A few weeks ago at a masters workout (I am usually on my own) the coach had us do a 10 2 drill, which I hadn't done before. The idea was to swim free with your arms entering the water at 10 and 2 o'clock to avoid crossing the center line. It felt quite weird. Since that time I have been tracking my stroke more, and I think I do cross the center line, or at least run right along it. The other day I tried to focus on brushing my thumbs along the sides of the black stripe on the bottom of the pool, leaving the stripe itself untouched until my hands/arms passed out of my vision and under my body.
Here's my question. The fact that even this adjustment feels a little weird suggests that maybe I cross the line more than I recognize. What are the physics of this, and should I be trying to reform my stroke in this way? Is this a big deal, or one of the idiosyncracies that we all have?
Thanks!
Parents
Former Member
Crossing over the center is a flaw many people have and have to work on. It feels really odd when you first work on correcting it. I felt like a water bug when I first started working on the 10 and 2, but keep working on it, you will get it.
Rather than a 10 & 2, I like to imagine that I'm on railway track
where the rails are as far apart as my shoulders and my entry (in Free) is "on tracks".
If the entry is closer to the centre line, then a little sweep (or "s") is inevitable to bring the arm and forearm back in-line with the shoulder.
Moreover, to achieve EVF (not Extra-Vehicular-Freefloating, but Early Vertical Forearm or High Elbow and as near a 90 degree between forearm and upper arm as possible), the elbow is usually quite a bit "out".
I noticed with Phelps, Hackett and to a lesser degree Thorpe, that even though they get that almost 90 degree angle, the Forearm is almost never truly vertical. (Hacket has one hand that pulls closer to his centreline -almost beneath his navel at a certain stage- than the other.
Crossing over the center is a flaw many people have and have to work on. It feels really odd when you first work on correcting it. I felt like a water bug when I first started working on the 10 and 2, but keep working on it, you will get it.
Rather than a 10 & 2, I like to imagine that I'm on railway track
where the rails are as far apart as my shoulders and my entry (in Free) is "on tracks".
If the entry is closer to the centre line, then a little sweep (or "s") is inevitable to bring the arm and forearm back in-line with the shoulder.
Moreover, to achieve EVF (not Extra-Vehicular-Freefloating, but Early Vertical Forearm or High Elbow and as near a 90 degree between forearm and upper arm as possible), the elbow is usually quite a bit "out".
I noticed with Phelps, Hackett and to a lesser degree Thorpe, that even though they get that almost 90 degree angle, the Forearm is almost never truly vertical. (Hacket has one hand that pulls closer to his centreline -almost beneath his navel at a certain stage- than the other.
