The first loss of a master is memory, the second...I forgot. I probably have already asked this question, but here goes:
Does anyone bring their arm straight down and out after the grab? I am talking no sculling, no lateral movement, just bringing the arm straight parallel with the line maintaining the elbow high position. This would be to avoid crossing the midline with your forearm. Even though I breathe on the left, I still rotate fully to the right (a learned and trained and voluntary movement), but even so my right forearm tends to the middle, while my left arm has less pull and is erractic. When I learned the crawl it was from watching Tarzan movies, later when I was 16 and in a USA high school they taught the S shaped movement or the straight down and back. In those days the breathing was to one side. Last question: aside from timing both methods, what are your preferences on the long dolphin versus "less dolphin" emerging sooner method of starts and turns on a 50 meter short course freestyle race? Thanks, billy fanstone
You may need significantly long sets before you actually start to feel something....It takes tons of meters before getting it right.
This is so true. I will try to remember to "unweight" the catch too.
You are right, you had mentioned you were from Canada before. Not a bad place either, as all my relatives are originally from there. Hope you can go back to coaching at some point!
P.S. I like swimming in cold pools. I fall asleep in warm pools.:snore:
The 100 free is the easy event, if you think about it almost anyone can swim the 100. Know your competition and swim to win. When I raced I only went fast enough to win. Unfortunatley I did not win the big ones.
The last masters meet I swam in the races were set up by age group. You should know even if they are not in the same heat the times of those you are competing against. It sounds like you have enough training under your belt to know how fast you are going, just swim the time you have to do to win. If your age group is doing 1:20 all you have to do is 1:18.
The 100 takes more skill then the 50 and more skill then a 200 or up. Everything must be perfect to win the 100. You can make mistakes in middle distance swim but can not when swimming the 100.
George:
With all the Canadians and Francophiles and anti-Francophiles on this site, you better be careful choosing your french words or the french speakers on this site will be telling you to "fermez la bouche." Or maybe this is a new way to do on line PM-ing? P.S. I like how you added "Keep it simple" to your signature! ton francais est tres bon :applaud:
George I'm a french speaking frog like some might say. I've just learned the english dirty words recently. I like french dirty words much better. Don't see the point in telling someone "go have sex!!". wwwhooo.. I'm scared.
I think y'all'll agree that Doc Counsilman described it best in saying that the freestyle recovery begins with pulling the hand out from deep in one's pocket, pitching it forward ballistically as with a baseball, and entering the water thumb first, (thus avoiding the dreaded dropped elbow with the commencing of the stroke). He was, of course, describing the recovery of the best swimmers as observed by underwater filming. Yes I agree 95-100% with this description. My only concern would be the thum first hand entry. It's great for someone capable of doing it without locking the shoulder but for others with maybe less fine coordination, I may prefer fingers first. Not "little finger" first, not "thumb first" but (the remaining) 3 fingers first.
That being said, at a high level (which is probably Doc's specialty), thumb first makes a lot of sense.
Solar:
You must be producing some good USS freestylers! At the risk of disappoint you, I don't live in the US (one of the best countries in the world for swimming). And I'm no longer a swim coach as I don't work actively in this field anymore.
I intend in comming back to active coaching in few years though. Thanks for your kind words. They're appreciated.
I'm going to try this "carry the briefcase" drill as well as the drill Make sure your fingers stay near the surface while recoverying. If you have a doubt, you may even insert a 25m of fingertiping here and there. That is recoverying while leaving the fingertips trailling on the surface.
And focus on how it feels for your shoulders. You may need significantly long sets before you actually start to feel something.
you posted on the "drill dictator" thread for freestyle. I didn't describe the drill very much. And it is a very difficult one too.
- Light 6beat kick (as opposed to the massive 6beat that the kid on the clip was doing. Sorry I only had 5 minutes to teach him the drill and he'd never done it before).
- SMOOTH body rotation from one side to the other at each 3beat kick. One of the major difficulty, is to have that smooth body movement while kicking 6beat. In many beginner's cases, I can read the 6beat in their shoulers. Their kick cause interference with the body rotation.
- Bilateral breathing without elevating the head.
Very difficult you'll see. It takes tons of meters before getting it right.
What is the underwater action you were referring to? A straight arm pull?No I don't thing that straight arm pulling is harmful in itself.
I fear extra-long glides with the hand leading toward the surface (after entering and before catching) much more. Late catching with elbow lower than the hand in other words.
One of the most challenging technical aspect for beginners is to *unweight* the catch. And yet it's mandatory for shoulder health.
Solar being a Canadian from Quebec are you primarily English speaking or French speaking. When I lived in Quebec I taught swimming to french speaking kids.
The most used phrases,
metez la tete dans l'eau (Mettre la tête dans l'eau), put the head in the water
finis ici (finir ici) finish your stroke here and show them were to finish
glissant (planer). glide.
Solar:
Maintenant tout le monde m'appellera la "nailmaker." Merci beaucoup.
I think freestyle is worse than fly for me, although it does seem that most shoulder sufferers stay away from fly. My pain is mostly left side, so if it was fly wouldn't it be both? I think I may be doing some of that weighted catch stuff. I am going to try to get myself to practice tonight and be mindful of that. But the "distance per stroke" thing is what prompts one to gliiiiide.
Seulement un petit peu. Mais ma brasse est vraiment mauvaise. Peux-je s'il te plait le 50 papillon? Bien oui.
(let me switch back in English so that others can read)
I made a comment suggesting that butterfly could aggravate your chronical injury. But it may not be the case at all. That's just a possibility. Try it and listen to your body (especially your shoulder).
One approach that could be interesting too, given you have a bed big enough and given there's not too many people in your bed while trying it, would be to practice 20-50 recovery actions. You do that on a regular basis, ideally every day or every other day. that's a "2 way" recovery. Starting with both hands near the tights, you bring both arms in the front (perfectly simulating the recovery) and then you bring them back near the tights.
The benefit is that you can focus a lot on what you feel in your shoulers while doing them. With time, you may increase the number of recoveries and see how your shoulder react.
Peut-etre je peux utiliser le francais si je jamais besoin de appeler un imbicile pour insulter moi? You could try. You can do that by basically using all available church tools. The little piece of bread (the wafer I think?) has a huge impact, but not as much as the tabernacle. In fact, french speaking toursists in Mexico are commonly known as the "El-Tabarnacos") :wave:
Have a nice day... "nailmaker" :thhbbb:
Here is a question that I have on the freestyle arm recovery. I have been under the impression that when a person starts to recover the arm forward, that it stays tight to the body.
I recently watched both the David Marsh and Richard Quick Freestyle videos. Both seem to say that the recovery starts with a curving motion away from the body,as the body rolls to the "high side" then swings forward to go back into the water.
So, is it more of a curving motion away from the body for the recovery?
Thanks,
David
