Flattery will get you everywhere. ;) You guys all made my day with your kind posts!
Peter:
My team was sitting in the bleachers on deck near lane 8 right by the starting blocks, so they were in a good position to see the finish. Coach and others said close call, but I probably should have taken another stroke. I lunged and felt like there was nothing there and in my brain went "oh sh*t." But no matter. I will swim it again in ... in October. LOL. I watched it again. I think the biggest weakness was my breakouts. I looked like I was in a hurry to breathe. How can I fix that, Donna?
There are actually two reasons for your backstroke breakout to be as it is. The first is either over-excitement to surface, breathe, and start racing/swimming, and the second one is your hands/arms angle too much directly upward or skyward when you decide to surface, thus causing you to pop more straight up than forward. The way to avoid this is to work on how it feels to gradually angle upwards, not all of a sudden. And to make sure that your hands do not angle upwards for that will cause you to surface the same way. I think we all get used to some "digging" with our hands and arms while doing SDKs, but at the moment we want to surface, we must think about our hand/arm position and feel the feel when we get closer to the surface. When ready to surface, hands/arms angle somewhat upward but not too much. You can start this before the lane line turns red because it is a gradual upward movement. I was pretty good at this one because the only thing I swam for 30 years was backstroke. I might suggest that when you do kick sets with your monofin, slow it down so you have the breath control for longer underwater turns and practice this. It really comes about pretty quickly with "mindful" :eek: practice.
Gosh, like anything else, it is much practice, experimentation and "feel."
Flattery will get you everywhere. ;) You guys all made my day with your kind posts!
Peter:
My team was sitting in the bleachers on deck near lane 8 right by the starting blocks, so they were in a good position to see the finish. Coach and others said close call, but I probably should have taken another stroke. I lunged and felt like there was nothing there and in my brain went "oh sh*t." But no matter. I will swim it again in ... in October. LOL. I watched it again. I think the biggest weakness was my breakouts. I looked like I was in a hurry to breathe. How can I fix that, Donna?
There are actually two reasons for your backstroke breakout to be as it is. The first is either over-excitement to surface, breathe, and start racing/swimming, and the second one is your hands/arms angle too much directly upward or skyward when you decide to surface, thus causing you to pop more straight up than forward. The way to avoid this is to work on how it feels to gradually angle upwards, not all of a sudden. And to make sure that your hands do not angle upwards for that will cause you to surface the same way. I think we all get used to some "digging" with our hands and arms while doing SDKs, but at the moment we want to surface, we must think about our hand/arm position and feel the feel when we get closer to the surface. When ready to surface, hands/arms angle somewhat upward but not too much. You can start this before the lane line turns red because it is a gradual upward movement. I was pretty good at this one because the only thing I swam for 30 years was backstroke. I might suggest that when you do kick sets with your monofin, slow it down so you have the breath control for longer underwater turns and practice this. It really comes about pretty quickly with "mindful" :eek: practice.
Gosh, like anything else, it is much practice, experimentation and "feel."
