SWIM SQUAD 30/12/2011

Group 1:

Name (max effort gauge)
Sam (200m below 3:50, 100m below 1:45)
Teck Beng (200m below 3:30, 100m below 1:40)
Calvin (200m below 3:40, 100m below 1:40)
Ewin (200m below 3:10, 100m below 1:35)

Group 2:

Sumiko
Andrew
Ebnu
Musaib
KH
Sher jie


BELOW IS THREE POINT OF FOCUS. To be used to remind yourself in different sets.
Focus 1: Gradual increase of hand+arm velocity from Catch to push phase. Always ending with a HARD Push phase on every stroke, i.e maximum velocity/uncontrolled extension of elbow at the end phase of the arm stroke which recoils into recovery.

Focus 2: Near catch up stroke. Holding arm extended in front until the pulling arm catches up at past forehead before start of next catch.

Focus 3: Fast arm turnover and kick coordination


WARM UP:

- 1000m Fist Swim with pull buoy. LONG GLIDE and Catch up stroke. (30mins)

- Focus 2.


REST 5mins


MAIN SET 1:


Group 1:
4x200 on 4:30 MAX EFFORT (18mins)
Rest 5mins
5x100 on 2:15 MAX EFFORT (12mins)
Rest 5mins

Focus: I DON'T CARE WHAT/HOW YOU DO. GIVE ME MY TIME. EVEN IF YOU DIE ON THE FIRST SET, I WANT THE FIRST SET TO BE AT TARGET TIME - LOOK ABOVE BESIDE YOUR NAMES.


Group 2:

- 1500m (Sumiko Tan do 2000m) continuous pulling with paddle and pull buoy STRICTLY NO KICKING and LONG GLIDE. (40minutes)

- Focus 1 AND 2. I suggest mentally you break it down into sets of 500 to focus. I want an average stroke count per 50m for every 500m swam.


REST 5mins


Main set 2:

- 10 x 50 (Thanks Andrew Ngo) 25 max effort plus 25 easy on 1:30 (15mins)
Mu and Ebnu can put on flippers here
sumiko, me, KH, sam, ewin and teckbeng do first 5 FLY with buoy next 5 FR

- Focus 3 - ALL OUT GUYS.

REST 3 mins

Cool down:
500m Kick with fins (15mins)

Pre Race.

27 June 2011 was when I started training with Coach Cheng Qiang.

3 months later...

24 September 2011 is this Saturday and it is the Biggest Open Water Swim Race for me. It mean so much to me:

1) An assessment to what I have done over the past 3 months
2) A day I test myself to the limit
3) A swim that allows me to see where exactly am I in a field of strong competitors
4) A chance to get my PB.
5) An opportunity to do my Coach and my Team proud.
6) Last but not least, a time to enjoy myself and finally swim without thinking, just let the body do what it was trained to do.

I am writing this because the race almost meant to much to me. I am taking this opportunity to relieve myself from the pressure that the meaning of this race is secretly putting on me. I find it especially heavy a burden to balance the expectation of my own performance versus the imaginary expectations of all the other people in my life.

Coach Cheng Qiang has voluntarily and sincerely coached me for free no matter how much or what I try to repay him with. I kept the thoughts in my heart and in each and every single session of training when I felt that I am so tired that I can't give as much as I want to, I often push to give as much as I could.

Going through the 3 months of intensive training, I've learnt what you want to do may not be what you could, but what you could do, may not necessarily equate to what you initially wanted too. In other words, never discount yourself just because you felt that you come from a minor class of athlete.

I've always been very conscious of myself, in the sense that I am too big to be an endurance athlete, I am too curvy to be a streamline swimmer, I am too bulky to just swim bike run fast. But I realized this year, that in the past couple of years of racing, I have been discounting myself just because I FELT that I am inferior genetically.

It is one thing to preach what is right as a coach, but it is another to truly believe and practice it on yourself. I find it especially hard to let down my pride to prove myself wrong so I can learn it afresh and make things work as it should. This year, I took a big step and asked my inner self to go screw itself and I will decide the what the limit of my body should be. It has proved to be very fruitful thus far.

I have always gave my best and the fact I puked 2 weeks back during our training session on a wednesday has strengthened my mentality on what I could take and how much I could shut off my mind's screaming and let the body do the job in the water. That is an invaluable asset in giving an ALL-OUT RACE EFFORT.

My timing is honestly very slow compared to the rest of the top field swimmers, but I'd like to see exactly how far away am I from them? One sore spot of mine has always been that I started late, I am knowledgeable cos of the extra thirst that came from the delayed development, but I am also lagging so far behind in terms of racing experience and base mileage in every sport.

I believe I earn all the respect for my coaching and racing over the relentless attitudes in years of studying and practices that people see that is still ongoing and will always be. However, I just lack the glorifying achievements in my resume that will support the amount of goodness I assume I have from the hard work I put in to improve myself as a person, as a coach and a trustworthy friend of all. I want so much to climb to the top and it takes time. I am setting myself 3 years to build the base and I want race competitively at the elite level after this 3 years of practice and training.

I want and needs to earn time and to do that, I have to stop discounting myself, let go of my expectations - Real and Imaginary - and NIKE (Just Do It!).

With that, I end my entry, together with my worries on how I will perform versus the field. I will do my best, for that is what matters the most, just like I've been doing every single session of practice..

I will constantly push myself no matter how bad I feel.
I am BULLET PROOF.
I am The Shark in the school of Fishes.
I am The Champion, in Sam's heart, in Coach's interest in me, in KH's motivation, and in my World.

So, KK, How Bad do you want it?
SO . FREAKING . BAD .

I.W.W,
Coach KK

Shelly's Swim

Please see the below review on your swim. It was a quick glance from you swimming beside as I was doing my own.. so please pardon if it is a little vague. Besides, there are a lot of things that I need to show in the pool in order for you to understand.

So, here we go, FREESTYLE REVIEW.

Good points:
- Streamlining is OKAY, not optimal, but OKAY.
- Roughly gets the general idea of "freestyle swim" thus you could clip a board on and pull on and on
- Capability to turn and breathe with less than disruptive body position
- Core strength to maintain hip stability while body twist from side to side is notable as you pull through the water in a snaky manner
- Stamina is not too bad.

Note: Core = Shoulder, Chest, Back, Abs, Lower Back, Buttock, Hamstrings and Thigh and Calves. Not just the abs.

Ugly points:
-Head position was too much forward, like breast stroke. Need to look diagonally forward, in a proud, chest up posture.
- Body was "snaking", thus not optimal streamline position. Unsure of which muscle parts to activate to keep the body straight and long.
- Pull was REAL short, it ends before the palm even reaches the stomach
- Besides pull being short, the pitching of palm was not in the correct "attack" angles. No signs of sculling knowledge.
- There was no Catch, no Pull, no Push, just one straight pull through
- Kick was not from the hips
- Body rotation was very dominant on the breathing side, i.e when breathing, the twist of body was very hard and thus causing the body to twist, adding to the "snaking"
- Breathing rhythm was not right, there was not rhythm of "hold breathe, relax, breathe out quick, inhale quick, return head position..."
- Arm Recovery was rushed forward because of the short pull, top it up with the rapid breathing patterns with no tries to relax, the swim was a struggle and tensed up affair right from the first 3 strokes you take.

Reason for the not so optimal swim:
- Lack of understanding that swim is really all about reducing drag to the ABSOLUTE MINIMAL, before increasing propulsion power.
- Lack of awareness on how body "looks like" when you're swimming.
- Basically just going through the motions, moving the arms and legs and body on its own, without knowing the specific purpose on what each movement is supposed to do to help you swim better
- Due to the above points, you do not know when to relax, when to breathe, when to exert force and when to STAY STILL and hold position.

Before we meet again, I need you to find somebody, maybe your boyfriend, to video your swim from the deck and let you see what you are doing and compare against this list of items I listed. Try to understand and then we will work on your freestyle soon.

Note: Efficient Swimming = Holding a rigid streamline posture relaxed-ly to allow optimal transfer of power from the limbs to constant forward velocity.
Keywords are: Rigid, Streamline, Relax, Constant Forward Velocity.

Cheers
KK

KAYAK STROKE Versus FRONT QUADRANT SWIM (FQS)

First up:
THE VIDEOS!

BEFORE you watch the videos.. Take note:
To compare constant velocity of the body moving through the water, DO NOT look at anything else... JUST STARE at the hip and the nearest object next to it (i.e the lane rope, line on the floor or the deck floor)... Remember to offset the CAMERA's movement with the person's velocity. When the camera is moving together with the person in the frame in the same direction, the person will look always like he is in constant velocity.

For example, Scott Neyedli's SLOW SWIM at 2:25 - 2:45 which we will use for relative comparison here.. looks SMOOTHER than what it actually was. Compare the hip with the lane rope beside and you'll see that when he don't kick that much during that 2:25 2:45 period, his hips have a start stop or deceleration and acceleration phase as well just like Front Quadrant Swim (FQS).


KK SLOW SWIM - Note my cruise speed (80% 1500m) for 50m is about 52.5seconds so this is about 28seconds for 25m.. I've slowed down quite a lot and thus the hips are sinking a little cos I am trying very hard not to kick that much and reduced my arm pull to just forms and almost effortless push backs.. all just to save energy and do a relaxed continuous pull as suggested by Teck Beng... however.. from these 2 videos, I noticed that I do have start and stop instead of constant velocity! Read on to find out what I've discovered!





Scott Neyedli -- SLOW SWIM PART at 2:25 ~ 2:4



ALEXANDER POPOV (World Record Holder Olympian)



Shinji -- T.I at Perfection Nirvana-esque level.



After looking at my video of my slow swim until I cock eyed and then finally a moment of enlightenment struck.. I realized what went wrong. It was a case of thinking too much about one thing and forgotten where we came from.

We kind of forgotten about the benchmark of comparison - The Front Quadrant swim.

Most importantly, we kind of misinterpreted what is needed to be done for constant velocity to happen.

Allow me to explain.

First of all, notice that Alexander Popov and Scott Neyedli did their swim with STRONG kicks that are SUPERBLY CONTINUAL and with no pauses at all.

Constant velocity OF THE ENTIRE BODY in front crawl swimming is very tough to achieve. It requires the kick to be continually firing to compensate for the inevitable rise and fall of speed (or dead spot) in the arm stroke phases.

Yes.. I meant INEVITIBLE.

FOLLOW ME TIGHT AND CLOSELY THROUGH THE BELOW "ILLUSTRATION".

Arm stroke phases:

1) Out Sweep and Catch (No propulsion)
2) In Sweep and Push Back (Propulsion Starts, Optimum Velocity Achieved)
3) Exit and Recovery (No Propulsion)
4) Reach and Entry (No Propulsion)

In Front Quadrant swim:

After finishing the first pull to phase 3 (to make things easier to reference, we'll say we start with the RIGHT pull)...

The LEFT arm stays extended at the front without doing anything until the RIGHT arm recovers past the Forehead.

Once the RIGHT arm passes the forehead and reaches in front for Entry (phase 4), the LEFT arm starts the Out Sweep and Catch (phase 1) and upon the RIGHT arm's entry, the LEFT arm will do the In Sweep and Push back (phase 2) for it's optimum propulsion.

In Kayak Stroke:

After finishing the first pull, again RIGHT pull, the RIGHT arm will begin Recovery and Exit (Phase 3).

At this moment, there will be no waiting extension from the LEFT arm. The LEFT arm will start simultaneously the Out Sweep and Catch (phase 1).

Once the Right arm reaches and performs the entry (Phase 4), the LEFT arm is simultaneously doing the In Sweep and Push Back (Phase 2) to achieve optimum propulsion.

------------------ Are you lost? if yes, read from "ILLUSTRATION" again and then continue below for a Flow Chart ------------------

Clear?

Now we look at both stroking technique and we will notice from this following part of the cycle to be exactly the same:

Phase 3 (Exit and Recovery) --> Phase 4 (Reach and Entry) --> Phase 1 (Out Sweep and Catch)

There are NO propulsion coming from the arm AT ALL.

The only thing we can do here is to MAINTAIN OPTIMUM VELOCITY. KEYWORD is MAINTAIN.

There are TWO ways we CAN maintain velocity:
1) ALWAYS travel at the constant velocity.

2) REDUCE number of pauses and also the durations of each pause.

BUT EXACTLY... HOWWWWWW??????

There are TWO things we CAN DO to achieve that:

1) To add a continuous and strong kick that will keep pushing us forward REGARDLESS OF WHAT OUR ARMS ARE DOING.

2) Don't glide. I.E don't do front quadrant swim (FQS).


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

Before we carry on, let's break the swim down into diagrams and you'll see it much clearly in the phases.

KAYAK SWIM STROKE CHART and FQS SWIM STROKE CHART

If you go up and look at Shinji's stroke and compare it with the diagram of FQS SWIM chart above, you'll notice that there is a phase (in RED) that is two stages of non propulsion which causes the propulsion phase (phase 2 of In Sweep and Push Back) to kick in one stage later than the KAYAK SWIM STROKE. That causes an EXTRA DECELERATION as compared to the continuous KAYAK SWIM STROKE whereby there is no prolonged pause of stage 4 which is the arm extension of the non pulling arm while waiting for recovery hand to pass the forehead.

As for the continuous KAYAK SWIM STROKE, there is only one stage of Deceleration.

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

With that, we conclude that the KAYAK SWIM STROKE achieved Objective number 2 on maintaining Velocity mentioned above on reducing number of pauses. While FQS SWIM STROKE totally denied Objective number 2 by increasing the duration of the pause and even dragging the pause to the next phase (thus increasing the number of pauses).

The duration of the pause, i.e the Speed of the arm doing the recovery will then be the determining factor for KAYAK SWIM STROKE when deciding to go faster or slower.

The above points now clearly dictate that Kayak Stroke is the more efficient stroke of the two.

However, it is important to note that both strokes CAN be fast. And CONSTANT VELOCITY IS ACHIEVABLE with BOTH STROKE TYPES.

The trick as stated above, other than not choosing FQS, is to compensate with a continuous and strong kick which will continually propel you forward regardless of what the arms are doing. The strong kick will thus eliminate the deceleration phase(s) of each stroke. Of course, the kick has to be much stronger in the FQS SWIM STROKE because of the extra deceleration phase.

I hope this article clarify ALL details on the stroke cycle efficiency of KAYAK swim stroke versus FQS other than knowing exactly when to relax and when to contract while performing the stroke itself which is ABSOLUTELY vital in getting the KAYAK swim stroke to work at a slow swim state. Without knowing when to relax, your KAYAK swim stroke will feel like thrashing water and breathlessness will haunt you throughout your whole swim. I hope Teck Beng can help explain upon that if you have the time as I've passed to you and Calvin all that I could explain on that day and I hope you guys did absorb on the exertion part too and now it's your time to give~ hehehee..

Cheers
KK

On Continous Pull and front quandrant swimming

Just a few points i picked up from Coach KK last Saturday in the pool.

He mentioned that by doing a continuous pull (AKA kayak stroke), you are actually swimming smoother as compares to doing the front quadrant swim (Start catch when recovery arm pass your ear, aka TI).

Now, by smoother, i immediately think of less splashes, calmer and maybe even stealthier. But actually, what KK meant by smoother is "constant speed" through the water. Constant speed, zero acceleration or deceleration.

And so my search of evidence if this is really true, i found this....

Below is a clip of Bill Kerby's swim (he is doing a front quadrant), with very obvious glide time. He is really, really 'smooth' and the swim really looks effortless (he IS an Olympian...)but i am only looking at his butt.



By fixing on his butt, you get a clear sense of his speed and acceleration in the water (see 1:10min on). It's clear that in every stroke, there is a deceleration and acceleration phase and if you look as closely as i did, it not difficult to notice the slowing down happens during the gliding.

Now, compare this to Scott Neyedli, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND1L8I2ZY5w&feature=relmfu), he is using the kayaking stroke. Observe his butt again, you will notice the constant speed (smooth) through the waters.

now, surely there is an obvious difference in excretion. So the question is, is there a video of a continuous stroke relax swim?

Training Consistency

It's been a long time since I blogged. Mainly because I haven't found meaningful new topics to cover since I've religiously did that week after week for 1.5yrs. I miss sharing more fruitful experiences but I'd prefer them to be tried and tested and to be full of values that I can bring myself to believe firmly BEFORE I post them out here.

A few caring friends and team mates of mine has asked me to used this blog as a form of revenue generating thing by posting "teasers" or meaningful items that needs elaboration but I have to politely object because in my world, sharing is Free and sharing is a MUST in order for improvements to come by and go forth. I cannot bring myself to simply network this blog and make it into a money making thing. I am still awfully thankful for all my friends who have and are trying to help me improve my business... it is incredibly humbling and incredibly gratifying for everything I've done that is ever so minimal to giving back the world of sports.

Tonight, I'm going to write about Training Consistency.

I believe I've written or touched on about this topic before in my previous blog but I've since then experienced a much more enlightening process of consistent training and also the result when there is suddenly a lack of the consistency due to some issues (it may be injury or sickness).

As for those of you who are still following this blog would have read.. I've been training under this China Coach named Cheng Qiang. I have full trust in whatever he prescribe for me and just like Team Sapphire's devotion to my training programs, I am willing to do a thousand sets of 100 if that is what he prescribe for me one day.

As a result of my faith, I've followed his training with utmost diligence. Trust me, having a coach to coach you personally, and I mean WATCH YOU SWIM from the deck at least once a week is a difference between heaven and earth as compared to when you train by yourself. I've improved to an extent whereby I've about 5-8 minutes ahead of my team mates in a 1500m swim and I am consistently doing 1:30-1:40 in my 100m sets. They are not crazy fast timing but to think that I've came from 1:45 - 1:55 for my 100m sets just 3 months back.. I think it is not a step but a leap of stairs up the ladder of improvement.

To set the record straight, Coach's rule of thumb for training consistency is never stop training for more than 2 days. I.E 2 days of rest is the max you can allow. I've stuck to it to a level whereby I will not allow more than 48hrs of non training.

The reason is simple to understand but I'm going to put it into details here. If you're yawning now, you should click the 'X' on the top right of the browser (windows) because it's going to get worst. If you truly care about what you're doing in the pool or whatever training then read on. A cup of coffee should help.

I started with alternating days of training.
I.E Training Monday - Wednesday - Friday
Rest Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday

I stuck with that for 4 weeks at the start and I've experienced tonnes of improvements. In terms of technique and also a very consistent swim timing.

Subsequently, I trained on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and Rested only on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. It was rather manageable and I carried on for 4 weeks and at times, I found that recovery was a little tough especially when one has work to juggle unlike a professional athlete.

But Coach always says that you'll definitely feel tired once in a while and it is important to push through the tiredness and just finish the session.

He further supported the statement by prescribing all my training with just percentage effort requirements and no timing requirements except for the sprints.

And then after 2 weeks of that, I noticed my timing in swim training has been going up and down despite holding the same effort level day in and day out. However, after 1 day of down in workout, I'd come back feeling much stronger once I fully recover.

Very soon, I finally embarked on training 6 days a week with only Thursday as my rest day. Improvements was leaps and bounds for 3 weeks straight. Then I went to holiday and I couldn't find any pool to swim for 5 days. Then things started going downhill and I had to train 7 days straight to recover my fitness. Now I'm almost 80% back to pre holiday state of fitness.

I was doing 24:00 for 1500m at RPE of about 8/10 on the week before I go 5 days without training, after I came back, I was doing 25:30 - 26:00 for 1500m at RPE of about 9/10. And I am into my second 6 days cycle of fitness recovery training and I still can't get back at 100% pre holiday.

That is a brief account of what I went through.. I've spare the details of the training till next time.

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

You see, what actually happens is that when a person train in a workout, the fitness improves once he recovers. However, when you follow a scheduled routine.. say training every alternate days and you start on a Monday.

By the time Friday comes, you'd have done 2 swims and going for the 3rd one. Imagine you're doing the following set every time you train:

Warmup: 400m
Main set: 1500m at 80%
Rest 5 mins
10 x 50 on 1min
Rest 5 mins
400 freestyle kick only (25m sprint, 25m easy)

When Friday comes, your legs would have felt pretty used up if you're like me training kick sprints for the first time. In fact, on Wednesday, I was already feeling the drag in my 50 on 1min sets.

But if you do nothing on the Saturday and completely rest it up, you'd probably recover much better than the Tuesday and Thursday which is a work day and you have to be busy while recovering from your workout. Then on Sunday's swim, you'd probably feel a boost of energy because your fatigue has dropped but you fitness is higher than Monday before you trained.

As I mentioned before, Fatigue and Fitness rise TOGETHER.
Which means:

If you Train, you get fitter once you recover and adapt to the workload. 
If you DON'T TRAIN, you lose your fitness because the body don't feel the need to adapt and thus goes back to sedentary state to "survive" or just live your normal daily life. Period.

Using that simple sentence, you can see that if you can train every single day and recover well, you ought to become fitter and fitter and there will be no limits to how best you can become!

HOWEVER, the limit here is fatigue. If there is no fatigue, we will all be superhumans, at least for those who are willing to train everyday. When you train, you get tired right? And because fatigue increases simultaneously with fitness, you'll not be able to ALWAYS BE ON FORM and be at your best in every single training 100% of the time. It is just near impossible to be that perfect unless you live your life with no life and just eat-train-sleep with no friends or family or work to entertain at ALL.

Thus that brings us to the fact that we have to manage our fatigue level while training consistently in order to get the fittest state we can possibly be.

Managing that fatigue level will mean:
- Ignoring swim timing and focus solely on effort percentage and stroke integrity only unless it's a speed work set or time trial.
- Put more focus on the recovery things to do rather than just solely thinking about doing more.

I feel that the above are the absolute important points to understand in terms of training consistency.

Because serious athletes who train all the time will measure their performance in terms of timing results. As science has taught us, only quantifiable results can be useful in tracking milestones and benchmarks.
And that has led to many people forgetting about the other part of the Fitness equation, which is the fatigue.

Fatigue can come not just from your training but your external stress factors such as sleep deprivation and work requirements.

And like the example sets I prescribed above, if you carried on doing that for 2 weeks and somehow, you always have Over Time to work on Saturdays and maybe Tuesdays then you'd probably not recover well and thus your swim time on Wednesday and especially on the second week of continuous training may probably reflect pretty badly.

It is important to note that this bad timing reflection is not a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) of just your fitness but it is an indicator of a combination of how well rested you are versus how trained/fit you are.

Thus having a bad day or two in a week is actually very normal especially if you work in high stress environments or basically not getting enough social supports or simply not able to sleep well enough.

However, after having such bad days then you'd have to take particular notes on recovering well on the following rest days or going easy on the next one and focus solely on technique if you're training every day like I am.

The key here is to maintain the effort and push on in the training and do your best to maintain that 80% RPE and STROKE PERFORMANCE INTEGRITY regardless of your fatigue level AS LONG AS YOU MADE SURE YOU'VE DONE YOUR BEST TO RECOVER.

The reason that you do at 80% RPE in swim is that it is an effort level whereby you can do a hard long swim (At least 1500m) and thus it is aerobic. Training aerobically or near the aerobic threshold when you're on good form, is fantastic for building fitness because you train your body to use Oxygen at the maximal level your body is capable of and many studies have confirmed that training at Aerobic threshold is the best way to improve fitness.

And by knowing that your timing may fluctuate due to many external factors, the only compounding factor in training will be your mental strength. When you look at a Wednesday's swim time and see that it is 2minutes slower than the Monday swim time, your body will definitely shout "TIRED!!!"... But after 1 day of complete rest or whichever way you ensure you are completely rested before the next workout, physiologically your body should be ready for the training unless you fell sick.

But from my experience, the Friday's swim are always the toughest despite I have a full rest day always on Thursday. The reason is my mind always tells me "Wednesday's swim was tough to maintain at 80% and good form man.. I could hardly complete it!"

What the mind didn't take into consideration is that I had a full day of rest on Thursday and the micro torn muscles would have recovered by now and adapted to the training.

By ensuring that you follow the 80% training effort in your long swims unless speedwork requires you to go all out.. you can be sure that whether you're tired or not, you're performing your best AEROBICALLY and thus not increasing the intensity to something too much that will complicate the recovery to get ready for the next training session.

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

On the other hand, for those who don't have a coach to manage your swim time, you have to note that in a training program, you have to take note of the intensity, duration and also the weekly volume of workouts.

Fatigue rise way way way way way way faster than fitness while it takes years to cultivate supreme base fitness to build the speed on. If all athletes look long term enough in terms of achieving your goal, then the overtraining side of training will probably not happen at all but most people wants results fast and with less work.

Commercial training always tell you "FASTER, HIGH INTENSITY = MORE GAINS". That is right in a way provided you can recover.

If you can't recover, then doing high intensity workouts for days after days, you may simply just be breaking your body down again and again without allowing it to recover adequately.

Note: It is possible to ALWAYS stay and live in that overtrained fatigue state. Some people think it is normal to be tired all the time. Not true. A good athlete should feel energetic all the time because of good recovery.

We come back to the point whereby fitness is only gained when you recover and body adapts to the training load. Without that happening, the fatigue will accumulate and the body will not adapt and when that happens, you're just on a one way ticket to overtraining and consistent fatigue with minimal to little fitness gain or even fitness loss in long term because of the inability to train due to injury or burnout exhaustion from the overtraining.

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

I know the article is alittle messy here and there but I write as I think and if you lost me somewhere, comment here or write me an email at enquiry@sapphireswimming.com or SMS me at (+65) 8180 0621 and I will gladly reply you what you wish to know.

Cheers
Coach KK

My Progress after 8 weeks with Coach CQ.

So far, I've shaved 5minutes off my 1500m swim time and it's my 8th week into the training given by Coach Cheng Qiang. I've did today's 24:45 1500m with a pull buoy and without any kicking.

I am very very satisfied and very very happy with the progress but I have to keep myself in check because I know the progress gonna halt really soon if I don't take care of myself and my technique. Also, the rewards will eventually slow down to 1-2 seconds gain in a month or so's time because of something call "Plateau".

Honestly, the progress was way less painful than I expected it to be. Maybe I've a little more tolerance for mundane solo training and thus the RPE is always a little lower. Except last week when I was asked to do repeats of 400s. It was just very uncomfortable to go at a "comfortably uncomfortable" state and for the most part, I was too bothered by my timing rather than focusing on my effort.. Reason was I was just very excited to improve to an avg 1:41 pace for each 100 in the 400 repeats.

Monday: 6:53, 6:42, 6:44, 6:45
Wednesday: 6:42, 6:42, 6:40, 6:39

Eventually the constant hard exertion caught up to me on the 3rd training (Last Friday Morning) and my timing increased drastically. It hit me pretty hard in my morale but I kept telling myself to have faith, nothing comes easy and Coach always tell me "When you hit a phase where you feel tired and fatigued, you have to push past it constantly to breakthrough. That's when your fitness will improve.".. I kept replaying that sentence in my mind like it's my last life-line.

Friday: 6:44, 6:54, 6:56, 6:54

Last friday evening I approached Coach to have a word and I found out he actually wanted me to train again on Sunday instead of resting the weekend to prepare for Monday's session with him. It was a little shakening because I felt pretty tired from the 3 days of 4x400 on 8 minutes... the morning's 4x400 was shitty to say the least and then now I gotta do the 4x400 AGAIN on SUNDAY?

When sunday came, I could choose to workout in the evening at Sam's place but I decided to skip lunch to do it in front of Coach when he is on LG Duty. Well, I arrive the pool pretty worn and I told myself "look, if you're gonna give yourself more rest, it'd be the same as before you met him. Do not disappoint. Just do your best, like he said, RPE at 80% is most important, not the timing. As long as you do each 400 on 8minutes, it'll be good enough."

Sunday: 6:53, 6:48, 6:46, 6:43

As I went through the first 400 and saw my watch, I was like "sigh.." for 5 seconds and then immediately I caught a glimpse of the tallest figure on the pool deck watching me. Snapped right out of it and upped my tempo throughout the last 3 and I am so glad I got my flow back despite the fatigue.

It felt just like what it was: A Breakthrough.

Upon reviewing what happened in those 400s that went 6:53 and above, I was too focused on maintaining a high elbow and stretching in front that I glided instead of doing the kayak stroke. I felt that gliding stroke is so tiring to swim fast with because I couldn't move my arms relaxedly through the recovery and catch phase to rest them actively.. holding the stretched out position became a very annoying chore. As to why I turned to that on Friday's swim, it was probably because I was becoming tired and when I tried focusing on the high elbow and stretch, I couldn't maintain the continuous pull motion.. and that led me back to my old swim ways.

This week's swim was supposed to be 1.5km everyday.. however I took a rest yesterday to prevent any mental burnout because too much of that is just no good at all even if I get some results from the burnout. I want to do this long term and I got a long way to go to get my swim to 1:10 per 100 or less. I need to manage my own emotions, motivation and spirit/morales a little better.

Monday 1500m: 31:49 with breaks in between a few hundreds as Coach stopped me to correct some stuffs.
Tuesday 1500m: 26:37
Wednesday 1500m: 25:14
Thursday Rest
Friday: 24:45

I know I can go faster if I add the kick and that was not my best effort but I gotta save for the 10x25sprint 25easy and 400m Kick at 25sprint 25slow after the 1500.. besides, the instruction was strictly 80-85% except the last 200 for each 1500.

Looking forward to next training. It's gonna get tougher.. I need to get ready.

Cheers
KK

A short post on today's OWS.

Guys, I know today's "training" isn't much but I really had only one key point to drive through and that is to ease your anxiety and nerves.. Knowing exactly what you're facing is the best way to tackle an obstacle.

I know I made it sound really simple and some of you may misunderstood that because I'm a good swimmer I don't take it to heart that it is a Olympic Distance Triathlon.. It is still a big challenge for the untrained people and a strain even to the well trained ones. A 3.5hrs to 4hrs affair is as long as a marathon can take you.. So make no mistake, I am concerned for you guys, to say the least.

Remember that you need to have different things to focus on to drive yourself to perform continuously. Read my previous post on what "doing your best" is about.. Then formulate a strategy on a piece of paper and read through it. I do that for ALL my races, from 50m freestyle sprint race to my marathon to my half iron man.

Don't leave anything to doubt or guess work. Cover every single possible detail you could manage to think of. Once you do that, you'd have "gone through" the race once. Read through it several times whenever you have free time and then write down KEYWORDS that your mind can easily remember and think of during the race to remind you of what is next to come and expect.

Here's my very simple try. Mind's shutting down after training in the hot sun in the afternoon, so bear with the mistakes if any.

• Race day, wake 4hrs before, finish breakfast, do all tagging.
• Reached Race venue 2 hrs before start. Nerves creeping in stomach.
• Unpack things at transition area. Rack bike, place helmet on aerobar, shades, bike shoes, bottles, run shoes, socks. Fingers cold -- > Remind warmup will cure all coldness.. =)
• Take goggles, swim cap, Anti fog, apply anti jelly fish sun block.
• Take small expendable bottle of H-TWO-O OR water and gel.
• Recce Bike in, Bike out.
• Recce Run in, Run out.
• Recce Swim start, Swim exit, Swim route - How many buoys are there out there and divide equally to the distance (200, 350, 200) so you get some pacing knowledge and know how far you've covered. The math will take away a lot of anxiety and worries.
• Warmup at sea. Check Tides and Current. (Porpoise, 3-4x20 strokes out easy, Moderate to Hard come back) Make sure goggles don't come out when porpoising.
• Start of swim, everyone will be rushing, I stay cool and calm from start to first turn.
• After turn, I ease into my rhythm with the waves.
• Sight frequently (Every 4-5 strokes if choppy, every 8-10 if not) and conservatively, don't come up too high if not needed.
• Do not follow crowd unless in lead pack. (Even if in, check once in a while, maybe leader HOLLAND.)
• Upon exiting the first loop, walk 5-6 steps or more.. don't run immediately as blood is in the top of the body and you will cramp up easily. The run will not earn you much time unless you're chasing lead/draft pack.
• DON'T BE SHOCKED IF YOU GOT INTO THE NEXT WAVE'S START. Handle it calmly and watch where the main crowd go, if you are a flanker, FLANK ACCORDINGLY. Nobody will penalize you for staying on shore for a longer run across the beach to get yourself into a more comfortable position to swim.
• Repeat same strategy and find rhythm ASAP in second round of swim.
• Once out of swim exit, walk a little, then jog.. If need be, walk up the ramp. Across the bridge then jog down slowly. It's gonna be WET, SANDY AND PAINFUL a little bit.
• Into the transition area, get your HELMET FIRST, then bike shoe then bike and drink on the bike if you are aiming for timing, else drink then go. After 1.5km of swim, will be a little disorientated and getting a sip on the bike may prove a little more difficult to balance than whatever you've experienced before.
• Push the bike out to the mount line and mount and go. 
• Start with easy gear for first 2-4minutes. Ramp up gradually to your Time Trialing gear if you're aiming for timing. Else just keep shifting to a gear you can hold at 85-95 RPM according to how you feel throughout the race.
• It's 6 rounds, if you have a speedo, press LAP on every time you pass the bike out.
• Every 15minutes DRINK SOMETHING.
• Every 60minutes, eat a gel.
• POINT OF CAUTION: when you pass the bike out, most likely they'll make you do a U Turn near the toilet area. It is really pretty tight if there are more than 2 bikers turning with you. Last year, they placed COOLING WATER SPRINKLERS AT THAT CORNER. (Like What the.....).. so it was slippery also. JUST BE PREPARED. I saw NUMEROUS CRASHES at that area.
• POINT OF CAUTION 2 : They may make you do another U turn at a LONG KANG, if that happens, it is EXTREMELY TIGHT. Only 1 biker will squeeze through. Reason they gave was they don't have enough fundings to get another chip sensor to spread the whole width of the road. Ridiculous but true. BE PREPARED TOO. 
• POINT TO DRIVE THROUGH: ECP IS JUST NOT A NICE PLACE TO TIME TRIAL. 
• Upon finishing the 6 laps of biking, dismount at the dismount line else you'll be given some 10seconds penalty I think.
• Get the bike on the rack THEN remove helmet.
• Change into running shoes, go for an easy 10km run. It's 2 loops of 5km, I assure you it'll be H.O.T. But I'll be there. --> Got link meh? =p
• 
  
• 
  
• That's all, for my simplified version of race day draft.

Cheers
KK

A maturing tale of "Doing Your Best".

Why "maturing", you ask? Read on if you are keen, skip if you feel I'm too long winded, you know I am.. but you don't know what you're missing. =)

First, in my short 27yrs of life, "Doing My BEST" have been the center of my universe where my Sun revolves. Since how long? Since the first time I saw the world.

I've been competitive since I started knowing things, but I lived in a sheltered life. My parents were so protective of me that I wasn't given a chance to try and Be competitive at all.

I've never had friends that were competitive, that kind of made things worst. I don't like to lose but I don't have anyone to win, let alone lose to. It was such an ironic situation that even till now I couldn't really understand the complexity of that vicious cycle.

As I was about to get to know my true self in study, I was kind of a "work my ass off to get what I want" kind of person if you look at my report book but I easily get distracted. Because my dad and mum thinks I'm working too hard and getting too many Band 1 and Distinctions so they introduced me to gaming. Like real, but it did happen, so it is real and unfortunate.

Luckily I regained that edge when I knew Gwen in Poly. I remember I cried when I lost to her by 2 marks in a Calculus TEST. She got 100, I got 98.

In basketball, a game where I picked up since 16, I've made many true friends and many enemies because of my "I'M GONNA KILL YOU TO HELP MY TEAM WIN" way of playing defence.. Again, I found myself there, if you've seen me play in a match seriously, you probably won't come over and say "Hi Coach KK.". Every game I play in turns up in intensity because I don't like to play for fun and I just unknowingly boost the "WIN OR DIE" feel in them.

In NS, there's 40 people in a platoon/squad, I only have 1 friend, that is myself and 39 other enemies. If I don't win them, I brood, I work harder and I challenge them in the face telling them things like "I WILL SWIM FASTER THAN YOU, MR PANG.".. I did not manage to even pick up freestyle during that period of time, and I was UPSET that I didn't even get my breast stroke sorted out, let alone win him. But I worked hard and swam 88 laps with my just-can't-farking-move kind of breast stroke in the attempt to get better.

I have to win in every single 2.4km run. The only person I'd lose to is the best runner in the squad. I fucking hate to be 2nd but I'd rather die than to be 3rd. I'd run 10km every free night I have, I'd do 2.4km run at 95% effort on the night before IPPT and tell my Sir I am doing it easy to prepare for tomorrow. I HATE LOSING.

In every relationship I have, I'd give my best. EVERYTHING. So much so that everyone of them left me because I gave too much without knowing what they want. I just give what ME want to give, not what they need or want..

It was Horrible to say the least...

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

So, from all the above, you can already tell my definition of doing my best = JUST GIVING MY EVERYTHING.

Is there a limit? Probably somewhere in the hemisphere.

Often in my mind I'll ask "Am I giving enough?".. There was never "Is this too much?".

Often, the question is "Is this good enough?".. There was never "What exactly am I working on?".

JUST DO. JUST FREAKING DO IT AND DO YOUR BEST THEN THINK LATER.

That kind of just implode in me and made me the person I am today, both successful and failing in many many aspects of my life. Coach KK is an image of me that is a self-motivated and rationale, knowledgeable and self contained person..

But that is only half as true. There are so many things in life that I could have done better.. not because I've not given my everything but its because I have no idea what I'm actually working on before I started doing.

I'm not gonna give a life lesson here but relate to life in anyway you want.. I'm sure it'll make sense. The thing I'm gonna touch on here is about training and racing.

Doing your best does equate giving your everything. But in order to do our best, the pre-requisite is to KNOW what exactly we're working on and the purpose of doing them.

For example, in a swim training, I set the following as training program:

Warmup:
SKPKS x 100 each (Easy, raise HR)

Pre-set:
4x100 build (getting ready for main set of speed work)

Rest 3 mins

Main set:
20x50 Hard on 1:00

Rest 5mins

Cool down:
300m easy mixed strokes

What does doing your best mean in this training session then?

If it was me 6 yrs back (with the swim skill i have now), I'd tell you:
"That's so easy, I'd go hard from the first metre to the last.. I'D SKIP ALL THE REST TOO! Else, I won't feel the kick in the workout at all.".

Right now, I'd tell you:
The rest times CANNOT BE SKIPPED. Without the rest times, your body are just not fresh to perform perfect technique. Every stroke is a practice. If you screw up technique for hard swim then you might as well don't swim because you will NEVER improve.

Warmup you better do it easy and gradually build up the heart rate. When you go too hard at the warmup (from non workout state to hard workout state), lactate and oxygen debt will build up quickly and take a very long time to go down. If that happens, the rest of the workout will be screwed.

Pre-set is to get your body ready for the intensity of the main set and is highly relevant to whatever is to be done later. If its a high technique focus main set then the pre-set will be something to kick start your focus like a fist drill swim. In this case, I'd say better start very easy from the first 100 then build to flat out in the last and 4th 100m to shake the body up and get ready for pacing.

Main set here is 20x50 hard. It's pretty straight forward here. The whole idea is to go very hard and get more rest. However, swim is a skill base sport that is so affected by drag factor. Your BEST here will not equate to swimming every 50 til you're completely breathless and fainting. Your BEST here WILL MEAN to do every 50m as hard as YOUR PERFECT TECHNIQUE allow.

Cool down is named "COOL DOWN" for a purpose. Take it easy and slow down the heart rate slowly by doing easy swim. Your BEST here is to make the swim AS EASY AS POSSIBLE so you get ready for a good rest and recovery. Without recovery, your training is just potential for falling sick.

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

In a racing situation, doing your best will mean to savour every single second of the race. If it means you have to draft somebody to take it easy for a minute before making that last burst to lead the pack then let go of the lead and do the draft first. If it means slowing down to a walk to relieve that cramp before risking to tear something then WALK.

Often, we, especially MEN, are so taken over by our own pride and ego that we can't see the balance between rate of exertion and the technical aspect of everything we do in life.
We were so often overwhelmed by the need to give our best in a competitive environment and with a competitive heart, we forgot what is the reason and rationale behind doing some things.

For example, what's the point of being able to Fly 80kg, bench press 150kg and Bicep curl 50kg if you can't lift a damn TV off the floor with ease and walk up 10flights of stairs when the lift breaks down?

Or another example, what's the point of going so hard in your warm up and pre set when you totally exhaust yourself and then could only force yourself to give half effort in the hard effort main set?

To become successful, at least in sports, we have to have the patience to know the reason behind doing all things and performing the purpose of the training to the best that we can possibly achieve. Only then can we see the returns of the training.

With that, I'd rest my case and I'd rest my bod. And yes, I can rest with ease because with the above realization in mind, I have seen so much improvement over the past 6 weeks for my swim. I hope they benefit you too.

Cheers
KK

ps - Thank you Pang and Gwen for guest "appearance". :P

An overwhelming appreciation for "Coaching".

The "Coaching" I'm referring to here isn't me coaching somebody else but it is about "Being Coached".

As I've mentioned before, at least I think I've mentioned before because I've mentioned so many things before and even the words "mentioned" and "before" need to come up so many times in this sentence because.. well, I've indeed mentioned them before...

... That being a passionate guy about the things I choose to do, I've ALWAYS given my 200% in everything that I've willingly partaken in. From basketball to studies (yes I was in director's list in my dip.) to running to swimming to personal training and gym works. However, I've almost never podium-ed in my entire short 10yrs of sporting life.. I honestly felt a little short changed for the effort I've input and the heart and soul I've given.

The reason is not that I did not work hard enough but nobody was really there to guide me in what I should do correctly and what I should not. I've never had a proper certified, qualified/accomplished(optional) and capable coach who is there to WATCH ME and correct my mistake and tell me what I need to do.

I've read everything I need to learn to improve on every subject myself. Believe it or not even my lifesaving 1,2 and 3, a paid course, was taught by a extremely disappointing instructor that I have to re-study everything myself to get ready for the next level. This is a personal post and thus I hope sam will not be bothered by this.. She often proudly told people that she taught me how to swim at the start but the fact is that she didn't. All my questions was answered with "LIKE THAT LA, WHY CANNOT? I DON'T KNOW LEH."..  Ok, she wasn't a coach yet then but that kind of described the answers I get every single time I tried to work with my peers about something I want to improve on, not just swimming but almost everything else.

I've got some seniors in basketball that I need to thank to have helped me by sharing with me what they know, but they are not coaches and i'm forever a point guard who is good at using his brains to set up and improvise plays for his team instead of learning the proper pick and rolls and other set plays that can establish me as a "stable" PG..

As a matter of fact, ALL THE SWIM STROKES were picked up by my consistent disturbance on other "swimmers" or anyone in the pool that is better than me and then further practiced and confirmed by the long hours of trial and errors of drills and swims. Even up till the start of this year, it was a frustrating and continuous process to believe and coach on something I only have 95% faith that it is the right way to do. Until 6 weeks back. Everything in my swimming world changed.

With that, I am so overwhelmed with appreciation in today's training with my very own China Coach who is so well coached himself that every word he said makes me feel tinier and tinier-er in terms of knowledge base.

So to recall...

The first time I got a proper coach was Mr Chan, a 50+ years old man who can do one arm pull ups with ease. He taught me a complete set of gym training that made me more than just a functional being. He introduced me to proper joint alignment and kick started the process of learning how a body really work. His teaching and sharing is so valuable that if I had not been coached by him, I've be nowhere near who I am right now because I won't know how to activate all the muscles I need to, let alone coach the people to do the right things (insert Russel Peter's "be a man!" joke here :P)!

Then came Nicole Gallagher, the many many times podium sprint coach who inspired me to do better in triathlons and taught me what result a routine and consistent training can bring. She is the one who gave me the realism on what periodization training and scheduling of workout is about. Without that, team sapphire won't have such improvements to today already.

Then now, it is Cheng Qiang. One of the tallest lifeguard in Seng Kang. To have a feel about how he has changed my swim (perspectives and physical ability).. let's take a look at my swim times.
First sessions of:
2 x 400m on 8mins - 7:22, 7:33 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 9/10)
20 x 50m on 1min - 0:49 to 0:54 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 9.5/10)
2000m - 39:00 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 9/10)
800m fist swim with board shorts - 22:30 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 8.5/10)

NOW:
4 X 400M on 8mins - 6:53, 6:42, 6:44, 6:45 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 7.5-8/10)
30 X 50m on 1min - 0:41 to 0:47 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 9.5/10)
2000m - 37:00 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 8/10)
800m fist swim with board shorts - 19:41 (Rate of Perceived Exertion - 8/10)

I have no idea how to express how excited I am in the training and I just felt SO motivated to do whatever he asks me to. I wanted a coach SO much. My desire to win and compete at the highest level is SO F*CKING GREAT. I can't better describe it.

When I felt the nerves and anxiety as he asked me to do my 400m warm up with a straight face.. I recalled how Team Sapphire members will reserve in the warm ups and pre sets to "prepare" for the main set... I recall Lawrence saying "Reserve a bit ma.. don't know what you'll throw at us later leh~!"... And I felt so so excited because I am finally being COACHED and I so want to reap the benefits and pure enjoyment of just being in the water giving my everything in the sets pre-determined by somebody else and that somebody is one I respect so much!

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

Honestly, I've come a LONG WAY to where I am today without much proper coaching. And getting a proper coach in SG who knows what he's talking about is just SUCH A DIFFICULT MATTER. With that, I need to exclaim and remind myself and everyone else reading this subject thus far that Being Coached is a PRIVILEGE - and I appreciate it So F*cking Much.

Cheers
KK

12072011 Swim Squad Timing

Dear Team,

Please see below for swim timing. I'm glad to see some of you are gaining a lot of progress in the swim!

Yukari just did a sub 20minutes 1km swim last sunday!

Sam's stroke is undergoing changes and thus the drop in timing.

Ben's swim is getting faster by the sessions!

Wilson is now officially second fastest in time when vincent's not around :P

Calvin's so powerful that he is "dragging" his buddy in the kick part.. - no price for guessing who the buddy is. :P

Teck Beng's textbook like swim stroke is gaining recognition not just from me but coaches like Fred and the China lifeguards themselves.

Saori's just too fast and furious for a non club swimmer.. I don't know how else to put it. =p

Lawrence's swim is so so smooth now that he can totally chill and still keep up with you guys.. hmm.. maybe this is not something to be excited about. :P

------- Without further ado, below is the training program, followed by the timing------

PROGRAM...

TIMING....

Note: Below is some very honest feelings about the team that I had right now.. it's about striking a balance between expectations of me as a coach and the complacency of us being achievers... Read on if you care about team sapphire and I sincerely hope we will all advance towards a FASTER SWIM TIME by the end of the year!

The only complain I have about this training session is the timing given to me is still not accurate for some of you guys despite the constant prompt for accurate numbers for proper documentation. 

I do understand that most of us are in the team to enjoy the time swimming together but I hope the team can understand that it is a responsibility of mine as the trainer to keep track of benchmarks and consistently introduce results and improvements in order for the team to continue to feel intrigued and improved each session.  And without proper documentations, it is just impossible to see the tangible results and keep the fire burning. I am NOT complaining about doing the documentations because I love doing it for our team... but I really hope each and everyone of us will take more responsibilities in our own swim time and progress so we can have things to look back and forward on.

The reason for raising this up is I do not wish for the wednesday swim session to become a time whereby everyone just come for a gathering. Because the passion for SOCIAL Gatherings will fade but the Heart and Curiosity to learn and improve SHOULD NOT. I hope everyone continue to come with a mindset to improve and learn. 

Do you remember the very first time you came to Team Sapphire? It was so much talking from me and so much learning on our parts, both you and I and each and every session, everyone of us went back with something to work on and I will work on getting louder and lasting longer in my nags. 

I need to sound out that I really hope and expect the team to keep on growing, my dream is for this Team to be doing sub 1 minute 50m swim repeats for every single one of you by the end of this year. It is very doable and I have faith that if you guys continue to trust in me and we both do our parts in giving our best in training and sharing, WE will both reach this target by the end of the year. 

To be honest, at times, I do not dare to speak up about these because I still am a 27 years old brat to most of you guys in the team and I respect that age and experience difference. I've spent time knowing each and every single one of you in the team as much as I possibly can and I know that indeed some are satisfied with what we have already and I too respect that because I don't want to enforce a dictator's will on the team about progression.. 

Instead of speaking up on that, I have chosen to continue my very own education on swimming, triathlon, human and exercise physiology and biomechanics all these times when I am training you because I wish to set the example that no matter how good we can become, we should not take our skills attained for granted and should maintain humbled by the enormity of the whole subject's complexity. 

Many a times when we've accomplish something in a subject we were not good in, we tend to forget how bad we were and how far we have to walk to get to where we are right now. Let's NOT be in that kind of times.. lets ALL continue to have a LEARNER'S Mind and BEGINNER'S Curiosity. Let us ALL be THIRSTY for knowledge in the team once again! For it will bring us further than you've dreamt, not just in swimming, but in your fitness and health and That is your greatest wealth.

Cheers

KK

Pointers for our "Renewed" Freestyle stroke.

• Body rotation does not mean hip rotation, hip rotation should be kept to minimum.. Rotation of upper torso is what is needed
• Body rotation does not contribute to power output for push phase
• Body rotation allows proper exit of arm and hand on recovery and also facilitates streamlining of body by allowing the push phase to guide water "Away" from the body instead of onto the thighs
• Catch phase commence IMMEDIATELY after entry is made instead of glide phase
• Without glide, rest phase is during the catch and over water recovery thus they have to be done with extreme caution to be effortless and efficient
• Exertion at push phase is a gradual build up of arm velocity from the in-sweep phase
• Kick is Important for keeping a flat hip and additional propulsion

Upon stating the above, I need to remind each and everyone of us that we can do ALL strokes that we want and it is important we pick up all the different kind of rhythms. Both for the fun sake and also learning more things in the water just simply makes us a better swimmer or person who moves in the water. It gives your body a good sense of rhythm. 

Some of you may say that you're not a coach and thus you just choose one to perfect or race with.. that is not wrong.. 

However, say if you chose gliding stroke to focus on, then upon race day, the tides are against you and your opponents.. you'll have no choice but to attempt to glide through the strong currents which is very difficult.

And you'll come to think about it and say "Aiya. just learn the non gliding one la. Got current then i can move fast, no current i move faster wat.".. Then on race day you find the tides are with all of you.. and guess what? The whole field would choose to do gliding strokes all the way and allow the tides to push them totally from start to finish.. but you're not so good at gliding and thus you're gonna just pull and push throughout.. that'll probably mean you're about at most 3-5minutes faster than the rest and comes up pretty tired as compared to those "gliders" in the same wave who rode the tide for a free ride.

As racers, we have to be versatile in adapting to different race conditions and I believe I've already given this team an edge on knowing what can be possibly done and achieved with freestyle stroke. It is truly up to you to perfect this art and master the technique to fully benefit from it and enjoy it.

Cheers

KK

PS: Do read back the previous posts on Catch!

18062011 Swim Squad Review - A New Direction! (From Glee Indeed)

It was an exciting night of breakthrough for ALL of us who attended the Wednesday night's training. The path to changes was actually much smoother than what I've expected it to be from a team with quite a big number of people.

A little prologue about how I feel. I know I'm very drama sometimes but I hate to write/coach/teach/love without feelings....
It is always a challenge for me to put forth my thoughts to each and every single one of you individual and to ensure that E.V.E.R.Y - S.I.N.G.L.E - O.N.E of you understood and FEEL what I am trying to portray for you to establish and excel in the water. I think it is sometimes more an expectation that I hold constantly against myself to ensure everyone of you are taken care of. The motivation to coach with the highest expectation of self came from within me, the reason that triggers it is why I've never really excelled in any sports (by excellence I meant Podium) - that I didn't have any dedicated coach to coach me when I was younger. Now that I have the chance to give others a chance, I need to fulfil this destiny.

Firstly, lets do an incision on freestyle and dig out all the organs(parts) that made it up again to further investigate what this new direction is about.

Traditionally, there was only 1 kind of freestyle. The so called Kayak-Stroke or more well-known as Windmill freestyle nowadays. This freestyle stroke requires the swimmer to have a continuous propulsion without much of a glide phase, or, the deceleration pace. It is logical and correct that if you're RACING, you ought to be pulling continuously to chase down your opponents right? Why the hell will you want to glide and decelerate when you can stay in the constant velocity throughout the whole swim?

Allow me to showcase Mr Popov's swim. He is one of the greatest swimmer ever to grace this human world.


At the start of the video, you can see he is doing a slow swim, recovering and catching slowly but he is still doing it continuously. So this should answer the question to those of you who probably still aren't buying the idea that this particular freestyle stroke can be used for long distance swim.. And there is a perception that it is so tiring because there is NO GLIDE TO REST! Those recovery phase and catch phase of the pull are exactly where you rest, you need to practice active relaxation of the muscles that you contract to exert the push and not do the entry too forcefully that you can't relax that shoulder to extend it far.

So it was a PERFECT STROKE for racing! Or is it not? As we answer the above question, we do realize that it conflicts with one issue that humans are bound to fall for. It looks just too tiring to do that for more than 2 minutes at MAXIMUM EFFORT! I need something that can let me have a little more rest and still be fast!

Honestly, as human evolve and the conventional becomes obsolete for the sake of ease and convenience (i.e laziness).. this is what happened to freestyle too. And it of course took one of the other Greatest swimmer to "revolutionize" the change in freestyle stroke and later a very widely marketed swimming philosophy (namely Total Immersion Swimming) publicized his "gliding stroke", or what we call Front-Quadrant swim.

Let me introduce you to:

Mr Ian Thorpe.


I recommend you open two browsers to see both his stroke and Alexander Popov's side by side if you don't have a very multiple-core processing unit up there in your skull.

Allow me to digress and bring you to notice one point that I brought up last night.

I said "The glide is good if you are swimming WITH the wave, i.e: the wave is pushing you. As you stay in that arm extended position slightly on your side, the wave will help you gain MUCH MORE distance than usual."

Now, look back at the video and see how BIG his freaking feet are. They are size 17. I KID YOU NOT.

If you don't have much idea how big size 17 is, just multiply what my feet are now by 2 x and cut off the toes.

That is a pair of FLIPPERS he has! Again, after the exclamation, go back to the video and observe that he is kicking continuously, he is not doing 1 or 2 beat kick. The reason? The insanely strong kick from his insanely big feet are making up for this deceleration in his front quadrant swim!

So you can see that each individuals have a different trait that we can exploit to become the best swimmer or best anything or everything that we can be.

You can see very clearly that Ian's catch almost never starts until the opposite pulling arm almost recovers to his head area before the entry.

I am not saying that Ian Thorpe is a lazy guy but read on to see why I have the perception of anyone who would want to do the gliding stroke should be looking forward to making swimming more effortless than it already is, I mean at race pace.

Below is how I had come to an agreement to myself to accept completely the front quadrant swim and also start teaching this kind of freestyle.. 

I've studied both of them since 4yrs back when I started learning freestyle. They were Gods to me until Phelps took Ian's place as he retires. The one big question mark is "WHY DON'T YOU DO BOTH THE CONTINUOUS KICK AND THE PULL AT THE SAME TIME? That ought to give you the fastest time ever because there is CONSISTENT propulsion from EVERY POSSIBLE PART OF OUR BODIES RIGHT?".


The question often gets hidden up by itself because of a human nature to be lazy. The gliding stroke seem to be more efficient or using less energy because I can glide! And just when I was going head on with the dilema, here comes the SUPER WIDELY MARKETED TOTAL IMMERSION FREESTYLE.

Introducing Shinji from TI:



Take a look at how graceful he is and how he seem to be using ZERO energy in swimming and he just LOOKED PERFECT for any beginners who don't know anything about RHYTHMIC freestyle stroke and becomes tired just at the thought of doing one lap, let alone collapse by doing ten.

I was completely sold and I said to myself: "Heck, I won't be competing in swim competition so I should do fine with this kind of freestyle! The minimal kick appeals so much because kicking is just SO tiring. Also, even swimming noob me can tell this is SO FREAKING GRACIOUS AND BEAUTIFUL, just imagine what the others will say when they see me master it even if they don't know swimming at all?

And indulge, I did, OBSESSIVELY in fact, I practiced this stroke so hard, I felt that I've peaked with my 2 beat kick at 1:28/100m and I just can't make it go any faster unless I do some very serious gym work. It suddenly doesn't make sense to me that I'm gliding even though I have the motivation to become FASTER.

Triathlon racing is still Swim, Bike and Run. Putting them together doesn't alter the mechanics of biking and running.. so why should I change what's for fast swimming? Just to compensate for the other two legs afterwards? Isn't training all about breaking through and becoming better at enduring a high power output throughout the whole race regardless of which leg you're in?

And sometimes at night when I'm all alone thinking about swimming, it just dawn upon me that it doesn't make sense to glide without the continuous kicking to make up for the deceleration.

Picture this: 100m TRACK running sprint, when the gun goes, everybody started skipping and bounding instead of sprint running... and every time each athlete skips, he or she tries to stay air-borne for as long as possible to cover the biggest amount of distance without slowing down but not doing anything also while in the air to rest. Isn't that what we're trying to accomplish with the gliding freestyle without kick?

It just doesn't make sense to me anymore that if I continue practicing that stroke I can still become much faster without much tweaks. Either I go to the gym to strengthen my arm power or I tweak my stroke. I took the latter path because I am a meso-endomorph and if I gym too hard I'd just hulk up. At 5ft5", hulking up does me no good in triathlon. And I'm happy with what I chose to do thus far, it has also increased my horizon of swim knowledge and made me a better coach.

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

Back to you Team Sapphire. It was inspiring to see each and every single one of you who came, from age below 10 to above 50++, gets a personal best 50m timing last night. It always feel superbly satisfying to be able to connect intellectually with you guys for swimming knowledge sharing and the results are just so intensively gratifying.

As per mentioned last night, it is up to you to choose which path you want to take in swimming. Do you have an innate need to become faster? Or do you simply want to swim better than the average joes? I can tell you firmly that ALL of you in the team are better and much more efficient swimmers than 95% of the people in Singapore (Biathlete and Triathletes included). So there really ought to come a point whereby you question yourself what is your motive in swimming and come to an agreement with it and thoroughly work towards that goal.

My job as the coach is to share with you everything I know about swimming. And I believe up til now, I've always fulfilled that criteria of not holding anything back despite being the same competitor in some competitions we join. It may mean nothing to most of you who are there to leisurely swim but it means a great deal to me because I am competitive and I will like to hold any edge I have against anyone of you. But knowing you guys as a team and family, I'd rather let that edge be my own training instead of the wonderful techniques of swimming. =)

Thank you for your time spent reading this.

Love,
KK

Lawrence: 41s (previously 49-50s)
Pauline: 58s (previously 1:15-1:25)
Wilson: 47s
Sam: 47s (previously 55s -1:02)
Jas: 58s (previously 1:10-1:18)
Meher: 58s (previously 1:20-1:25)
Musaib: 58s (previously 1:10-1:25)
Calvin: 48s (previously 55++s)
Teck Beng: 47s (matched pb after 10x50m of swim? => )
Ben: 43s (previously 49s)

15062011 Swim Squad Timing!

Dear Team,

Here's the training timing!

We did:
Warm Up (15mins):
5x100 as SKPKS

Pre Set (20mins):
400m FS normal swim

Age 46 & below 1 min rest, Age 47++ 2min rest..

400m FS negative set (must be faster than 1st 400)

5 mins rest

Main Set (30mins):
Vince, KK, Ben:
20x50m on 1min

Sam, Lawlaw, Teck Beng, Calvin:
20x50 on 1:10min

Musaib, Pauline, Robert, Yasmin, Meher:
1000m Continuous swim

Cool Down: 15mins
200m-500m Kick (every 50: 25fast, 25slow)

Total: 2800m (deduct yourself if you didn't finish any of the set please.. =) )

Basically, 1000m continuous swim is for building Swim Endurance and 20x50m helps build lactate tolerance while swimming fast!

I will be posting the review of swim on Monday or once I have the time! Apologies for the lack of posting!

Cheers
KK

Motivation versus RPE (Perceived Exertion) Part 2 of 3

The next three points we're discussing about motivation factors will be:

3) Intangible benefits (Health, Hot Bod, Race Edge, Bragging Rights)

4) Confidence

5) Goal(s)

Firstly, let's talk about...
Intangible benefits (Health, Hot Bod, Race Edge, Bragging Rights)

Very honestly speaking, I work out firstly for the benefits of health and fitness because I once was a boy who couldn't see the front of my shoes because they're covered by my bulging tummy. And following right after that reason is that I hope to one day become an inspirational person who can motivate people who are feeling down about their physical body to go out and start doing something about it.

So, when I look at a training and it goes something like 20x100 Alt Swim and Kick or 5x5x400m on 3mins I'd definitely first look at the ego factor to motivate myself. Seriously, not many of the people will go and do 20x100 (maybe except vince) or 5x5x400 (and Andy) and say "it's just a normal routine...".. Thus when you complete it, and post it in facebook, you'd get all kind of weird "WAHHH.. " or "CRAZY AR?!".. or "you're MAD." kind of ego boosting compliments.

As shallow as that sounds, this factor DOES motivate me and I'm sure also many of you out there who are hiding right now, to go out again and again to do such breakthrough workouts that touches the limits of your body. And often times, especially for men, it is through such motivation that we get to go beyond what we can endure on our own especially in the late late stages of races.

Example of such race edge happening will be during the last 800m sprint of the 10km run in Singapore Biathlon, you're probably feeling a lot of pain and like you're breathing sand into your lungs already.. then someone on the side goes like "Wah.. this guy in black 2xu underwear can run like mountain goat sia even though he looks so bulky!".. and you glance around to find that you're the only one who is wearing 2XU and that guy's referring to you.. What usually follows after that is you clocking a PB for the 800m dash despite having done the swim and 9.2KM run in Race Pace.

Another example of bragging rights being a motivation factor is how I convince my bro KH to pick up training, imagine him going to Sec 1 and when people are doing inclined flex arm hangs and barely meeting the mark, you're doing 12 x pull ups with perfect form at the effort of eating fishball noodles? Yes, he did that. The pull ups, not the noodles. I'll give you a minute to go "-_-... what did you do to your bro..."..

Ok, a minutes up.

Other than bragging rights, some of us simply enjoys the fitness benefits that the training gives. We can clearly see Lawrence gets puffed up Breasts (as mentioned by christine, his wife) and vincent getting leaner and meaner as each training goes by.. We can obviously see Marianne and Sam slimming down a lot and getting toned up by the days.. I've personally built up quite a physique while losing a little bit of fats weight..

Basically, by knowing that working out often gives you an "upgrade to the hardwares" on your body and when people notice the changes to the physique, you'll feel good. And when the lifts occasionally breaks down just for fun, you'll notice that you don't pant as much while climbing stairs, you'll then feel even better than being noticed by the others. =)

The last part of this article will be on both Confidence and Goal(s).


Confidence is something that has to ooze out from within, just like motivation. And to breed Confidence, one has to experience success. As the saying goes, success breeds confidence and confidence breeds success. It is kind of a chicken and egg topic but you get the drift. We'll first talk about success, what is it about.

Success in fitness world is largely defined by tangible qualities of life such as Fat percentage drops, KGs of muscles gained, KGs of body weight lost, a drop in swim/bike/run timing in seconds or milliseconds and the list goes on.

I find that if you set the point of success as the final goal without small ones, you'd be looking all stressed up each and every single day because chances are you'll be comparing numbers every time you can. I know of folks who get on the weighing machine 6 times in the morning to get the mean figure, stand in different foot step directions on the machine to make sure its accurate and then finish the lunch and dinner with another 6-10 stands on the weighing machine to only get disappointed because of the weight gained from the food and drink you just put into your stomach. LiKe SeRioUslY???

Sometimes, you'll get rare folks who truly (and i mean the straight from the heart kind..) observe and appreciate success as small bits of life that has gone well or better. Usually you call these kind of people perfectionists, or in chinese they are called Mr Xiao. Xiao "On" because they enjoy celebrating every little bit of success and they know that its these small little parts of success that will form a big picture of a successful person.

What makes the latter trait more likable is that when you break down the big goal into smaller ones, you'd shift your focus on the smaller goals of the big plan that you've set.. you're more likely to be happier every day because the small parts or goals are so much easier to achieve.. and by achieving in such a manner, you experience success and that will motivate you to work towards the other smaller goals and in no time, you'll see that your biggest goal will seem to be getting closer or even smaller.

I felt that confidence in doing some specific sets of workout will give you the motivation to go to a tough workout just because you know in your heart that you've "been there done that" and thus you'll definitely be able to do it again with ample mental preparation.

For example, many men don't like to do pull ups.. and just going under the pull up bar with the thought of doing 1 will sound or feel like 1 too many. However, if you can mix and match motivations to help you get across that mental barrier of doing that first pull up. When you finally go up, you'll notice that you can do more than just 1 or have lesser fear of the pull up bar when you stand under it next time.

You can try asking someone who can support you and are equally keen on performing the pull ups. Nothing beats the feeling of accomplishing a near impossible feat (as defined by your own brain) with a partner and giving each other a big bang fist bump and a good laugh following the accomplishment. The next time you come under the bar, you'll know you've done it yourself before and you'll definitely be able to jump up without hesitation even if you can only just do 1.. this time around, it'll be 1 too little. =)

Now......--------

What if you don't care about success AND failures? Some of the clients I coach tell me "I just want to do only.. I don't need to do so well or so perfect one...".. Now, seriously, I don't know how to coach imperfect strokes or forms in the gym leh.. but that's another story for another day.

With regards to gaining confidence for these kind of learners is by getting them educated. And by knowing what you're doing is right for YOU and YOU ONLY will help a lot. Do NOT just follow the universal standard even if it is practiced by the greatest without finding out if the training is applicable to you. Some greatest may have just 1 ball and you have 2,  you're special in your own way and thus training methods have to be uniquely for you too.

I don't know if you have ever come across people who used to shy away from gym but I've known AUNTIES and UNCLES in their 40s to 50s going to gym after they were educated of what is right and what is beneficial if trained properly in whichever ways. Some of them even corrected my form when I used to do very heavy sets and shown some weakness in my left hand side.

Such beautiful scenario is the display of having different source of motivations for the uncles and aunties that I knew of to go back to the gym in their free time again and again. They went back to workout the right way (Confidence), they knew that if done correctly and progressively, it'll help them incredibly in gaining bone density and functional strength in daily life. Fulfilling those small Goals of fitness will eventually equate to more play time with grandsons and daughters (Intangible benefits), they went to gym to show their peers that they are still peaking in their age (Bragging rights) and initially it is the peer influence that brings them there (Affiliation) for the chatters and laughters (Fun).

Hope you guys have a better grasp on how motivation factors can work with each other to push even the laziest of you and shy-iest of you to go out and start working out! Next up: 6) Believes !

Cheers
KK