Ok, picture this. You get to the pool and it's empty. You think to yourself, this is gonna be a great swim, especially since the rest of my day as been not so great. Then when you finally get into the water, you push off and begin swimming when something amazing happens. Now picture this. This amazing thing is comparable only to you first day in the pool.....every! You realize that you are going to have an off day. This is what happened to me today. My breastroke was making waves so big you could body surf...My fly was like trying to watch a chipmunk do an IM (not that my fly has ever been good, but today was especially bad meaning it was the thing of nightmares), my free was horrible! The only thing that seemed to be going right was my backstroke. So anyways, I was looking for what people do to get over their bad days? I just reverted back to very elementary drills and tried to float (yes it was that bad I was sinking like I was made of lead). What do you do on your off days? Do you finish your workout, leave immediatly and hope that no one noticed, or stay extra and try to make the best of it? Hopefully tomorrow will be better!!
~Kyra
Parents
Former Member
I am still learning butterfly and experimenting with breathing patterns. I have a theory, which might be total rubbish, that breathing every other stroke makes it easier to keep one's hips up but that one can learn to keep one's hips up while breathing every stroke. I've been making progress in this regard, and I am not sure it takes more strength, timing seems to be the key for me. The biggest challenge for me is that as I tire I tend to draw out the breath and not get my head back down soon enough. Having said all that I am still faster breathing every second stroke than breathing every stroke, but the gap is closing.
When I suddenly tire it is usually the result of losing the rhythm of the stroke and letting my hips drop so that I am pulling up instead of forward. An oncoming wave that interferes with a breath is all it takes to throw me off, I hope that will improve with practice.
One "breakthrough" for me was when I started exhaling earlier in the stroke, this allows me to get a quicker deeper inhale which helps with the "I need oxygen!" feeling and helps keeping the timing going.
Like I said, I'm just learning and I could be all wet...
I am still learning butterfly and experimenting with breathing patterns. I have a theory, which might be total rubbish, that breathing every other stroke makes it easier to keep one's hips up but that one can learn to keep one's hips up while breathing every stroke. I've been making progress in this regard, and I am not sure it takes more strength, timing seems to be the key for me. The biggest challenge for me is that as I tire I tend to draw out the breath and not get my head back down soon enough. Having said all that I am still faster breathing every second stroke than breathing every stroke, but the gap is closing.
When I suddenly tire it is usually the result of losing the rhythm of the stroke and letting my hips drop so that I am pulling up instead of forward. An oncoming wave that interferes with a breath is all it takes to throw me off, I hope that will improve with practice.
One "breakthrough" for me was when I started exhaling earlier in the stroke, this allows me to get a quicker deeper inhale which helps with the "I need oxygen!" feeling and helps keeping the timing going.
Like I said, I'm just learning and I could be all wet...
