How Much Difference Does A Good Coach Make???

Originally posted by LindsayNB Hi Jean, Can you elaborate on what you mean by horizontal fly? I'm wondering if you mean vertical fly as I thought horizontal fly was a good thing? In terms of increasing your distance how did you go from swimming 25m to 200m? Were you just able to swim further as your technique improved or did you follow a plan? Absolutely I meant VERTICAL fly. And when I say vertical, I mean VERTICAL. Every time I took a breath my feet would sink down. I coul kind of blast a 25 fly in the 100 IM by not breathing much, but the second half of a 50 was definitely a problem. I didn't follow a real plan. What happened, I think, is that as my technique improved I found that I was able to go further with less effort and mess. It was real satisfying to swim fly and not look like something that needed to be rescued. Swimming sets of 25s with a gradually increasing number of fly strokes helped. Getting the kick timing down was a HUGE help. And the coach eventually sneaked in a 200 on me which included alternating one-arm fly drill and the whole stroke, which led me to believe that the 200 was a possibility. So gradually increasing the distance helped, but I would have been nowhere without improvement of technique. After getting the kick down I learned that I needed to not bring my arms straight back but to bring them back in an in-and-out motion. This wasn't as hard to learn as the kick, but it did help. This would not have happened without the benefit of coaching.

Originally posted by LindsayNB Hi Jean, Can you elaborate on what you mean by horizontal fly? I'm wondering if you mean vertical fly as I thought horizontal fly was a good thing? In terms of increasing your distance how did you go from swimming 25m to 200m? Were you just able to swim further as your technique improved or did you follow a plan? Absolutely I meant VERTICAL fly. And when I say vertical, I mean VERTICAL. Every time I took a breath my feet would sink down. I coul kind of blast a 25 fly in the 100 IM by not breathing much, but the second half of a 50 was definitely a problem. I didn't follow a real plan. What happened, I think, is that as my technique improved I found that I was able to go further with less effort and mess. It was real satisfying to swim fly and not look like something that needed to be rescued. Swimming sets of 25s with a gradually increasing number of fly strokes helped. Getting the kick timing down was a HUGE help. And the coach eventually sneaked in a 200 on me which included alternating one-arm fly drill and the whole stroke, which led me to believe that the 200 was a possibility. So gradually increasing the distance helped, but I would have been nowhere without improvement of technique. After getting the kick down I learned that I needed to not bring my arms straight back but to bring them back in an in-and-out motion. This wasn't as hard to learn as the kick, but it did help. This would not have happened without the benefit of coaching.