I previously swam by reaching as far as possible, extending my arms and hands in order to enter the water as far as possible, and pull all the way nearly touching the knees in order to lengthen the stroke. However, my coach told me to drop this practice and enter the water near my head instead (she gave me a kickboard and let me do one-arm drill such that the hand enters the water BEHIND the kickboard), and told me that looong stroke is a kind of old-fashioned swimming in the 80s. That's exactly the opposite of this video tells:
www.youtube.com/watch
So what's exactly the mechanism of entering short? This club is running Swim Smooth, or should I switch to one which runs Total Immersion instead?
Yes, my coach noted that my pec was entering first and my arm was flat because I was trying to reach as far as possible in attempt to lengthen my stroke.
It is the end of November now and I have joined the master training for 7 sessions in the past month, all of them are technique sessions (I'm not yet qualified to join the other sessions as they require interval on 2'0" or less), and also joined the local open water group and swim on weekends. The coach has identified some of my problems, like the one mentioned in this thread, and the legs being wide open, etc., which I can take note of and put my concentration there when I swim.
However, I've just done a timed 1.5 km in the pool today, but I've only got very little improvement since I started training, which is 32'6" -> 31'42" for 1.5 km, despite better pool temperature (26°C last month and 22°C this month without wetsuit). I'm actually expecting at least a minute improvement if I can remove these dead spots in my swimming, but I'm disappointed now. Although I feel better than before (the muscle fatigue problem mentioned in the other thread has since gone after these stroke corrections) it does not translate into speed improvement.
Yes, my coach noted that my pec was entering first and my arm was flat because I was trying to reach as far as possible in attempt to lengthen my stroke.
It is the end of November now and I have joined the master training for 7 sessions in the past month, all of them are technique sessions (I'm not yet qualified to join the other sessions as they require interval on 2'0" or less), and also joined the local open water group and swim on weekends. The coach has identified some of my problems, like the one mentioned in this thread, and the legs being wide open, etc., which I can take note of and put my concentration there when I swim.
However, I've just done a timed 1.5 km in the pool today, but I've only got very little improvement since I started training, which is 32'6" -> 31'42" for 1.5 km, despite better pool temperature (26°C last month and 22°C this month without wetsuit). I'm actually expecting at least a minute improvement if I can remove these dead spots in my swimming, but I'm disappointed now. Although I feel better than before (the muscle fatigue problem mentioned in the other thread has since gone after these stroke corrections) it does not translate into speed improvement.
