This past Saturday at practice, we had an underwater video session. Due to the large number of us doing it, we didn't get to do any turns, though. We ended up doing 6x25s, four IM order and then two choice. The first four were filmed from the side of the pool and the last two were filmed head on from the end of the lane. Unfortunately, I didn't think to swim fast during them. Pretty big mistake on my part, since my fast swim is quite different than my practice pace swim for free, and to a lesser extent, fly. I think my back and breast are more or less the same no matter what speed I swim.
Anyways, I'd been looking forward to this for quite a while, since the last time I had been filmed was in 2004 or 2005, and I know my strokes have changed since then.
Fly (from the side): Overall, it looked pretty good, although the coach (Drew, the head coach) said I was pressing down a bit too much with my head and chest. I disagree with that assessment, but everything else about the stroke was good.
Back (from the side): Drew said it was overall pretty good, although there are two areas to work on. The first is my hand position when I'm pulling--I bend my wrist forward, like I'm trying to really scoop the water. I should keep my hand in a flat plane with my wrist, not bending it at nearly a 90 degree angle. The other issue is the end of the pull and beginning of the over-water recovery. Drew wants me to pop my arm out of the water much quicker than I do already. When I swim at a race pace, my arms move quite a bit faster than at practice pace, so that might mitigate that issue. However, my arm speed has always been one of my problem areas with backstroke--I can remember Scott and Mike harping on me to spin them faster.
Breast (from the side): Ooh boy, this one was messy. Breaststroke has been just about at the bottom of my priority list for swimming technique for years (at least since the early 2000s), so it was no surprise when Drew basically tore it apart. Mike and Scott, in highschool, had worked on me pressing my chest down into the water in order to raise my hips and legs closer to the surface. I had a terrible body position in highschool when swimming breast, and always swam at an angle in the water, leading to breast being a much more physically taxing stroke than it needed to be. Well, driving my chest down is no longer something I need to work on...now I go to almost the opposite extreme. Now I push down too far with my chest and arms, diving my arms down a bit at full extension. On the plus side, my hips and legs are up towards the surface, right where they're supposed to be. I also don't sweep my arms out wide enough on the pull, and lead a bit with my elbows as I sweep them in before extending. I have no idea if my technique changes any when I swim fast. Sigh. ...And breast goes right back to the bottom of my technique priority list!
Free (from the side): Ooh boy, this was another fun one, and was the one I most wanted feedback from. Up through highschool, I had horrendous free technique. On the recovery of the stroke, my arms were mostly straight, they'd cross over the center line of my body when I'd pull underneath, and I led with my elbows. About the only thing I had going for me was that I had great body rotation and kept my ear on my shoulder when I would take a breath. Mike and Scott started to really work on my free technique a few months before I stopped swimming in 2005, but that wasn't enough to erase 13 years of bad technique. Starting to swim again this year, my mind remembered the technique I was supposed to be utilizing, but my mind constantly fights a (more or less losing) battle with muscle memory that wants to go right back to what I used to do. Anyways, there were some good signs from the video. You couldn't see it underwater, but I now have a high elbow recovery, which helps with my hand placement when my hands enter the water. My hands don't cross over the center line and I mostly don't lead with my elbows anymore, although from time to time muscle memory wins the mental struggle and I have a bad pull.
All that stuff being great to see, the biggest bone that Drew picked with my free is also the one that is a total nonissue when I swim fast. At slower speeds, I over rotate and spend too much time on my side on each stroke, pausing a split second before I start the pull. I also don't pop my hands out of the water at the end of the pull. Neither is an issue at race speed. I really wish I'd swum at race speed so that I could've gotten an analysis of the technique that actually matters.
Back (head on): Same issues from above, but the hand/wrist thing was more evident. In addition, since we didn't have flags over the part of the pool we were swimming in, I tilted my head back to see how close I was to the wall. For some reason, everyone in the reviewing room thought that was hilarious and said there are easier ways to see where the wall is. No idea what that would be, since I've done the head tilt thing as long as I can remember.
Free (head on): Same as above.
Underwater work off walls: I got great marks for my underwater work when I pushed off the walls, being held up as the example for how to do proper dolphin kicks and the breastroke pullout.
Overall, the video session was of mixed utility, although it was quite nice to see how my strokes have changed in the last six years!
No comments:
Post a Comment