When swimimg I'd assume most people have "off days" and "on days". During the on days you may feel smooth, relaxed, strong, and that your stroke is technically sound. The off days you may feel sluggish, tight, tired, weak, slow, and your stroke feels sloppy. My question is, can someone standing on deck see the differences in your stroke from one day to the next or is it all in the swimmers head?
Parents
Former Member
Dan,
It can be a good thing to focus attention on your stroke mechanics when you are tired. When I am training for a 200 fly, I will intentionally swim sets that will have me swimming fly later in the set. It is only partially about conditioning. I am more concerned with re-teaching my body how to swim long, easy, body-dolphin focused butterfly with fatigued, lactic acid loaded muscles and managing oxygen debt. Please note that these sets are structured to get my body a little tired, but then stay there as I'm swimming technically correct fly. They are NOT designed to be extreme, head-banger sets on an unsustainable interval that will rapidly deteriorate my stroke and result in my suffering through "butter-struggle" for most of the set.
So, how do you know you are swimming with good mechanics when you are tired and in the midst of a challenging set? I have two suggestions. First, ask the coach on deck to watch you when you know a set will challenge you, and to give you immediate feedback about any stroke deterioration they see. Second, you need to be enough of a student of your own stroke to know what "right" and "wrong" feel like. Developing a feel for the water is key, and you need to do that in the slower, technique focused sets. As a student of TI (DISCLAIMER--I mention TI only as one example of a school of thought that I personally use and like; there are lots of other methods out there radically different from TI that other people use with excellent results; my point for this discussion would be the same whether you use TI or something else--END DISCLAIMER) I focus in on what we call "sensory perceptions." Examples are: am I looking straight down at the black line on the bottom of the pool, do I feel my hips rotate as I stroke, where does my hand enter the water and am I grabbing air or water at that point, do I start the catch in my stroke deep enough? I'm thinking about one or two of these focal points as I swim. Sometimes swimmers get through aerobically challenging workouts by turning our brains off and grinding it out. This is a prescription for practicing deteriorating stroke mechanics. You can correct this by staying mentally engaged during challenging sets.
Again, know yourself; ask your coach to give you feedback.
Matt
Dan,
It can be a good thing to focus attention on your stroke mechanics when you are tired. When I am training for a 200 fly, I will intentionally swim sets that will have me swimming fly later in the set. It is only partially about conditioning. I am more concerned with re-teaching my body how to swim long, easy, body-dolphin focused butterfly with fatigued, lactic acid loaded muscles and managing oxygen debt. Please note that these sets are structured to get my body a little tired, but then stay there as I'm swimming technically correct fly. They are NOT designed to be extreme, head-banger sets on an unsustainable interval that will rapidly deteriorate my stroke and result in my suffering through "butter-struggle" for most of the set.
So, how do you know you are swimming with good mechanics when you are tired and in the midst of a challenging set? I have two suggestions. First, ask the coach on deck to watch you when you know a set will challenge you, and to give you immediate feedback about any stroke deterioration they see. Second, you need to be enough of a student of your own stroke to know what "right" and "wrong" feel like. Developing a feel for the water is key, and you need to do that in the slower, technique focused sets. As a student of TI (DISCLAIMER--I mention TI only as one example of a school of thought that I personally use and like; there are lots of other methods out there radically different from TI that other people use with excellent results; my point for this discussion would be the same whether you use TI or something else--END DISCLAIMER) I focus in on what we call "sensory perceptions." Examples are: am I looking straight down at the black line on the bottom of the pool, do I feel my hips rotate as I stroke, where does my hand enter the water and am I grabbing air or water at that point, do I start the catch in my stroke deep enough? I'm thinking about one or two of these focal points as I swim. Sometimes swimmers get through aerobically challenging workouts by turning our brains off and grinding it out. This is a prescription for practicing deteriorating stroke mechanics. You can correct this by staying mentally engaged during challenging sets.
Again, know yourself; ask your coach to give you feedback.
Matt
