Dear all, first of all, let us welcome Edmund and Allan Woooooo into our swim squad training! =) They are both my good friends and seniors in terms of swimming age and I have utmost respect for the achievements they have had in their swim time and lifesaving events! I remember when I started swimming 2 yrs back, my 500m time trial was 10:37 and when I heard that Ed's 500m was 9 flat+-10secs, I made sure I work hard enough to be where he is despite I am a short and fat guy compared to him which is a lengthy swimmer bod guy.
Allow me to say that I am privileged to be able to sharing my swim knowledge with them and even have them in our training! Before we go on, let us remind ourselves that fitness is a varying factor in life, you train, you gain fitness together with fatigue, and if you don't train, then fitness will go down the drain.
Speed of a swimmer does not equate to efficiency but the opposite is definitely true. For those who may argue here that "All i need to do is win, so as long as i swim fastest can already, who cares about strokes?". You may be right in the intermediate world of pure swimming. When it comes to multi-sports, every extra stroke you take that is redundant, it'll be a waste of energy. Let us also be reminded that 1.5k of swim/750m swim in the event is but just a small percentage of triathlons or biathlons. You got to know how to swim smart to save legs for the bike and/or run!
Without further ado, the program we did:
Tonight’s Swim (1.5km):
Warmup
200m Easy + (however many Lawrence and Wilson did *admire your hardworking attitude!*)
(As in 4x50m of 3 pull:1 breathe, 5:1, 7:1,9:1)
1X 50m Stroke Count:
Edmund: 45
Lawrence: 58
Ziting: 53
Weihan: 44
Wilson: 60+
1x 50m Reach and Glide(Exaggerated Gliding) + Stroke Count
Ed: 34
Lawrence: 53
Ziting: 50
Weihan: 38
1x50m Fist Swim
1x50m normal swim, stroke count
Ed: 35
Lawrence: 48
Ziting: 43
Weihan: 36
Main Set:
2x500m Time Trial + 5mins rest in between
Cool down:
2x50m breast stroke Easy
Timing Breakdown:
Ed:
Lap 1 – 0:49
Lap 2 – 0:55
Lap 3 – 0:56
Lap 4 – 1:02
Lap 5 – 0:58
Lap 6 – 1:03
Lap 7 – 1:02
Lap 8 – 1:05
Lap 9 – 1:07
Lap 10 – 1:05
First set: 10:02
Lap 11 – 20 Details:
Average: 1:02+ (Very fast on first lap, died off after 3rd)
Timing: 10:19 (excluding lazing around time should be 10:10)
Allan:
Lap 1 – 0:50
Lap 2 – 1:00
Lap 3 – 1:03
Lap 4 – 1:05
Lap 5 – 1:03
Lap 6 – 1:03
Lap 7 – 1:06
Lap 8 – 1:05
Lap 9 – 1:10
Lap 10 – 1:05
First Set: 10:30
Lap 11 – 20 Details:
Average: 1:04 (Very fast on first lap, died off after 2nd)
Timing: 10:38
Lawrence:
Lap 1 – 1:00
Lap 2 – 1:08
Lap 3 – 1:07
Lap 4 – 1:13
Lap 5 – 1:11
Lap 6 – 1:23
Lap 7 – 1:19
Lap 8 – 1:23
Lap 9 – 1:21
Lap 10 – 1:15
First Set: 12:20
Lap 11 – 20 Details:
Average: 1:18 (Stroke broke down after 3rd lap, VERY jialat. Swimming with arms only and the rest of the body parts are not in streamline position. Weak Stabilizer muscle)
Timing: 13:00
Weihan:
Lap 1 – 0:52
Lap 2 – 1:01
Lap 3 – 1:07
Lap 4 – 1:06
Lap 5 – 1:08
Lap 6 – 1:08
Lap 7 – 1:10
Lap 8 – 1:04
Lap 9 – 1:10
Lap 10 – 1:07
First Set Timing: 10:53
Lap 11 – 20 Details:
Average: 1:09 (Very fast on first lap, died off after 2nd, Strokes getting more consistent, GOOD!)
Second Set Timing: 11:30
Ziting:
Lap 1 – 0:58
Lap 2 – 1:21
Lap 3 – 1:18
Lap 4 – 1:29
Lap 5 – 1:24
Lap 6 – 1:25
Lap 7 – 1:28
Lap 8 – 1:25
Lap 9 – 1:25
Lap 10 – 1:22
First Set Timing: 13:35
Lap 11 – 20 Details:
Average: 1:28 (Very fast on first lap, died off after 2nd, No need to chase your brother, Save fuel for 2nd lap onwards and you’ll shave at least 1 min off. J)
Second Set Timing: 14:40
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Edmund:
- Kick is strong, but too much knee flexion caused lower leg to completely came out of surface, creating drag.
- Pull/Stroke count is consistently around 45strokes a lap +-3. Good. :)
- When fresh, only left arm is pulling across center axis of body
- When fatigue sets in, both arms entry are way pass center axis of body, which directly caused the catch phase to start at center or opposite side and then coming back across body instead of a normal 'S' pull.
- Have "storing energy" action from legs when doing 2beat kicks, Causing legs to open up wide laterally. Try to keep them toes pointing inwards like pigeon.
- Very Aerobically fit and lengthy to begin with and thus timing still comes in at about 10mins. However if we were to go to a 3rd set, I would probably be expecting to see 10:40 or more (which should not happen if stroke is consistent, given his aerobic capacity).
I will find a way to upload a video I took during the swim.
Allan:
- The only one who's swimming with his body instead of just arms and legs.
- Good body rotation
- When fatigue sets in, tends to lift head out higher to breathe. Should try to roll body around like a satay stick has impaled you from head to toes. Try keeping ear touching shoulder next time.
- Due to the almost non-existing kick, there is a lackluster effort of keeping the legs together in streamline position. Legs tend to open up wide during swim, causing drag.
Wilson:
- Good job tonight! Saw huge leap of improvement in your swim after you tried reaching in front and applying pressure around chest into the water. I'm sure you felt it too as you were streaming down the water like REALLY fast for the 15meters!
- Remember to lean into the water and don't fight it. Water resistance comes in cubic folds as it is 1000x more dense than air.
- Need to work more on keeping body streamlined, remember the exercise I taught you, prone down, alternate side of leg and arm extension.. the exercise will help.
- Am glad to see you're not swimming with dragonboat strength but trying hard to master the finesse.
- Remember hip rotation and every arm and leg movement should sync from hip.
- The body, from fingertip to toes are 1 piece. Aim for a straight horizontal base line from the finger tip to your toes, underneathe the water.
- Entry should be in front of forehead. Not too far in front. About wrist deep, then extend in front and slightly downwards.
Ziting:
- First 10 laps was horrendous from 5th lap onwards due to the body positioning error that happened everytime I see you swim.
- Good thing is it was changed in the 2nd 10laps!
- Remember to keep the kick small and frequency lower, in order not to tire yourself out too much! Huge muscles from the quads (thighs) drains ALOT of oxygen quickly...
- Entry should go deeper then start extending arms
- Head position usually too high thus unable to make good use of the lung to press the hips up.
- Expected timing from correcting the high head position should be minus 2mins from current Time trial.
Weihan:
- Am overall happy with your swim tonight!
- Kick has improved, lesser splashes equals to more propulsion!
- At certain times, entry still tend to be too close to surface, need to go deeper.
- Gliding was consistent.
- Pull was a little weak though, considering its a time trial effort....
- Keep up the good work!
Lawrence:
- Really happy to see the head going deep and thus the chest helped the hip to stay on surface all the time.
- Breathing was really close to the surface of water and not too high too! Good work!
- From time trial swim timing per lap, you can see an increase in per lap timing as the time trial goes on, due to increase of fatigue.
- Important to note that the fatigue is caused by increased resistance due to the non-streamline position.
- Pulling still goes to center, and across. Especially left arm when breathing on the right.
- You should try the following:
* Reach forward at shoulder width. REALLY reaching forward, not just straighten arms.
* Ask Wilson about the exercise I taught him and do it every alternate nights
* Pull outwards instead of straight down at the beginning. Then after arm passes face, pull water closer to body and push straight until hand exit beside thigh
- Have to work on rotation from left to right and right to left. Especially at high effort sets.
- The crossing center axis pulls are probably caused by the entry to close to the center of the head and lack of awareness of where the arms are moving at the start of the pull. Chain reaction, 1 thing lead to another.
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Conclusion:
Wowie, it was a tough session for me. Haha.. seriously I AM surprised at the amount of information I'm processing at the pool and manage to remember these details even though they're not really complete.
My apologies for not being able to do the second time trial with per lap timing like the 1st one. Am running a fever and the headache was creeping in and thus I decided to use the second time trial to focus on stroke mistake recognition instead of per lap timing recording.
Really appreciate the effort by wilson, the patience, Sorry if I neglected you! Please, stop me when you need me! I will always be focused, so don't be bothered by the stressed look in my face! haha.
Also, effort by Ziting was really really admirable too. Allan is brave *clap clap* to come for swim training after ceasing to train for so long, those egos must be hard to tame too.. REALLY APPRECIATE k. :) .. Edmund's arrival is a pleasant surprise and DAMN I HATE MYSELF FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO SWIM WITH YOU, would probably get another PB tonight! haha.. and Lawrence, you know what I like about you? You are the few ones who're swimming with your BRAINS... That is definitely the fastest way to improvement!
Sam, Gen, Marianne, Ben and Jasper, we miss you!
Til next wednesday!
Cheers
Coach KK
Thanks Coach KK once again for your kind sharing.
ReplyDeleteI am begining to appreciate "good stroke" for long distant swim, I can feel it yesterday.
I am going for my Safra swim trial this Friday night, 30x50m under 40 min requirement for the Singapore Biathlon.
Base on time trial, I will barely pass (13min x 3=39min)!!
I will update you on Friday night...wish me luck
Tactic i tink should work for you.
ReplyDelete1) Don't do tumble turn. Its too time wasting from wat i see. It is Not clean n too slow. You don't get a good grip on the wall and the amount of distance you gained from the tumble turn kick is only like 1.5m then you started stroking.
Instead, just do the reach the wall, grab the wall tight and fast, pull legs onto the wall and Kick off AS HARD AS POSSIBLE while maintaining streamline position. I could do that (reach wall, grab, kick off) in about less than a second each time.
MAKE GOOD USE OF THE KICK OFF.
glide as far as you can before starting your strokes. They're free distance in pool lap swims. Imagine if you can glide 3meters off the wall Everytime for 30laps, you'd save 90meters! That's 2laps off work n you're literally doing just 28laps!
2)For first 10laps, go easy with Lots of gliding n maintaining a long body from fingertip to toes(imagine in army n the seargeant major go "sTAND STRAIGHT AND RAISE YOUR FUCKING HAND UP!" all the time n you'll be on the right track.. Think easy speed. Next ten laps, try to push a little bit harder but reserve some for the last ten. On the last ten, do a build from lap 1to10, starting 1st at moderate speed.
3)When all else fails, ALWAYS KEEP ROTATING YOUR BODY!
4)rehearse the above in your mind before going to the swim, it'll then come naturally.
5)Hydrate yourself aplenty with abt 500ml of water with a pinch of salt or even coffee (about an hr or half before event flag off) to boost performance.
God Speed,
KK
Okie, I roger that. Tell you after tomorrow event
ReplyDeleteDear Coach KK,
ReplyDeleteI took your tip of "MAKE GOOD USE OF THE KICK OFF" for the trial and I practise it for 20 minutes before the actual trial.
It went very well for about 10 laps but because I really push it very hard, I started to have cramp on my both my thighs!! At lap 16, I suffer really bad from the cramp and wanted to stop for safety reason, but the trial time-taker said "You can rest but the time still continue"...At lap 15, my time is about 18min and I was quite surprise even I have cramp and not using my leg to kick....so I presevere thinking that coach KK will kill me for letting him down (last article on peer pressure)!
So instead of using the "Kick push off", i resort back to my bad tumble roll and well, it helps, the cramp slowly dissapear until it is completely gone within 4 laps.
At lap 26 the time-taker told me "You need to make it faster", so I thought, Bingo, last 2 laps so I tried my fastest time I can do for the last 100m.
Alas, when I thought I have completed my last 100m (In my mind, 30 laps), the time keeper (Alan his name), told me "Last 2 laps to go"!!
Walau, I misjudge that by giving all I have in the last 100m already.
So another 100m to go, how hard can it be?
When you are exhausted, it is virtually impossible to go on but I remember the "glide", low count of strokes we did last Wed by Coach KK.
I go on and complete it and I thought I might has missed it by a minute or 2 because of the bad cramp earlier.
I shouted "So how, what is the time??!!!".
Alan said calmly "Congratulation, you did it. It is 37m & 7 secs on his stop watch.
So I jokingly sweared at him "You nearly kill me when you asked me to go faster at lap 26, because you said you only give warning at lap 28, the last 2 lap".
For this swim trial in Yishun, there were only 2 registered for it at 8:20PM. The other guy did not turned up. So I have 2 FULL lanes for myself, with 2 time keepers (Tan Yuen Fong-cute girl & Alan). It was a hot day and the water is warm and nice and clean.
So in summary, I passed and it is really a big thank you to Coach KK that the training really paid off. We should go for a makan session to celebrate a bit. How about roti prata @ Jalan Kayu? he he :P
The following techniques were use:
1) Glide as much as possible
2) STRETCH with your hand to the max and use it all the way to the end of the hip
3) Pace yourself, dont over doing it at the first few laps and then burned out
4) My hands must be straight and not curve into the tummy area
5) Old habit, slow tumble due to cramp
So I am on my way to the SAFRA Biathlon. Running 10KM is not a problem for me but I wonder how is the sea going to treat me that day..."Yo coach KK, are we going to the sea for training?"
Cheers and see you next wed
Lawrence Lim
Great job on the swim trial lawrence! :) Its your credit, so don't try to push it to me:P hahaha.. Long Easy strokes always does its job when you're tired!
ReplyDeleteOur own TT timing shows you are doing 13mins per 10... if u multiply by 3 it'd give u 39.. u even outdone your estimated PB on last wed :) Well done!
Err... look.. Cramps are involuntary muscle spasm (usually painful) caused solely by lack of
1) water
2) potassium
3) magnesium
I believe you only took a couple of sips or mouthful before you did the 20 mins practice and after the 20mins practice yeah.. if i were you i'd have taken a full 500ml an hour before the thing and another 200ml to 300 abt 10mins before the time trial starts.. :) 100 plus or Nuun (i swear by it now..) tablets works wonderfully well in preventing cramps. :)
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Jalan Kayu is great ! HEHE.. Shall suggest that to the rest this wednesday~
Open water training only starts in january or early feb.. Don't worry about it. We've got plenty of time.. :)
Cheers
KK