Hi fellas,
I used to swim quite a lot when I was a kid, but that stopped 10 years ago. Now, I've hit the pool once again and I feel that after 100m, I'm already exhausted. I'm good at everything else: I play lots of basketball, some tennis, I hit the gym regularly, etc, so stamina should not be an issue. Perhaps it takes a while for my body to get used to swimming, I don't know. In the meantime, I thought maybe it's a technique issue, so I've uploaded two videos:
Front crawl: P9090025 - YouTube
Butterfly: P9090026 - YouTube
The one I really care about right now is the front crawl. I'm trying to get my bronze medallion and bronze cross, and the requirement is 600m in 18 minutes. I can do that at an abysmal 16 minutes. I need to get it down to at least 10 minutes.
I'll appreciate every constructive criticism.
Thanks
Parents
Former Member
OK, this would have kept me up all night, so I took a shower, as I do some of my best thinking in the water, I think. So, in reviewing my own stroke stylings, my thought on flat entry vs thumb down is (now) this: Thumb entry does not presume the hand will enter perpendicular to the water, a position which would present pretty much the greatest chance (aside from 90+ degrees) of shoulder impingement over extreme repetition. You can enter thumbs down at 45 degrees, reducing impingement risk to nearly nothing, while still maintaining the benefit of splitting the water. Plus, it has the added benefit of reducing the necessary hand rotation required to position oneself for the catch.
OK, this would have kept me up all night, so I took a shower, as I do some of my best thinking in the water, I think. So, in reviewing my own stroke stylings, my thought on flat entry vs thumb down is (now) this: Thumb entry does not presume the hand will enter perpendicular to the water, a position which would present pretty much the greatest chance (aside from 90+ degrees) of shoulder impingement over extreme repetition. You can enter thumbs down at 45 degrees, reducing impingement risk to nearly nothing, while still maintaining the benefit of splitting the water. Plus, it has the added benefit of reducing the necessary hand rotation required to position oneself for the catch.
