Having been a lazy streamliner it's high time I work on the closest thing to a free lunch at our disposal. No excuses any more! I never fully appreciated what a huge disparity there can be b/t a lazy age grouper streamline and a great streamline. To the tune of a good 8 seconds per 100 on some very non-scientific field experiments side by side. Wow! Just the initial push off and streamline my poor form costs me nearly a full body length vs his amazing streamline by the time we both take our first stroke. This is a guy I have routinely beaten by a considerable margin in open water events over many years. Great learning experience getting whipped in the pool by a superior technician in my pal. W A N T to get better.
What is more important for an old fart who has less than stellar flexibility? I can certainly get my hands overlapping with elbows quite close to narrow my frontal profile within the margin of my shoulders, but overall the hands will be down below my head. As in looking from the side my arms would be pointing a good 20 degrees down if my torso/legs are level with the surface of the water.
Or....
Would I want to have my body line flat from head to toe, but sacrifice the narrow profile having to separate my hands and utilize a wider position? I'm thinking this wider Superman position would be the higher drag position and needs to go in the garbage bin?
Just don't want to be practicing the wrong things as I'm committed to making the best streamline I can somewhere down the road.
Any particular stretches I might focus on? Thanks.
I have an update for you Karl since we seemed to be in a bit of the same boat. After talking with one of the kids from a local university team whom I saw doing all manner of lat stretches I found that indeed was my flexibility limiter, NOT my shoulder/cuff muscles. I thought I had flexibility in my lats, but in point of fact they were basically like a couple of pieces of cinder block! I have also joined a group for dry land training learned a few new stretches for the lats and pecs that have helped as well.
What sort of stretching routine have you been doing to increase lat/pec flexibility without hurting your rotator cuff? Thx...
I have an update for you Karl since we seemed to be in a bit of the same boat. After talking with one of the kids from a local university team whom I saw doing all manner of lat stretches I found that indeed was my flexibility limiter, NOT my shoulder/cuff muscles. I thought I had flexibility in my lats, but in point of fact they were basically like a couple of pieces of cinder block! I have also joined a group for dry land training learned a few new stretches for the lats and pecs that have helped as well.
I update this post today b/c it was my breakthrough day. Underwater dolphin to the 15m mark on my back is now my 2nd fastest stroke. No question when turning from fly to back in the 100 IM I will dolphin to the 15m mark. Face down for fly I need to break out at about 11m b/c I begin to slow down, but am working hard on it!
Being able to get the hands locked and tight behind my head allow me to really get the full effect of the thoracic section of my spine as the starting point for the 'whip'. Tiny bit of movement with the hands/arms, but the real undulation now starts just under my pecs. Anyway, just wanted to relay the update b/c it's so darn exciting! My *** stroke still stinks, but today I led my buddy all the way to ~ the 15m mark of the *** leg which has never ever happened. Now to work on the dolphin for face down and on side! Way fun. For *me* anyway it was and is lat flexibility, my shoulders were already flexible enough. YMMV.
I have an update for you Karl since we seemed to be in a bit of the same boat. After talking with one of the kids from a local university team whom I saw doing all manner of lat stretches I found that indeed was my flexibility limiter, NOT my shoulder/cuff muscles. I thought I had flexibility in my lats, but in point of fact they were basically like a couple of pieces of cinder block! I have also joined a group for dry land training learned a few new stretches for the lats and pecs that have helped as well.
I update this post today b/c it was my breakthrough day. Underwater dolphin to the 15m mark on my back is now my 2nd fastest stroke. No question when turning from fly to back in the 100 IM I will dolphin to the 15m mark. Face down for fly I need to break out at about 11m b/c I begin to slow down, but am working hard on it!
Being able to get the hands locked and tight behind my head allow me to really get the full effect of the thoracic section of my spine as the starting point for the 'whip'. Tiny bit of movement with the hands/arms, but the real undulation now starts just under my pecs. Anyway, just wanted to relay the update b/c it's so darn exciting! My *** stroke still stinks, but today I led my buddy all the way to ~ the 15m mark of the *** leg which has never ever happened. Now to work on the dolphin for face down and on side! Way fun. For *me* anyway it was and is lat flexibility, my shoulders were already flexible enough. YMMV.
This is very cool! Congrats on the progress! Can you share your lat stretches with us?
I'm sorry but my descriptions would be horrible given that I have never been much of a stretching kind of guy. I will email the crew and see if they have some kind of pic/description for them. In short, any exercise that puts your elbow behind your shoulder is a no no in their book as it puts unnecessary stress on both the soft tissue and especially the joint and labrum. The 3 main stretches I do for the lats I had never seen before. The pec stretch is laying on a foam roller down the center of your spine and letting gravity only slowly stretch the pec. The other one is called 'the perp' and it's akin to assuming the position like being arrested, but against the wall. Almost like the fly catch position. Will post back, sending email now.
Oh those stretches all look like they'd feel soooo good!
One thing I like to do is when I'm stopped in traffic or at a stoplight, I'll stretch my arms up and behind my head on the ceiling of the car. It helped a ton as I was recovering from shoulder surgery and now these days it just helps cut down on tightness. I get strange looks from other drivers but really don't give a poop what they think. :)
Please excuse the external links and no photos as I'm an inTerneTs idiOts. I googled lat stretch and scoured for pics since I don't know the names. If I can throw 2 cents of unsolicited advice. Don't give up until you can get your arms completely locked behind your head. I have worked with a couple of different guys on the team who harped on this point and it wasn't until I could 'lock in' with the arms that I could truly feel my thoracic spine undulate. It went from feeling like a see saw to a whip in very short order. If I unlock them and don't have a rigid platform from shoulders forward I instantly lose that undulation that really makes it cook. This is where I'm struggling face down, but it's coming. Lower and mid trap conditioning is helping me sustain it a bit better as well in the dry land routines.
crossfunctionalrehab.com/.../shoulder_lat_stretch_1.jpgnealhallinan.com/.../hiplat-side.jpgnwstrengthlab.com/.../exercisestretches064.jpg
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The stretches and flexibility drills mentioned are great. While you're working on your range of motion, here are some immediate fixes that might help (and you probably know anyway):
Before pushing off the wall, press in to get a good compressed hip, knee and ankle flex. A quick hand scull can help position the body. Then get the hands into thumblock or hand-over-hand overhead before starting the push. I prefer the feet to be close together on the wall, as they and the legs will be joined together during streamline. I also prefer to leave the wall with a slight side tilt, say 15-45 degrees, as it seems to decrease drag, then gradually corkscrew into position for the first armpull(s).
The push should be done with the balls and toes, and steadily accelerate in force throughout, reaching a crescendo at the moment you leave the wall. Feet then assume a big-toe point, where they stay throughout the streamline.
Whether you use a hand-over-hand or thumblock is not as important as making sure that you pull your shoulders forward out of their sockets, so that your head can tightly hide between your arms, and your shoulder profile is narrowed. Try to maximize the distance between the tips of your fingers and the tips of your toes throughout streamline, making your waterline as long as possible.
The core needs to hold the body in a straight line, preventing sagging. The narrower and straighter the waist profile, the better.
Much of a streamline's benefit is lost if it doesn't smoothly transition to a clean, powerful breakout. Swimmers will have their own individual best breakout techniques for each stroke and event, but here are some general ideas.
The first armpull is crucial, so I like to arch the body slightly to bring the hands close to the surface, and open up the armpit(s) for the biggest scooping pull possible. The arch should create a stretching across the thorax and abdomen into the pelvis, getting the entire front of the body into the act. If all that happens, combined with a strong, well-timed kick, the body will vault into initial planing position. Conversely, if the hand(s), arm(s) and body are too deep during the first armpull, and the front of the body isn't stretched from hips to armpits to maximize range of motion, you can end up lifting the weight of water that is above your head, back and shoulders, a feeling that every breakout artist knows and dreads.
In order to preserve the initial streamline-through-armpull impetus, it is best not to breathe in freestyle and butterfly breakout. I prefer to breathe during the third armpull of freestyle and the second stroke of butterfly, to maximize breakout momentum.
