So, the long and short of it is that I train hard and frequently: at nearly fifty years of age I swim about 100 thousand meters per month, lift weights three times a week and train in karate three time a week. As well as working 50 hours a week as a veterinarian. My pace times in work-out are pretty decent, even compared to the age-group swimmers that train at the same time as me. My meet times suck like brand new Dyson vacuum right out of the box. I was at a loss until yesterday.
I finally got my coach to video my stroke both above and below the water line: what a revalation. Above the water line my stroke actually looks really smooth; practically Olympic professional. There is a bit of a head bob and a "limp' to the left side, but nothing I have not seen on many of the well known Olympic athletes. Below the water line is a compete other story: holy cow do my arms cross over the center-line!! My right arm is shooting left on the pull through, my left arm is practically in the other lane to the right. I have no idea why my body looks so stable above the water line; I must spend half my energy compensating for the Godawful pull through and the other half my energy keeping my body straight. No wonder my speed is so poor.
My coach went over the tape in detail and gave me some very specific drills to correct {(doggy paddle, keeping the elbow recovery high and the arms wide like I am paddling a surf-board) and (catch-up front crawl, so I can concentrate on the pull through of one arm at a time) and (watching my shadow on the bottom of the pool as I swim to correct my head carriage and... watch the pull through to keep it from crossing over)}.
So this morning I came into the pool with a very clear game plan: continue on with my "race pace" agenda, including my kick sets, and use my recovery sets to correct that darn stroke. It was a great work-out; one of my best ever.
One thing I noted,and I am not sure if this is even possible: my times were substantially faster today than they have been. My "race-pace" fifties dropped by a full 1 to 1.5 seconds with the same or even less effort than last week. The only difference was that as I was digging for that "race pace" time, I also concentrated on keeping my pull through from crossing the center line. (This translated as "pull wide, like you are on a surf-board" to my twisted mind set, after years of incorrect pull through).
After that taping session and with my new "race-pace" agenda I actually have some optimism for my performance this year. Never underestimate the value of video-taping your stroke; the truth is in the seeing.
