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
I had a coach back in high school ask us to imagine a glass wall running down our center line.
The arms could never move beyond the plane of the imaginary wall.
Today I use the same method...and have corrected many of our age group swimmers who stroked down the pool with a bit of a wiggle (fish tail) due to their cross over.
Once they envisioned the glass wall and kept their hands outside of the barrier...the problem disappeared.
I had a coach back in high school ask us to imagine a glass wall running down our center line.
The arms could never move beyond the plane of the imaginary wall.
Today I use the same method...and have corrected many of our age group swimmers who stroked down the pool with a bit of a wiggle (fish tail) due to their cross over.
Once they envisioned the glass wall and kept their hands outside of the barrier...the problem disappeared.
