Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Isn’t It Wonderful When the Light Goes On?
Monday’s practice was dominated by distance work but did include a short drill right after the main set. The set emphasis was on crawl technique comparing stroke counts obtained swimming with fists to swimming with normal open hands. At the time I was just glad to get through the main set and really didn’t care about the drill, mainly because in spite of the fact Coach Brad has explained the purpose of the fist drill a couple of times I’ve never really understood how it’s supposed to improve my technique. I took 53 strokes to cover the fifty meters with fists, and 39 strokes without. A couple of teammates either lost count or simply forgot about the stroke count, but for the rest it seemed counts averaged around mid-fifties for fists and mid-forties for open handed. I was perhaps mentally preening a bit for having a better stroke count when Brad turned to Doug and asked him what his counts were. For those readers who aren’t conversant with the Hyack Masters Swim Club hierarchy Doug is one of our few legitimate ‘elite’ swimmers, even if he only trains with us occasionally, so I was very interested in his answer. “40 for fists and 28 or so for the swim”, he replied to Brad, who nodded apparently finding those numbers in agreement with his expectations. Holy cow! While I expected Doug would have better numbers I wasn’t expecting him to be as efficient swimming with closed fists as I was open handed! Quickly running through Brad’s explanations of the drill in my head for clues and not finding the now greatly desired answers I turned to Doug and asked him what he concentrated on when doing the fisting lap. “Shoulder roll”, was Doug’s eventual answer, but while he was saying this he was also going through the motions and I noticed he was holding his arm at a much more obtuse angle than I do mine, as I tend to sweep it under my body. And the light went on (i.e. deeper water is more stable). So for my warm down I repeated the drill set with a deeper, more vertical stroke and saw my stroke count drop to 44 for fists and to 35 open handed, a 10% improvement in stroke efficiency in a matter of minutes, a mind boggling qualitative improvement in my stroke for such a simple change. It’s particularly encouraging because it shows just how poorly I’m swimming right now – once all these flaws are corrected my times surely will improve by leaps and bounds! At least that’s the hypothesis I’m working on. Now all I have to do is incorporate this change into my current new stroke without forgetting all the other changes I’m trying to make in my freestyle. It will take some time ... and likely a lot of kilometers. But it’s something I can look forward to eh?
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6 comments:
One of our coaches was emphasizing that very thing--keeping your forearm perpindicular to the pool-bottom instead of pulling under the body. He pointed out that we were unfortunately taught (I am guessing you and I are closer in age than we are, say, to the kids today) to swim with S motions, which pushes the arm under the body. Less efficient, as you note. So I have been working on this, too, and while I've not taken care to count my strokes (my stroke count is still off because my left shoulder muscles are so shrunken), I too feel like I am moving faster when I swim correctly.
My only problem with my new stroke is how tiring it is!
One of our coaches used to give us fist drill every Wednesday night. Well, that and some hypoxic breathing set. It got to be a joke amongst the lot of us in the water, and many of the swimmers slacked off, did other drills, did the drill wrong, or just did swim.
But it's shame, really. I mean, I hated having to do fist every week (and I didn't mind skipping an occasional Wednesday for the sake of a relaxing evening at home), but I also felt like I could truly FEEL my pull (in a good way) after doing some of the drill.
You know (wow, long-winded comment here), I rather wish our team had a paid coach rather than volunteers. And I'm saying that as one of the coaches. I think that ALL the swimmers would listen to a coach whom they were paying money to. I also think that coach might be of a better caliber than us volunteers. But most of all, if that coach could get people to do the drills properly and make them understand what they are trying to feel in their stroke. It's disheartening to see the swimmers doing a drill like fingertip drag (not well) and then not even apply anything from it to subsequent sets.
Sorry. Pardon the semi-rant. Long live fist drill!
:-)
Hey, clearly we blog because we’re interested in other peoples’ opinions so no apologies required! I do think most coaches don’t explain the purpose of each drill and the proper techniques involved, or what the drill should feel like if it’s done properly in enough detail, and without proper understanding people will tend to just go through the motions. If you compound inadequate coaching with repetitive routines you’re practically guaranteed to have most people zoning out. And in a sport like swimming it’s easy to slip into routines!
When you write about unpaid coaches you hit on a particularly favourite gripe of mine regarding the use of volunteers in key positions. First of all I think some organizations take advantage of volunteers when they place them in positions which normally receive pay. On the other side of the coin the volunteers knowing this don’t have much incentive to provide more than the bare minimum the job requires. Both sides can suffer. Unpaid coaching is a classic case. A coach without adequate expertise not only doesn’t command the necessary respect needed to do the job but won’t be able to identify and correct technique and training where necessary. And competitive swimming is nothing without proper technique. If you want a great example of what a volunteer coached team eventually devolves into you should look at the workouts of A Mad Duck at www.madduckswim.blogspot.com But a properly trained coach will expect some compensation for their natural swimming ability which led them into coaching in the first place, the coaching clinics they’ve taken, and all those hours at the pool. Consider the hours of a coach involved with a typical low key masters swim team. It trains perhaps eleven months out of the year; say three times a week for an hour at a time. Factor in an hour spent traveling and you’re looking at the coach committing 2½ hours each practice, or roughly (throwing in days off) 350 hours. Half a dozen meets (8 hours committed for each one) and the big Zone meet at end of season (a weekend or another 16 hours) and you’re looking at over 400 hours spent on the team. And that ignores the time spent in day-to-day administrative matters which follow along in every organization. That’s ten weeks full time equivalent plus some significant overtime and you’re going to ask someone to do that for free? Even if you pay a token salary of $15/hour for actual practice hours and meet attendance the club is only looking at $3,000 a year or basically an honorarium. At least the coach can go to his or her partner and take them away for a long weekend with the money and so make some amends for the time spent at the pool. The Hyacks use a graduated program to train coaches where the beginning coach starts with the little kids, graduates up to age group and masters, and then moves into senior levels and the club pays accordingly. Let’s admit it – the typical masters swimmer will be satisfied with someone who understands the fundamental techniques involved and the basic methods of teaching them. That requirement matches up well with the young, green coaches out there willing to coach for a token wage to gain the necessary experience. At Hyack Masters we’re lucky because my team being associated with a major club we have some unusually good coaches at our level. Brad being young and rather green is perhaps more typical but he has excellent potential. Suzanne, who coaches at CCAC and heads our stroke clinics, on the other hand is nationally certified at Level III, a level many of the smaller clubs would be delighted to have. I’d definitely look into what would be involved for your club to hire a qualified coach.
I should add I was told about keeping "tips of fingers point at bottom - hold strength through pull" by Suzanne in my very first stroke clinic. Often at times remembering every correction becomes near impossible when a blizzard of problems need fixing at the same time, another reason for having a good coach around all the time.
It IS tiring to swim it this way! But I am gradually noticing that even when I tune out for a second, I am less likely to slip back to the "old way," so progress is happening!
One thing that is a bit of a reality check about working with kids is how FAST they can make a stroke adjustment. I think it just takes those of us with solidified (and not in a good way) brains a bit longer....
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