Switch Drills and a Eureka

If I were Janice in the Friends TV series I’d be going “Oh. My. God.”

Previously I talked about not being able to do the Unco drill without fins. Today I watched the entire ten lessons of the Total Immersion Swimming: Perpetual Motion Freestyle in Ten Lessons DVD for the first time, instead of just watching where I am at the moment (Lessons 3, 4, 5).

Now I realize that Terry Laughlin is doing the same drill in Lesson 9, sans fins! Oh. My. Goodness. I would never be able to do that without some kind of aid. Or maybe I could. But definitely not now.

Something’s the Matter

First, what I have to solve right now is the dropping lead arm, the aching upper arms, the clenched shoulders.

I am not stroking right.

So I watched the above-mentioned DVD again and realized that from Lesson 3 (Breathing Skills) I jumped right into whole stroke, and the results are next to disastrous.

This, I felt, I did out of desperation. Since my group swimming lessons demand that I be able to swim whole stroke right from the get-go, I started stroking and propelling myself through the water with my arms, without even learning to switch and hold my lead arm relaxed and in place.

After watching Lesson 4 (Active Streamlining) of the DVD, I realized that before raising my arm to stroke I should be able to switch and breathe first.

The focus is on using weight shifts, not arm and leg movement, for propulsion. A hip drive should spear the lead arm forward. I needed to be able to hold my place with the lead arm and move past it with a weight shift. Whole Body Movement is the only way I could solve the aching arms and clenched shoulders.

So tonight I practiced the Spear-Switch drills in Lesson 4 and some of the switch with continuous breathing drills in Lesson 5.

I tried to focus as much as I could on keeping the lead arm relaxed and in place. And then before getting out of the pool (I only had an hour and a half today) I tried to do whole stroke and see if my lead arm was still dropping.

Eureka Moment

While I could not keep the lead arm in place as much as I wanted to, by the end of my practice period I was able to cover the 18m pool several times, without hyperventilating. I definitely did a lot better than yesterday.

One thing that made me go “Aha!” was the hip drive. I tried to incorporate it during whole stroke and oh-me-oh-my! I had much better propulsion. I covered the 18m pool faster than I ever have. And when I concentrated on relaxing my arms I was moving even better.

I had no idea the hip drive could make such a difference. I could literally feel myself moving forward, without pulling hard and straining my arms.

What a new discovery for me! Now I can see more light at the end of the tunnel: as long as I keep my arms relaxed (think marionette arms) and use hip drive on every stroke, I won’t tire too much. And if I concentrate on keeping my lead arm in place during breathing, I’d have a lot more support and be able to breathe better. No more huffing and puffing at the end of the lane. What bliss that would be!

More Practice

When I was doing the switch drills the children (middle and high school kids, members of their school’s swim teams) taking swimming classes on the other lanes were staring at me.

“What kind of a crazy drill is that?” they were probably wondering.

It’s a drill for middle-aged beginners, kiddos. And it works!

In a month you’ll see me in the fast lane 😉

Can’t wait for another practice session at the pool 🙂