SWIM SQUAD 30032011 with TIMING

Training Log for our swim squad at SengKang Swimming Complex on 30 March 2011!

Firstly, super warm welcome to Soon!!! Thanks to Ebnu for sharing the love for swim! =)

Then I need to state some thoughts that aren't really nice. These are the thoughts that makes me look like I'm an aristocrat (a quote from a dear member of ours) but trust me, if it ain't good for you, I won't share.

Here goes:

From the swim, I really did notice that some of you, not all, just a pretty few of you.. are not completely buying the opinion that technique can save you that much energy expenditure and time in your swim. Reason I raised this up is I've been biting on some points for some of you individual for a long time. VERY long time. Some are Major setbacks in strokes but I really don't see the effort to change the stroke technique.

I see A LOT of effort in putting in the power and pushing hard. I never doubt any one of you to hold back when I say its a MAX effort set.

But from this swim, I see that some of us seem to be hardworking and lazy at the same time.

Hardworking in the brute force and chiong/shakariki department.. but you're lazy in the slow, technical drilling stuffs.

This kind of working attitude will give you AMPLE returns in running, cycling and almost any endurance sports that does not put your body through some kind of body hugging substances that resist YOU as you propel yourself forward;

In water, the FASTER you swim, the MORE POWER you output, the MORE resistance it'll give you in the "who's your daddy" kind of way.  And I'm not talking about wind resistance on cycling kind of hard, yes that is hard, but in water, you take 1hr to complete a 2.4km swim with drills. That kind of resistance - is hard.

Look, I'm not trying to sell you any service here but I'm begging Each and Everyone of you to have FAITH.

Have TRUST in the technique aspect of your swim.

I may not be a good benchmark because I work too hard physically to justify the gains in my timing as just stroke but look below:

KH shaved 24 FREAKING SECONDS off his 50m and trust me, he don't work as hard as most of us do in the workout everyday part.

Teck Beng shaved an average of 10 GORGEOUS SECONDS off his overall swims. Yes he do swim on his own, but I doubt he pushes himself at all judging at the way his coordination still don't dance very well when we go faster.

With just 1 session with me, I corrected Sam's catch. She shaved an average of 5-7 seconds off her 50m swim over just 1 week.
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If these kind of results can't make you go back and do 1000m of drills straightening your body kicking on your side, doing left arm pulls, doing right arm pulls, making sure EVERY SINGLE ENTRY is finger tip first and making sure the non breathing side is exactly the same as your breathing side..

Man, I don't know what will.

Passionately, sincerely, with no intention to offend anybody if you feel I'm referring to you, then yes, you need to buck up on being more hardworking on the drill aspect.


I want US to improve. EACH and EVERY SINGLE FREAKING ONE OF US.


DO YOU FEEL ME, TEAM SAPPHIRE!!?!!


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Back to normal non-bankai mode.... (i got a feeling only Wilson will understand this joke... :P)
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I'm just going to do a quick touch up on pointers for the swim of some of you that I manage to catch a glimpse on during my own painful sets. Oh yes, I'm very very happy with all the kids' swims... and also happy with the attendance! Without bryan and Hongjun, we still had 22 people!!!! haha.. scary... I like. =D

Take:
Take san, your recovery is very wide! Like butterfly! Can you keep your hand close to your body when you bring the elbow forward in the recovery? The wider the arm recovers, the more distance it is required to travel thus delaying your pull timing; plus, swinging the arm outside, cause the body to have a swaying momentum -> WASTE of energy to counter it back to swim straight ya! Age is NOT a problem but just a barrier to strength that can be resolved with some easy STRENGTH TRAINING NEH! SHAKARIKI!!!!!!

Yukari:
Yukari, I see the fire burning in your eyes that speaks for your want to improve and get faster. Don't ever let your age be your limit as I've seen many many swimmers doing 1:15 at the age of 45+. It is really a difficult way up but I have faith in you getting way faster than what you're doing now.
Also, when you swim by yourself, do some kick sets, its boring and tiring but I find it really help a lot in the endurance in the swim when trained consistently.
Now, First and foremost, keep those fingers close ya.. its a minor thing but.. it should save a second or two?:Pp

Saori:
SAORI, YOKU GAMBATAN NEH! correct? :D you must have learnt the opened fingers swim from your mummy la! I tell you, if you can, try to breathe on every third stroke..
I.E: Right pull, Left pull, Right pull - Breathe, Left pull, Right pull, Left pull- Breathe, REPEAT. That way, you'll be able to focus on both side of your strokes and make sure you swim symmetrically (mirror image of left and right!). Also, your pull on your breathing side tend to be very short.. always end at the tummy or even near chest area! Look at your mummy swim, her push will end right pass the hip area! Very wasted because the push is where you gain the most power to move forward and if you shorten it, it'll make you move less with each pull!

Your catch and body rotation from left to right is PERFECT. It almost made me cry in tears of joy because of how beautiful it looked like. JIAYOU! =)

Wilson:
When you glide, you tend to rotate until you're completely on your side. There is a glitch to this and that is when you put all your body weight on one side, you have difficulty pulling back and transit to the next stroke. Your left arm catch is also passing centre-line.

Soon:
When I first saw you, I realized you have good rhythm and you have consistency in doing your stroke. Seeing your iron man pics explains why. You must have gone through quite a fair bit of training for your swim.. and that is a double edged sword because that may spell trouble if you have a habit so ingrained by the thousands of strokes you've taken, you may find difficulty changing them. But it's definitely up to how much you want to improve or you just want to complete... =)

So here goes nothing:

I saw a few things that you can change to make your swim faster. Firstly, you're actually doing a catch up drill with the arms meeting at the front instead of a real freestyle/front crawl swim. The correct efficient rhythm of front crawl is to reach while you push and start the catch when you start recovery. I said efficient because when your arms meet at the front, the velocity of your body dips to almost a halt and basic physics (law of inertia) suggest that it takes energy to move a body from a stopped position. When the pull is more continuous, it actually saves you more energy in covering the same distance.

I understand that the need for you to do a catch up drill is that the stroke count will drop significantly lower and you'll tend to glide more which seems to be intuitive and logical at first because you need to do an iron man (New Zealand! well done!).. but as per mentioned above, the glide should not continue til your body stops moving but should be continued by another push each time the body is at peak or near peak velocity. When you allow your body to glide to a slowing down state then you start a push, you're actually wasting more energy each pull to accelerate again. Last but not least if you glide that much, there is probably a tendency to hold your breathe in some part of your stroke in order to facilitate the amount of time staying underwater for the glide. That will build up quite a fair bit of thoracic pressure when you do long distance thus further adding on to the tension over the whole body and fatigue. That will cause the swim time in the second half of swim distance to be slower due to increase of fatigue and inability to hold the stroke integrity.

Another thing I noticed immediately before you joined in the main set was that your entry tend to be at the center where your forehead is and is done by chopping onto the water surface. As per spoken, entry should be at where the shoulder is, and it should be done finger tips first to prevent a push down of the water to cause a upward movement of the body.

As a conclusion of your stroke review of what I can see tonight, there is a lot of pauses in your stroke in an exaggerated attempt to glide more and reduce stroke count in the name of energy conservancy. See if you can understand my pointers above and put it into a good dance. Let me know if you need help. :)

Ebnu:

Before I go into the flaws, I have to say I applaud and admire the concentration level you have in your swim. I could literally feel the focus in your mind trying to control and make your body move the way I taught you to do so. The effort is just paramount and I hope you keep up with the conscious swim effort.. it'll bring you really far.. way further than you think you want and ought to go right now bro. 

So on to the things to iron out...

There was quite a lot of tension. You have to work past this stage whereby you're trying very hard to control your body and hold a right position AND exerting force to propel yourself... You have to do ALL THESE relaxedly.

It is kind of difficult to understand and learners often gave me that kind of "WAT THE.... *BEEP* are you talking abt?!".. But ask Wilson, he managed to work past that stage and is now doing pretty OKAY in the "being stiff (holding a position and propelling) while being relaxed" department.

Vincent:
You were too fast. I cannot see. hahahaha.. I can only tell that we were putting up quite a good show when we do the 50s side by side and your left arm pull seem to tend to drop whenever you're not breathing on your left. Remember I was sharing about the catch at the debrief and you were holding a book for me to act as centre line.. you tend to cross that centreline with your left arm whenever you breathe right.

Also, your entries of both arms caused a lot of bubbles to be caught in between your palm and water and that reduced your efficiency to catch. Remember that the entry still have to be as smooth as possible to reduce press down on water and creating bubbles at the catch. That's the only thing I could catch in that chaotic mess of lung busting sprints. So just work on those two!

Oh yes, when you're doing your 100s, the stroke rhythms were oh so beautiful.. only imperfection of a tight shoulder joint and stiff arm muscles. =P

KH:
Work on your breast and back stroke and butterfly.
Freestyle wise, your pull timing is still a little off. You need to work out that one arm finish push and release, the other arm start catching once the arm starts recovering. There is one side that is doing that timing good but one side is a little late in start of catch.

There's some thing else I want to share here that is a little personal. I find that you're feeling pretty sianz some times about training and doing these triathlon stuffs. I can only say I can only drag you to do these much, and one day you're going to grow up and learn to take care of yourself.. and my job as a kor is to continue to look after you but it will not be a forever thing whereby I say "do triathlon" and you'll go with the flow, or I say "let's train bball" then you just tag along.. One day, you're going to learn to take good care of your own body, your own heart and soul of what you're truly made of and made for.

I feel obliged to be responsible for your well being since dad's passed away and that is rightfully so. However, being the opinionated person that I am, I seldom let go on my points and persists deeply in enforcing what's good for the family and you. However, you have to one day find out how to find that motivation to guide somebody else that you feel responsible for.. and find that motivation to guide yourself when times get rough and I can't be there for you. I know I relate too much from triathlon to life but it is what it is, I really hope I will be able to do enough to show you what's out there that are fun and within my means to share.. and you can perhaps choose one or some to stick with.. choose it yourself, and stick with it.. then you'll see.

To top it off, I'd be honest and say I REALLY dislike dragging you to training or even seeing you go sianz when I mention there is training. I hope to see you coming to ask me what to do next and not forever wait for me to say. It's just pretty wearing on me as a brother and as a coach to train half hearted persons even though I'm sure you're just not sure on what you want in life right now and that is normal for all teens. Just two cents worth and nobody will read this anyway because it's too damn long and everyone will just scroll to their name to read their own stuffs.. so I might as well share it here than to bring it to a discussion over the table when you'd just keep saying "dunno leh.".

Mari:
Your catch are too shallow, imagine dragonboating you use an oar right.. right now, the paddle on your oar is only half way into the water and you start pulling back, you have to put the paddle fully submerged into the water to get the most surface area for the catch of water to push more water back. Work on getting them deeper and you should find more resistance in your push afterwards. Let me know!

Sam:
I'm super happy your catch is now much better especially in the 50m swim. I got a feeling that your 100m swim tend to be slower because you're not used to "switching it on" in the 100m distance. It almost seem like you're holding back in your 100m swim. Next time, try going about 90% as hard as your 50m swim tonight for the 100m and on the last 25m push a little harder.. give yourself ample rest then repeat the process again.. it'll be painful at first but you'll get over the mental "pain" barrier and you'll be able to push more.

Gen:
I've said this once, I've said this many times before. You're not stretching enough and thus the glide was awfully shortened. You're wasting your power in the push. Also, your catch have a lot of dropped elbow, thus causing the catch to happen only around the chest area instead of at the frontal part of the pull which is in front of where the face is. The delayed catch or dropped elbow caused the push phase to shorten ALOT and thus explains your fast repetition in your stroke count.

Musaib:
Musaib, you know I'm a brutally honest coach. After training with you for this short period of time, you've appeared to me as someone who have a lot of potential to improve and yet there's a part of you inside that blocks out some good advices and thus being selective on what you wish to listen and implement. Listen up, when you're tired, you tell yourself Saori feels the same and she works out to the extent she almost cried. Next time, when you're tired, you tell yourself, YASMIN doesn't workout at all unlike you already a duathlete and imagine the pain she's going through in our swim doing the EXACT SAME SET AS YOU DO. You may say "ya ya, that's the problem.." but we man, have our pride to uphold yup. =)

It is not a fault to complain that you're tired and the fact that you came along willingly dragged by your daddy is a good work attitude. Coach KK's sincere advice to you is to shift focus to your stroke especially in your catch. There is ABSOLUTELY no doubt from me that you're putting in a 10000% effort in your swim to make sure you're pulling and pushing hard and breathing hard.

But from what I see in your strokes, it was all over the place especially on your non breathing side that your arm is dropping and the catch are just pretty unacceptable. Given your level of fitness and age, you can go below 2mins for a 100m just like we do. Listen, We cannot be satisfied just because we improved a little from our previous 50m timing because we can't base our achievement against just what is happening here in sengkang pool, in team sapphire. There are soo many kids out there who swim way faster than I DO.. I really hope you find your own motivation in swimming and work hard on your own with little dragging from your dad.

I'm telling you these because Musaib, I care.

Pauline & Robert:
Thank you so much for making the effort to come down despite having an appointment to rush to. I feel so honoured for your time taken to come down and so called "grace" the weekly training. Anyway, Let's meet up for swim. Very sincerely asking. I want to help you guys personally. 1.5km for OSIM is not very near if we don't iron out the technical flaws now so to buy time to train in the later months.. :)

Calvin:
You were almost as fast as I am when we pushed off together at the start of 100m swims! Impressive! Left arm catch still very straight but the right side catch is doing pretty good EVF! You achieved it!

Overall, you're really strong now. Looking at the timing, you seem to have some doubts about your own swimming fitness but that's okay.. have faith and push a little harder.. as hard as you believe your heart allows you. Only you know when it is to stop and I trust that you listen to your body as well as anybody else if not better given your own experience of heart issue. I can't thank you enough for the hardwork you're putting in to your swim and it is inspiring to everyone in the team. =)

Teck Beng:
Your hard work finally paid off! I saw a near symmetrical stroke but the left lats isnt activated leh.. Try to reach a little bit more with your left arm and feel the tension on your lats when you do the catch and feel the resistance. That way it'll have a "corking" mechanism which fires the lats when you bring the elbow and EVF Forearm close to your body (adduction). FYI, I noticed this because when I caught up with you in the 100s, you always seem to lose out on the left arm pull then catch up with me slightly with your right arm pull - indicating the left arm has lesser power or catches lesser water - You be the judge. =)

Ben:
Not very impressive leh the timing for 100m given your swimming age and understanding of what needs to be done. This is clearly a case of shutting off and just trying to power the way through. Need to look back on what I've said about your head position and chest pressing into the water. Right arm is doing a great job of catching but the hip sinking is negating all the good stuff you do with all the water you hold. Left arm's elbow is dropped when you catch.. recommended to do left breathing sometimes when you're fresh minded.

Jas:
Hmm, guess the holiday has brought back most of your technical flaws as well. Trying to go faster in the group doesn't really help. Can you arrange timing with Ben to see me personally for a couple of hours of stroke correction please?

Lawrence:
The shanghai cuisine hasn't worn off yet eh lawrence? haha.. good thing you got a good sense of pace ever since after the Half IM. Very well managed swim and I believe you'll need a couple of weeks more to shake off the rust. A couple of tips to work on though. Your catch is really going haywire in the sense that the catch for both arms is not outside the body but completely over the centreline already. You should do some offsetting to make this work.

Also, there seem to be lesser surge forward than before you go for holiday because you stopped reaching at the end of the entry! You have to continue that reach and pulling your body longer from fingertip to toes after every entry as that will make your body more streamlined for the push on the opposite hand!

I remember before you went for your trip, you feedback to me that you were feeling strain on the arms and that you were gliding more and getting faster timing. Need to get back that feeling! Now you're more like very rotational just pull and pull and pull! No good! haha..

Work on those two, and feedback to me what you feel please.

Meher:
I mentioned that the left side of your body tend to be not rotating. This is not the first time I've mentioned so please work on it diligently. Also, the fingertips tend to open up! Keep that closed! Also, next time, don't wear a rash guard to swim as it'll slow you down. Wear a swim suit like Yazmin. There isn't really much to state here cos your stroke is pretty okay!:)

Yazzzzzzmin:
Seems like all the hardwork in our class paid off! You not only hung on to the team but you outswam some of them too! Well done! I see there is an improvement in the entry and catch.. the whole arm stroke seem to be more continuous now but the left hand side still seem a little out of synch sometimes. Just sometimes. Overall, it's a good swim! Just remember to keep pushing until the arm is straightened.. BOTH side! Cheers!

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OKAY.... IT'S 4:38AM AND FINALLY...... *DRUM ROLLS....*

HERE'S THE TIMING! =)

BEFORE YOU START READING, note that KK (I) is wearing a oversized FBT shorts. Meher is wearing a rash guard. Those two people will be faster(much or not I don't know la) if not for that inappropriate gears so compare sparingly if you're comparing to those two people okay...

I admit that I was reserving a little on my first 100 cos I was feeling pain from a strained left hamstring and a sprained right ankle la.. but I more than made up for it in the next 5 times when adrenaline takes over yup.

I got some of your LWF-est timing from here:

http://sapphireswimmers.blogspot.com/2010/07/4x100-timing.html

LWF-est = Last Week Fastest.

Yukari and Take I put your recent fastest 100m timing into the LWF-est slot.. I don't think you could do that for many sets in a row right... so.. you do your own judgement oki! :)

For some of you, like VINCENT, I got your average 100m timing from a post with 4x100m max effort Time Trial... You'll be pleasantly surprised at how much you improved on average especially with the lesser amount of strokes you're doing right now compared to last time... =)

http://sapphireswimmers.blogspot.com/2010/07/4x100-timing.html  <-- last time Time Trial.

SOON, what is your 100m timings????? Only remember to swim cannot remember timing ar....??? =D

Lastly, those fonts in GREEN are those who have good base endurance and thus swim with very very consistent timing. Out of all, the best consistency comes from Sam's swim. It shows these people are consistent in their stroke integrity and also the effort level and pacing. Something everyone should work towards as Triathlon = Time Trialing and consistency in output is Key to success in TT. =)

Hope you guys enjoyed the read. =)

Cheers
KK