS Stroke only
B: 22mph avg over course
R: 5K <= 25:00
Place top 50% for my age group
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Buckupnorth posted 14 weeks ago.
The "armpit" thing really helps! It made me use my lats more, instead of my shoulder! Some one also told me to keep one goggle in the water when you are breathing, so you don't over roll, if that makes sense or helps. There is nothing better than "getting it" with swimming:)
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323 days
cjhoffmn posted 13 weeks ago.
Thanks all. I'm really psyched to go to the gym tomorrow AM for my next swim. I do bilateral breath and think that in particular, it might be my rotation *after* my breath that was leading to the feeling. I'm going to really concentrate on this tomorrow morning and look forward to enjoying swimming more!
To tri or not to tri - that's not a question at all!
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Kwschs posted 13 weeks ago.
Thats great =). Keep up the good work, and good luck on your races!
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joetex23 posted 12 weeks ago.
Sounds like you're "pressing your bouy". When you visualize pressing your leading armpit towards the bottom of the pool, essentially you are putting more force on the leading edge of the imaginary fulcrum that is your lungs. Hence, the hips staying higher in the water. That's one of the most important factors in finding balance in the water through the Total Immersion system. Congrats on discovering it on your own! I'm still trying to master it.
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323 days
cjhoffmn posted 12 weeks ago.
I've had a few swims since then, and I'm getting better at this. I haven't read the TI system, but the idea of getting my weight towards the front of a fulcrum of my lungs is almost a perfect description of how it feels. It literally feels like I'm pushing my chest lower and raising my legs and when that happens, the whole thing seems faster.
I haven't made it feel as dramatic as I did that first day, but I think that might also be because I'm doing it a little more often. Although I'm no speedy fish in the water yet, I did just do a 500Y Time trial a full minute faster than I had previously swum my best 400Y time trial, and I didn't seem to be working nearly as hard.
I've also added a new drill that may be contributing towards getting this right. I've been sure that I'm raising my head to breath and probably lowering my hips - so I made up a drill, where I put my front arm out, roll on my side, lay down my head on my front arm, and only stroke with the other arm. I simply roll in and out of the water leaving my head on my front shoulder to breath. In order to get forward motion, I *have* to stay more up front, and it creates that same balance feeling. Funniest part for me was that I noticed last swim that I was passing other swimmers swimming this way... When I get the balance right, I really seemed to just glide along, rocking in and out of the water to breath - It also really accentuates swimming with my armpit toward the bottom of the pool.
Thanks for the encouragement, I'm feeling much better about my swimming now and looking forward to turning respectable times soon!
To tri or not to tri - that's not a question at all!
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75 days
Sportitude posted 10 weeks ago.
Hey all, the swim portion is my weakest link in all three disciplines. I have never been a strong swimmer as a kid and even now I feel like i'm not my best in the water. I feel like i'm sinking and/or dragging, and not "gliding" as I've read in the posts above. Are there any simple drills to help with form, or key considerations to think about while swimming? I read something about hips, is that the trick? Any help would be great!
http://www.thesportitude.com/ "The right attitude for every sport"
So I think I finally have made a break through on the swim. I'm not exactly sure how I did it, and I'm hoping I can repeat it, but... I've had about a week off transitioning from base to my plan leading up to this summer's A race. I had also not been in the water much near the end of my base training because of schedules. So I was a little concerned getting in the water for my first swim yesterday.
It was a short work out and I was concentrating on technique more than swimming hard. I was thinking about a recent post about rotating by thinking of pushing the armpit of my forward arm toward the bottom of the pool. Then all of a sudden, it seemed like my hips stayed up a little higher in the water and I got the feeling that a wave was actually pushing me along. It felt like body surfing - when the wave picks up your weight a little. It was a little weird at first, but after making it happen a few more times I realized it was the feeling of reducing drag and getting some glide.
I didn't manage it on every stroke, but maybe about every 3rd or 4rth stroke for a while. In particular, it seem that I was somehow getting my hips into a better position and instead of dragging through the water, they were floating on the top.
Sound like I found the glide?
To tri or not to tri - that's not a question at all!