Our Swim Training Log

The self trained athlete.

2012-02-04T01:10:00.000+08:00

This blog post, I'd like to touch on the self trained athletes and the various training issues that one of you may face.

1) Misconceptions of training in general
Training/workout seems to be commonly understood as a painful/suffering ordeal. There is two periods of pain that sedentary or general populations who don't exercise much, are afraid about. First and foremost, During the workout, and then the DOMS (after workout. Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness). What they do not know is how hard a workout is, is controlled by themselves. It is not necessary to start a run by sprinting out of your house and dying on the first 400m and then fatigue and end up walking the rest of the route before sprinting back home.

Now, this misconception puts a lot of people off from working out. As a PT myself, I ensure that my workout follows a easy--moderately challenging--challenging workout progression over at least 12 Weeks or even 6 Months.

Many people can't get over their inner ego (men especially) to tell them to go hard all the time, even when they are untrained. It's like how layman classify "Joggers" vs "Runners". If I am not running fast then I am not a runner. Technically speaking, isn't jogging and running the same movements?

If you run, you're a runner, if you swim, you're a swimmer. The only thing that separates the faster runners/swimmers and the slower ones.. are endurance/fitness that has been laid down over long period of consistent training and also economy of movements, or what we call Techniques.

We all need to train smart so we can train consistently, day in and day out, without letting the pain and stress of working out get in the way of our life (work, family, social circles, etc.) in general.

To train smart, means shift your focus from just working hard, to:

i) Perfecting your economy of movement through education on your ROM (range of motion) and what are the parts required to be moved during a exercise movement and what are those that are not needed. Why do we do that? To reduce unnecessary strains on joints and prevent chronic injury due to the repetition of movements in any cardio exercise or repetitive exercise regime.

ii) Learning the exact limit of your body and how your body reacts to the level of stimulus you input to your body. One needs to do this from the lightest workout possibly imagined, and progressively move on to see a gradual change in response.

iii) Know that training breaks down your muscle fibers so in time to come when they recover, they'll be bigger and stronger for more workout/training stimulus -- I.e improvements. This leads us to the next and last point.

iv) Making sure there is enough time for recovery. If there is no recovery, there is diminishing returns of training effect. Imagine if you can gain 50% speed improvement from a full fledged speed workout but you only allow half the amount of time to recover and thus your body recovers only half way, then the speed gained from the speed workout will be much lesser than 50%.

Also, it is Not just diminishing return in one workout. But imagine the speed workout takes out so much from you and you're left with a 1/3 filled tank the rest of the day or even two to three days.. How will you be able to continue to train at a proper intensity (i.e going long enough for long workouts and going hard enough for hard workouts) that will give your body the optimal level of stimuli needed?

Next question is even more crucial, HOW will you cope with your work life, reap the most joy out of your social life if one is consistently tired, not being able to wake up on time for group workout or outing or even just enjoy time with your love ones by smiling and laughing whole heartedly like nothing else matter in the world?

Or will you rather choose to just keep thinking about overdoing one workout so that you'll stress about not being able to do the next workout with quality? Unless quality is not a necessity in your regimental routine of consistent workout of course.. but if there is no quality, then why train?

2) Lack of understanding of how a Normal human move within its safe range of motion (Human anatomy)
Everybody is bound by a range of motion that is specific for each individual. The range of motion dictates how much you can extend/flex your joints before hyperextending or basically injuring it. If training is only focused on effort and not proper form/technique that ensures the individual's safe Range of motions then it is very risky for the trainee to participate. When a trainee focus solely on exertion, there is little or no attention paid to making sure that the joints don't hyper extend or flex when trying to accomplish the objective of maximal effort application.

Some factors that affect R.O.M:
i) Flexibility - Muscle/ligament tightness

ii) Muscle bulk - Imagine a guy with a small bicep that is untrained, he'll be able to flex the elbow joint to perhaps 20degrees.. but a guy with a 50cm circumference bicep, he'll definitely not be able to flex the elbow joint as much as the small bicep guy.

iii) Injury - Injury can cause fibrosis or scarring on the muscle fibres that will require manipulation or stretching to release. Injury may also cause one's joint to totally stop working and thus losing it's functionality.

iv) Joint abnormalities - Some people are born with double joint and thus can hyper flex/extend safely, some are born with lesser R.O.M

v) Improper training - When you train a muscle group and don't go through the full range of motion, what happens is that the muscle fibre triggering sequence will be remembered and thus some angles of the improperly trained joint will "lose" it's functionality.

vi) Tension - Tension causes stiff joints as muscles are all contracting. Tension can be due to the anxious emotions and/or improper training (tensing up the upper trapezius or shrugging when shoulder pressing) form.

3) Lack of understanding of how a human body respond to training stimulus of different intensity/nature
I will generally classify training into 2 types for an endurance sport athlete. Firstly, it's general body conditioning (basic strength, flexibility, core strength and technique work). Then it's energy system training (Aerobic, anaerobic, ATP-CP).

Knowing how one's body react to different training stimuli and the reason behind why one's applying that form of stimuli at a specific intensity is important.

Training is unlike the case of "I'm eating this because i'm hungry.".. it is more like "I need more vitamin B complex because I am deficient of it and thus I need to eat this, this and this rather than that, that and that.".

Knowing which level your body is working at right now and how efficient it is is crucial to getting continual improvement and a healthy training program that feeds the body, mind and soul.

For a very vague example, trainee girl A was never a lifetime athlete and being a girl who has never undergone any serious training, the general conditioning of the body was really weak. It will not make sense to put her through hard anaerobic training because she'll not be able to exert at that intensity at all. And even if she does, the joints may not be strong enough to withstand the amount of momentum that will be present during the high exertion rate and thus working out that way will pose a risk to her health instead.

What girl A needs will be to go through general conditioning in the gym under the supervision of an instructor to ensure that A learns all necessary proper movements of her joints and muscle parts before partaking in more sports specific training.

4) Lack of understanding of how progressive overloading is about.
Very often, I see athletes who are disappointed with their training because they don't see result as soon as they expect and in an attempt to achieve more, they increase the training volume (intensity and/or duration of workout) according to their motivation to improve and/or freshness of their body on training day.

That is a very risky form of doing training because whether or not the body is ready for such training is not determined by how fresh you feel but how well verse/understanding you are about your body.

There are a lot of top athletes who swear by "no pain no gain" or "its worth it to take a risk if it presents opportunity for huge growth in physical development". I strongly beg to differ.

I believe in the following:

i) Training is to improve one's life, NOT risk or endanger it.
ii) One should partake in the absolute minimal amount of training that gives the maximal amount of training benefits
iii) Training is NOT life. Life is Family, Love, Friends, Fun, Joy, Laughter and EVERYTHING ELSE that isn't training. Training should merely gives you better fitness to enjoy Life better because of lesser effort needed to accomplish the absolute necessities.
iv) Fitness gained over a long period of time by building a strong base and then gradually and progressively increasing intensity of training will last you longer than fitness that is gained through shorter time spent on base training and lots of high intensity training.
v) We have limited time for everything. If you over trained in this session, you'll have lesser for the next session. That means decreased quality of training. That means Waste of time.

Point V is what I want to elaborate because the rest are easily understandable even by the bicep-brains.

Imagine you have this workout plan for the week.

Monday - Long Swim
Tuesday - Easy run at night
Wednesday - Hard short fast swim in the morning
Thursday - Time Trial effort mid D run
Friday - Sunday Rest

So on Tuesday night, you felt REALLY fresh and strong and have slightly more time than usual for the run. You decided that you might as well go for a 100% increase of run distance and that usually means more than 100% increase in duration of run due to slow down (fatigue).

Will you be able to recover in time for the Hard swim in the morning on Wednesday?

Recently I have a case of an athlete getting insomnia because he overreached in the previous night and totally missing the morning workout on the next day. By right, his fitness for the hard swim the next morning should be very high if he did a normal run at night to boost the Cardio Respiratory system. But the training session in the morning was missed out and the swim fitness would have dropped.

Even if he made it up for the swim in the evening, he'd not be well recovered to do the fast swim fast enough with the lower muscle and liver glycogen level that he used up during the over clocking run the night before. A fast swim swam slow is a wasted workout and in the worst case scenario, a risk of injury is there because of the lack of control by a sharp mind and body.. at the very least, one'll feel demotivated to train because the fast swim will be slow.

This is a classic case of "I feel good." OR "I got more time!" OR "I feel VERY STRONG!" then I do more. Doing more is OK, but how much more? An athlete has to have a progress log handily available to track his/her work load over the weeks and even months to make sure that one is ready for the over clocking/over reaching.

In any case, unless it is a specifically planned breakthrough workout that is accompanied by many days of easy days or rest before and after.. it is not recommended to just increase work load/volume by feel because how we fresh or strong we feel is largely determined by the external stress factors in life. That does not give us the right of path to just overload the body anyway we like.

Risk of injury is priority consideration. Second consideration is the after effect of the uber hard training.. will it affect the rest of the week's workout in anyway? If yes, then you'd have lost fitness in the long running week. Consistent (read daily, weekly, monthly) progressive overloading is KEY to maintaining/improving fitness. If one workout is overdone and it affects the quality of the other workouts, then you'd have wasted many precious hours doing sub-par workout. Is it worth it? Answer the question yourself.

5) Lack of self discipline/neutral party's implementation on the Recovery aspect
Its simple to understand. Really.
Training = breaking down your muscles because you're overloading your ability to work
Does it make you stronger? No. It makes you tired, and gives your body the potential to adapt to the workout once it RECOVERS.

Recovery = Letting the torn muscle fibres heal and grow bigger to withstand a higher load.
Does it make you stronger? Yes. It makes you feel fresh and stronger.. leaves you wanting to do more and more importantly, realises the potential of getting stronger that your body gotten through training.

It's been a long post and I tried very hard not to condense it with scientific details. Thank you guys for reading and I hope all these help you whether a trained "old bird" athlete or aspiring couch potato turning fitness personnels.. to want to strive to know your body better and make better use of your time to do quality workout and quality everything that will expose your body to less risk but more enjoyment. =)

Cheers
Coach KK
Email: kenguwc@uwcsea.edu.sg
H/P: 8180 0621

SWIM SQUAD 30/12/2011

2011-12-30T01:22:00.005+08:00

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.

2011-09-22T22:41:00.000+08:00

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

2011-09-09T23:20:00.000+08:00

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)

2011-08-28T23:54:00.001+08:00

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

2011-08-28T11:59:00.003+08:00

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

2011-08-25T00:12:00.000+08:00

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

2011-07-29T16:59:00.000+08:00

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.

2011-07-24T23:47:00.000+08:00

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".

2011-07-21T00:25:00.000+08:00

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...

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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.

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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".

2011-07-18T23:00:00.000+08:00

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

2011-07-18T22:07:00.001+08:00

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

Pointers for our "Renewed" Freestyle stroke.

2011-07-05T14:57:00.000+08:00

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

PS: Do read back the previous posts on Catch!

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

2011-06-23T13:15:00.002+08:00

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!

2011-06-18T22:45:00.001+08:00

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

2011-06-15T16:50:00.000+08:00

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

Motivation versus RPE (Perceived Exertion) Part 1 of 3

2011-06-04T11:51:00.005+08:00

How many of you has went through two exact same sets of workouts, fully rested, but felt like a champion on the first time then totally beaten at the middle of the set in the second?

Or how about a 10x100 set that you barely manage to drag yourself into the pool to start, let alone survive by your own (with nowhere near best results) but then later, felt that you'd breeze through the same set in a group swim (with all sets closed to your PB)?

I'm pretty sure most of us has experienced either or both types of the situations above.. Some of us may feel the urge to do it again just to conquer it by yourself and prove to yourself that it is do-able. But the rest may be totally demoralized the moment the once "easy" set of workout in the group turns into a grind. When that happens, you'd start to doubt your capability and your training plan.. unless you understand truly what's the concept behind the two different perceived exertions. If you felt the doubt on your capability, this post is for you as I try to explain why you felt that way and how you should go about getting it right.

Rest assure in this article you won't be finding a resolution as "because I'm in a group and thus the workout is easier cos of higher motivation.".. That commonly used phrase to describe the reason behind being motivated is so overly simplified that most people who experience motivation or the lack of often does so with little understanding to the meaning behind, let alone managing such matters.

As a firm believer of "knowing what you want to do in detail is the only way to accomplish what you want to do.", I hope this article will help you have a better grasp over your motivational issues and pave a better route to excellence.

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

What is Motivation?

Motivation is the drive that gives you the initiative to set out and do whatever you plan to do. Everything, from the training plan, to the 4.30AM rides, to the 10x100s, to the 10x400s, to the wearing of compression tights to sleep for recovery and even to the reading of endless triathlon tips no matter how many of them may seem to be talking about the same thing over and over again.

Obsession? There is a source that obsession stems from and that source is not passion. It started with a motivation to do something, and in turn, fall in love with it because you liked what you do, and the passion from within then fuels the motivation to make it an obsession.

We look at motivation from the simplest source, the reasons we feel good about doing something and keep us wanting to do it again, in this case, it's Triathlon.

Why do we need to manage Motivation?

1) If you're overly motivated, you may overtrain with an overzealous training regime.

2) If you're under motivated, you will dread to go to any training. Gone will be the goals you set.

3) To excel in anything we do, we have to find just the right amount of motivation.

Having the right amount of motivation each time during your workout, races or basically anything you do will allow you to get the most out of the achievements at the end of the day.

This can mean a decreased RPE for workouts due to the psychological factor of being "On form" for the sets or race. This can also mean achieving the best effort that you deem is possible of your capability in the race you chose.

And of course, at times when you underachieved despite feeling motivated, you'd most likely gain a whole lot too, out of the learning experience of what went wrong just by the focus that you are able to exert.. i.e being Completely Involved/Absorbed in the whole process and situation due to the motivation of constantly trying to achieve your best.

In its simplest form, the reason to manage motivation is to make the best out of your investment, be it time, equipment or even emotional investment into the sport that you've grown to love so dearly.

How do we manage Motivation?

Knowing the factors behind feeling motivated for doing and training for triathlon help a whole lot in developing a plan for managing motivation.

To start the discussion, I will list the several popular reasons that leads to motivation..

1) Fun

2) Affiliations

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

4) Confidence

5) Goal(s)

6) Believes

Fun

First reason of motivation often comes from the purity of the fun factor. If something is not fun, nobody will do it 100% willingly, let alone feel motivated to initiate the start of it.

Knowing that Fun is the very fundamental of motivation helps because when you plan your training, you can in fact add in the Fun Factor to ensure you'd enjoy the training even more.

I'll give you two examples of boring workout set versus fun workout set.

1) Basketball - Shooting

Not so fun set:
- Warmup jog
- Shoot 550 balls from anywhere and everywhere you get the rebound.

Fun set:
- Warmup jog
- Do favorite dribbling practice
--25 right, 25 left single beat dribble
--25 right, 25 left left to right double beat dribble
--25 right, 25 left front to back to front double beat dribble
--4 lengths fake cross over dribble practice
- Shoot 50 balls from 11 spots on the court
-- Split the 50 balls to 25 right handed shots and 25 left handed shots

2) Swimming - Main set: 1KM Race Pace

Not so fun set:
- 10 x 100m Hard on 2:00 <-- see already also sian if i train alone.. -_-...

Fun set:
- 8 x 50m Hard on 1:00
- 100m Hard rest 1:00
- 200m Moderate rest 1:00
- 300m Flat-out rest 1:00 then cool down

Basically, you can see that for both training, there is a main set to be completed and what I did was to add Variations to the training set.

At times, deep inside us, we know that a training set is definitely doable such as 10x100 kick. Just ask yourself if you can do a 2km swim, why can't you do a 10 sets 4mins worth of kick with rest?

However, we sometimes can't put things in the better perspective because of the enormity of the big picture. With that in mind, I also attempt to break the set into several specific mini targets.. that way, there is always something to look forward to and achieve throughout every mini sets of the training instead of having just a big chunk of workout to complete.

Affiliations
Affiliations is the term used to describe a partnership between two or more parties.

Having been through the fat and lazy stage of life, I remembered how much I dreaded going to Physical Education classes and NAPHA (National Physical Fitness Award) test. It was the PUREST form of boredom and apathy (an absence of enthusiasm or emotions was the online explanation, for me, it's an absence of BOTH)..

But I remembered how excited I was after school ended to literally RUN to the basketball court to unite with my bunch of basketball brothers. We'd run up and down the court tirelessly with NO HYDRATION in the HOT sun till the sun goes down and we'd gather for a cup noodle and a bottle of coke for mini celebration of fun and laughter. That began my journey to becoming who I am right now but that is a story for those of you who're interested to come to me for. :)

And you can see, there are so many cycling groups, running groups, swimming groups, basketball teams and there're THOUSANDS of people joining these groups and working out.. even people like Calvin of our team, he is a self proclaimed lazy person but he has not missed a single session that I could hold as long as he could make it at his best possible effort. This is an admirable feat of conditioning as he transformed from a couch potato who just do a 20lap swim a week for fun to a 2++km swimmer who have a stroke that the average joe swimmers in SG (that makes up 85% of the people in singapore mind you.) envious and drool for.

THAT - is the power of affiliation. No matter how tired he is, he'd make it to the training.. and he held himself accountable for it no matter how he perform. There're times when he felt he under performed because he was tired and he came to me and apologize for the listlessness...

Honestly, I am all impressed by this self proclaimed lazy guy because he DROVE from TAMPINES to the pool to make it for the swim when he's WORN OUT from work. Tell that to another couch potato with no motivation to workout at all and he'll tell you "YOU CRAZY OR WHAT? I RATHER SLEEP AH.".

If you don't believe what I mentioned is happening and affiliation is a form of motivation, go join a group of swimmers/riders/runners TODAY and feel your own responsibility to join them every time and again just to ENJOY the Training. =)

----- Tips for you when looking for a group to join... ------
When looking for groups in the internet, you don't necessary have to ask for groups to join. You can FORM a group yourself just by going to the forum and ask if there is anyone of the same standard as you interested to train together. Write in the post your Goal, swim/bike/run race pace, last race timing and set a date and time.

People will not judge your timing and say you're slow, in fact, the slower you are, the more likely people will join because it is just so damn hard to find a beginner group when every groups are ongoing. At least that is the norm that people who doesn't belong to any group thinks when they thought about joining a group. The most common excuse to not join a group is "But they've been training for a long time together.. i sure last one in the team one lor...".. Seriously, only your pride and ego will care about placing, no one else will. I'd rather start last and work my way up there because I know someday I will if I start now. I know that I will get nowhere if I'd stay at home and lament about everything but nothing.

And again, if you don't want to go through the hassle of coping with your ego and pride, then start one group yourself.. it can start with 2-3 people at first but make it an effort to go at it every week and trust me, the group will grow. Just like Team Sapphire. =)

Stay tune for the continuation of article on Intangible benefits (Health, Hot Bod, Race Edge, Bragging Rights) & Confidence.

Cheers
KK

Swim Squad 18052011 Review

2011-05-19T01:18:00.004+08:00

Dear Team,

We did:

100Kick

200Pull

300Swim

10X50 Kicks on 2:30

10X50 Pull with Strap on ankles on 1:45

4x50 Swim on 1:15

100 Breast

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

Total: 1.9K.

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

I'd review this swim short and sweet. I thought I saw many faces who are feeling pretty distressed about kick sets and still felt the fear for doing such practice.

To put things into perspectives... I'd like to remind everyone about 3 points:

1) All of us were once only half as efficient as what we are in the water right now. Just a year back.

2) All of us manage to cope with the sets and finish it.

3) All of us were tired.. And those of you who felt like you're the only one, NO, you're NOT.

For those of you who have been merely following through whatever I prescribed in the menus, I'd like to ask you to step back and look at what we've done over the past weeks and this week and look at the true meaning and fruits of the training.

I've always said that in each and every training, I hope you go back with a mind full of ideas to improve and full of confidence that you will do better on the next session!

However, in these last two sessions, I thought I saw little of the latter.

The longer and tougher sets are always demoralizing especially if you focus only on the perceived exertion side. Meaning, how bad you felt in the sets. Seriously, I thought we ought to all know that training shouldn't be about staying in the comfort zone and if you do stay, then so will your plateaus.

In order for consistent motivation, we need the motivation to come from our heart and to do that, we need to first accept what our weakness is and what our strengths are and to have the curious heart of a beginner to improve.

We need to shift our focus from how we feel in the already-known-to-be-difficult sets to quantifying what we've accomplished and what we are trying to accomplish. Having that clear mind set of "how to become better" is Key in not losing focus and motivation.

Anyway, tonight's sets are very educational just like last week. Having your timing to compare from set to set allows you to see if your kicks are actually dragging you or are they really working to help you move faster.

The strapped leg pull sets are meant to be a superb test on your streamlining ability and core muscle to keep your hips afloat. I see most of us have difficulties in these two areas.. to further elaborate, they are about...

1) Keeping the body straight and not crunching the body from side to side with each pull and body rotation.

2) Keeping the hips afloat.

Problem with Point 1...

If you have problem with point 1, it shows that during your normal swim, your pulls and body rotation have not been executed correctly. You're either rotating too much from side to side that causes the body weight to be "thrown" from one side to another that causes drag or water resistance on the side or you're pulling too hard in the wrong direction (side wards at the catch instead of down maybe?) or both.

Remember that your catch is to be done relaxedly.. if you don't, the outward scull and downward push at the start may cause your body to move sideways.

Secondly, If you are pulling the water across the centerline of the body like what Lawrence(we miss u.. so have to mention about you here.. :P ) always did, your body will definitely rock from side to side too and cause difficulty in accomplishing Point 1..

Problem with Point 2...

If you have problem with point 2, it simply shows that your back and your buttock and hamstring muscles are not strong enough to keep your lower body hugging the water surface.

And the matter of fact is if you can't do Point 1 properly, the wave drag you create in your body rotation will be "slapping" you from side to side and make you slower and thus the buoyancy will drop.. the hips will sink even worst.

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

All in all, we have to go back to the value of "Stop stopping yourself." -- reminds me of Love Guru the movie -- as per mentioned last week. And exercise more control over our body exertion to ensure we only propel ourselves forward and not exert any amount of force laterally(to the side) that is not necessary and causing our body to be "slapped" from side to side.

As for combining your kick and your pull to make it into a proper integration and moving as a whole body.. I'd not nag about it here anymore as I already explained how your body will tangle up if you don't kick the rhythm properly with your arm pulls during the debrief ya..

Contact me if you need help.. I hope to see more SMILEY FACES EXCITED FOR TRAINING NEXT WEEK PLEASE!!!!

CHEERS

18052011 Swim Squad

2011-05-16T08:50:00.000+08:00

Dear Team,

Everytime I start my post with Dear Team, I'm just glad I don't have to deal with plural or singular kind of language errors... =p

Anyway, we're in our 3rd base endurance week. Loads of swim again, loads of "time goes by so slowly" kind of stuff....

Warm Up: 123 hundreds. (15 minutes)

100 Kick
200 Pull
300 Swim

Main Set: 3X10X50 (Kick, Pull, Swim) 60 minutes

10x50 Kicks (25slow, 25fast) on 2mins ----> So it starts gently.
Rest 2 minutes
10x50 Pulls with Strapped Legs on 2mins ----> So that you can't cheat, and you'll have to fight the sinking demon and still do the catch properly.
Rest 2 minutes
10x50 Hard Swim on 1:30min ----> Aim for continuous kicks (especially in breathing) and proper techniques in swim
Rest 1 minute

Cool Down: EasY SwiM (15 minutes)
5 x 100s as
Backstroke [Loosen shoulders - stretch all the way back in recovery]
Breaststroke [Practice your catch, and feel the glide in your kick to streamline your body
Fist Freestyle [Practice water feel, feel the catch and building of resistance at the front part of pull]
Breaststroke [Practice your catch, and feel the glide in your kick to streamline your body]
Backstroke [Loosen shoulders - stretch all the way back in recovery]

Cheers
KK

11052011 Swim Squad REVIEW with timing and smthg else...

2011-05-13T03:00:00.000+08:00

An important finding:
Wave Drag caused by the entry of the arm and lateral movements to the side because of a unstabilized torso moving sideways can be costing you more energy than you thought!

Let us first recall the definition of success in swimming or what is efficient swimming:

It is to move through the water with the minimal amount of energy required for a particular effort.

Timing of your swim is but just a quantifiable aspect of this beautiful skill. The actual success we're looking for is in the efficiency of the performance of the art of swimming.

Visualize this:

Two persons (Swimmer A and B) swimming side by side at the same speed. Are they expending the same amount of energy to get the same result?

Let's put aside the weight, height, palm size, strength and every other physiological aspect and just focus on the technique aspect of this little comparison.

A smash his hand into the water at entry everytime then extends his arm and shoulder underwater very quickly in an attempt to stretch as far out and as fast as possible.

B makes his hand entry as effortless as possible and extend his arm and shoulder underwater quickly but still conscious in not putting any effort to push the water frontward.

Judging from these two circumstances, A would definitely be expending more energy than B to swim at the same speed.

3 reasons:
i) A is not able to do a clean entry and thus his catch will not be productive and so his pull will be affected too with the large amount of bubbles(air) that he brought into the catch with the smashing entry.
And because of the inefficient catch, he will have to push back much harder to get the same result.

ii) A'll also have to do more strokes to catch up because the push phase he'll do will not be as efficient in propelling him than B's push will.

iii) Third and the most important factor is the wave drag Swimmer A will be getting from the strong extension of arm and shoulder under the water after entry.
As the extension of the arm and shoulder is done frontward, it is actually pushing against the water in the direction where he's moving.
His strong extension will cause a lot of resistance from the water because of the force applied forward.

To top it off...
B will be able to do a much more efficient catch because the little amount of bubble stream would have dispersed by the time he finished extending his shoulder. Thus he'll be able to hold on to more water and make a better push.

With that scenario and reasons, we can easily conclude that Swimmer B expends much lesser energy to move forward at the same velocity as Swimmer A.

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

Take note that it is not just about the moment when the fingertips enter the surface that needs to be effortless. A lot of us do that with great ease.

However, because the "stretch" or the extension of the arm and shoulder gives us the feeling of extra surge and glide.. people tend to overdo this part of the swim and do the extension very forcefully in an attempt to achieve:

i) More surge
ii) To reach in front as fast as possible and as far as possible

For swimmers with tight shoulders especially, they'll need to use a lot of force to stretch the lats and shoulder girdle for them to feel a good extension.

When they use that force in the extension, you're actually stopping or slowing yourself down. I.E Negating the push phase of the opposite arm.

SOLUTIONS:
Take note about this 3 points:

i) It is virtually limitless in how effortless we can work to become because of the need to perform a movement with our arm - The extension/stretch. BUT we can practice to make it as effortless as humanly possible. Read (ii) below to find out how.

ii) Fast/Quick does not equate to FORCEFUL. It is possible to do things fast and quickly without using much force. One way is to master the movement by first doing it relaxly and slowly. Once the movement is mastered, the speed of executing the movement will become faster without the need to use much force to control the movement's execution.

iii) It is the push phase working together with the hip rotation that allows the surge to become significant. The stretch merely works as an additional aspect of streamlining the body.

CONCLUSION:

I have to let this off my chest as I conclude this chapter of new discovery about wave drag.

I felt bad about this and I have to apologize for using Vincent's swim against mine as an example. I've been very close with him that I kind of taken it for granted as I was too excited about the new discovery and I thought I started criticizing unnecessarily.

What went on was that my analysis of every detail of his swim was constantly occurring because I am very concerned about him trying too hard to catch up after missing the two weeks of training.

And thus I watched extremely closely every single stroke he took while doing my own swim and that's why I could tell the actual effort from the facial expression and the amount of force I felt from his entry and push as we swam virtually side by side or me lagging him by half a body length getting all his turbulence from the torrential amount of force.

Even though he is always very comfortable with race pace all the time, the way he needed 15-25 seconds to recover/catch breathe to talk with ease says quite a bit about the exertion level also and thus my conclusion during the breathing that he was pushing pretty hard - his RPE can of course tell the opposite because RPE is about how you feel over a certain effort and not the effort itself.

And with that analysis of his swim, I was excited to tell that by this slight change of my stroke to reduce the wave drag at the entry and extension, I've gained time on him while we maintain the same pace or effort throughout..

More importantly, at the end of the day, the big picture I was trying to get all of you guys to see is that we could all swim a much faster timing while using the same or even much lesser effort. As you can see from the timing of my last set of kick, I was actually able to do that much faster because I conserved energy from the swim while still getting a decent timing for the swim. That showed a lot about how an efficient form with lesser wave drag can save you tonnes of energy to expend later on whatever that is needed.

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

Timing: - I was on high alert mode on wednesday night because of my lousy swim and my brain was hyperactive thus I could remember from my watch what are your individual timing. I was also consciously calculating how many seconds I won each and every one of those who came after me just to make my brains busier and not feel so bad about swimming so slowly. I was fuming for my own swim to be truthful but its more like I didn't have time to rest as I committed to help a young basketball team.

Vince, I thought the swim was a little off for you.. which I was guessing if you were feeling stressed out from your work. If you need any help for training do let me know what I can do for you. I hope you can do well for OSIM. One thing I thought you did really well was your kick was really consistent until the last set.. As for the pull sets, you managed to control the legs very well after the second set! I also noticed when you breathe left on your bilateral swims, your head comes up very high compared to your right side breathing. A few seconds can be shaved from there.
Last but not least, the old habit of not straightening the arm to 90% is coming back.. the push phase for you now ends with a 90degrees flexed elbow. Slight more extension behind will aid a lot more in the glide rather than the forceful extension. We both know that you have a harder time than average joes controlling your tremendous amount of strength but I hope you gain insights from this article and starts working towards a better stroke as we've always been spurring each other for from now on!=)

Pauline, you were SUPERB in your swim. Your kick was Shockingly fast to be honest. I'm sorry I underestimated you. =P Do take note in the last 2 sets of swim and kick when you're tired, you're not able to push the amount of water you controlled in your catch. Fret not as it is a good news if you're indeed able to do the catch to control a lot of water. Just make sure you keep training and keep pushing for the push even when you're tired.. if training yourself, rest more but still must do the push phase.. the strength and endurance will come in few weeks! =)
Oh, for your perusal, I included your previous 7x100 swim timing and you could see that even at your last sets you were faster than your that 7x100 swims. Crazy effort, crazy ability to understand and grasp concepts.. no wonder you're a surgeon... I am Truly Happy for you. =)

Sam, I am so happy you finally got into the focus and problem solving mode I've been preaching to you about. Your amount of focus is tremendous throughout the swim and your ability to evolve your stroke during your kick sets (especially the last one) is just so incredible. Congratulations on getting better on your mental training. =)

Ben, improvements are clearly visible as you nearly catch me in all of the first 50s of the hundreds. Keep working on your technique at a moderate pace right now, so they won't all fall apart when you go really hard at it in a few weeks' time. =)

Calvin and Wilson, I admire your determination in trying to get better set after set by putting in more and more effort especially in your kick sets. Calvin has shown so much more improvement in your kick since last time and Wilson improved by a freaking 3 minutes just by letting the fear of pacing go loose. For your swim, you still have to make sure the right hand enters a little shallower. Calvin, I'm also extremely extremely pleased with your swim.. your every stroke executed gives the same amount of glide and the rhythm of your swim was so constant from lap 1 to the last that if I were to take a metronome to just calculate how many strokes you take for 6 seconds, I can multiply it by the amount of time you swam to get the exact number of strokes you took for all the swim.

Teck Beng, I thought you were pretty off that night but the good news is it is normal and off nights usually happens to people who trains consistently night in and night out or follows a routine of swimming a specific frequency week after week. To take something out of it is that the off night was probably a sign that you've plateaued and/or your body needs more rest. It could also be just the body reacting to the purpose of the sets sequence I made. If plateauing is what you felt happened then it's time to shake the routine up a little.. either make it easier or slightly harder! Nonetheless, kudos to you who still finished 12 x 100 of swim.. it is an endurance set and you ENDURED. =)

Cheers
KK

11052011 Swim Squad Menu

2011-05-11T02:05:00.000+08:00

Excluding this week, we're 11 weeks away from OSIM Triathlon.

We're on the second week of Base Endurance Phase (5 weeks total).

We'll have 4 weeks of build, 2 weeks of Peak and 1 week of Taper.

Warmup: (30 mins)
5x200 (Swim/Kick/Pull/Kick/Swim)

Main Set: (44 mins)
12x100 Alt Swim (on 3minutes), Kick (on 5mins), Pull (on 3minutes)
Focus:
1) Consistent Effort and Timing.
2) Streamlining at the frontal area (Stretching of lead arms)
3) Relaxed arm stroke other than a HARD PUSH with body rotation to the side to assist glide.
4) Proper EVF Catch.
5) Whatever personal mistakes you've made in your swim and reviewed last week(s).

Cool Down: (16mins)
400 EASY as Back, Breast, Back, Back - 2mins per lap. easy right?
Focus:
1) Stretch arm backwards fully during Backstroke to get the benefit of a lats and chest stretch every stroke. Helps loosen up the shoulders
2) Breast stroke is for you to catch your breathe.

Total: 2.6KM.

Cheers
KK

VIDEO REVIEWS - 6 May 2011

2011-05-07T06:05:00.000+08:00

1) when you are gliding, the legs are opened up instead of kept together, notice that when you attempt to glide each time, you come to a complete stop in the water despite looking pretty streamline at the upper body.. its because of your legs opening up and tensing up to get ready for the next kick. Keep the legs close.

2) When doing pull, both hand fingers are widely spread apart. It is a MUST to change.

3) It seems like after your catch, you just let the pull become automatic. You have to continue to make sure that the palm is facing backwards and your forearm also as you push the water back. This "automation" of pull and push is now causing your palm angle to be pitched sideways when you push.. and thus the water you controlled at the catch all "slipped away" and when you push, you're not surging forward cos the water already gone and you're not pushing onto anything! Do you feel that way?

I used to have that problem and now i still experience it on my left side unless i am really conscious about keeping the forearm and the palm facing back as i extend my elbow. Where the palm is facing is REALLY important. (Check your swim catching ben.. you'll see what i mean, he is always surging forward because he made sure that during the catch, he establish the control over the water with a Vertical forearm position and the palm facing backwards.. then when he push back, he made sure he is always in control of the water till his push is fully done.. thus he moved much further than you do since your push "isn't working".)

4) Right arm pull is late. It waited for the left arm to come back then you start catching. The late pull also contributed to the stop in gliding.

5) The body is generally not moving as one piece in a synchronized manner. It looks pretty ok to the non swimmers but you can see clearly that the arms and shoulders leads the rotation and the hips follow, then the legs kick to get to that side position. The rotation to the side has to happen as a plank from head to toe. I.E the turning must be from the core, obliques and hips area in order for the majority of the body to "swing" together.

6) When you're tired, you tend to have the Mr Take mistake of leaning your head to your arm and think that you're stretching your arm and shoulder forward to touch your ears with your shoulder. It has to be the shoulder moving up and not the face coming closer to the shoulder.. learn to focus on one point diagonally in front when you swim and stay focused on that point when you rotate your WHOLE BODY from side to side.

7) When you're tired, you also tend to fidget your line of sight from front to down to the side.. keep your line of sight focused on the diagonal front.. you need to feel like you're a very stable knife slicing through the butter(water) while moving the whole knife (synchronized body) side to side.

Ebnu

1) Not enough rotation on the left side.

2) Too much focus on coming up to breathe. The lifting of the head out of water to inhale caused a lot of tension to the shoulder area which translate to a sinking rear end.

3) Return lap looks better because the right arm (master arm) is better at stretching. However, it is important to note that it is the stretch of the LEFT ARM that allows you to stay on the side to breathe without any pull.

4) Currently, the left arm is dropping down as you breathe. You should keep the left arm extended until you finish the inhalation.

5) You need some personal time to grasp the concept of turning with the left lead arm as you surface to breathe. Take note i used the word 'surface' to breathe.. not lift. Right now, you can see that even though you're rotating your neck to the right, your left arm is pushing down with the momentum of the entry to help you keep your head up to breathe.. look at 00:00:29sec of the video onwards till 45 seconds and on.. it is obvious. 1:31 also showed the same thing.

6) The legs are pretty opened up when you breathe thus causing the drag to stop your glide.. same as KH.

7) It is important to note that you have a much better control over your legs' exertion now that you don't kick that much. You have to shift your focus to having an effortless breathing on the side.. no need to press down on your left lead arm.

Remember: To succeed, we have to be discipline to do those that are good but we don't honestly like to do. In this case, if i were you, i'd hammer the drills and ask Teck Beng how to do it. He's good with the side skater drill.. :)

Teck Beng:

1) Catch angle is too small, i.e too shallow and the fingertips are pointing inwards to the chest. The finger tips should point straight down to the floor (with the elbow, wrist and palm in one line). When your fingertip is pointing inwards to the centerline, you're catching with a dropped elbow and thus the resistance at the front is very very little only and no matter how hard you try to push, nothing much will happen because you got nothing to push back. This is a mistake resulting from over pushing in your swim even when you're feeling fatigue and you're no longer able to control the amount of water from the proper catch… the hand will automatically make adjustment so that you'd slip some water during the catch to make it easier to catch, pull and push. Go look at my multi angle land drill again and compare against yours.. you'd see your hands are really under your centerline when you finish your catch.

2) Don't keep your left lead arm on the left side of the shoulder. Note that when you rotate your shoulder you need to rotate the arm together to keep it at shoulder width apart. If you keep your arm at where the previous shoulder was pointing then you're separating the arm from the body to rotate the body only. the 6th second onwards of the video clip shows this very obviously.

3) Recovery is hand leading instead of elbow leading. The elbow is not high enough. Remember that when you finish your push, the first thing that exit the water is your elbow, not your hand.

4) The overall rhythm of the stroke is very jerky.. need to start smoothening by recovery with the elbow and swinging the elbow in front effortlessly. Because of the hand leading recovery, it becomes very controlled in order to do a finger tip entry at the front while keeping the elbow high becomes a necessity. When you start recovering with the elbow first, the high elbow, fingertip entry will become an automated smooth process.

Mr Take:

1) The body is swinging from side to side. 8th to 30th seconds in the clip shows this very clearly. The side to side movement is causing a lot of drags and also causing the body to move sideways instead of using the momentum to move forward.

2) The stroke you're doing is very upper body and upper limbs dominant, thus if you're going to race like this without the kick, your hips will drop very low and sink.. look at 1:33 onwards from the clip. So if you want to continue this position of your head, you have to add the kick continuously.. else, i'd advise to keep the head lower and press more on the chest constantly to keep your hips floating.. just like what i showed in my short swim for you guys illustrating between kick and kick-less fs swim,

3) Very wide arm recovery causes a very slow transition from stroke to stroke because the arm and hand takes a longer time to travel back to the front for the next stroke. This is not obvious in a slow swim like this but when you attempt to go faster, you'll find yourself not able to pull as fast as you want because of the outward swing of the arm during recovery traveling a longer distance. The shortest distance to recover from the back to the front is a straight line along the body's side as close as possible. =)

Yukari:

1) Recovery started with the elbow… but…. once the elbow comes out of water, the hand/palm immediately takes over and lead the whole arm forward. Thus it is still a very wide recovery like Mr Take's. If you take a ruler and put it along side your body on the video screen, you'll see actually your arms are swinging outwards like a butterfly stroke too… you felt that it is correct because the recovery do start with the elbow… :P

2) As you get tired, the catch become very shallow and you're not getting a firm hold on the water anymore.. Need to be more conscious and focus on the catch to control a large amount of water before pushing back. If you can push back easily, it means your catch has been done wrongly and need to scull and feel the water a bit more when you catch. I can see that your body is "cleverly" adapting to the tiredness by trying to catch a little less water so you can push more really… not the way to go ya.. :)

3) Also you can see very clearly from 1:06 onwards.. i closed up on your catch and you're doing actually a STRAIGHT ARM PULL.. no more EVF high elbow catch! That slowed you down a lot because you couldn't catch properly… You see from 1:51 to the end.. you're not really moving at all! So need to control more water yup! Cannot be lazy on the catch.. because if you're not catching the water, you cannot push. I know i'm repeating myself.. but it is just That important..

4) Last but not least, your fingers are all opened up when you're pulling… see for yourself~ this is a mistake that must be changed.. VERY compulsory! Without a closed fingers palm as your paddle.. you won't be able to catch too!

Ben:

1) You're not comfortable staying on your right side (right arm extended) as you recover your left arm.. your left arm recovery is always rushed.. that uncomfortable feeling forces you to kick a lot more when you recover and breathe and do your right arm pull.

2) at 1:16-1:20 you can see that your arms are not straight in front. The yeo family syndrome. 1:47 also shows clearly your right arm is crooked. No stretch…….

3) You're doing a straight arm catch. No good. Please go read back my "Description of the catch" post and watch the video of the rotation and DO IT in your swim. If you jus think about it and expect your limbs to follow, it won't happen because you haven't learn the rotation of your humerus properly yet. You're compensating on your catch by doing a very very exaggerated 'S' pull.. that is not good cos it causes your body to move sideways and back straight each time your catch.

4) You are kicking with very opened legs. Keep the legs together.

5) STOP YOUR HEAD FROM FIDGETING AROUND WHEN YOU'RE TIRED!!!!

Lastly, a video of myself for you to compare...

KK

It is a 1:33 but it isn't that fast in the sea all the time.. i just try to aim for this effort as and when i can.. =)

Cheers
KK

Menu for 04052011 Swim Squad

2011-05-04T16:47:00.001+08:00

Warm Up: (5mins)
200m ----

200 Freestyle Swim

Drills (All return with 50m FS Swim working on focal points): (20mins)
500m ----

50 Right Extended arm, kick on side (Focus on turn gently to breathe without disrupting body position)
50 Left Extended arm, kick on side (Same as Right)
50 Breast stroke pull (Ensure correct pull and fast recovery)
50 Free + Fly Kick (Ensure 3 kick per side Rhythm)
50 Freestyle Sprint with SLOW ARM, SUPER FAST KICK (Try to imagine everytime you reach forward and glide with your arms, you're using your kicks to drive you forward)

Rest 5 mins

Main Set: 48mins
1800m ---

3 X 123 on 16mins
100 Kick 2mins
200 Pull 6mins
300 Swim 8mins

Cool Down: 12 mins

300m ---

100 Back
100 Breast
100 Back

Cheers
KK

TRIBOB Sprint Triathlon 1st May 2011 (KIDS TRIATHLON)!

2011-05-03T01:43:00.001+08:00

Dear Team,

This entry is specially dedicated to the event of Tribob Sprint Triathlon and I touched on parenting and communication issues in this entry other than the performance of your race. The adults are encouraged to read it as I share with you my "secrets" of gelling with the kids.

We'll start with Special Performance(s) worth noting:

Saori's run pace is 5:17/km.. for comparison, Vincent's run pace is 5:04/km.. Hmmmm... :Pp

Jeremiah ran a sub 9minutes 2.5KM! How cool is that?!

KK did a 5KM PB of 23:05!

Sam did a 5KM PB of 36:43!

Vincent's Bike Average Speed is 32.8 Km/H!

Yukari and Mr Take ability to focus on the race after being late and having no time to warm up is incredible! We have to all learn from them how to get into a calm state of mind to do things in the best possible mode!

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

Before heading to the compiled results, here are some points to talk about:

1) Individual timing versus the timing of the field of competitors.

When new triathletes look at their own timing, they usually compare only against their friends and however superficially it can be, they only consider the two factors of "I'm faster than him/her! :)" or "I'm slower than him/her! :("...

However, what happens in actuality is not that simple. Certain race course favors certain type of athletes of a certain body type/mental strength/temperature regulation. The above are but some obvious individuality of the athletes that can turn out to be big factor(s) affecting the performance in a race.

For example, some people perspires A LOT and EASILY.. Perspiration is an innate ability to cool the body by letting the heat evaporate from our body.. and compare him to a guy who don't perspire as easily and put them both in a superbly hot weather race (like Desaru). Unless the guy who don't sweat so easily puts in a lot of preparation work to acclimatize and also takes special notes and steps in the race to cool himself down (like pouring water over body and head).. he is likely to perform much worst than the guy who perspire more due to the ability to regulate temperature. An over heat engine can be risky to get heat exhaustion or stroke.

Another example maybe on Tribob sprint triathlon, the race is a flat course race.. i.e there is no up slope and down slopes.. if we train enough to know more people, we will know there are people who CLIMBS AND DESCENDS REALLY WELL but sucks in a flat course Time Trial. It may be as simple as the mind taking the flat road as a boring way (low motivation) to sustain a high effort level. Or it can be comparing two people, one superbly skinny and one stout and big.. If you put the stout and big guy on the hilly course, he'd probably die in the middle of the course but if you put the skinny dude on the hill, he'd fly up the hills with little effort needed simply due to his low body weight- that of course is assuming both athletes have trained equally hard.

Last example is some of you are using super fast bikes and some of you are using MOUNTAIN BIKES. If those using mountain bikes are biking as fast as you in the average speed, then I think it is time you practice more already because you don't know how much tougher it is to get that same speed you get for a road bike while using a mountain bike... :P

Having said that, we should not compare just the numbers of the timing but also our individual issues affecting our race and then learn to choose and prep for race smartly in time to come. :)

Also, other than looking at just your timing and your friends' timing, it can be beneficial to look at the whole field's timing versus the previous years' average results.

There are factors affecting the race course timing over the same distance.

For a non exhausting list:
a) Choppy Sea Swim
b) Windy Bike Course
c) Hot and Humid Run

These 3 points are really common in triathlon races, and they often slow us down. However, when we look at the timing of this year's competitors versus last year's.. the shift in the margin of timing difference is usually across the field.
The reason is that these conditions are race conditions and it affects every single one of them out there on the field. So next time, when you hit the bike leg with a strong head wind towards you, don't be demoralized because everyone goes through the same thing and if you're slowed by the condition, they'd be slower too. Of course, with pre race race course information, you can always prep yourself to turn such conditions to your edge...=)

2) Mistakes - Our ability to spot them (especially as a coach) versus the competitor's ability to change them. An issue that affects setting expectations on our children.

When we look at the kids race, we see a PURE sense of competitiveness versus an ABSOLUTE sense of fear versus a CRAZY AMOUNT OF FUN and perhaps a small percentage of LAZINESS.

Other than those things, we often see tasks that we adults assume they could have done those more efficiently. However, we also often fail to recognize AND understand the specific situation that the child was in. We often fail to consider that he or she may have thought otherwise in that situation or the ability to do the task in the efficient way may have been taken away due to fatigue.

And I've seen countless adults screamed and shouted at the child at the immediate instance of the very first failure that cause the shakened child to be even more shakened.

I do my fair share of shouting and screaming.. those of you who see me coach, I scream like a durian seller and I shout like a illegal money lender. But very few of you know the AMOUNT OF COMMUNICATION I've established with the kids to let them know my expectations and also the sheer deal of explanations that I did in CRAZY permutations of ways to ensure the kids understand TIME AFTER TIME AFTER TIME in an infinite loop of repetitions.
Sometimes the kids just doesn't have the heart to register in the amount of effort I put in and that is when I flare up like a T-Rex. It works for me that way, but only after ensuring they understand what is expected of them (effort and heart in lesson) and that they always get the "why"s of me screaming at them.

I just felt that too many of the adults never care to explain in proper expression to ensure the kid's understanding and scold the hell out of the child not because the child lacks heart and effort but because the child never was given the chance to understand. It is just unfair that way and I SERIOUSLY hope to change the way adults teach if I can put this stupid long paragraph in proper phrasing.

3) Encouragement OR Stress?
It is a thin line to draw between setting expectations and giving an encouraging statement. It depends A LOT on how a parent put it through to the kid. As an adult, we have learnt from our line of work to hide meaning behind our sentences and we do it so well, sometimes it came our naturally in our tones even though we don't mean it. Admit it, because it happens to you, you, you, and me.

For children, they are just not smart enough to decipher and yet they are simple minded, or Pure enough to believe the exact sentence that you said and because of the kindness in the sentence that they felt, they feel compelled to do even better than what you've told them to. We call that - Motivation. And it is a Powerful tool.. It is the source of initiative to do EVERYTHING.

Put for example: "Saori, I hope you'd swim your best time and everything else doesn't matter!"

Two situations may have happened here:
a) Saori may have went out to swim a personal best 150m and came out of it totally exhausted for the rest of the race...
b) Saori may be smart enough to pace herself for a really strong swim and yet recover well for the rest of the race...

Which situation turns out doesn't depend on how smart the kid is or how much practice the kid get because being a kid, "a best swim" = "A BEST SWIM". And for those of you who have kids, I think one of the most common phrase that comes out is "What if.....".. and you get the drift, "what if i didn't get a best swim?"...... that's when the stress comes in.

With that, I conclude that it is important for us adult to fully explain to the children what our expectations are (how high, or how low) in exact details and how they are supposed to respond to the race. I, as a coach always encourage the kids to think for themselves what they want, after I explain to them what I expect of them to perform and this usually results in the kids ability to decide for themselves and either excel or leave the class totally for other endeavours.

That is the secret to why Meher listens to me more than her daddy (that's what her daddy says) and all the kids seem to gel really well with me. The "secret" is just to take them Seriously and explain to them in details without keeping anything because "we think they won't understand because they are just kids.".

Take this back and think about it: Since you already know they don't understand, the more the need to explain to them isn't it? How can you assume that they can't understand you when you haven't try because you gave up due to your assumptions that they are just not smart enough? Com'on, I tell you some of you adults are just deceiving yourself if you get to know the kids more than I do in those mere 1 hr a week session I have with them. That - is a challenge to you. =)

4) Our voice and when to use what kind of encouragement phrases.
Children are the most sensitive receptors of body language and facial emotional expressions.

A very good example is a very nervous mummy telling an already calmed down kid "Don't be nervous or panicky-kykyky---kyyy.. oK-KKKA--KKAYY.."...

Seriously? -_-..

Another good example is a very frustrated daddy who sees the child breaking down under the pressure of competition and fatigue at the swim to bike transition.. and he shouts at the top of his voice in AN ANGRY TONE:
"BOY AH!!! DON'T PANICK! DO FASTER DO FASTER DO FASTER!!! YOU CAN DO IT ONE!!! WAH LAO EH... NOT LIKE THAT!! THE OTHER WAY!!!"

I can guarantee with my reputation as a coach that the child will get a cramp the moment he goes for his run after the bike (provided he doesn't crash in the bike leg).

As parents, I understand that some of you can get very emotional over a situation that is happening to your child/children that is not within your control and being helpless is a very frustrating feeling. However, instead of getting emotional, sometimes, not offering help is actually helping them. If the shouting was not there, he'd might have been able to calm down the moment he sits down and recognize his transition area that he had set up and gone through so many times in practice. If the mummy didn't try to comfort the kid in that nervous manner, the kid may have already zoned in and forget about the spelling of "panickkkkkyy" already.

Sometimes, we have to weigh the situation and stay neutral to our emotions. That is especially important when we speak to kids. We are their leaders and as leaders we cannot be shakened. For they sense every bit of emotions from us and trust me, whether they show it or not, their mind and body register these emotional and body language and signals.. AND They do react to it consciously or subconsciously.

This is yet another challenge for you parents - to learn to control your emotions and choose your words wisely and use an appropriate tone to suit the purpose of the sentences being communicated.

5) Triathlon - a fierce Competition, also a friendly race to be there for each other when times are tough.

Honestly, when I was doing my swim, I went out with a mentality to kill everyone. But after a big gulp of sea water, I kind of lost my composure and took a little bit of time to find back my rhythm as I was kind of worried for my bike leg (WHICH I DIDN'T TRAIN AT ALL...).. On the return part of the swim, I was going back and forth with these 3 australians and british (heard them after the race).. I was very sure I would outswim them all but then not knowing where the swim exit was (it was not marked!), I decided to step back and let them lead the way while I come up close behind..

On the bike, I was reserved and I didn't really know which gear to use thus I used the lighter one just in case.. but in the run, I was in Champion mode. I was out there to clock a PB. I know I could and I would do it because I promised the team in facebook that I will push to the max til the end of race. Everyone's back view was a flag for me to crush down and I outran many.

Feeling triumphant as I go on, I saw Ben and KH on the way to the U turn while I'm about 1.5km ahead of them.. I pushed even harder to be ahead even more and as the effort goes harder, I just want to compete so bad to win not everyone else, but myself.. my ego, my pride and my limit. When I finally finished with a dash and a PB breaking 1 minute off my 5km best time, I felt a rush of adrenaline down my spine together with some gastric juices from my tummy that taste like GU Gummy.. yucks.

For a stuck contrast to my drama rama high morale race......

I'd like to mention Yasmin and Meher for running together towards the end of the race. It brings back a nostalgic feeling of my first few races when I felt I didn't have the heart to compete.. and since I was there just to complete, might as well do a run with my friend that I meet in the race distance? Two makes a company and makes the run even more funny isn't it? :)

It was a friendly atmosphere and I'd definitely do the exact same thing if I was just there to complete. Well done girls! :)

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

After the long long nagging..

Here's the timing screen shot!
Below is a link to download the file. It is an excel file and I already freezed the panel nicely with sorting and filtering enabled.

TOOK ME 3HRS TO SORT OUT THE NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS FOR EACH CATEGORY AND RETYPE EVERY INFORMATION FROM THE WEB TO THIS FILE FOR IT TO MAKE SENSE TO YOU. I also added a Transition Team Position ranking for fun, just to see who takes the longest to change - Teckbeng, 4mins is the amount of time I take to shower every morning... what happened at T1, you picked up some hot babe? ;)

Click here to download excel file TEAM_SAPPHIRE_TRIBOB_TIMING.xlsx

Cheers
KK

27042011 Swim Squad timing (part 1)

2011-04-28T02:02:00.001+08:00

Guys, attached is the timing for tonight's swim. We could see some wildly inconsistent timing and we could also see some really good pacers who did negative sets on the long 10 sets of 50s and 100s.

Mr Take and Sam are both very very good at controlling their pace and both manage strong finishes all the time. Very impressive. =)

It's worth noting that the 5th, 6th and 7th set are the demoralizing ones when we know there are half way more to go. However, these timing reflects weak mental training and not accustomed to doing large numbers of sets regardless of effort.

I promise to write up an article regarding intensity and motivation in swim and sports in general soon. Need to get the weekend tribob sprint series over and done with first.

Here you go for the timings, vincent haven't gave me yet and thus I will update his once its done up but his 2 weeks off from swim caused about a 10seconds lapse from the 6th hundred onwards I think? He did manage to will it back the last couple of sets if I didn't remember wrongly... tonight was one of the nights I was so concentrated on getting my strokes right I can't really see much flaws other than my own. I have just a few to share but I shall do that tomorrow night as its 2AM now and I hope to wake up feeling fine (today got sore throat.. =( ) and go for a run with Andy. The mistakes are all streamlining problems and some misconception about hard swims for Ebnu's side. Take has a recovery and high head problem (like last time?!).. ok i shall stop.. til tomorrow........

Note: Usually swimmers do 10x100 on best time + 10seconds. I figured us old people need some time to get accustomed to such sets first before we cut the rest time shorter gradually. See how kind and merciful I am? =ppppp

Cheers
KK

270411 Swim Squad Menu

2011-04-26T23:21:00.001+08:00

Warmup:
100 Kick
100 Swim
100 Kick
10mins

Rest 5 mins

Main Set:
1) 10 x 50 (alternate easy and hard) on 1:30
**Ebnu/Robert/Pauline's group on 2mins
20mins

Rest 5 mins

2) 10 x 100 Hard on 3mins
**Ebnu/Robert/Pauline's group do 7 x 100 best stroke and effort on 4mins - when stroke deteriorates skip a set as rest.
30mins

Cool down:
Back 100
Breast 100
**Stretching**
10mins

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

Cheers
KK
- There's nothing to lose. We're not going on podium. Plus, this is a sprint race so we oughta be ready to give it a SPRINT effort. Are you UP for the challenge? =)

5X300m timing UPDATED with average of 50s!

2011-04-23T20:59:00.000+08:00

The average per 50m will allow us to see the increased/decreased in effort over the hard and moderate 300m sets.. and also the consistency of effort over the sets.

Guys, it is a tough set and no doubt tougher when done by one self or even as a small group. Made me realize how much I rely on you guys to push past my limits time and time again and I'd thank you guys for that.

Yukari went a little too strong at the build set from the start. The purpose of the build set is to prepare your body AND MIND by gradually increasing the effort.. as such, do start an easy 50 by really really easy effort. Imagine splashing and swishing the water with care for technique and little bit of everything else.

Lastly, I just have to complain.. HOW COME YOU ALL (EVEN WILSON WHO DID BY HIMSELF) UNANIMOUSLY DID WITH 2MINS REST AND STILL DID NOT COMPLETE THE 5TH SET???? AIYOOOOO!!!!!

Will write up an article regarding my views on intensity, intensity maintenance and the mental aspect of hard training, i.e motivation and perseverance.

Cheers
KK

20 April 2011 Swim

2011-04-21T21:49:00.006+08:00

Despite Coach KK's regrettable absence, these "siao-on" people still came for a tough swim workout. Kudos to them....in no particular order of "on-ness", they are:

Yasmin, Take San, Yukari, Ben Yeo and Teck Beng.

Menu for the night:

Appetizer:
4 X 100 drill (Skating, zipper skate, Breast stroke pull only, fly kick with freestyle arm)

Main course 1:
4 x 50m in easy, medium, hard, easy

Main course 2:
5 x 300m in hard, medium, hard, medium, hard....
however, we stop at the last serving, as we want to leave some room for dessert...which is:

Dessert:
100 to 200m breast or back.

The timings speaks for themselves:

Mrs Take got a double leg cramp from 'over eating' :)

18042011 Swim Squad

2011-04-20T01:57:00.000+08:00

Sets were done as per mentioned in the previous post but due to the group dynamic the main set is changed to 5x200m instead of 300m.

BEFORE I START, ALL OF YOU NEED TO WORK ON THE EVF CATCH ON YOUR NON BREATHING SIDE. IT WAS HORRENDOUS. ALL DROPPED ELBOW!

Sam was Deadly Consistent in her swim. It's always like that and we don't want to take the consistency for granted because it is achieved through hard work no doubt. However, to become faster, you need to work on streamlining the front end of your stroke like Gen's too. Please straighten your lead arm and stretch a split second after entry and arm extension.. don't just focus on the pulling back, if you don't have a streamlined front end, the power pushed back will be lost cos of resistance in the front.

Hua Yee please work on your catch.. Your body is SO streamline under the water, it is a waste the catch is a straight arm pull cos it slows you down so much every time you start a pull.
Once you correct your catch, your 200m timing will definitely go below 4:00.

Lawrence... lesser food before swim please... :P Your non breathing side lead arm also never stretch enough. And you're super right when you say when you focus on technique, you can go faster over a longer distance. THAT'S THE WAY TO SWIM!!! =)

Gen sick still can swim so fast.. Yeo's power! PLEASE straighten that damn lead arm. Farking "GAO WEI" when I see it. Look at your jie's comments for more info please.

Pauline, still turning too much on the right side... need to stop consciously turning so much. One way to counter that is to ensure you don't turn until the body weight is completely on that side. So it is like the core is always engaged to get ready to pull the hip from one side to another. Right now, the core is only engaged AFTER you took your breathe and want to start the next pull... it should always be ready to turn. :)

Robert, can see very very clearly you got good control over your head alignment and upper torso body position already. Right now, need to get that kick right. It'll take a little bit of time but since you're already working so hard on the pull, why not get the kick right eh? Work on stabilizing the upper body as you do the extension part of the kick. Google for Hip Extension and you'll see the buttock/glutes are the working muscle and you can even find video on how to do that motion properly.

Calvin, you bloody hell do all the set as hard sets right... I'm so gonna remove that "slacker" logo on your back already. Teckbeng also agree... :P WELL DONE for all the sets, your endurance is UPz ah! But need to know when to call time out if ever get chest pain okay.. no joke ar.. you know what i'm talking about!

Marianne, Getting that speed with a good stroke is the very first thing. Endurance is to be trained with more sets but at that same intensity. Keep up the good work! I hope you have a very very good swim when OSIM comes.. Remember, more rest is OK but don't compromise on the technique and intensity next time. Then slowly increase the set distance while maintaining the intensity.=)

Ben, your hard work will pay off soon but you need to focus on your stretching and left arm and shoulder more for now... And by swimming more only will not help the flexibility issue. Tight muscles have to be stretched and massaged to loosen and thats that. No short cut. Painful but it'll help. JIAYOU! =)

GUYS GOING TO SENGKANG POOL ON WEDNESDAY, I WISH YOU ALL LUCK WITH THE SETS OF 300. IT IS TOUGH.. MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE I DID IT BY MYSELF TODAY IN THE MORNING WITH NO HOT BABES PRESENT.. BUT STILL, ENJOY THE PAINFUL EXPERIENCE! =D

Teck Beng, feel free to alter the rest to be 2 mins or make the moderate sets shorter if people can't take it. Importance of Stroke Integrity and INTENSITY on Hard sets cannot be emphasized enough.
Tabulate the timings together with mine okay? Thank you so much for the help! :)

Cheers
KK

18042011 Swim squad Menu

2011-04-18T17:01:00.000+08:00

Warmup:
4x 50 Drills + 50 Swim

1) 25m kick on right with arm extended + 25m kick on left with arm extended
FOCAL POINTS:
i) Staying effortlessly afloat Horizontally from fingertip to hips to toes.
ii) Staying effortless while turning the neck minimally to breathe (aim to glance towards the shoulder) and turning back without sinking.

Freestyle swim back, putting the effortless float and breathing into practice

2) Finger tip drag FS swim
FOCAL POINTS:
i) Normal FS swim but during recovery, drag the thumb along the body (literally touching) from hip up to the rib cage to the forehead before dropping wrist into the water and extend effortlessly underneath the surface.
ii) REALLY TOUCH THE BODY WITH YOUR THUMB. FEEL IT. DON'T CHEAT.

Freestyle swim back, putting the recovery into use... This time don't touch the body, instead keep it CLOSE to the body when you recover from the hips.

3) Breast stroke pull only with pull buoy. No kick.
FOCAL POINTS:
i) Do a double arm EVF catch.. scooping/collecting AS MUCH water AS POSSIBLE into the chest area. You need to feel A LOT of resistance here.
ii) Once the hands meet at the chest, Imagine squeezing the water out to the front from your chest by tucking your elbows into your rib.
iii) Throw the arms out in a swift motion.

Freestyle swim back, aim to feel the same amount of water resistance you "collected" during the double arm EVF catch in your breast stroke pull.

4) Freestyle with fly kicks. One pull - 3 fly kicks.
FOCAL POINTS:
i) This drill is about finding rhythm in the body when you swim. It requires you to time your pull to your body undulations.
Body movement : propulsion --> The perfect sequence of control we need to have to swim relaxedly.
ii) You have to do one pull at a time, meaning the non pulling hand will have to wait at the front until the other arm recovers to it's side.
iii) Undulation starts from the core. Not the legs. If you attempt to do the fly kick from the legs only, you won't be able to coordinate the arms and the legs because there is no centre of origin for the movements to start and synchronize from.

Freestyle swim back. Keep the buttock squeezed throughout the swim and keep the ankles close to each other using minimal kicks.

PRE-SET

4 x 50 Build (Easy, Medium, Hard, Easy) on Y + 15seconds

MAIN SET:

5 x 300m Hard-Moderate-Hard-Moderate-Hard on Y + 1 min

COOL DOWN:

100 back easy
100 breast easy
100 back easy

13042011 SWIM SQUAD UPDATE + TIMING!

2011-04-14T02:42:00.002+08:00

Our Swim Training at SengKang Swimming Complex is once again a success despite bad bad weathers looming! Thank God!

GREAT GREAT THANKS TO SAMSAM for compiling the timing. Pardon me, but she was so lovely. =)

Tonight's menu:

W/U
3x200 as (100 kick + 100 swim)

Main set 1:
8x50m hard KICK ONLY on 2:30.

Main set 2:
100 easy FS
Rest 2mins
300 moderate FS
Rest 2mins
500 hard FS

C/D
100 Back
100 Breast
100 Back

Total:
2200m

--------------------------------------
2 issues to tackle in this entry.

1) Kick

Question raised to me after swim practice:
"Why do we do this kind of kick practice when we don't kick like that in our swim?"

Two parts to the answer:
i) You CAN swim with a kick like that in your race. You have to train hard enough so that you're fit enough to do that much amount of kicks.

Look at his insanely strong AND consistent kick. He can maintain it for 76 laps before a 180km race pace bike and 42.195km race pace marathon. =)

ii) You train yourself to do kick sets because they increases endurance in two main areas important in swimming:

ii-a) Streamlining of body position. As the body's length is made up mostly of the legs.. when you do a proper freestyle kick with straightened legs, you're consistently activating your leg muscles to pull the legs STRAIGHT up to the surface of the water after the down beat. That is the perfect thing to do when you want to keep your hips up on the surface while swimming.

By now you should notice that it takes effort to keep the hip from sinking.. and by doing the kick sets, you're training the endurance of those muscles that keeps your hips up even when you don't kick that much during your swim.

And last but not least, in order to kick properly, you also have to stabilize and streamline your torso so it will not waiver and cause drags.

All in all, by doing kick sets, you train your body to hold a good streamline position because of the need to have a good and efficient kick.

ii-b) I don't think anyone of you will say kick sets is actually very relaxing and it is not taxing on the body at all.... right?
So, the second part of the benefit of doing kick sets is it strains your cardiorespiratory system a lot and thus makes you more aerobically fit in general. Isn't that what we want? **Aerobic fitness enables you to utilize the lactic acid produced by your body to recycle into more energy!

**Aerobic system = use more fats, lesser glycolysis means lesser pyruvate is produced meaning lesser lactate and hydrogen will be produced. Also, improved aerobic system can also mean an increased number of capillaries thus aids in better O2 utilization which means pyruvate can be cleared more easily before lactate is formed and lactate can be recycled with O2 too. All in layman terms, a good aerobic base = good foundation for doing higher intensity with lesser lactic acid and hydrogen ion caused pain~ :D

2) Second issue to tackle is *Breathing*.

First, let me reintroduce you to this side skating drill using this youtube video:

Now, let me encourage you to go and do the drill on your own. Try to pay CONSCIOUS attention to 2 things:
i) Do you sink when you turn your head up to breathe?

ii) Do you sink when you turn your head back into the water to bubble and kick?

If you answer yes to any one (or both) of the above question, then you're too tensed up when you breathe.

This is what I see when you guys swim... when it is hard effort, the breathing part is not well controlled and you tend to turn very hard upward to breathe.. this jerking movement caused the hip to drop.

Please try out the drill, and once you get the turning to breathe and then turning back down without letting your hip sink at all, you'll have to try to replicate that breathing in your normal swim in every effort possible.

Note:
The video teaches you to shift the arm downwards to balance, my view is in actual world, you have to use your back, glutes and hamstring and other core muscles to keep the hip floating... plunging the arms down deeper only creates more drag at the arms area while resolving the sinking hips issue.

What I suggest is you try to do the drill with the arm deeper if your hip sinks but once you get it right, you have to reach forward and let the arm come closer to the surface instead of using the arm to balance, train yourself to utilize your back muscle to pull that hip up and then your leg muscles and glutes to pull the legs up.

Good luck trying and feed back to me what you found out pleasE! =)

Here's the timing for the swim:

Special thanks to Yasmin who helped me break my kick PB in the 3rd last set and then AGAIN in the last set. =)

KH, different people takes different amount of time to recover from hard run. It was a PB run for you and it took me 2 days to recovery.. i am not surprised it took longer for you that you did not so well for this swim cos all the core muscle still very much weakened. Don't be discouraged but technique is an asset that will stick no matter how weak you become and when you become, you'll be slicing and dicing once again in the water. =)

The rest of you, do look at the mins/50m timing of Sam, Lawrence, Teck Beng, Calvin, Marianne and myself... In Triathlon racing, you have to know the key to pacing is to realize the progression that a 100m easy pace when you're FRESH will become a moderate pace if you maintain it for a distance and to maintain the same pace over an even longer distance may cause it to become a hard effort depending on how good your fitness is.

For example, for Lawrence and myself, the 500m was a sub-maximal pace and I did not do a hard at all because this is my first 500m "TT" after so long and I want to see how well I can pace myself. Still, maintaining an effort will almost definitely cause an initially easy effort to raise in perceived exertion due to the need to endure (thus the term endurance training) a longer period of exertion (duh). Hope this clarify some questions on pacing.

Cheers
KK and Sam (psst: you're good. Congrats on 500m PB. ^_^v )

A dry land EVF Catch - Insweep - Upsweep AV demo (II)

2011-04-08T01:40:00.000+08:00

Hope these various angles shows exactly what you need to know what I'm doing in the water and what I'm expecting you to do.. =)

Take the wrist flexion with a pinch of salt, without water I tend to flex it a little more but with water, the resistance will prevent the wrist from flexing that much. What I'm actually showing is that the catch starts from the hand, Not the body roll. =)

Cheers

A dry land EVF Catch - Insweep - Upsweep AV demo.

2011-04-08T01:25:00.000+08:00

Some more other angles to come soon...

Cheers

06042011 Swim Squad

2011-04-07T02:50:00.001+08:00

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! =)

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

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...

Swim Squad Training

2011-04-05T23:55:00.001+08:00

Dear Team,

Training tomorrow:

Warm Up: 100m Kick, 100m Swim x 5sets (For those interested to try, for your 100m swim, do 25m Right Breathing, 25m Left Breathing, 50m Bilateral breathing)

***NOTE: DO NOT ESCALATE EFFORT HERE TO MAX EFFORT. Main set is T*O*U*G*H.

Main Set:

50m race pace.

Rest

100m race pace.

Rest

150m race pace.

Rest

200m race pace.

Rest

Repeat 2 more times.

Rest

5x100m Dash Focus on Catch + Hard Push

Cool down:

100Breast Easy, 100 Back Easy, 100Breast Easy

Cheers
KK

SWIM SQUAD 30032011 with TIMING

2011-03-31T04:48:00.002+08:00

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.
:
:
:
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!!?!!

------------------------------------------------------------
Back to normal non-bankai mode.... (i got a feeling only Wilson will understand this joke... :P)
---------------------------------------------------

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!

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

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

A description of the Catch.

2011-03-29T15:28:00.000+08:00

After entry is made. The arm extends and the shoulder girdle raised effortlessly. Some people call the arm extension a weightless lead arm or a slight stretch/reach forward. It is like a shrug to bring the shoulder to the ear just that it is done with the arm extended.

This movement HAS to be done with relaxedly and effortless in order for the catch to be performed fluidly. Reason is that when joints are tensed up in an exertion (the opposite of effortless), they cannot flex as easily and takes more effort to overcome the tension to execute another movement that requires fluidity.

That said, the catch is made by a slight scull outwards, followed by an Internal Rotation of the humerus bone done simultaneously with the flexion of the elbow. This combined movement from the extended arm position will allow the Early Vertical Forearm to be in place.

Visualize:
Extended arm position: Underside of forearm and bicep is facing the bottom of the pool.
After Internal Rotation and elbow flexion, Underside of forearm and bicep is facing back (opposite of direction of travel).

For those who do not understand what is internal rotation, I've done up these videos. In the video, I am using the clip of the pen cap as a start point to better illustrate what a rotation is. Then I taped it to my upper arm to show the movement of the arm in an internal rotation.

Firstly, the above video shows the pen rotating, looking at the cap it rotated from 6 o clock to 3 o clock. This sets a "benchmark" for what rotation is about.

Second video above I'm showing the internal rotation movement of the humerus with a flexed elbow. Look at the clip on the cap rotated from 6o clock to 3 o clock again, indicating the upper arm is rotating.

This 3rd video shows the internal rotation with an extended arm, which is specific to our swimming position where we need to start the internal rotation. Notice that the clip of the pen cap rotated towards the back. Right now, some of you may be lost but lets VISUALIZE if the arm can continue to rotate 360 degrees, the clip on the pen cap will ultimately rotate inwards towards my body and thus the movement in the video is actually an internal rotation.

The 4th and last video shows me executing the catch. Play and compare both 3rd and 4th videos and you'll see the clip of the cap rotating outwards indicating that the internal rotation does exist in executing the catch.

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

Note that an internal rotation of the humerus (upper arm bone) has to be done with the elbow joint stay at where it is when the arm is extended and not moving backwards.

The need to do an elbow flexion together with the internal rotation adds on to the difficulty of keeping the elbow joint at the same location as where it was when the arm was extended. People tend to do the internal rotation and the flexion while moving the elbow backwards.. this is due to the tendency to rush through the pull in hope to quickly pull the water backwards to propel oneself forward.

I cannot emphasize more strongly the need to be patient while performing the catch as the EVF position and the process to getting to that position does not create any source of forward propulsion and if done with exertion, the downward movement of the hand and forearm caused by the internal rotation will break the forward momentum due to the pressing of water downwards.

Some people could not get the internal rotation of the humerus done simply because they are too tensed in that extended arm position. If you think about it, the internal rotation of the humerus is a literal movement of the bone that is connected to the shoulder through ligaments and muscles. If you are tensed in that extended arm position, you're actually forcing the humerus which is part of the arm (duh) to be locked in that pre-internal-rotation state.

Knowing what is happening and which part is moving in what way is the only way to learn the execution of a movement properly. I hope this post help you understand the internal rotation of humerus and how it is present in the catch phase of swimming.

I shall stop here and if you have more question, feel free to sms me at 8180 0621 or facebook me.

Cheers
KK

STRETCHING! IN DETAIL!

2011-03-27T01:47:00.000+08:00

My apologies for my selfishness but I decided not to put up the Powerpoint slides for public download. It is more like because I don't wish for the time put in by KH and myself in this work to go wasted if it is to be taken and be misused or edited in anyway negative. However, if you are really keen to have a copy, just text me at 8180 0621 and I can email you. It really is not a problem as long as I know who is getting my files and are using it the right way. That's what sharing is about (to me, at least..). =)

Each stretch are to be held for 30seconds to 60seconds. Too short and it won't even get past the Stretch Reflex*.

*Stretch Reflex is a self defense mechanism by your body that triggers when the muscle is stretched beyond its comfortable range.

You need to hold the stretch beyond this stretch reflex occurrence (you'll feel the tension settle down about 10-15seconds into the stretch) before you can get any benefits from muscular lengthening.

Stretch AFTER workout or a short 10 minutes warm-up. Do NOT stretch when muscles are cold.

Cheers
KK

23032011 Swim Squad

2011-03-24T01:50:00.002+08:00

Dear Team,

Tonight's Menu:
Warmup:
SKPKS 100 each
200m Build (Easy--Medium--Hard--Easy)

Main set:
5x100

3mins rest

6x50 Dash

Finale: 100m Relay.
KK's team: KK outswam everybody in the first wave despite starting 15-20seconds late but both team members (KH and Robert) cramped up and was generously rescued by team mates.. INSPIRATIONALLY DQ'ed! =P

Sam's Team is SOOOO OVER POWERING LA.. CHEATER BUG~~~ =ppp They are the WINNERS anyways.

Pauline's team: Pauline put on the most gracious 100m sprint I've ever seen in a competitive mood. The team fought hard especially Calvin who was so tired already and Mr Take dented my egos when he swam with such powerful catch that make the pushes he made so efficient and almost seemed effortlessly quick!

Ebnu's team is so concise on the stroke technique that coming in 2nd doesn't do them justice! LawLaw did a rescue before his swim.. LIFESAVER SIOLL.. and Wilson is just having some time of his life in the pool with all the record breaking 50s~~No wonder the 100 also so fast~ =P

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

The training was Superbly done. Looking at you guys spur each other on was just incredibly aspiring for me lap after lap... it keeps me invigorated!

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

KK
My stroke tonight was all about good surges and not flat out effort especially in the 50m and thus my timing are pretty slow for the 50m compared relatively to my 100s. Basically I felt that I'm never going to do any 50m flat out sprint and thus I hope to maximize my time in pool to perfect the race pace I want to race with for my 750m and 1.5km swim and above next time.

For Gen, Sam and KH (look below still got more), you guys seem to rush the catch and isn't going deep enough to do the catch properly. Be patient on the catch and make sure you create loads of resistance and bring the resistance close to your shoulder and chest area then push back hard together with the body rotation for lateral streamlining and glide.

For Lawrence, you have to work on catching outside again... Now it went back to the "TaiJi" stroke like drawing 'X's underneath your body with your arms like that in and out, in and out... I recommend reading back the post about 3-4 weeks back before you leave for shang hai and work on the catch again.. I'm sure you'll get it back over the weekend's swim if you're coming!

For Calvin, its time to have more confidence in your focus and your ability! I love your happy go lucky method of training but glad my constant nagging (ok not nagging, you already clarified that..) manage to keep you on track and your fitness and timing of swim has gradually came down and become more and more consistent! Look at the previous year's sets to confirm my findings man! I'm super happy for you and I respect your passion to keep coming to training even though it's tough for you physically being slightly bigger size than most of us and you always seem to cast yourself as the more unfit one. You're Unfit NO MORE Calvin! =)

Robert and Pauline, as mentioned as long as you work on finding your comfortable breathing and stroke rhythm, I'm sure you'll be able to do freestyle well for OSIM. It's still a long way to go! Hmmm I haven't receive any text from you for morning swim leh.... COME COME COME LETS SWIM TOGETHER! =)
Oh, please don't overuse the buoy, only when you feel that you don't have that floating feeling then use it to remind for awhile or when you're dead beat then use it to help you ease off.. Some of the triathletes I know, they love the buoy so much, they never swim without it because without it, they sink and feels handicapped. Never let that happen to you yup!

Ebnu and Musaib! You two are the most wonderful daddy and son combi I've ever seen thus far in my life and I so wished it happened to me and my bro and my dad too. You've came very far in terms of swim stroke and it is a matter of time and patience in choosing to do only what is right. That means Drills and more drills and conscious swims... but if there is anyone in the team I can trust to keep practicing with patience and smart work, its you Ebnu and I'm sure Musaib will tag along if he don't want to get his butt kicked by Saori again. =pP Oh, please don't overuse the buoy too.. look at what I said above for Pauline and Robert. =)

KH... I got nothing to say but SOLID LA BRO! =) It's tiring to race, but I hope you find a source of motivation for yourself.. not just me! Set a goal for yourself! Fitness and Health is everything in life that money can't buy and I hope you too buy into that idea for the better life of yours and the people around you! =) GAMBATTE YO!!!

Wilson.... Looking pretty shagged today but the swim was incredibly consistent! THE GIRLS (like so many like that... hahhaa) in our team are all impressed that you're swimming as fast, if not faster, than them already! THAT'S THE WAY BRO!!! EGO EGO EGO EGO EGO X 1 MILLION~!!! hahahaha..

TAKESAWA SAN! Your catch is REALLY GOOD LAH! Could see that you can really grab hold of alot of water before pushing them back! It looked like an easy/moderate effort on the outside to me.. and that is a SIGN OF GOOD SWIMMING STROKE! GAMBATTE!!!! =)

----------------------------------------------------
Without further ado... The Timings!!!!

Do note 3 things about the timing I posted:

1) Timing of Sam and Lawrence is Not accurate as one ate too full and have some stomach bloatedness problem while the other had 2 weeks of DOWN TIME in ShangHaizzzzz... =pp

2) The old timing I dug up from various places for different people so I stated the month and year at the last column. Sep-10 means September 2010. The sets of 50s and sets of 100s are from different days too but are similar in rest intervals so they are very comparables. I'm sorry I couldn't find all as sometimes also nobody reply me when I ask for timing...

3) September is a peak period for Desaru competition so if you timing right now is as fast or faster than that period then you should be really happy! =)

For comparison.......

Enjoy!
KK
"Conditioning- You have to go through it to be conditioned. You're going to have to feel some pain.. like you lungs are burning, and you know, you want to spit up blood, that sort of thing..."

Samantha's first swim squad review 17032011

2011-03-17T12:50:00.001+08:00

Today's gonna be my first writeup and review of team sapphire swim squad..
First things first, I'm definitely less detailed as compared to KK but
anyways, here we go.

It was a tough 1km warmup, inclusive of 2 sets of treacherous 200m kicks but i thought everyone did very well during the 200m pulls(simply because the buoy helps you float better and the set is purposely in the middle to allow a “rest” from the tough exertion in a warmup!).

Vincent & Wilson
Both don't move much from your kick, too much bodily reactions(rocking) resulting from leg movements. Body looks stiff and tensed up during kick. Exhale more as you kick, think lifting and releasing legs gently but quickly. Light & fast kicks is the way to go.

Ebnu
A tad too much knee bending, straighten your legs up and keep the depth of the kick towards the shallower side. As usual, chest down, butt up,
kick from thighs and loosen your ankles should do you fine. Also quite a lot of bodily reactions from leg movements, keep the core tight like running~

Robert
Keep pushing through the sets continuously. The key here is continuity and in order to continue, you have to force your body to learn how to relax as your exhale and consciously stay loose when you inhale. Imagine Exhaling more than what you inhale will help a lot now as you tend to hold your breathe quite a bit. Also might want to consider front breathing as it is easier to do that with the pull buoy instead of side.

Gen
My guess is you pushed a little too hard in the first 600m warmup. You have to know your limits of your energy level, think far and ration them well through proper pacing.

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

Here are some things I noted as I saw KK's group swim your main set.

6x50 10s R
4x100 15s R
3x200 20s R (most strokes falter @ fatigue at this whole of last set)

Teck Beng
Your theories are perfect, time to put them in action! Haha.. I could feel that you were not catching enough water or creating enough resistance at your catch, thus your push wasn’t really making you surge. Also, have to constantly remind yourself to accelerate 2x faster at the push phase and continue consistently at that rhythm, voila!

Gen
It's tough coping with exams and working out when tired. But hey, working
out should make you feel recharged isn't it. Jiayou! You have a diamond shaped entry, I.e your arms bend inwards upon entry and it is entering at the middle of your forehead, you should be reaching at your shoulder width and extend further in the water to glide.

I suspect it might be due to your tight shoulders as well because you can’t seem to have that extra shrug/shoulder extension after the entry that KK has been talking about that is critical to help you glide more.

You have powerful strokes but you need to learn how to segregate them from slow at the start to fastest at the end. You catch and hold the water firmly and then double up on the push, that's where you accelerate and surge forward(provided you can extend that shoulder and glide a wee bit more than now).

Marianne
I got to say you look really fine in the water lady. Alot of improvement
since!! Similar to gen, work on your catch, hold and push water not only
with your arms.. Make use of your opposite hip to push downwards to
coordinate the acceleration. Try to feel more resistance from your front part of the strokes and I'm sure u'd pick up speed in no time! Right now it’s a matter of catching no ball at the front and thus you got nothing to throw backward (in a basketball context).

Side note: Do you feel any pain in your right shoulder? I see your palm tend to turn outward upon entry of your right and that will cause tension on the right deltoid.

KK
You would be sad to hear this but I honestly don't have much to correct your strokes here..:S due to your bulk around your pigeon chest, you tend to look inflexible/slow while rotating. Work on flexibility and mobility??
Left palm tend to slap onto water surface before slicing into the water(I.e
late entry), increases drag. Shifu said your right arm is more powerful than left, so you should work more on left side muscular activation yup. Lastly, keep the left entry closer to your forehead!

Vincent
You seem very controlled over every movement throughout your stroke. It is one thing to have control over your stroke but another to be able to execute them smoothly at low speed swims. Aim for that fluidity in your movements while executing those control… More flexi please! Swimmers are known to have jello yet firm stark bodies upon glide when they swim. Your pulls tend to shorten as you go deeper into longer swims, keep extending on the glide when the swim gets longer, accelerate and fly!!

Bryan
Gotta admit, you're pretty fast.. But if you're willing to brush up on some
technical issues, you will go even faster and better! I recommend you adopt
a high-elbow recovery and work on your arm alignment!! It should be in-line
with your shoulder width so that your body can glide straight in that sense.
Don't rush through your strokes in order to reach your destination fast.

One critical change now is to keep your head lower and more submerged in the water to keep the hip up. You swim with a 2 beat kick and that means the kick isn’t firing much when you swim, thus you need to play with head positioning to keep the hips up!

Aim to 'feel' your strokes better with more accuracy and glide through the water! You have to literally KNOW IN YOUR EYES whether you’re actually gliding through the water at all. The effort you put into your swim should translate to the velocity of your body through the water, if you see that you’re moving really slowly and choppily through the water while pushing hard then something is wrong.. Keep working on it, You have what it takes!

Wilson
Your legs significantly don't work when you swim, but excellent catch, push
and glide. I think you nailed the glide well and tend to rely on it. However when you glide, the whole body weight tend to be on that side, you have to hold the body weight with your core so you’re more ready for transition of strokes from one side to another!

Oh do note your right arm recovery as well, similar to marianne's problem, I used to do the same and create some shoulder awkwardness for myself:(

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

As for the Ebnu and Robert's group, your focus was to work on continuity of swim through the following:

6x50 10s R
4x100 15s R
6x50 30s R

Even though some of you did not complete the entire set, here are some
pointers for you to work on.

Musaib
Where are you rushing to ar? It seems like you either rush or shut your mind off when you swim. From the post swim briefing, you said you were pushing hard but it definitely seem like you were not really moving in the water as fast as your effort to award you with. Get what I mean? It’s like with that level of effort, you should be travelling through the water much much faster than what you’re doing now but.. Your strokes isn’t warranting that.

You should really think of your strokes more!! Do your catch properly, most of the time the elbow is dropped... without the catch, you got nothing to push back and that’s when you’re “slipping” on the hold of water. Once you nailed the catch, try to hold your glide longer, complete your pushes.

I’m sure you will and can make good use of your strong kick and fast arms but you have to get the catch right first. TOP PRIORITY.

Pauline
Another effortless swim! Too relaxed and too much gliding la... Do you even
pant after your swim? I highly doubt so leh..=p If you can complete the surge with your arm push slightly harder (esp your right) and up your stroke rate (I.e lesser glide), you would speed up a lot more! You’re ready to go a little faster.. =) Hope to see more competitiveness in you Pauline! ;)

Robert
Firstly, your breathing have improvements and it is showing in your ability to continuously swim for that 1.2-1.4km of swim! My suggestion is for you to read up on KK’s recent articles on the catching of water visualizing grabbing a barrel. Because right now, straight arm pull inhibits your forward gliding movement due to the fact that a straight arm pull pushes the water upwards.

Instead, angle your forearm to pull towards your hips. Think catch-hold water(feel most resistance here)-push water backwards-recover as one cycling revolution. Read the articles KK wrote as he described them in the finest of details and easy to understand parts. Break them down and do them part by part.. then once you get them right (can come to us and we’ll help you see), you have to execute the movement in one smooth fluid motion from slow at the front to fastest at the back.

Lastly, keep your body firmly streamline while swimming, body rotation looks fine but a bit lacking on the left (non breathing) side. You tend to rock and sway your body laterally left and right quite a fair bit, looks as though you're swimming like a snake! Do some planks and suck the guts in, that’s the feeling you should aim for while staying streamline relaxedly. As KK always mentioned in a intriguingly contradicting way, swimming requires you to be stiff (holding a position) but relaxed (feel loose) at the same time.

Ebnu
Firstly, Good job on gliding! Rotation tend to originate from shoulders,
initiate the turn from hips instead, so you can use more force from your
core. Keep your arm close to you as you recover, rather than let it flail
outward unnecessarily. Watch your form as fatigue increases, I notice your
upper body is lifted higher due to the need to breathe easier, eyes were looking in front and that severely caused your lower body to sink and slows you down.

One tip for you, Ebnu, is to use the pull buoy and just lie flat on the water without moving anything. You’ll notice the head will want to dip in and stay submerged. Then using the pull buoy between your legs, push off the wall and glide then take 6 strokes without breathing while maintaining the submerged head position. Notice how you’ll move very far and pretty quickly glide through the water because the hips are floating.

Then remove the pull buoy, and repeat the process aiming for the SAME FEELING OF HIP FLOATING AND GLIDE. Kick off the wall, this time you don’t have the float so you have to keep your hip afloat by pressing the chest down with each arm entry. Remember to pierce through the water with your finger tips each time you do an entry and extend your arm into the water, while doing that use the arm extension momentum to press and lean your chest into the water. Continue that until it comes to a full extension each time. That should keep your hip afloat. Remember to do that every cycle. As usual, do it slow and part by part with accuracy first, then smoothen it out into one motion. =)

Overall, I see good continuous swim from everyone. We cannot emphasize more
on focusing of techniques. Think, feel and practice more often. Attempt to
correct one error at a time and then constantly remind yourself to work on
it until it becomes second nature to you. Hope to see more improvements next
time,

ciao~!

SamSam~~~

Thoughts on Swim Lessons in Singapore.

2011-03-16T13:29:00.000+08:00

This is a very blunt exclamation/comment on how the current swim lesson syllabus adopted by Swim Safer has affected our swim business and more importantly, the ways of learning of our students.

After testing many students under the swim safer syllabus, I've seen how co-testing can become a double edge sword. The main difference is in the practical aspect of the test, the previous NASSA test seem to focus a lot of long distance swim from bronze (8 laps) to gold(30 laps) and the current SS test was supposed to be more focused on the technique of swim strokes (bronze 1/4 lap per stroke for 4 strokes --- gold 2 laps per stroke for 4 strokes) and even incorporated lifesaving techniques to enhance the chance of survival/being saved.

First of all, the idea is a feasible one and I personally applaud the implementation of such a system amidst the number of older generation of coaches who are more reluctant to changes (nothing to deny here, unless you start seeing tonnes of kids swimming much better breast stroke kick which is the most commonly taught stroke, you have to agree that most of them still do a diamond kick and 75% of them don't even teach dorsi flexion properly).

However, I am very sad to see that the standard has not improve at all. The only changes that are commonly seen at pool now compared to previously are not technical changes to the kids' strokes or an update in the coaches' knowledge of proper swimming techniques. In fact, the changes are just coaches carrying more and more tools to the pool to facilitate practice of the Test, and also the kids doing more and more wrong strokes because fundamentals are not taught properly causing the mistakes to be brought forward to one stroke and another.

First of all, I am only a NCAP Level 1 (there are total of 3 levels) NROC swim coach and Lifesaving Instructor (lowest level of teaching cert) and by fundamentals, I really meant the most basic and general physic/rules of water works. I implement them throughout all my swim classes regardless of levels of performance expected.

By fundamentals, I meant:

1) Head position and its effect on body position in water (streamlining, horizontal bod position)
2) Inhalation and exhalation and conscious relaxation
3) Sculling - Fundamental of propulsion in water
4) Stroke rhythm - e.g: Pull->Kick->Glide for Breaststroke; Upon entry of one arm, the other arm exit for Backstroke
5) Ankle flexion for different strokes
6) Proper recovery techniques
7) Cause and Effects of drag
8) Basic reasoning for items performed in the pool, especially for Lifesaving techniques.

All of the above are the most, repeat: MOST fundamentals of water works for without any of the above, the kid just cannot swim efficiently.

The coaches reluctant to changes often gets enraged in such discussion by saying:

"Bro, we're not teaching competitive swimmers leh."
OR
"Bro, you teach HORlympic Swimmers is it?"
OR
"Bro, the parents keep wanting the kids to go test, just pass to you and you quickly pass them for me la"
OR
"Bro, you stupid la.. why go and focus so much? Can move in water from 1 end to another can liao"
OR
"Bro, there are some things YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND... we must have a standard.. and here, we're just teaching KIDS how to swim.. don't need to go so in depth la"

I mean, SERIOUSLY, if you don't go in depth now, when then go in depth? You expect them to drop into the sea and drown once then get resuscitated and come back to you and say "eh.. i think the things you taught before not good enough leh.. i almost drown leh.." and you reply "ah.. don't worry, last time you kid ma so cannot teach you too much details so now you come back i teach you how to swim PROPERLY ok?"..

And come on, if you call what I mentioned above in depth, you might as well go retake your swimming instructor license.

There is no difference in Competitive swim strokes and Non Competitive swim strokes. The only difference is that one is swam at a higher intensity than the others.

Do you call the people who jog in the park as JOGGERS but those who run slightly faster RUNNERS? Seriously?
So what do you call those who swim at a leisure pace?

There is only "strugglers" and swimmers in water, the difference is that the former have a diagonal to vertical body position in water and the latter has a near horizontal body position. One is splashing all around and creating loads of bubbles in the water while pulling/kicking, the other is gliding through the water effortlessly.

Effortless, is the key to leisure swim/run/cycling/walking isn't it? Unless you are telling me that you walk with your toes to make it more leisure and walk with the whole feet when you want to walk faster in a walking competition.. cycle with one leg to make it more effortless cos only work one leg and cycle with both legs if you want to go faster in a cycling competition.

You don't alter the techniques to do a leisure effort of exercise, especially in the case of water works because of the density of water and the drag caused by inability to streamline.

Last but not least regarding stroke techniques imparting. Yes, they are kids but it is UP TO YOU as the COACH/TEACHER to find ways to express your points to the student so they can understand and absorb your knowledge. The age groups are to be chosen by YOU YOURSELF and if you choose one group that you can't manage to impart what you feel and learnt about swimming then you're simply being IRRESPONSIBLE and MONEY MINDED.

Inability to express your teaching to the different/lower age group does not automatically give you the right to discount what the students need to know about the fundamentals of water works even if the students are of low age.

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

Back to the co testing formula. I only test students from Sam's dad and Sam herself. Sometimes, we do teach together but I make sure that I let Sam test those I am in charge of and I test those she is in charge of. Some sabotages have been attempted and threats have come to me that we may get complaints if we test our own students.

My reasonings:

1) Sam and I teach together but she has her own level and I have my own level of students. We only pass students to each other when they are ready for the next level and once passed over, they are no longer handled by the previous teacher and thus getting tested by a "ex" teacher doesn't sound like "testing my own student" at all.

2) No offence but if you can't swim better, teach better and know better than what I know about swimming, I will not let what I taught go to waste by getting them to be tested by you and still paying you because you will simply NOT APPRECIATE WHAT I'VE IMPARTED TO MY DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS.
Sam herself undergo a LOT of preaching from me and I constantly updates her and ensure she understands the concept behind proper water work. And teaching together allows us to learn from each other and implement our consistency and insistency in fundamentals of water work across all ages. Other than her, I do not entrust my students to others, also because if she passed any of them who didn't perform well, I WILL FAIL THEM PERSONALLY WHEN PREPARING THE CERTIFICATES TOGETHER. No reluctancy or hesitance.

I have seen so many tests being carried out and some of them are really just going through the motions. The reason being the instructors/testers can be friends and integrity seem to be hard to find in most cases when monetary rewards are involved in the testing directly to the tester himself from the testees.

It is sad to see that happening and while some do uphold their standards in swim testing, it is hard to say that most have changed the way they view teaching swimming/water work is a neutral topic in itself that spreads across the board for kids versus adults and leisure swimming versus competitive swimming.

I write this post fully with my own enraged opinion because the supposedly improved system does not preach deep enough to the mindset of the coaches but implemented the system as "just another change, a little bit more major in the syllabus that's all.".

To me, the kid come to you for swim lesson, to learn the work of survivorship in water and this is probably the last lesson he or she is going to take for the rest of his or her life. If you do not teach him or her properly, then she'll be entrusted with a flawed technique that will complicate if emergency does arises and panic sets in that causes tension throughout the body and mind.

Egoistic as this post can be, the number of 'I's I've used, I teach to impart skills that last a life time through ensuring of proper understanding of water physic and works. I teach to ensure that when they meet a danger in life in the water aspects, they remember "TEACHER KK AND SAM TOLD ME TO KEEP MY CHIN TUCKED IN AND MY HEAD UNDER THE WATER SUBMERGED SO I WILL FLOAT PROPERLY TIL HELP ARRIVES"--- whatever age they took swimming from me til the day they die. That's one of my basic principle in this profession of mine.

Regards,
KK

09032011 Swim Squad

2011-03-10T02:55:00.000+08:00

Jaslynn:
Problem 1:
Entry too deep... The deep entry has caused the whole arm to be pierced straight into the water downwards and causing the frontal area to be sooo much bigger with the front of your arms that you’re coming to a complete stop each time you do an entry…
Aim for-
Wrist deep entry, then extend arm fully just 10cm beneathe the surface and keep it there until catch starts. Be BRUTALLY HONEST with yourself during practice and DO NOT DO ONE PRACTICE WITHOUT CHECKING REALTIME as you do.. It is the only way to practice.

Problem 2:
Left arm drops down or skates to the side when breathing on the right...
Aim for-
Keep the shoulder and upper arm in contact with the side of your head when you breathe

Problem 3:
Kick got a lot of knee bend...
Aim for-
Keep legs straight and kick from the hip flexor and glutes. Remember your flutter kicks on the dry land.

Special note for Jassss baby:
Competitiveness is GOOD. Be competitive in your stroke. OUTDO ME. That's your aim by end of year. I started swimming 4 yrs back and I learnt by catch 4 weeks back. You started swimming when 10 yrs back. Should be an easy feat eh? Come on... PUMP IT UP!!!

Ebnu:
Problem 1.1:
Late entry, extended arm before entering water caused forearm pressing down on the water upon entering water
Problem 1.2:
This is compounded by problem 1… because of the late entry (after the extension of arm above water), you’re not able to make use of the pressing down of chest with the extension of the arm in the water.

Aim for-
Entry immediately once the hand passes the forehead. Extension occurs only after wrist is in the water, i.e. the elbow is still flexed when the wrist is in the water already.

Problem 2:
Scissors kick, caused by not connecting the torso and the thighs as a plank when twisting the hip.
Aim for-
Move the torso and the legs as one entity using the hip to coordinate and synchronize. This can be done also with a better and continuous flutter kick instead of a 2 beat kick.. however I will not recommend the continuous flutter kick option because then you’re avoiding the root problem of not being able to control the torso and legs together at the same time.

Special note for Ebnu:
The entry problem is your only hindrance to a smooth and really good stroke now Ebnu… If you can iron that out with short laps and very VERY honest and conscious awareness, you will definitely become a better than average swimmer after getting this corrected. You seem to understand the deeper meaning of swimming that I’ve been sharing and it has shown in your swim progress, I am truly impressed tonight for how far you’ve came by despite the busy work schedules.. keep it up!

Musaic:
Problem 1.1:
Late entry, extended arm before entering water caused forearm pressing down on the water upon entering water
Problem 1.2:
This is compounded by problem 1… because of the late entry (after the extension of arm above water), you’re not able to make use of the pressing down of chest with the extension of the arm in the water.

Aim for-
Entry immediately once the hand passes the forehead. Extension occurs only after wrist is in the water, i.e. the elbow is still flexed when the wrist is in the water already.

Special note for Mu:
Your problem is kind of more serious than your daddy because you always seem to be swimming at a higher intensity/speed/power than normal due to the lack of pacing experience. As spoken, you need to work more diligently on the front part of the stroke!

Calvin:
Problem 1:
Shoulder flexibility is the number 1 barrier.. You dropped your head down all the time because of 1, the tension on your neck and lower back if you keep it up and also the shoulder’s tension that makes recovery a tad more difficult than you thought it should be. Correct me if I’m wrong… that is just an observation from myself and also my shifu that china lifeguard who clocks 1:10 something for his 100m… :P

Aim for-
Google for pectoral stretches and shoulder stretches and follow religiously everyday. The Health requirement for general population in terms of flexibility is to stretch EVERY DAY holding each stretch for 30to60seconds. Now, we’re athletes, shouldn’t we do more than that? 

Special note for Cal:
Your catch, fast push and glide has been working out really well! I guess the ability to stay on your side and glide and your patience to do those things slowly (or slacker instinct ? :P) have been really really helpful!

Samantha:

Problem 1:

Recovery was not with high elbow.

Aim for-

As you recover, bring your elbow out of water first instead of your hand/fingers, dragging the thumb alongside your body.. very close.. like when you flare out your thumb, it should glide on your body. Drop the wrist into the water just in front of the forehead.

Problem 2:

Hip twist is not sharp enough to coordinate with your fast push.

Aim for-

Sharper hip twist and more core work. You know what to do smart coach girl.

Special note for Samsam:

The catch was well performed and at certain times of the swim, you’ve shown pretty good glimpse of a Kenneth-ish glide strokes especially in those where you delayed the catch to get a good hold and push back hard with a well timed hip twist. Keep up the good work and keep thinking when you swim!

Genevieve:
Problem 1:
Didn’t allow enough time for the forward movement in water to work to its potential. Not gliding enough?

Aim for-
0.5 Seconds more glide in each arm stroke. Stretching your arm forward for that extra inch each time you enter the water will help get you that 0.5seconds. Reason is when you accelerate in the water with the push, your body will move forward at a surge (peak speed) for a short period of time before slowing down. However short that period of time before slowing down is, you’re not allowing the body to move forward with that speed for long enough and you’re rushing to start the next stroke which will start with a deceleration phase.

Special note for gen:
Work on shoulder flexibility and better recovery posture. Shoulder injury is soon on its way again if you keep swimming that way and combines it with running or badminton.

Yukari San:
Problem 1:
Fingers are opened when you pull….. grrrr…. :P

Aim for-
Use rubber bands to tie your fingers together and swim! Haha.. kidding la.. remember to feel if your fingers are touching each other side by side… If they’re not, close them together! =)

Problem 2:
Recovery is too outward swinging, made it look a little like butterfly! This means time wasted on the recovery because the hand takes a longer time (longer distance when its in an arc) to get back to the front and it also mean that the arm will be chopping in from the side instead of slicing through from the forehead onwards.

Aim for-
As you recover, bring your elbow out of water first instead of your hand/fingers, dragging the thumb alongside your body.. very close.. like when you flare out your thumb, it should glide on your body. Drop the wrist into the water just in front of the forehead.

Special note for Yukari:
Very fast and very smooth swim overall! Maybe it’s the swimmer background, but I credit it to your ability to understand and apply what you learnt into practice! Loads of gliding and I can see you’re really feeling the catch and resistance at the front of the pull and your accelerated push is really getting you to thrust forward quite a fair bit! You were just 1 body length behind me in that last lap! I sense a threat and I must work harder~~~ =pppp

Saori Chan:
Problem 1:
I don’t see any problem with your strokes…………. Except when you breathe, your right arm tend not to push until it is straighten… that’s why left arm pull glide more than right arm pull… need to make them same same okay? =)

Aim for-
Make sure you straighten that right arm pull as you take in your breathe… and… Keep up the good work my dear. =)

Special note for “SOURY” san:
It is my honour to have a student like you… You’ve came very far with what you had initially in the class with Kei… I remembered you had problem understanding what I was talking about.. even until now which makes this feat of yours (being able to swim so well with a stroke that makes SOO many of them adults go WOOWWW…) very applausible! *Clap clap clap*.. I hope you will always continue swimming and reach greater heights in swim and triathlon! =)

Benjamin:
Problem 1:
Left arm is not doing what the right arm is able to do. The catch is a little screwed, the recovery was a little messed up and the push lacks a little bit of power compared to the right. Since swimming needs you to propel with both arms, this imbalance has caused your stroke to go out of rhythm each time you swim longer laps (more than 50).

Aim for-
Put more HONEST and CONSCIOUS attention everytime you do your left arm ENTRY to END OF PUSH. To make things easier to learn, you have to slow down your swim on your own before you start to swim faster again.

Problem 2:
You keep your head very high above the water when you’re doing a moderate effort swim. To make matter worst, your kick is not firing at all when you keep a high head position when you’re doing a moderate effort swim, that high head position doomed your hip position and your legs are just dragging like 16inches underneath the surface.

Aim for-
The ears and back of your head should feel submerged when doing slow swim. When you look in front, you have to put in MORE effort to press your chest down so your whole head is still submerged.

Special note for Ben:
I see a very very bright future in you doing sprint events if you can swallow that urge to go fast and powerful right now and work on your finesse. Your skills are the one that will bring you far, the stronger you get without a good position in the water, you’re only going to become more hindrance to your own power because of the density of water. I hope you do more slow swim making sure your bottom is ALWAYS on the surface on all laps. Do not slack for even 1 lap for the bottom to drop and you do it with lesser kicks, not more.

Teck Beng:
Problem 1:
Your persistent work on the technique aspect of the stroke at slow speed has hindered your transition to fast stroking. The coordination is just very rusty because of the lack of speed work.

Aim for-
As the saying goes, if you want to be fast, you have to practice fast. As you can see from my very own production, it is not smooth at all because I was just not used to doing such high rep pulls and kicks for a prolonged period of time. And that in itself is a flaw to our highly precise piece of work. As spoken, build in speed sets of 25 or 50m once in awhile.. do 20x50 and mix and match a barrage of 25 or 50m fast swim reps while ensuring stroke integrity. As long as you inject enough rest (active or stationary doesn’t matter), you will be fine.

Problem 2:
Your long armS tend to be lazy on the push and didn’t straight all the way. It is vital to have a good follow through so that the force can be exerted backwards fully without any restrictions from your own movement.

Aim for-
Straighten your arms fully at the power phase.. Do not rush to exit and recover. =)

Problem 3:
Your left arm catch tend to have a dropped elbow.

Aim for:
Bilateral breathing… Go tame that dragon. =)

Special note to TB:
It is almost there. Keep working on it. I’m working on it too. Am proud to say we have the most “textbook” strokes in the team… our left arm sucks at the same time though. Hahaha.. Mine’s improving quite a bit cos I can breathe bilaterally now… The earlier you tackle it, the faster your improvements will come. Tip on left breathing: turn your head to the sky, not the side; exhale immediately when you finish inhaling, do not hold your breathe…. Jiayou! =)

Yasmin:
Problem 1:
Your entry is always very controlled. Such that when you enter the water with your hands already, there is a jerk-extend-jerk-full extension kind of phase. It is very very jerky. This jerky recovery and entry has caused you to stop accelerating and gliding to your full potential because of the force put forward by your jerky motions.

Aim for:
Smooth and slick slicing motion. Fingers in, wrist deep, extend arm underneath the water like you’re wearing a long sleeve shirt… All in 1 slick motion. To make things even better, time the extension together with the push on the opposite arm to get a maximum glide! Again, too much control is no good, you have to work on it to make it naturally smooth!

Special note to Yas:
As far as tolerating a very irritating coach goes, you’re doing an extremely good job. I need you to do an even greater job so you can compete well in your age group. You can swim so well your physique is a great advantage over those at your age. Work diligently, for a hot bod when you grow up or for simply health reason or even bragging rights to your friends! I look forward to seeing your improvement in leaps and bounds in the upcoming lessons!

Meher:
Problem 1.1:
You’re entering with an already extended arm much like Mr Ebnu’s. Late entry, extended arm before entering water caused forearm pressing down on the water upon entering water
Problem 1.2:
This is compounded by problem 1… because of the late entry (after the extension of arm above water), you’re not able to make use of the pressing down of chest with the extension of the arm in the water.

Aim for-
Entry immediately once the hand passes the forehead. Extension occurs only after wrist is in the water, i.e. the elbow is still flexed when the wrist is in the water already.

Special note to “MyHair”:
Congratulations to your Milo Try-athlon feat! Coming up first for your age group for swim and bike then finishing bravely for 4th in your run. That is just Amazing for a kid at your age. Work on the technique part and your fitness will bring you to great heights!!! Keep the interest and passion burning… don’t let it fade! =) Uncle KK feels your excitement each time you swim with me… keep it up!=)

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Before I end the post, I’d like to share this story that a world class swim coach shared with me before in a seminar. He is currently coaching an Australian national team breaststroker. I shall not name him as I do not wish to be charged for copyrighting of any sort..

Under this coach, there was 2 girl swimmers. Both at age of 8.5 yrs old. We’ll call them girl A and girl B.

Girl A is very competitive and always training very very hard in the pool and no matter what the coach said about her techniques, she did not put into heart but continued swimming using a lot of force.

That has led her to a very very successful competitive career at the age of 10-14 years old as her forceful swim has gotten her an extremely well developed physique compared to her peers of the same age.

At the same time, Girl B was losing on every single event… at the back stage, she was working really hard with the coach to correct her techniques. Each time, she’d lose out by a fair bit because her physique are just not as well developed. However, she kept at it and by age 15, she finally had her late height spurt and her muscular features are getting more defined.

This time round, both Girl A and B have advanced from the children category to the youth category. Swimmers at this age are all more or less muscularly developed and Girl A who seemingly won all the competition in the children categories, started to lag very very far behind. Girl B, on the other hand, are starting to get podium finishes.

Feeling frustrated, Girl A worked even harder in the pool and clocked up to 75km per week in the pool. On one national competition, both of them qualified for the final heat. Girl B finished 1st, beat Girl A hands down and Girl A did not manage to even get a podium finish. Girl A burnt out at the end and stopped competing, Girl B is still winning championships right now as I typed this out.

The reason is simple. Kids develop at different ages and some develops faster while some are late bloomers. When they join competition with similar age groupers, especially the very very young ones will definitely have a very obvious advantage if they’re more physically developed.

Girl A found success with her flailing freestyle because she grew up physically faster than the rest of the same age and ignored the technique aspect of swimming.

As they grew older and advanced to the older groups, the physical advantage will be more or less balanced out and the one final aspect that will give you the true advantage will be how efficient and economical your stroke is.

Swimming, being the finesse sport that it is, if techniques are not properly imparted to the swimmers at young age with strict discipline, the bad habits are going to stay for life.

And not only does the bad habit stays, but as you get more and more obsessed with training up your power and strength and endurance while neglecting your technique, all those power will turn against you in the way of drag and resistance underwater thus compounding the situation even further.

We coaches have to be extremely responsible for these stages of maturity and development when we coach our kids...

For us adults, we have to learn that as we age gracefully, the absolute power will sooner or later be loss, it is the efficiency that will ultimately buy us our bragging rights so its better to work our ass off your stroke now than let people laugh at us when our power fail us and we look more like drowning than swimming yup. =)

Cheers
KK

02032011 swim squad

2011-03-05T23:23:00.001+08:00

Apologies for the late update.. been hit by the flu virus and really tired lately to crank up something constructive.

Swim squad was really easy and it was again about doing the catch -- pull -- push sequence right. This time, I added a little speed work to it to make things slightly more challenging but ironically, easier to achieve. Before I start the nagging and stuffs, I am gonna do some blabbering about my coaching development thus far as I felt that this is a breakthrough period for myself both as a coach and as a swimmer.

I noticed that when we go through 1 phase of super theoretical lesson, we should follow up with one that exercises a lot of control over our movements.. repeat them at torturing slow speed to ensure accuracy.. then (with trust and by faith) hoping that they did go home to think about what we went through.. we follow up again with one that does not control the effort of swim to smoothen out the stroke parts we changed.

Very often, swimming skills have to be taught and imparted by FEEL, not just by theory and practices. That is a skill that I pride myself with as a coach (I believe there are also many coaches out there who teach like this and have met success) and I firmly believe that when we impart by guiding them to feel what is correct, one can pick up what may seem like a skill that only talented sportsmen can have.

More often than not I see coaches at pool asking children to go up and down the pool with their board in weird awkward positions that does not teach them how to make use of water to give them buoyancy.. and when their boards are taken away from them, they do not know how to activate "pressing on their build-in buoy" to help them stay afloat.

I also see very loud coaches who just kept shouting at their kids for doing something that seem like an easy feat for the coach but the kid just have no idea what in the hell are the coach trying to achieve with THAT KID'S LIMBS. Seriously, get them to feel what you feel, and you'll get them to do what you want them to do surprisingly quick. Of course it is not easy as every unique individual perceives differently a same logic/thought.. and as kids, their logic may be limited at that very moment just like we are right now and need time. We have to be patient with the slow learners, but firm with the players.

By teaching, I have also developed a keen sense of feel when watching somebody execute a movement or skill to see if it is coordinated and followed through in the correct force output direction. Being a late bloomer in swimming also allowed me to relate to these learners how they feel when they do a certain thing wrongly. And that has helped me in turn to impart a skill very quickly to adults and children alike.

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Moving on to the swim squad training's focus...

It has been quite a while since they have experienced some breakthroughs in speed and stroke length.. And isn't it unbelievable that some of them are making improvements like a 12 seconds improvements in 2 days time just because he finally FEEL what i'm trying to impart?

Developing a feel for all movements sports is important, and it is even MORE critical in movements in water. The single reason being we're suspended in the water with nothing to plant our limbs on to exert force in whichever direction we want to go.

That has directly resulted in a fact that a difference in pitch angles of your palm facing backwards even in a small degree can cause a drastic change in the amount of water you can "grab and hold" throughout your arm stroke.

Yes, I meant throughout the WHOLE arm stroke, FROM ENTRY TO EXIT, we have to be mindful of how our palms are placed relative to the direction we're moving and also our body position because of our limited joints R.O.M..

In addition to how the palms are facing backwards, we have to actually ensure the speed of the pull is in the right sequence -- start slow til catch --> gradually build up speed at in sweep --> limb movements speed drop a little then explode backwards with the up sweep twice as fast as the catch.

While controlling the limb velocity, we need also to control the direction of the force applied. Do not confuse this with the palm facing directions. Even with the palm facing parallel backwards you can still apply force to the side using your forearms if you choose to do so by simply moving the limbs slightly to the wrong directions.

Having said the above, it is such a intricate matter that one has to put in the practice consciously and with top grade awareness before he or she can feel what's possible to be compromised towards his R.O.M and also what cannot be compromised in the stroke but need to work on the flexibility or strength conditioning.

What we did in the swim squad was simple. Using stroke count versus timing to gauge if you can get more out of the same number of stroke counts. We first get the minimum number of strokes one can get without kicking.

The reason I choose to do it without kicking is because the human nature is to use the kick to help flotation but the correct way to keep one's hips afloat and the body hugging the surface even with limb movements is to press on the buoy and use the core muscles in the back (erector spinae, glutes, hamstrings, calves) to do an Isometric hold while we stroke.

Then we aim to get a faster timing with the exact number of strokes by focusing on grabbing more water at the front end with a slower movement and end with a stronger push. Most were able to squeeze about 3-4 of seconds out of the harder push...

Then we allow a slightly higher number of pulls and hope to achieve 10 seconds lesser with 2 strokes more (still without the kick). It is of course impossible but saying that gives an idea of how hard we're really trying to get a good grip of water before we can do anything about moving the water backwards to travel frontwards. Most shaved about 6 seconds off their usual hard swim without kick timing AND PEOPLE ARE STILL ABLE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT TIREDNESS - which means they're not really tired....

Then we compare against a flat out sprint and most were able to get another 6-7 seconds less with a huge increase in stroke rate and kicks..

Then we justify if the 7 seconds per lap multiplied by 30 to give a 1.5km distance will give a 210 seconds saving (3mins+) and finish the swim extremely tired with still bike and run to go... doesn't really sound right.

So we concluded that we should work towards perfecting that hard glide effort of swim instead of flat out sprints for triathlons because that is just not what is required of triathlons. We have to be able to get AS MUCH TIME OUT AS POSSIBLE with the most efficient stroke we can afford.

That efficiency comes by first maintaining good lateral/streamline body position, TREMENDOUS good feel of gripping the water at the front end of the stroke and a powerful push phase at the last part of the arm stroke.. and excellent muscular control to immediately let go and relax the EPICALLY powerful pushing arm for a tofu like recovery.. and lastly good core strength to rotate the hip to the other side to repeat the process again and again And Again.

Enjoy the mind boggling week guys. Check my facebook status if you wish to know more Details about the pull. DISCUSS among yourself in facebook THEN ASK ME. I don't wanna repeatedly explain the same thing again and again.. too painful on my brain to even digest that shit when i'm sick.

Peace,
KK