How Much Difference Does A Good Coach Make???

Originally posted by LindsayNB Hi Jean, How did you go about it and how long did it take? I had just started a thread on 200m fly earlier this afternoon! Thanks, Lindsay It took a long time - probably a couple of years. There was a lot wrong with my fly. When I was swimming on my own the coach of the kids' team at the Y suggested I swim one-arm fly as a drill, which helped a bit. Then I read an article in Swim Magazine about only doing as much fly as one could do with decent form - it said to start with just two fly strokes and finish the rest of a 25 with easy free, and gradually increase to three strokes, then four etc. I got up to 25 yards of passable fly. I would swim repeats of 25s like this. However, the timing of my kick was way off, so that I would rapidly become horizontal, which isn't a good way to swim fly. I would breathe every two strokes to try to alleviate this problem - also not good. Finally the Y got a coach that worked with masters swimmers, and he showed me the error of my ways. When I first tried kicking the right way, it seemed harder than ever, and it took a long time to get so that it felt natural to do it that way. However, the good news was that with my second kick timed better, my head lifted to breathe with much less effort and I didn't end up swimming horizontal fly - definitely a good thing! After I mastered the kick, which took at least a year, I began to work on not bringing my arms straight back. Later on I worked on improving undulation. Who says old dogs can't learn new tricks!! :-)

Originally posted by LindsayNB Hi Jean, How did you go about it and how long did it take? I had just started a thread on 200m fly earlier this afternoon! Thanks, Lindsay It took a long time - probably a couple of years. There was a lot wrong with my fly. When I was swimming on my own the coach of the kids' team at the Y suggested I swim one-arm fly as a drill, which helped a bit. Then I read an article in Swim Magazine about only doing as much fly as one could do with decent form - it said to start with just two fly strokes and finish the rest of a 25 with easy free, and gradually increase to three strokes, then four etc. I got up to 25 yards of passable fly. I would swim repeats of 25s like this. However, the timing of my kick was way off, so that I would rapidly become horizontal, which isn't a good way to swim fly. I would breathe every two strokes to try to alleviate this problem - also not good. Finally the Y got a coach that worked with masters swimmers, and he showed me the error of my ways. When I first tried kicking the right way, it seemed harder than ever, and it took a long time to get so that it felt natural to do it that way. However, the good news was that with my second kick timed better, my head lifted to breathe with much less effort and I didn't end up swimming horizontal fly - definitely a good thing! After I mastered the kick, which took at least a year, I began to work on not bringing my arms straight back. Later on I worked on improving undulation. Who says old dogs can't learn new tricks!! :-)