2013 USMS Nationals SCY & LCM

I also have a ghastly wide kick, but I'm not sure I'm really willing to spend time working on it. I only do *** dolphin in practice. :-) I think you need to focus on throwing your hips forward. My coach said the one who wins is the one who gets their hips moving forward the fastest. My time drops came after working on this. The punch will get your torso up and out at the right angle, and give you forward motion. I am not sure I connected with it at nats...but I'm not fully on yet. IMHO the arms are not as important. I just anchor them, throw my hips into them (not pull back) get the recovery gone and kick back hard. Not saying Teen fort is wrong, just that you should think about throwing your hips up vs pulling--anchor wider, perhaps, I'm going to tinker there myself. PLUS, if you throw those hips up n forward your heels hit your butt and then you just roll your ankles out and kick n squeeze. No Whip. As a natural short axis type, I believe you are pre-geared for this. You just have to find it. I know you're great on BK but I think that's the anomaly from your loosey-goosey shoulders, not BR. ;)

How did the forumite gathering go? I hope we can have one in MD next summer. I tentatively plan to go, even though I'll be at the very top of my age group. The forumite gathering was GREAT, and we owe a big round of applause to Bobinator for organizing it. The restaurant was very nice and we were seated at one long table in the very back. We had a good group. What was really funny was when we were introducing ourselves to each other, at least three people all said, "I'm a lurker." Apparently there are a lot of people who read all of our posts but don't ever post themselves. Non-lurking attendees included me, matysekj, ekw, SwimStud, Jimbosback, jamesaadams1, The Fortress, Bobinator, and probably a couple more that I've forgotten.

In response to a number of the topics in the thread. First of all, I believe that I identified myself as a "Forum Stalker" as opposed to a "Lurker". I'm trying to fix that by actually posting ... at least in the comments area. As for breaststroke, I'm having to re-learn the stroke. It came naturally to me prior to 2 knee and 1 shoulder surgeries (not to mention a dislocated shoulder along the way). I've been told to both narrow my kick and stroke. I'm attaching a video from Nationals ... that's me in lane 2 and I remember telling myself to do this on the fourth lap of the 100. And, as for dying, the ultimate in "die" is where I took my 200 free out way to fast (55 something ... fastest in my age group) and then seriously wondered whether I was going to make it through the last 75 yards of the swim ... that's me, out there in front and then sinking the rest of the way in the 200.http://youtu.be/icqovECUCHU

In response to a number of the topics in the thread. First of all, I believe that I identified myself as a "Forum Stalker" as opposed to a "Lurker". I'm trying to fix that by actually posting ... at least in the comments area. As for breaststroke, I'm having to re-learn the stroke. It came naturally to me prior to 2 knee and 1 shoulder surgeries (not to mention a dislocated shoulder along the way). I've been told to both narrow my kick and stroke. I'm attaching a video from Nationals ... that's me in lane 2 and I remember telling myself to do this on the fourth lap of the 100. And, as for dying, the ultimate in "die" is where I took my 200 free out way to fast (55 something ... fastest in my age group) and then seriously wondered whether I was going to make it through the last 75 yards of the swim ... that's me, out there in front and then sinking the rest of the way in the 200.http://youtu.be/icqovECUCHU Good swim.Except for the last length it looked like you swam better each length after the first couple of strokes.I like your timing,at least until the last length where you started to overlap your kick and pull a little.From that angle I couldn't see how wide your kick and pull were.You keep your head too high and as a result you swim "up hill"a little and you have a straight arm on the turn instead of recovering the trailing arm close to your head,but all in all a really good swim.

So this thread is becoming the Breaststroke Lane. The most horrifying threadjacking ever.:eek:

I think getting your navel facing forward is a bit far,you really don't want to have a lot of up and down movement,just enough to get your torso high enough to breath without raising your head. In reading Allen's post, I should have phrased my drill explanation better. Yes your torso should not be going vertical in the water when you swim but the drill is a bit of an "over exaggeration" to get that motion integrated in the stroke (a bit like over-kicking on fr) So in the drill you might get a little more vertical than needed in the actual stroke. Hope it helps. Any more questions let's direct them to the BR thread.

With breaststroke being my weakest, I was happy to earn a 5th place at National in the 400 IM.

With breaststroke being my weakest, I was happy to earn a 5th place at National in the 400 IM. It is a good thing you mentioned breaststroke in your post or I'd have thought you were trying to un-hijack the thread.

Thanks for the feedback Alan. I've got a long way to go and any advice is appreciated. It seemed so easy when I was younger!

Videos from nationals: takeitlive.tv/.../