Stroke Analysis.

AHhhh.. here comes the BORINGEST and Most Impt update everybody *is* looking forward to! LOL...

Arvind
Firstly, the stroke is almost perfect. The only restraint that is causing you to have a slower swim than what you ought to be doing is your control over your legs' movements.

Note that I did not use the phrase "lack of power in your kick" because you Have power in your kick, else you won't be able to balance your rotating body to your side with such a strong hip thrust everytime you do a strong pull.

Your strength in your pull doesn't come from your arm as we can all see that your arm isn't all that strong looking or having much muscular hypertrophy. However what we can see is GREAT trapezius and latissimus dorsi development and shoulder stability (in your catch). Other than strength, you also a flexible shoulder girdle that allowed a long pull starting with a REALLY EARLY catch out at the front before your forehead.

Your legs muscles lack good control without conscious thinking. For now, you have to consciously kick then you can do a continuous kick. But as all endurance athletes know, if you have to keep thinking and focusing on doing a specific part(the kick) of a movement(the swim) then you have not mastered it yet and thus is at the Cognitive stage. I.e you'll be wasting more energy to perform it than those who had master how to move the legs in the 3beats/pull manner and can do it without thinking.

From now on, I suggest you do all warmup swims with Easy Pull + 3 beat kicks. :)

Vincent
Seriously I've been waiting for this opportunity to show itself and let it in turn show you what I mean by stroking is more impt than fitness. No doubt you're probably the fittest anaerobic guy in our team, second to none according to your age group.

However, the bad habit of just whacking thru the thousands of laps of swims since so long ago before you join the training has surfaced itself to haunt you again when we did a sprint Time Trial.

Judging from your words tht you want to do a decent timing or have a good finish/go at a triathlon, I can bet that you'd be going at this effort at the start when everyone is in a chaotic washing machine start of the open water swim. At by the end of 400m (without rest somemore..) your timing will be shredded to 2mins+ per 100m (or even slower..) and your RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) will be at 25 on a scale of 20. You can imagine how badly your race will become despite all the fitness training you've put yourself into already.

My advice is that from now on, you do every single swim, fast or slow with a conscious mind. Never should there be a swim that you will be doing without thinking or doing at a rate where you Can't think.

The fastest swim time is achieved when two components is achieved.
Holding your best form + Highest exertion possible before breakdown of form.

Take note that it is Highest Possible Exertion, BEFORE breaking down of your stroke technique. Once you exert higher than you can control, you'd be DEEPLY into anaerobic and you can't think, your stroke technique falters and all energy will go into waste instead of making you travel forward.

Start slow, swim fast set only at a CONTROLLED hard pace. That way you train yourself to swim the fastest you can, and not swim with the strongest pull that you can do neglecting all other aspect of the stroke. It is Kung Fu, not brute force. :)

If you take a look at your timing, the 2nd set was worst, and then the third and fourth set each improved by 2 seconds. That is because your arms had fatigued, and you're no longer applying as much force and at the same crazy high stroke rate.. thus your stroke slowed down, and allowing a Longer distance travelled per stroke. Thus the improve in timing through the third and fourth set, despite the fatigue!

KH
Your swim has always been bothered by the pull timing. I've explained to you on the way home, that you have to recover the arm a little faster and thus you can start the pull a little earlier, leaving lesser time to glide and thus losing lesser velocity!

If you take so long to recover your arm then your extended arm in front will be forced to wait and glide until you lose velocity. Right now your pull isn't strong at all, and there isn't much velocity to lose.. means it always come down to Zero propulsion whenever you finished gliding and before you start the next pull!

Moreover, your breathing is a little high headed and hips sink quite a bit. It is thus important to stretch in front and open up your arm pit by making sure the left palm (extended arm) is facing flat towards the floor as you rotate to the right to breathe.

I think another key is Rotating lesser than what you're doing now to the side will help alot in gaining stability in your left to right to left arm pull transitions. Also the added stability will help in keeping your breathing easier, without the constant feeling of tipping over to the back and having to rush your breathe before you lose balance while on the side.

Specifically, Left arm recovery is Extremely slow, both palms met each other before Right arm pull starts, thus lost velocity.

Left arm pull is too early when you're breathing, have to wait for your right arm to come back to the front and before it enters then start pulling. Remember to recover slightly faster so the left arm isn't waiting too long either.

Suggestion to you is to make your way down to the batok pool to swim whenever you have time!!! Don't wait til race day coming then you train, this is NOT like running short 2.4 distance..... Takes time to build up the endurance and engrave the correct techniques leh.. don't play play hor brother... You're very impt to me okay.

Andy
From the swim, we can all see that you need to spend a little more time thinking about the pacing in swimming versus running. If we take a look at the 84km run splits, we'll see also that the 1st and second 10km was a little on the fast side for a 84km run and then the subsequent splits of 10km was a little on the slow side already given your standard and the amount of base training you've done before the race; albeit i've never done it before but it really does seem like a pacing issue to me. Ernest also noted a preference to chiong very hard at the start during rides! Remember to Reserve and Conserve for maximal performance!!! :)

Your entry is still slicing in from pinky finger inwards. Should be index finger and thumb first, once entered wrist deep, then stretch forward.

I'd suggest to kick lesser and try to swim with more core rotation, its like why let the legs do the job when you can rest them for the bike and run? :)

Ernest
Firstly, my apologies to you for keeping you waiting when you were so shagged from the swim and asking me if there is a debrief. I was busy explaining to Marianne how to do the leg kick before the lifeguard use the torpedo buoy to pull us out of the pool and close the shop! Thank you for your patience. :)

You've done very well thus far in the aspect of controlling the exertion of your leg kicks. It is really impressive to me that you can get the movements to be really smooth and continuous. It shows that you've been putting a lot of heart into developing the finesse and not just using the fitness you already have. I guess it must have been a motivation that came from a terrible first open water swim last yr that you shared. It's doing you good now that you didn't drown there and then.. :P

The only issue I see in your swim now that you need to IMMEDIATELY resolve, is the stretching of your torso and your arms. Take note the stretch starts from your hips up your spine and abs, to your armpit of and your leading arm.

Your pull is really short, especially on your left arm, it ends mid torso when it should end somewhere pass the hips.

Get those 2 issues sorted out first, have discipline in doing them slowly and you'll grasp them faster than you expect. :)

Marianne
Da Jie, you really ought to swim more and watch lesser dramas la.. :D Don't let the good strokes go to a waste! Your strokes are almost perfect now except for the need to work on your kick... look at Arvind's issue.. I lazy to retype!

I can now see that your fast swim is really taxing on your cardio respiratory systems... You were panting and breatheless like everyone else but your timing didn't reflect the same. It shows a weak Cardiorespiratory system despite a good stroke oh... And if I may say something here.. don't.. s**** that much la.. its taking a toll on your lungs much earlier than you expect it to be... can be life endangering... I know you know, but knowing is different from understanding, and understanding is different from accepting, and accepting is different from putting an action on it..

Jia you ok ? :)

Samantha
First up, your lead arms(yes both) are always floating upwards after entering deep! Causing ALOT OF DRAG LA!Its like SO wasted you know? You got really good upper torso strength, dun ask how I know... but yes, its not being utilized to its fullest potential because of the drag you're creating at the most critical frontal area (your extended arm)! JUST LIKE *SI LING*!!!

Your right beat kick tend to kick a lot from the knee still albeit there's improvement from last time... and your left beat kick is incredibly lazy oh... ;)

Your breathing is late... should be in this sequence:
(i) Rotate body and go to catch,
(ii) Rotate abit more to cork the core at the catch to prepare for propulsion phase,
(iii)At the same time as (ii), rotating your head to exit water
(iv)Face exits water to inhale as rotation of the body occurs at the same time,
(v)Pulling arm is now at chest level and Inhalation is COMPLETE.
(vi)Push phase of the arm continues as you turn your face back into the water
(vii)Transit to the next pull with rotation (back to i).

You're doing part (iv) at end of part (vii)! Hope you understand! JIAYOU JIAYOU JIAYOU!!! so happy everyone says you're slim now! haha..

For your swim, I suggest doing bilateral breathing swims during the warmups and looking at your arms to make sure they stay in place. Then during main set swims when you have to look down, keep a mental note of it and occasionally look at the arm in front to make sure they're in place too.

The kick wise you have to practice with the kick with board and have discipline to let the kick start from your core and buttock must move! :)

Lawrence
Incredible first set for your still-flawed pulling technique! However,fatigue sets in and stroke deteoriates even more as you try to maintain a same stroke rate/exertion.

Basically its the same old problem. Arms are pulling past the center axis of your body, especially when you're breathing. Try to keep in mind that the extended arm is actually pointing slightly outward (if your head is 12o clock, the left arm is pointing at 11o clock, and if right arm is extended, its pointing at 1).

When you pull, try to keep it outside, because your concept of pulling the arm close to the body's middle is causing the body to it a little extreme. Especially when the pull passed your scope of vision, I.e the push phase when its passed your chest... it went way too far across the other side before sweeping it back out.. drawing a huge 'S' in the water... That caused a lot of unwanted lateral movements in your swim when you're supposed to be moving forward.

Last but not least, we look forward to your return and be safe in ShangHai! Gout go away!!!!

TeckBeng
The kick is now activated and you can see a tremendous improvement in your swim timing. Great pacing, great stroke maintenance and great breathing control under pressure. :)

Only issue is your kick isn't starting from your hip and core. You got long limbs and if you do your kick like what you're doing now, starting from the knees, the hip will be flexing and thus dropping under the surface to cause your leg to sink even more.

Left arm's catch can be a little further out, you breathe on your right and thus the left arm catch isn't noticable. Put more focus on it! :)


Calvin
Who say you got no power??? Who say you got no stamina??? Who say that relax relax swimming cannot improve timing?? who? who? who???? :P

Crazy first set timing I'm sure you yourself was stunned.

Take note to keep the arms a little deeper but more importantly, you need to lean more into the water via your chest and thus your buttock and break the surface a little. That will keep the hip up and thus with your fantastic kick (straight and long and easy kicks) your body will be hugging the surface as you pull yourself through the water.

Other than that, I think you deserve the Most Improved SlackerMan Award. :P

Si Ling
WELCOME WELCOME!!! Even though I don't know if you got internet to read this.... :P

I think your swim technique is really good. China train you guys well, I'm serious, no sarcasm here. Look at our own sg lifeguards and I felt like strangling them, no, the examiners actually, for PASSING them on their lifeguarding course. Cannot even swim properly and so fat and still wanna save people? Act as flotation device is it?

Ok ok.. grudges aside..

The extended arm is always snaking upwards and end up your palm is facing the front! It is literally putting a stop to your forward moving momentum. Once your entry slides into the water, you have to keep it down and straightened. Don't let it float up again! Just like *SAMANTHA*.

Second issue I saw in the first impression of your swim is your left arm is always sweeping across the center axis very badly especially when you breathe.

I suggest you do more 3 pull one breathe to alternate breathing sides so you can better manage your pulling technique!

Wilson
You got very strong power versus your dropped body weight now and that explains the speed that comes. However, I see a very major flaw in your pull as you delibrately flex your wrist a lot to make the palm face backwards first before dropping the forearm to face backwards.

The palm and the forearm MUST be in one piece. When I swam pass you and saw you breaking them into two, I knew you couldn't catch up despite I was slowing down in front waiting for you to pass because you just couldn't hold the water to pull yourself through.

Overall, as per noted by lawrence and many others your swim has improved at an alarming rate since november struggles and december drowning til now you're pretty fish like except its a robotic fish. :P

Kindly work on your catch for both arms and smoothing out the edges of those robotic movements transiting from one pull to the other. Try looking at the *LADIES* swim, they have Excellent transit of one stroke to another esp. Gen and Sam.

Genevieve
Sad to hear that you'd be leaving our training for badminton liao but to each of his/her own la.
Anyway, as per mentioned to you during your short swim this afternoon, your high elbow at your pull phase tend to drop at the push phase, i.e once your arm passed your scope of vision when its passed by the chest. Causing lesser surface area to be facing backwards as you pull your Arm through the water instead of pulling your Body through the water.

After the correction your stroke looks much better and you too felt stronger! Your left arm need to correct abit more still though, its short pulling, remember to end passing the hips.
I can guarantee you swim better 100s and 200s than ANY RIO VISTA MEN IN THE EARLY MORNING SWIM NOW (me excluded. I do afternoon and night swims. :P).

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That's all for now folks.

Cheers
KK