Pictures! After swim~ :D

Lovely bunch of swimmers, Great friends. Superbly open-minded kind of people in knowledge sharing and I'm just glad I formed this training and met you guys!

If you're new and just saw this blog, come join us! We're all beginners who have decided to embark on a journey to explore multisports! :) Oh, for the singaporeans in us, Its FREE. :D

Cheers

KK

Robert, Leon, Neil and Pauline Swim analysis.

Firstly: The videos are uploaded at youtube.

Instructions to view them:
Go to http://www.youtube.com/
search keywords "gqsamsam" and you'll see the videos uploaded by me.

Secondly, sorry for this post getting REALLY messy, Its 5am and I did a hill repeat after I came back home just now... and the blog postS before this... pardon my half eye closed picture editing and video upload.... They're still uploading now as of 5:13am.I'll leave this on and I believe it should be ready by the time you read this post.

Next up, stroke autopsy.
-------------------------------------
Robert:



This picture is a perfect picture to show that you're really not streamline in your swim yet..
Thus there is a huge load of drag.... look at mine if you have the chance. In the previous entry. :)

The left arm is already pulling when you're breathing. It should really be where the white line is. Your left ear resting on the shoulder of left arm.



Bad pull timing: Left arm should wait for right arm to reach when the red arrow is pointng before it starts going down and starts pulling.




Lack of plantar flexion at ankles despite good streamline position when NOT breathing.



Reasonable streamlining but legs are opened up! Should keep them straight and together all the time even when kicking!



This is the swim before I pointed out to you regarding pulling the hip and legs up using your core. You can see your hips and legs are REALLY under the water. Also, the hips are FLAT?! meaning you're rotating your shoulder, but your hips are not turning! We should try to start all movement from our hips yah.




Another picture to show bad streamlining whil breathing. Hip is flexed, knee flexed, left arm pulling.

Overall I see your swim improving after this monday swim session. Keep working at it, you're definitely in the right direction now that your hips are no longer sinking. Breathing can poise a HUGE problem so its time to tackle that NOW! :)


-------------------------------------


Next:
Pauline



Its REALLY streamline. *Clap clap* But I can't even see you opening your mouth breathing! Don't blame the pic for being blur.. you know yourself you're not breathing enough! No wonder you're always out of breathe! Even wilson found it weird. :D




STREAMLINE! But Arm pull short! if you finish the push phase til your arm is straightened, the hand should exit at where the mid thigh (white arrow pointing) is. From the splash, you can see that your hand is freshly exiting the water in this pic thus the pull is Incomplete.



STREAMLINE (As usual).. BUT why are you flat!? My camera can't take 25frames per sec, so i didn't pause you in an awkward position. You see for yourself inthe video, you'll see that as one stroke finishes and come back, you'll wait til the arm straighten out in the water before starting the next pull.

Once the hand passes forehead can start pulling liao! Entry and pull should start together!

Plus, hips are flat because of the wait for the arm to return completely. There really shouldn't be any fat hip moments of freestyle swim.

Overall, the swim is good, but REALLY need to work on the breathing!!!!

------------------------------

Next:

Leon



When you're doing a relax swim,you streamline position is out, imagine what happens when you are trying to apply bull strength to increase speed.. it only gets worst... Try to stretch out at hips area, doing a hip extension.



Kungfu kick is no good for FS swim... :Pp Keep that leg down and keep those momentary big splashes away!!!! creates drag that are no good!


Left arm start pull too late, Right arm enter liao straighten already the left arm should be underneathe the chest already!


As a result? hips are flat again, like robert and pauline, and the legs ARE SINKING!!!

No doubt, you're one of the most impressive learner I've ever seen! Please jiayou on the stroke and relax on the strength and stamina part.

With efficiency comes speed! All the above are film at slow speed swim and thus the mistakes are small and insignificant.. when you increase force application, body tends to move off the alignment quite abit.. core work is needed! :)

-------------------------------

Next:

Neil:

Neil's swim is in fact the most error free. :P Body is relatively streamlined and the only problem is that you always over reach in front and enter with the whole arm splashing onto the surface or the elbow smashing right ONTO the water.

Remember that when you press water downwards you travel up. Not too good for moving forward.

The pull timing is also a little off whenever you breathe. Make sure one hand passes forehead before another pulls. If you get that right, you'll be fine. :)

Cheers

KK

Jersey issues

Currently confirmed:
KK
Sam
Gen
Wilson
Pauline
Robert
Lawrence
Leon
Marianne
Jiawei
KH

I will get the following checked out:
Minimal order qty
Price
Logo design
Their sizing measurement
Delivery Date

Pauline, Robert and Leon may have to race the biathlon with your swim suit this feb as I doubt it'll be this fast. Still it'll be good to get for future race. :)

Cheers
KK

Swim Training - 280110!

2 groups:
Pauline, Robert, Wilson and KH
4X50 as Free Breast Free Breast
4x50 as drills:
1) KoS 25 Left, 25 Right
2) Catchup
3) 4 pull 1 breathe (For stroke symetry check)
4) Touch ear high elbow FS

6x50, 30sec on last person

100 Breast cooldown

KK
Sam
Gen
Lawrence
Marianne
Jiawei
Leon

warmup:
300 as 2(100free+50back/breast)

Main set:
10x50 on 1:15
5x200 on 5:30

100 breast cooldown

1.8KM for second group
800m for first group.

----------------------------------------------

Can see the tiredness from those doing 5x200m. It is quite taxing especially for those doing it the first time and only hae about 30seconds to 40seconds rest. I personally hate this sets but did them at 4:15 until i grew to love them.
I feel that they push my aerobic and anaerobic capacity pretty hard when I go hard at them for 5 sets. I almost always recover and find myself stronger in my subsequent swim after doing every 5x200.
It was great seeing everyone going 5min and below for every set. *Happy*


-----------------------------------------------

Group 1, I thought there was a little more rest than there should be. But then, its ok as for now, your stroke technique is most important and thus being fresher beats doing the laps just to clock mileage.
Also, there were some confusion in doing the drills.. its ok, i will smoothen out once you join the training more often. :)

--------------------------------------------------

Individually:

Robert, Pauline, KH and Wilson.
I can see generally that Breathing pattern's a problem, that's why I introduced the 1357911 secs bubbling. Practicing as a group will ease the feeling of being treated like a kid.

Robert:
Improvement is present after you started activating the core and breathing slightly faster. There're still loads of room for improvement especially in the streamlining aspect and breathing control and power exertion + relaxation control. Check the video entry after this for more info.


Pauline:
Silky like satin strokes enables you to swim pretty fast but then you're still out of breathe. After analysing your video, I found that you're breathing REALLY short breathes! Open the mouth to breathe!!!!!! Nobody will say its unglam one la...
You have to take yoga breathes (into your tummy) every stroke you take! That way, fresh oxygen will help you relax and swim better! TRY IT!


KH:
When I first saw your swim tonight, I was like "Wow... not bad eh..".. It was impressive, I bet Wilson share the same sentiment but he's a dragonboater (plus he's always heaving 45kg worth of load up into the sky as a cheerleader) and you're a gamer... so he definitely stronger than you in terms of strength. Still, as per spoken at our computer table, you should try to exert lesser force and focus on streamlining like what Pauline is doing. She is taking in incredibly little amount of oxygen each time she breathe and she can still last the whole length of the pool, it shows she's not exerting any much amount of force. *Robert and Wilson please take note, you guys are doing the opposite when tired, DEEP BIG HEAVY BREATHES PLUS SUPERMAN STRENGTH KINDA PULLS.*


Wilson:
I see vast improvement in your swim but the flexibility around the shoulder area and limited ROM from the tricep and lats ought to change to allow for more room of improvements. I believe any swim coach in SK will say your swim's pretty good but its stiff. I can specifically pinpoint to you which muscle group is "shortened" in terms of Range of Motion. Contact me on FRIDAY gym session after my swim for more info. Core strength is also a challenge for swims above 50 or 75 I believe.

Tips: Look at the mirror with your hands at your side, you'll see your knuckles are forward facing, it shows tight chest and weak back, anterior rotation of shoulder and thus causing inability to activate lats at 100%. You gotta keep the shoulders back if you need some REAL POWER *Ouuhhhh Yeah...*


Lawrence:

This is one consistent swimmer I'm seeing here. I can tell you probably know the work of pacing as well or possibly even better than me does.

I can see you are CHILL in all 5x200. If nobody notice that, its because they're not as chill as you were.

I got no complaints but just praises so I'll keep that to myself to prevent any ball carrying here.

Keep up the good work. Your MTB fitness is starting to come in to swimming as you master the stroke better.

Just like you said, reduce on the kick, keep them straight and together, let the body be streamline and just pull through it. In the pool, try to keep the head lower as it s a little on the high side even when you're not breathing (looking in front to check traffic i suppose) but it can become a bad habit if you just keep practicing swimming that way. :)


Leon:

Awesome swim! The fact that you know your strokes won't holding up well is good sign that you're learning the importance of the stroke in immediate reference to your swim speed.

From what I can see from my side when I swim, your pull is REALLY SHORT. take a look at the upload of vid and pic later, there is a picture where pauline is doing a short pull. with the thumb exiting at the hip area.. you're doing just that.

That happens when swimmer tries to increase stroke rate beyond the limit when they can still pull all the way back and maintain a good pull form.

Remember that speed gains come from these:
Stroke length (the strength of your pull with Good technique) + Stroke rate (This only count if your stroke length is good, imagine doing 1000 pulls of 10cm movement...hmmmMMmm.. -_-.. )

When you're tired, you have to learn to be patient to actually slow down your movements. That way, you'll get faster. If you just increase the stroke rate to compensate the drop of form, you'll just create MORE drag.

Ask wilson:
"Don't fight the water... because...?"
Wilson: "You'll never win!"

It's always giving you cubic form of resistance.. how strong you are, its cubic times stronger.. thus it only make sense to go with the flow when you're tired and running out of strength. To pull gently and make use of hydrodynamic and streamlining. Think about it and I hope to see some improvement in the next swim!

PS: Stop chasing the girls la.. brush up the strokes first, gen's probably stronger than you (she can smash the shuttle with the badminton racket until the RACKET BREAK. Beat that.)... Sam's mileage in the pool probably wins EVERYONE OF US in the pool.. I highly doubt her good stroke endurance is gonna give way anytime soon. :Pp

Work on your stroke, you'll see wonderful things happening.

Hope to see you on my side during the swims soon. :)


Sam:
Damn, you're becoming a threat.. I'm only 25seconds faster than you on 200s... haha.. 4min flat for 200m on the 5th set was impressive even though your fast swim meant you have more than 1 min of rest between each set.:) I'm so proud of you.
I thought you held out really finely on the 10x50, very clever to go slow there but you're still under 59seconds for all the 10x50!

5x200:
1) 4:19
2) 4:15
3) 4:12
4) 4:07
5) 4:00

Perfect pace! Try to go consistent on 4:15. :)


Marianne:

5x200 was a new experience eh? But its getting a little nuah already, You're doing 4:48 for ALL 5 SETS! Good relaxed pacing. It isn't reallY a pace but you're probably just letting the body do its job at a Comfortable pace. Our muscles don't have memory but your body's nervous system does. AKA Your brain is very comfortable with your body doing 1min 6secs 50m, 2m23secs 100m and 4m48secs of 200m. If i did not remember wrongly, all your swims are same timing all the time.

Time to push it a little. When its 50, nothing much you can do. But once more than 1 lap, you can play the easy-go-hard-return game. Look below for explanation.

I'd give you credit for the stroke improvement! Pulls seems longer now but you should really swim beside gen and sam because they're masters of gliding and they're around the same speed as you at the beginning.. just by rotating to the side to see how they swim will help you gain lots of insights on how long they stay on their side to swim.<----- EVERYONE please take not too.


Gen:

Injuries are creeping up as far as I can see. Hamstring and shoulders are usually the first to go.
Stretching is your best bet now. Contact me for more info on where to stretch. I don't trust sam on remembering this. Sorry dear.

Also, pulling back your shoulder whilst pulling is important too since weak shoulder is evident in your family.

I find your pull really short at times and you tend to glide more on one side than another. I couldn't see clearly as you were pretty far on the side and water was murky. Still I got a feeling you're gliding much longer on the non breathing side. Stroke symmetry is KEY if you need distance per stroke.
Go do the math yourself... if you do 2.5m of gliding per side then you'll only need 20 strokes to finish 50m, but if you do 2.5m on the right and only 1.25m on the left then you'll need 26.5 strokes.

If you're going to catch your sister then that 6.5 strokes is gonna cost you a total of 26 strokes per 200m. Do 5 sets and you're doing 130 strokes more. No wonder you're getting slower and not faster despite being so strong.


Jia Wei:
When I saw your first 50m of the 10, I saw myself when it was 3 months back. Back then I still believed when I swim fast, my hands and legs has to move as fast or faster than a speed boat's rotor. But it turns out the opposite and I was glad I learn it through an experiment of 2x500m Time Trial swims I did on my own. I did the first one with flying arms and legs (each lap getting more and more in terms of quantity of stroke cycles as I want to go faster and finish strong)... then the second set of 500m, I did with more gliding + HARD push phase of every pull. Note that there was only 2min of rest in between and the second set I did SIGNIFICANTLY LESSER AMOUNT OF PULLS.

Guess wat?

1ST 500M: 9:55
2nd 500M: 9:47

I had it in my training log if you need proof I can show you, sam was there to watch too.

When we do long D swim, it is vital that we can maintain our stroke length with good ratio to our energy expenditure over time. You can see for yourself that the swim was gradually deteoriating through the first 5 of the 10x50m. If still in doubt, we can try it again when your hamstring gets better.

I personally feel that you should glide more, use your bull strength sparingly and you'll definitely be able to outswim lots of us. You got a GOOD catch and pull position. I can really see you holding and anchoring onto the water at the beginning of the pull but its a pity you always die off after 17.5m as the anaerobic is already used up. Just imagine if you can maintain a lower stroke rate, at AEROBIC threshold and not Anaerobic... You should be able to maintain that speed much longer. :)

Hope you'll come more often if you're willing and we can share more! :)
Remember that this swim clinic is for triathlons and long D swims.. no longer 3:15 or 4:15 or 6mins of rescue oh.. :)


---------------------------------

For those maintaining same pace all the time, it is inevitable the pace will slow down despite still feeling comfortable. Its like lifting a 5kg dumbbell, you can lift it for 10times then on the 11th time you're struggling, you pick up a 4kg dumbbell and you'll be able to continue lifting.

In swimming, the dumbbell's weight is equivalent to the resistant of the water and the harder you pull, the more the resistant, ie heavier the dumbbells.

For example,When you're doing the first lap, you'll apply 5kg of strength to do x number of pulls to reach 50m and lets say your timing is 1min. As you do more laps, your muscles will tire out, and then the common thing to do is to swim in a way that is still comfortable, as comfortable as the first lap. How?

If you need comfort to remain when strength has already dropped, you will have to carry a 4kg dumbbell, Ie doing a shorter pull or applying lesser force per pull.

Then? the timing will increase for each lap and you get slower.

Thus, for those who wants to break out of that sack and just push it a little, i recommend you take the 50m timings I've taken your moderate effort swims and just multiply by 4 and try to aim for that timing or lesser for your 200m repeats.

If you're doing 1min moderate swim 50m. Then do a 4minutes 200m swim. You'll probably find that 1 min for first lap is easy, and to get 1min again on the second lap continuously will be slightly harder and on the 3rd lap and 4th lap you may be busting your lungs out a little just to hit 1min per lap.

Have fun trying. :) Oh, and for a goal, I'm doing 3:30 for about 85% of my max effort for 200m. Its pretty slow in terms of a Pure swimmer but it should be suffice for you guys to aim for until august or end of year(unless you train 7 days a week and clock 70km on swim mileage a week then you'll probably overtake me in a couple of months. :P)!

:)

Cheers
KK

My quote.

"Fitness is a lifelong journey. Just like learning, it's not just a destination."
By KK.

Cheers

A long post of training log. PICS AND VIDS INC!

NOTE: IF YOU CAN'T WATCH THE VIDEO, GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH FOR A USERNAME of "gqsamsam". The videos are all there under that account.

This log is slightly ego hurting. Be warned, but take heart that everything written is true and are facts we NEED to know in order to improve.

Tonight's intended program:
Group A:
Sam, Gen, Mari, Weihan, Leon, Neil
Warmup:
100Free
100KoS, arm ext.
100Free
100KoS, arm ext.
100Free

Pre set:
2x150 build up, no rest

Main set
Pyramid set
50,100,150,200,150,100,50
w/ 5sec rest between each

200(easy, moderate, fast, easy)

Cooldown
100 breast

Group B:
Robert, Wilson, Ziting
Warmup
4x50(Free, Kick w/ board, Pull, Free)

Pre set
4x50 Free
1min rest on last person reach

Main set
Pyramid set
25,50,75,100,75,50,25
30 sec rest between each

Cool down
200 breast

-----------------------------------

Review
Sam:
Sub 1min easy swims after the run in the afternoon?!
Amazing.






As you can see, before the I note you on the breathin part to keep your ears to your shoulder, your breathing is very not streamlined. Compare mine. :)

Gen:
Backache. Great effort! I hope you're heeding my advice to stretch after every workout... Shan't nag more and just keep my fingers crossed that you won't get injured someday just because of tight muscles. I nag cos I care k. So take care.

Marianne:
Still very short pull. The video and pics below will be self explanable.... Let me know if you don't understand still.



Why is the thumb out?

The arm just exited water, see the back splash.. why so early exit?



As you can see, sam and I are both pulling all the way to our thigh, whilst yours is at your tummy area only... one thigh length worth of propulsion leh!!


Leon & Neil
I noticed that the rest times are NOT followed in pyramid sets. May I know why? Trying too hard to chase ar? haha. The rest is EXTREMELY important. This is the first time you guys train in a swim squad, thus you don't really know how the sets goes like and plus you guys started in the middle, thus everythign is a little rushy.

Next time, there will be sets of 200s, 400s and even 500s.. If the rest are not taken seriously in between, strokes will falter and you know what will happen when you did 500 strokes of bad practice. Plus, you'd probably find that you can't maintain the same timing in 2 or more sets despite having the rest time if you don't rest at all during the appointed rest time.

Neil, get a doc's advice and see if they can help with any supplements. My brother's getting the same thing as you.. too low fat count i supposed. If I found a solution I'd let you know.

Robert
Its imperative to remember that slow and steady wins the race. I can see a huge improvement in body position when you're not breathing... however everything tends to collapse when you're tired and need "MORE TIME" to breathe... As spoken in debriefing, pressing down to keep the head up to have more time to breathe is a vicious cycle as it keeps getting the hips to drop deeper and deeper each time you come up to breathe.

I can see the pulling is getting gentle now... but I need you to try harder in doing this:
Forget the fact that only stronger pulls can get you moving. Try to pull so gentle that you feel like you're just doing 1kg dumbbell curls. Then add streamlining to that effort of pulling and look at the tiles on the pool's floor to see if you're moving. That's the only way you can convince yourself to do light pulling.

I believe there are more concerns. There have to be as there seems to be endless things to think about and make things click. Let me know in details, I will get back to you point by point, word by word. I'm waiting for your email.

Pauline
Very gracious. Very impressive on self pacing and effort control. It may look effortless to everyone but I know you are feeling breathless after 6x50 already. You totally grasped what I said about holding good postures in swim even in hard swims! Whilst I am telling the boys in your home to pull gently, I am gonna tell you to pull harder now.. you know what it takes to go faster! Don't control so much already! :D

Only two faults I could find are:

1) kick is a little too weak at the end, need to compensate abit when core is tired (scroll down to read below bold section).
2) Breathe holding is NOT recommended... thoracic pressure buildups can cause ALOT of problem breathing... and can even cause drowning when the pressure adds on to the panicky feeling at race....

Wilson
Good work on locking core!
Strength gain is progressive and slow (depending on how fast u recover and how often u swim), but it'll b better than time spent in gym as it's Swim-Specific core strength.. Take a look at the video and snapshorts + details.

The straight lines in white shows streamlining of the body in the water. I've plotted out how your body looks like in water.. streamlined? hehe.. you see for yourself!

Weihan
Same problems as previous post... Please read up and rethink. Great stamina.. Great perserverance thru the blisters! Admirable!

Ziting
Superb! See, your stroke technique is gd enough to win Mr Muscle Wilson! Keep up the gd work, reduce the kicks, add more body rotation (especially on the left side!) and you'll be right there with your wonder boy kor kor already!


Conclusion of reviews:

It's all about holding a streamlined position. We can see very clearly here the importance of streamlining.

First, other than sam and gen who had competitive swim/lifeaving backgrounds, Marianne, ziting and Pauline are pure average swimmers at this moment.
Their body strength are definitely way lower than those of Robert, Wilson or Neil and Leon..

However, over a same distance of 50m,

Pauline still take lesser strokes than most of US..
Now, without taking speed into account, isn't it an irony since the more strength one can put into a pull should logically result in a further stroke length each pull?

Marianne's doing as fast as leon but with lower stroke counts. (1min 6sec per lap avg)

Ziting is even skinnier than Neil, yet Wilson kept exclaiming "wah..
She damn strong.. I'm OWNED(meaning lost to her completely) by her the whole night man..."..

Let's ponder for a second and see if the following reasons i come up with makes sense...

The reason pauline's taking much lesser strokes is because she held her streamlined position before, during AND after her pulling. She didn't care how hard she was pulling at all but the thing that goes thru her mind is probably just how she can maintain the feeling of slipping through the water in as slippery a manner as possible.

The reason ziting swim fast is because she got a strong fundamental base of drill work from my class previously that she can user her core to keep her hips up ON the surface all the time and her strong consistent kicks kept her feet on the surface too, wherelse Wilson and robert's legs are sinking from hip Down.

Lastly, marianne's body in her gliding position is definitely one of the longest looking one as she reach in front alot and her hips and legs are on the surface too just like ziting.. Plus, her speed comes from consistency in her strokes even WHILST BREATHING. Leon and NEil tend to lift head high able water whilst doing harder effort swims.

With these case studies, we can tell that holding a streamlined position whilst swimming is WAY MORE IMPORTANT than the amount of force being applied backwards to propel. I strongly advise everyone who feels that their stroke has got some streamlining problem, to start pulling more gently.. Focus the effort onto hardening the stomach area to activate your abs and lock your torso and hips together.


-------------------------------------

I'd end the blog entry with a list of stuff we should do to keep the body streamlined in all ways.

1) In gliding/side position, reach forward with arm, feel stretch from lats to finger tips (keeps torso to lead arm in straight line)

2) Upon entry and stretching out, also in gliding position, press onto chest lightly (feels like leaning onto the water) until the hips floats up on surface.

3) During body rotation from left to right and right to left, harden stomach muscles and use long and gentle freestyle kick to keep lower body and upper body connected and in synch during movements from limbs

4) Look down at floor at all times, unless sighting. This prevents the head from getting out of water (duh), which leads to a good body alignment when you need to keep the hip on the surface.

------------------------------------------


Cheers
KK (videos below for comparison)

Suggestions...

Sam and I have a personal suggestion to announce to all sapphire swimmers..

As Wilson and I have discussed the possibility of forming our own Multisport team(AKA Sapphire Swimmers), adorning our own tri jerseys out there on event and participating as a team have been quite a tempting move. However, this brought me to think about the fact that not all of us are participating in a race at all!

Current status:
Me: Sg Biathlon, Aviva Half IronMan, OSIM OD Triathlon, Tribob Sprint Triathlon, Trifactor sg, Standard Chartered 42KM.

Sam: Sg Biathlon, OSIM Sprint Triathlon

Lawrence: Sg Biathlon

Wilson: Tribob Sprint Triathlon

James: Tribob Sprint Biathlon and Triathlon

KH: SAFRA Avventura

Marianne: Sg Biathlon, Tribob Sprint Triathlon

Wei Han: Tribob Sprint Triathlon

Ziting: None

Gen: None


---------------------------

From the above list, we can see that the most commonly joined race will be the Tribob Sprint Triathlon.. Sg Biathlon too, but then quite a few of us are still really green horn in our swim techniques and thus that is out of the discussion.

Sam and I will like to suggest for you guys to form relay team to join either Tribob Sprint Triathlon, and/or OSIM Olympic Distance.

That way, it is a good opportunity for those who wants to enjoy the camaraderie of triathlon events... also a good build up for those who wants to try a longer distance but without having the fear of inability to complete the event because you'll just be doing one part of the race!

Suggested teams:

For Tribob Sprint:
Wilson (Swim) + James (Bike) + Gen (Run)
Lawrence/Ziting (Swim) + ??__Insert Wilson's Friend's Name here__?? (Bike) + KH (Run)

OSIM Olympic Distance Tri:
Gen (Swim) + Wilson (Bike) + James (Run)

Lawrence should do this by yourrself!!!

Well... let me know your opinions! :D

Am keeping Lawrence in prayers that he's safe and enjoying the trip. :)

Cheers
KK

Wilson's reflections... plus some pointers for all.

"My reflection on swim training.

I felt really awesome to be able to be able to glide through the first few 6 X50m warm up. It took me a while to break away from my normal ‘power- through the water via dragon boat strength’ (A.K.A Raw Strength) swimming style. I find that what Coach KK said was really true: no matter how hard we fight against the water, we will never win.

At the beginning of the main training segment, stretching and gliding through the water was relatively easy. A lot of focus was placed on reaching as far as I could and holding on to that position to glide.

However, as the number of laps increases, more and more concerns came popping into my head. Issues and thoughts such as: ‘drinking in water instead of taking in air, accidently colliding into people (obstacles) without knowing & I’ve done 50m and another still got another 150m to go!? 0_0’ kept me away from focusing on my body posture and strokes.

As a result, I reverted back to my old self by trying to power through the water (with really bad body postures) to complete my laps. It drained me out a lot faster. I’m sure there will be 101 more concerns I will have when swimming in open waters during competition day but I’ll just have to stay focus on my strokes and not freaked out! (more practice needed)

Finally, I’m happy to be able to swim for 200m without stopping (good job to James too!) It really blows me away! I’m very sure that this is the start of many other 200ms I’ll conquer along the way! Till next time 
Cheers!
Wilson."

Looking at how you progressed from day 1 when Lawlaw brought you along.. I am MORE THAN PROUD of what you can do now.. It is nothing short of amazing and those who saw you right from day 1, will know I ain't kidding nor lying..:) Of course there's a long way to go.. and the most important thing here is that you know that and you accept that. That way, improvement will come in heaps in no time! Jiayou!

So from this practice we can see that Wilson lacks mental focus. Sam too, have weak mental focus like yours in sports.. but we have to remember that it is in a controlled environment that we're practicing in.. thus if there's something for us to focus on, it is NOW.

One thing for sure, if you can't shut out everything else and think SOLELY about your strokes, then you'd Defintiely NOT be able to do so in the open sea.

I purposely didn't let you guys swim in 1 lane (so other's will know where to avoid us) because in open water swims, you won't bump into a grumpy auntie or a sexy chao ah lian.. the person probably will kick you in the face. and the best part? They did that without knowing they actually do and you got no one to blame. :Pp Better to practice now and get used to bumpy swims.....

Okay, Seriously, being able to do 200m repeats is more than good enough for 750m swims in race.

If you guys read marianne's comments in her facebook, she said "I haven't been doing 30laps one shot for a long time!"... And yet she did a respectable 35minutes 1.5km swim in the end!

The point is this... When you do swim training, we seldom do LONNNGG swims because of how much performance is weighed on the TECHNIQUE compared to the stamina.

Repeats of shorter laps with rest in between allows swimmers to accomplish MORE in terms of having fresher neuro-muscular coordination (i.e. good strokes from your mental thinking to controlling your muscles)... and having shorter rest with higher efforts trains the cardiorespiratory systems just as hard, if not harder than just plain long swims.

Given 500m time trial versus 5x100 hard effort swims with 10secs rest, I'd rather do 5x100 even though it'll hurt more in short burst swims.. for the plain reason that it is more boring to wack the water for 10 laps straight without resting and taking a break. :Pp Like i said, the heart still pump, your lung still need to breathe.. so even with the short rest, the result of number of heart beat is probably the same or even higher, plus you get better strokes due to the muscular rest!

-------------------------------------------

Lawrence's cramp condition, I will take a look into and research something useful for you once I have the time. I am really impressed with your fitness. Now that your stroke is better, your cardiorespiratory fitness from MTB is coming into play. Yes there is no link between MTB and SWIMS, but your heart and lung does the same job.. if you can hit 5beats above your maximum heart rate, You're a DAMN FIT veteran I tell ya.

Having said that, yes I will watch my back in the SG Bi. :Pp

---------------------------------------------

Marianne...
When I watch from atop, you're pulling an average of about 10 to 15 strokes more than sam but you're not exactly catching up. Even if she's stronger than you in terms of strength (i don't know if its because she mastered how to use her back muscles).. your 10 to 15 strokes should be able to compensate and bring you right beside her or at least on her toes!

After giving it some thoughts and observing your pulling... Your left arm pull is not catching a lot of water at all. In fact, it is just going THROUGH the water instead of the anchoring motion I've been telling you guys.

One very easy solution for you.. when you're swimming by yourself.. Do ALOT of fist swims.
You NEED to build up water feel for your palms so you'll know how to pitch the palm for the catch phase of the pull. 50m fist swim, 50m normal swim will be good repeats. Do 10 if you feel like it. When you change from fist swim to normal swim, you need to slow down on the starting part of the pull.. and feel your palm pressing onto a semi solid fluid space and then hold on to that space with your palm and pull your whole body through that space.

Do it slow.. then you'll feel it better.

Feedback to me if you understand what i'm saying and how you're doing with it. I need to know how you're feeling about that practice and if you really get what I mean.. in order to help you.

-----------------------------------------------

KH's swim is really pretty good. The only fault I can find is the inability to shake away the panicky feeling that hits you when you experience shortness of breathes. This inability will cause you to have EVEN SHORTER breathes... so its a vicious cycle that eats into your energy tank. let me know if that is correct.

You're doing a good job on the back float and resting on the move.. Right now, you're just going through a first training session.. justl ike running, your arms endurance will build up.. and gradually the swims will feel easier. It is different for Wilson as he had cheerleading base thrower and dragon boating background and thus strength is already a plus point for him wherelse your plus point is your brain from the games you play.. :D

Be patient, keep practicing and talk to me about the feelings about your swim and the issues.. with our brotherhood chemistry, i'm pretty sure I can help you resolve whatever problems you face quickly as you understand me REAL easily. :) From these conscious minded and super awareness practices, your endurance of your arms and body will go up and that's how your swim's going to improve. :)

--------------------------------------------

Last but not least, the person i'm gonna comment on is James. Good job on the continuous breathing! I can see the conscious effort is paying off and you can now swim reasonably well without the nose clips and ear plugs!

Still, breathing in and out with the mouth and nose respectively requires practice to make them second nature and panick-free. It applies to you, wilson and KH and all beginners. This is a point that alot of beginners tend to miss out.. even coaches, they don't teach proper breathing feelings.

I find your stroke to be rather robotic too as in too controlled. Try to just throw your elbow in front after your pull instead of really coming out of the water as a spear and bringing it in front in a really controlled manner then piercing it through and reaching forward.

----------------------------------------

To all:

As per all sports.. mastering a technique means you can do it as a second nature. Notice when I demo, I never wear goggles and I can't see I also can do.. it means that I've gained a certain comfort and confidence level in what I can do in the water. Aim for that... Be patient and keep trying.. the good things will come !!!!

Cheers
KK

Swim Trg - 14/01/10

Tonight's focus points:

Easy speed for the following swimmers:

Lawrence
Sam
Alan
Marianne
Gen (Absent)
Weihan (Absent)
Ziting (Absent)

AND

Breaking the mental barrier of Continuous Swim for the following swimmers:

KH
Wilson
James
Neil (Absent)
Leon (Absent)
Pauline (Absent)
Robert (Absent)


----------------------------

Training Program goes as per follows for 2 groups:

Easy Speed group:

Warmup:

100s of Freestyle, Fly kick (streamlining) + breast stroke pull, skater drill, Fly kick + BS pull again, Freestyle again.


Then main set and timing is as per follow:

*Click the image to enlarge*

Followed by cool down of 200m, Mixed strokes.

It is a good, fairly easy 1.6km swim which exposed us to stroke technique and exertion control. Also definitely a good indicator that we're improving in terms of endurance, can see from the last 6x50 that the timing are pretty consistent except Mr Married man because he hasn't been training.. but he's still so fast compared to us la...zzz.. JIAYOU!!!

Marianne and Sam lacks power... which is essential when you need to overtake someone.. be it racing purposes or just to overtake that irritating freestyle kick thrasher that keeps kicking water into your face with his huge suicidal kicks... definitely a need for open water swim races.

---------------------------------------------

For the group training to do continuous swim:

Warmup:
2x50, 30 sec rest in between each 50
2x100, 30 sec rest in between each 100

Main set:
6x50 30sec rest in between each 50
Focal points:
1) Loads of gliding
2) count stroke, if stroke count + >5 on any one lap then do step 3
3) Focus on lengthening strokes and breathing out LONGER and SLOWER in the last 15m of the pool and see if it helps.

4x100 1 minute rest between each 100
2x200 1 minute rest between each 200

2x50 mixed stroke cool down.

----------------------------------------

Basically for the continuous swimming group.. the main objectives are as follow:
1) Stroke technique (using chest to float horizontally while swimming, gliding and keeping streamlined body position)
2) Continuous swimming on water without standing up.
3) When tired, learn to turn on back and continue kicking gently and take breathes before continuing again.
4) When stroke counts increase/tiredness sets in (feels like going into anaerobic state), try to conscious force body to relax and make longer and more controlled exhalation with relaxed inhalation.

------------------------

Before ending, some announcements to make.


Robert, Pauline, Neil and Leon, please practice with these focal points on your own before monday. I repeat, PLEASE do so.

James, KH, PLEASE write up your detailed reflections on the issues you're facing in your continuous swim session and things you feel you can improve on and things that you feel you need my help on and send to me ASAP.

Wilson, James, KH. I understand the set was not completed due to whichever reason... We will attempt the same set once more next week. So be mentally prepared. :) Also, can James come for 7pm practice too? Let me know ASAP yeah.

Open water swim should be next sunday morning.
Meet in front of toilet area at Carpark F2 of ECP.
TBC by next wed.

Looking forward to tomorrow's ride!

Lawrence!!! Train me in MTBing!!! i always wanna pick it up but nobody teach me properly.. :(

Alan!! Fantastic swim! We'll be seeing your packs soon yeah. hahahhaa...

Cheers
KK

An amazing set of 10x100 :)

Last wednesday's training was really enlightening isn't it?

Firstly, welcome KH to the swim! Yes, he's my dearest of the Dearest brother I have in my life no matter how differently he looks from me. He is an adventure racer and, Dude, that guy CAN RIDE like a living DareDevil in the trail. ! :Pp I admire his high speed handling and we often look to each other for advice on the sports we're better at.. :D

Back to the training, it let us know exactly how much we can push ourselves, and how much we can achieve by just letting loose of the fear of limit a little bit?

So the main set after the warmup was 10x100.... in the following manner..
6x100 freestyle on 30 sec rest.
1x100 breast stroke easy.
2mins rest.
4x100 on ascending +30seconds rest.
Followed by cool down and explanation of the pull. ( Slow (collecting water around palm and forearm)--->Fast (Pushing the water backwards to propel yourself forward.) )

I thought Sam was phenomenal! As she had swam the fastest 10x100 in the whole 4 years I've seen her swam! ALL below 2minutes! How amazing. Fastest was at 1min51sec! See, all the moderate long swims paid off!

Gen was fighting with water in her ears but still manage to sub 2mins at the last few laps!

Lawrence did amazingly well too.. wasn't that a huge surprise for you? Well, now we know you've been reserving so much! Was the fear factor your age? Or was it any old injury? If it is age, allow me to explain that what we're doing now per session is very very gradual, and the fact that you can do sub 2mins for 100m after 6x100 (at 2min 20ish) then that means you're read to up the par of your moderate swim by pushing that little bit harder. Aim for 2min10ish from now on, minimum. :)

Marianne's swim was nothing less than a job well done too! Now we discover 2 things.
1) You have Endurance. To maintain a pace of 2min 17ish for ALL 10 laps! Great!
2) You do not have Power to go beyond that even once, let alone maintain.
Knowing those 2 facts are crucial because we know what we can do to achieve that. That's OK. But not very good if you wanna race. :)

Weihan's first 100 was at 1min 59. I was really glad at first but the stroke did not last and the technique broke down so much that even with 2 laps of rest with Ting, you couldn't make a come back at the last 4x100! Stay conscious on the swim! Don't just wack!! If you pay conscious attention to cycling in full circles even at the 11to1 o clock position then you should even more attention when you're tired in the swimming at the gliding position and maintain a streamline position with arms and legs extended!

Ziting's endurance dropped pretty much due to missing quite a few swims and thus I could see you struggle a little bit. Still, it was brave of you to come! Rest assure you'll get back in shape in no time and I sure hope you sign up for some races to train for!!! *Ting Daddy I hope you're seeing this.*

Wilson's swim is now really good without the breathing. If only we can swim with a snorkle and not need to turn the head out to breathe! haha. The fact is we can't.
Things you need to work on:
1) Consistent air exchange. Breathing out all the time whilst in the water, with your nose... and upon exiting the water, take a quick deep breathe. If any water went into the mouth, expel whilst doing te pull.
2) Go easy on how hard you're pulling. Right now, you're not ready for hard swims. It is important for you to build a solid fundamental base of control over the following ratio :
Force applied or Exertion Level : Cardio-Respiratory fitness.

---------------------------

For everyone, I'm pretty sure all of you guys run at different speed and can control how much you want to pace yourself.
Ask yourself this question:
When you swim easy, can you breathe like you're doing an Easy Run?
When you swim moderate pace, can you breathe like you're doing a Moderate Run?
When you swim Hard pace, can you breathe still like a Moderate run?

If the answer are all yes, congrats, you've good control over your swim technique and force applied.

If the answer is No, then you may have to look at:
1) how relaxed you are whilst swimming
2) Does the amount of force you applied in your pull justify for how much faster/slower you're moving?
ie: If I pull easy and I get a 1min 10sec 50m, and then I tried pulling REALLY HARD and I get only a 1min 5sec, then something must be wrong with the stroke when you start pulling hard!
3) Your breathing technique. Try running up 5 storeys with your breathe held. That is probably how you feel after finishing 50m swim if you constantly hold your breathe during your freestyle swim.

Let me know if you don't understand anything from previous post, I will gladly explain. It is important to know.

Cheers
KK

KH - Your swim is really improving very quickly. Need more practice and feel to make your swim smoother from stroke to stroke. Swimming like a robot trying to make any and every part of the stroke look perfect during the normal swim is way too much control and thus wasting a lot of energy on the control. I'm not saying dont' control but you have to make the transition from pull to pull more synchronized and continuous. :)

Lastly, breathing control is also a crucial issue for you. It doesn't make any sense to be able to swim fast at moderate or easy pulls making use of streamline positioning but you feel like you're always panting like a dog like you've just carried 100kg of load from 1 place to another. Get what I mean? I'm always in the room when you need my words and the stack of books and dvds are also there if you need them. Help yourself. :)

Some education about our body.

All of you knew I'm a certified fitness instructor. So someday, somehow, I'm gonna dump this pile of fitness shit to you so you know what you're doing and why I'm torturing you at times and why I'm asking you to do slow swims only.

Today's lecture will be about the 3 energy systems in our body. Those who already knew, read on, those who don't understand, read on too.

I'm a strong believer of if you don't even know how does your body produce energy to do work then I really don't see the point of "training".

NOTE: This is a VERY VERY SIMPLIFIED lecture to quench the layman's thirst of knowledge, the CheeM-ilologists, please pardon the vagueness of this piece of info.

--------------------
Before continuing, there are some terms you need to know.

ATP - Adenosine Tri-Phosphate, a complex molecule (formed with the energy released from food and stored in ALL cells). It has 3 phosphates and when broken down, energy is released to create movement of cells. (i.e, broken down so that you can use the energy to do work)
Without ATP, you can't move. Simple?

ADP - Adenosine Di-Phosphate, after breaking down ATP, 1 phosphate atom is torn off, thus left with 2 phosphate atoms.

CP - Creatine Phosphate, stored in muscles, used to form ATP.
ADP + CP = ATP

Lactic Acid/Lactate - Something created by the process of glycolysis (Breaking down of glucose to make ATP)

-----------------------------

What are the 3 systems?
1) Anaerobic (Use only ATP & CP stored in muscles)
2) Anaerobic Lactate (Glycolytic, ie use glucose stored in muscles to make ATP)
3) Aerobic (Uses Carbohydrates, Fats and Protein to make more ATP)

Explanations on how the systems work with our muscles to do work.

Note that I always say Do Work, and not specifically "run 5km" or "swim 2.5km at race pace"..
Reason is this...
Your heart and lung (Cardio-Respiratory system) DON'T KNOW, thats right, it DOES NOT KNOW what the heck you are doing.

Only your brain register that info.

All that your heart and lung do is:
1) Pump blood to all over the body with the help of blood vessels
2) Make sure oxygen goes in, carbon dioxide goes out (and maintain a balance of the ratio of those 2 gases)

Without further ado...

Anaerobic System
This system lasts 2 seconds with all the ATP stores in all your cells. And then the body will start to utilize the CP to resynthesize (combine to form ATP again)ATP. CP will last for another 5 to 8seconds. Thus this is a very shortlived (2-8 sec) energy production system.

Type of sports that require development of this system:
- 100m sprints
- Powerlifting
- Gymnastic movements

Anaerobic Lactate System
This system kicks in to do major part of the work when the work you're doing lasts more than 8 seconds. How this system works is that it utilize the glucose stored in your muscles to create more ATP.

The process is called Glycolysis - Free energy released during this process is used to create ATP.

When exercising at a high intensity/effort, this process is rapidly repeated without the use of oxygen, a waste called Lactate/lactic acid is produced rapidly too and it will tend to accumulate when the body is not trained to clear the lactic acid fast enough following the glycolysis.

When lactic acid level gets too high, neuromuscular and endocrine system will not continue to function optimally or even cease, then the aerobic system will kick in and exercise will be continued with that system and at a reduced intensity.

However, it is important to note that lactic acid or lactate is NOT the cause for cramps or inability to sustain submaximal/maximal effort. It is the hydrogen ion level in muscles being interrupted that is the limiting factor of effort sustainability. Again, cramp is caused by lack of magnesium/potassium in muscular cells.

Generally, this system can last you about 2-30 minutes depending on how trained you are to produce and tolerate lactate build up.

Type of sports that require development of this system:
- 200m/400m freestyle/individual medley swims
- 300 to 800m runs
- running 2 bus stops to chase a bus.

Aerobic System
This system utilizes Carbohydrates, Fats, Protein to create ATP. As carbs/fats/protein are broken down, energy are released to create ATP. Even though this system proceeds slower than anaerobic lactate system, it has a very efficient glycolysis process which allows the lactic acid to be cleared in time without the tendency of accumulation.

This system can last indefinitely as long as there is sugar/glycogen in the blood to supply the muscles with fuel.

Type of sports that require development of this system:
Anything that last longer than 2 minutes.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
So we know how long each system can last, but when does each system start and how does your body know when to use what since the heart and lung are such dumbos that don't know whether your legs are running or your arms are spinning in the water?

The fact is that ALL three energy systems will contribute right at the start of the work to be done. However, the contribution ratio from each system depends upon the individual (training effects), the effort applied (Maximal effort? Race Pace? Moderate? Or easy?) or on the rate at which energy is used.

Take running for example.
You start a 5km run by starting with an all out sprinting right at the beginning.
Anaerobic system will provide the energy for up to 8 seconds. Then you continue running and you found yourself slowing down and having difficulty breathing but still trying to sustain that super UBER hard effort. Anaerobic lactate system will take over the major role of providing ATP/energy. After about 90 seconds, you slow down even more because you feel so much burn in your legs and difficulty to breathe.. BUT you still continued and you realized that you're slowing to almost jogging state... Aerobic system will be the major energy provider now and it will be for as long as the 5km last.

Conclusion
Due to the nature of our sport (Triathlon), we can see that more than 99% of the time we will be racing with Aerobic system. And thus for us beginners, in our swims, runs, and biking, majority of the time spent training, we should be doing more longer duration and lower intensity work. Joe Friel (author of triathlete's bible and cyclist's bible) states that in order for a person to realize his/her FULL aerobic potential, a period of THREE YEARS of base work is the bare MINIMUM.

~~~~
Lawrence: Then why were we doing the 6by50s and 10x100s?

Adding speed work merely gives your body a power/strength boost and definitely keeps the training fun. (I can hear Marianne go: "FUN?!"...-_-"....)Come on, the fact that you're here in training and joining stuff that takes away your lovely weekend and cause you to be in a competitive state for more than 1.5hour already shows that you have a masochistic tendency.. so don't be shy.. torture yourself, and enjoy it thoroughly. :D

Also, due to the technique focused nature of swimming, many pieces of 50s and 100s with rest actually better allow you to retain the stroke's quality as your muscle fatigues.

~~~~

Of course, it is important to train the other 2 systems every now and then too, because those are the system you'll be needing to overtake others in racing and give you the competitive edge!


If you got any questions, feel free to ask me. Want to discuss more details? Email me. :)

Cheers
KK

FIRST open water swim TGT!!!

From the open water training session, we can narrow down the points to note and train for specifically..

1) Panic reduction ( Mental preparation and open water practice )
2) Swim start ( mass start, porpoising )
3) Anerobic capacity
4) Sighting
5) Tide reading ( choosing point to star at start line and altering stroke direction during swim )
6) Breathing control (with or without wave)
7) Floating on back
8) Ability to swim straight without seeing
9) hypoxy swims ( helps in keeping calm when got pressed underwater and need to hold breathe for a while OR in times when taking a few strokes without breathing to overtake is needed )

---------------

As I can't see your strokes, I won't comment individually..

In general, everyone has to practice reading the swells in the sea and learn to tweak our stroke timing to breathe only at the top of the swell..

We will also have to take note that when we practice sighting in the pool, we need to REALLY See AND even more importantly, REGISTER in our mind what we see in each sighting attempt.
Due to the rather "chaotic" nature of open water swim (experienced open water swimmer, I am not referring to you.. We can't simply dismiss the swim as a calm swim as it is indeed chaotic in a beginner's perception), if we don't put a conscious effort (body posture awareness for strokes, and eye to brain awareness for sighting in a low visibility situation), it will most probably Not be a pleasant swim experience for any first timer until it is actually over and you felt relieved to have SURVIVED it...

We'll aim to make this maiden race for many of us a pleasant and enjoyable experience (yes even in the swim!)!!!

Some specific ones I can think of..

James, good job for ditching the nose clip and ear plugs!! Good first open swim too!! Can see you got from shaky (at the start) to swimming freestyle head down at the end!! Really brave!! *salute!*

Wilson, being a fit young chap like us who went through fantastic Police training *ahem Ahe-BUL-L-m ahe-SHI-T-m ahem.. Sorry. :p * definitely has it's advantage.. BUT!!!
As you can see, there is a limit to the anaerobic capacity we have unfortunately we're unlike superhumans in Kona( I'll b there.. In 5 years time, definitely after my diving trip with lawlaw) =p.. So, please work your ass off to attain that stream lined position..

Marianne, please "propose" more *internal jokes..:p* when it's shallow like hell ya.. And when porpoising, please bring knee straight UP to chest whilst coming to vertical standing position to avoid knee contact with ground...

As of now, I will say everyone is quite fit but not race ready..
I am keen to organize another open water swim at ECP ( beach in front of carpark f2).

Please comment here with your available time slot in the WEEKDAYS..

Cheers,
KK

Coaching...(personal thoughts)

This entry is about an intriguing thought that came about from my recent quest to be Ahmad..

So the test is next Monday and now I'm rushing 4 more lessons.. The instructor turned really harsh and should I say impatient whilst teaching me vertical and parallel parking.. So much that he was to the extent of scolding me on every single attempt and mistake I was doing.. I wonder why is he SO frustrated and irritated that there isn't a single word of encouragement that spilt from his non stop nags.

To be fair, he did get tired after 45 mins of telling me off.. And then he caaried on the lesson with intermittent TULAN phrases of "see.. I told you.. Now I don't talk lor you go do yourself lor.", "you see la you see la!?" and "really Kanna sai ar! Now I don't want to talk you go try yourself"..

This made me reflect on what I've been doing as a coach myself.. Today I got a lesson with some intermediate kids (3 with ADHD).. And I actually told one of them off with "see?! You see la! I told you already right?? How Many times already?? What are you thinking???".. With the same kinda unhappy tone my driving instructor used on me.. I have to say I was really patiently telling her for many lessons but usually she just zone out.. And perhaps the only thing i felt i did good was i'm rather generous on my encouragements in every single detail my students can do correctly..

But still, I am very shocked with what tone I used when telling the kids off, knowing how demoralized and depressed I was after being taught that way by my driving instructor yesterday.. I almost wanted to miss today's driving lesson when I finished yesterday's...

It took me half of my 2k swim yesterday to get over it slightly and the rest of the night to find reasons to substantiate his scolding.. Which led me to this reflection.. How bad the kid would feel and how sad swimming can become.. Despite showering loads of encouragement after that i can still c a glimpse of disappointment with herself in her eyes..

No matter who it is that saw me coach before, it is an undeniable fact that I am passionate about swimming and sharing what I know.. I strongly believe that only an efficient stroke can save a life (your own, then others).. Training for a test or specific distance just won't cut it. What a coach need to teach the students in the aspect of a stroke is skill that the student can use with control over effort applied and that is efficient without wastage of precious energy(that is limited) in times of emergency.. that way, the distance a student can swim will be limited(but also Maximized due to efficiency and lack of energy wastage in movements) only to his aerobic capacity.

Having said that, I feel that I really did what I did because of how strongy I feel and care about the kid's development.. But as a coach I think I have to learn to be able to step out of the situation mentally to find what's right to say and what's not productive should not leak.. I dunno what's my instructor's reason for what he did but I sure hope it's not because of lack of sleep (he's fat and it's 9.30 in the morning)...

I pray for the best I can do in my test and hopefully I'll pass to be Ahmad for those I love.. And I pray for more enlightenment in my quest to be a better coach. Amen.

Will update about the open water swim tonight if I have time. been really zonked out by training and coaching. Apologies!!

Cheers
KK

PS - I love iPhone... First time blogging off what I felt and feeling is fresh of my head.. This is quite relieving too.=)