After getting some advice on improving my butterfly kick I rewatched the TI Butterfly/Breaststroke video with an eye to how much knee bend the swimmers had while they were body dolphining. It seems to me that the people who actually managed to move forward were the ones that bent their knees enough that their lower leg could provide some backward force. The ones that mostly bobbed up and down were the ones that kept their knees straighter. Even the runner who supposedly couldn't make progress due to inflexible ankles had much more pronounced knee bend when she put the fins on.
While I realize that it is easy to overdo the kick and lose the undulation, it seems to me that the video would be more effective if it spent a few moments explaining that forward propulsion comes from the backward movement of the calves and feet and how to develop that, rather than jumping to putting on fins. A LOT of people go nowhere trying to do body dolphins without fins and it seems like it would help to explain how to move the legs in a way that give some propulsion instead of saying that "there is no overt kick in a body dolphin", which I think is just false.
Anyway, different ways of describing things click for different people and what clicked for me was the idea of drawing the knees forward and then whipping the feet downward with a feel that is similar in some ways to *** stroke kick but with the legs together and toes pointed back instead of out.
Former Member
Lindsay,
Your point is valid, but misses the context. One of the key ideas of TI is to to become self-correcting, and part of that is learning what different stroke mechanics FEEL like. The line about no overt kicking does not mean don't bend your knees, not ever, not even a little. It means don't put conscious effort into kicking (like say you might doing a fly kick with a kick board). Learn how to undulate your body by focusing your attention on undulating your shoulders and hips, and let you legs do what comes naturally. That is why fins are a useful training aide; they give much stronger positive reinforcement (i.e. forward movement) when you body dolphin properly. You are not only learning to body-dolphin; you are also learning how to pay attention to what a good body dolphin feels like. Once you learn both those skills with fins, you can then progress taking off your fins, and making body dolphin with nekkid feet feel like body dolphin with fins.
The feel of stroke comes up repeatedly in TI. The materials provide "sensory focal points" for swimmers to use to focus their attention while swimming, e.g. pierce the water, look at the black line behind you, or roll your belly button to face the pool wall. We don't mean do these things literally, but make it feel like that is what you are doing to emphasize an aspect of your stroke (like rolling your hips MORE, not literally roll so much during freestyle that your shoulders and hips are vertical) TI also recommends that you experiment with these focal points, and try to gauge (by time and/or stroke count) which focal points help YOU specifically swim your best stroke.
The best example of refocusing your attention is the use of fist drills or fist gloves. The whole idea behind them is to mask the feedback you get from the very sensitive palms of your hand, so you pay attention to what else is happening in the rest of your body. The most immediate effect is learn how to use your whole forearm in addition to your hand to anchor your arm stroke (or push back, if you prefer). More subtly, with fist drills can you notice any imperfections in your balance or excess drag?
OK, I've rambled on enough. I'll shut up now. Just to be clear, I'm not saying you have to buy into TI. I'm just repeating my understanding of what they are trying to teach.
Matt
Your point is taken. For people watching the video on their own I think it would be good to be a little clearer about what should be taken literally and what is just a loose statement of how it should feel. I have talked to several people who just gave up on body dolphins and the TI approach because they didn't get anywhere and either didn't have fins or found that while they could do it with fins they were no further ahead when they took the fins off.
On the plus side I did my first length of fluid relaxed head lead body dolphin without fins tonight! With that under my belt I'll continue to practice it and try some more of the progression.
Short Axis Progression:
15 x 25s
1. Head lead Body Dolphin with fins. Slow down your pulsing cycle and try to complete the 25 in the lowest number of pulses.
2. Head lead Body Dolphin without fins. Try to use the same motion and make it feel like when you had the fins on. Obviously, you will use more pulses to cover the length. Count your pulses.
3. Head lead Body Dolphin without fins. Try to use fewer pulses than on (2).
4. Hand lead Body Dolphin with fins. Same idea as (1).
5. Hand lead Body Dolphin without fins. Same as (2).
6. Hand lead Body Dolphin without fins. Same as (3).
7. Slide to the corners with fins. Do a cycle or two each of:
- Slide to the corners and breath every other pulse,
- Slide to the corners every pulse while breathing every other pulse, and
- Slide to the corners and breath every pulse.
Keep your neck alignment neutral; don’t look up to breath
8. Slide to the corners without fins. Half a length slide to the corners and breathe every other pulse. Half a length slide to the corners every pulse, breathe every other pulse. Try to make it feel like when you had the fins on.
9. Slide to the corners without fins. Half a length slide to the corners every pulse, breathe every other pulse. Half a length slide to the corners and breathe every pulse. Try to make it feel like when you had the fins on.
10. Body Dolphin breaststroke with fins. Really emphasize body wave breaststroke with proper arm pull and recovery. Work on timing.
11. Body Dolphin breaststroke without fins. Same Body Dolphin, same timing as (10).
12. Full stroke breaststroke. Maintain your Body Dolphin but with normal breaststroke kick.
13. Double pulse Fly with fins. Do two hand lead Body Dolphins, and one full stroke butterfly. Repeat for length of the pool. Try to keep your stroke relaxed and slide your body over your anchored hands. Use your body and let your arms come along for the ride instead of leading the stroke.
14. Double pulse Fly without fins. Same as (13) without the fins.
15. Single pulse Fly without fins. Do one hand lead Body Dolphin and one full stroke butterfly, or if you prefer, just do a 25 fly. As with (13) & (14) stay relaxed; swim the stroke with your Body Dolphin and let your arms tag along rather than leading the stroke.
1 x 50 without fins: come off the wall in a normal breaststroke pull out, and do two strokes of ***. Then do two strokes of fly, two ***, two fly…into the wall. Come off the wall into a normal butterfly breakout (do two or more Body Dolphins underwater before surfacing), two strokes fly, two strokes ***, two strokes fly, two strokes ***…into the wall. Try to make you fly feel like your *** by adding a glide after each arm recovery. Try to make your *** feel like your fly by using body undulation as in (12).
Full article: www.totalimmersion.net/.../drillforwarming.html
Matt
