06042011 Swim Squad

Dear Team,

It was a very very painful swim for some of us, I don't know about you seriously, but it definitely was for me. I was feeling like superman last night during my ball training and I felt invincible then I found myself low on engine fuel because of a lousy recovery. Seriously, if I were to do this workout by my own, I probably would have packed up and gone home after I finished my warm up.

So, THANK YOU, Team Sapphire! Sincerely! =)

First up: LAWRENCE
Sorry for hitting your watch~~~ SO SORRY.... =(...
http://sapphireswimmers.blogspot.com/2010/02/lawrence-and-teckbeng-stroke-analysis.html
Please go through the above link again.. your stroke when tired almost same same like last time liao except you're more streamlined after the push this time round!! See the first 2 pictures, all straight arm and passing centerline when you are tired now~~ Don't lazy ahh... work on the technique also hor....

Soon, Ebnu, Musaib, Yasmin, Meher, Jaslynn, Yasmin, Meher... Please read up:
http://sapphireswimmers.blogspot.com/2011/03/swim-squad-30032011-with-timing.html
Perhaps you guys didn't get what I was putting through in the blog the first time, I urge ALL of you to go through the blog again and read up once more on the swim issues I listed out.

For Eliza, Ben, Jaslynn, KH, Soon, Ebnu, Musaib, Teck Beng, Wilson... Please read up:
http://sapphireswimmers.blogspot.com/2011/03/description-of-catch.html
You guys tend to have a dropped elbow when you perform your catch except KH (look below). Ben, Teck Beng and Wilson on non breathing side, Eliza, Soon, Ebnu and Musaib don't quite get the catch yet.

Also, BEN, did you share with Jaslynn what I told you to tell her about her left arm pull is straight and both recovery are not done with high elbow and also her left arm tend to drop when she breathe?

KH has a straight arm pull on the right arm. You're too tensed in the straightened arm position after your entry thus you can't flex properly.. Please approach me tomorrow night to show you how to correct.

Jaslynn and Eliza, You tend to forget to keep your lead arm in front when you're breathing, as a result you're pulling whenever you're breathing. Not good because when you're breathing, your head is out of water and the moment you drop the lead arm into the water, you're actually pressing your head and chest up. Causing the hip to drop. This isn't significant in short distances, that's why you 50m still OK but when it goes longer then the sinking hips kills you completely.
Other than that, you tend to kick with a very wide leg also. Keep the toes pointed inwards when you kick, it'll help keep the knees closer.

To EVERYBODY:
Be patient on the catch and make sure you create loads of resistance at the front end of the stroke.. then bring the resistance close to your shoulder and chest area then push back hard (the last 30-50cm of arm movement) SIMULTANEOUSLY with the body rotation for lateral streamlining and glide.

Sam, Calvin, Vincent, Take and Yukari.. Very well done for your catch! Yukari has a very very good push + body rotation timing. If you have a chance, look at her swim pass, you'll notice a very sharp and coordinated body rotation causing her body to move to the side the moment she did her push and that lateral streamlining allowed her to really glide through the water with little resistance! Much like Saori's!

Take's arm recovery is still very wide.. if you go long distance you can save quite a lot of time from the recoverIES that you take.. all you need to do is travel a shorter distance by keeping the hand close to your body when you recover your arm forward and enter at the forehead! Remember, extend under the water not above!

Yukari's recovery entered too late and thus it is a straight arm entry. It felt like it was correct to you because you flexed your wrist and thus the fingers are entering first but then the whole arm was straight when it enters... You should enter at front of forehead like Take! Remember, extend under the water not above!=)

Sam, it was a fantastic swim even though you haven't recover fully yet like me~ haha.. Plus a hard ride last night really warrants you a star for tonight's performance. *hugx* =)

Vince, everyone and anyone can have an off night or off day anytime here and there. It can be the work, it can be your sleep and it can be your family stress or anything in life. Working out is a stress in itself that's why we have to take note of how much we do and I'm so particular about the intensity you're doing ever since getting to know you... we're trying our best to prevent days or nights like this.. particularly on a hard workout or even race day.  You get what I mean...
Anyway, don't get disheartened, besides, the timing are very good but its just that you feel like the exertion has to be that much harder to achieve the same result. I understand how you feel because I'm having an off night tonight too and I just don't feel like I can push as much as I think I wanted to. Give yourself a pat on the shoulder as it is a job well done nonetheless and that's why we have the team to spur us on! =)

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Without further ado, here's the timing. I've sorted it out for you from fastest to the slowest.

I've chose the 150m as the sorting bench mark for the first set, the 200m as the sorting bench mark for the second set and second 100m as the bench mark for the third set. The sorting benchmark is in red font.

The reason is that the 150m is the time when you're digging deep into your aerobic fuel. Having done so many 50 and 100m last couple of weeks, you guys would have been very proficient in doing those distance efficiently without the need to dig too deep. Once you're pass that anaerobic stage, the 150m and 200m is where it separates those who have good stroke techniques and endurance (streamline holding and ability to execute good stroke movements).

As for the second set, 200m is the toughest set to go through and again, this is the velocity that you're most likely able to use for your triathlon to get your best swim time and thus I used that.

As for the third set, once again, I'm using the last 100m as the bench mark because it is towards the end of a set and it shows how much fight and fuel you have in you. How much endurance and again, technique integrity you can hold before giving it all up and just plow through the water.

Click to enlarge

For those of you who ask how come the Ang Mors swim so fast and you can't understand? The reason is they're training THIS HARD. Yes, sessions in and sessions out, they have been doing their sub-maximal effort swim. I.E Just below max and with lots of rest and just keep pushing at that same effort for sets after sets after sets of crazy mileage. Over time, endurance will develop and you'll be able to hold for longer distances that speed that you used to be able to sustain over shorter distances.

Look at my timing albeit it's a little off tonight... My 50 is 42seconds, 100 is 1:31 (45.5seconds/50m) and my 150 is 2:30 (50seconds/50m) and 200 is 3:30 (52.5seconds/50m).
You can see that the 150m and 200m I'm actually getting pretty close. I won't say I'll be able to maintain that for another few hundreds tonight but I believe that with training, those percentage of marginal differences will be minimized because of increased endurance.

We proved two things through these 3 weeks of training.
1) Technique is KING (especially your catch, pull, push and lateral streamlining).
2) You need to swim fast to get faster.

Just look at Teck Beng's timing for the past 2 sessions and tonight. He has gotten PBs for all three sessions throughout. He has gotten a 1:38 PB for 100m in his belt already.. Any doubters for his diligence in working on his stroke, you can put that doubt away and start betting your money on him to swim pass all of us with his lengthy limbs soon.

"So we have to always swim so hard????", you ask..
That's why you have a coach. I will moderate the amount of intensity in your swim to allow you to have enough rest and also off weeks to enjoy the relaxation of swim... =)

TEAM SAPPHIRE
I know that some of you know me well enough to trust me with your life and some of you are new around us and then there are some who just feel like I'm probably helping some others more than you. But from Now on, I hope that all of you know that _Every_Single_Thing I shared with you is Everything I know about swimming. Everything I share on the blog, you can read even if they aren't under your Name and what's gonna hurt if it's just a reminder?

Now, I hope you entrust your swim to working on your technique 150% from now on if you haven't been doing. Start working on everything I've told you because I AIN'T BULLSHITTING ANYONE OF YOU with my perspiring debriefing every single night after our tough workouts.

I'm seeing myself improving with flying colors and I hope for the same for everyone of you too. I never hold anything back to myself and I hope with all sincerity that one day all of you swim faster than I do because then I truly succeed as a coach, a teacher and a friend.**

**Note: Competitive me won't let you pass me so easily. Bring it on with all you've got.. but you're gonna need more to win me in my swim. A LOT more than you think. *grinz*

Cheers
KK

PS: Sam, isn't it funny how you are "chasing" Yukari's current timing and I'm chasing Yukari's 1982 timing? hahahaa...