Swim Training - 280110!

2 groups:
Pauline, Robert, Wilson and KH
4X50 as Free Breast Free Breast
4x50 as drills:
1) KoS 25 Left, 25 Right
2) Catchup
3) 4 pull 1 breathe (For stroke symetry check)
4) Touch ear high elbow FS

6x50, 30sec on last person

100 Breast cooldown

KK
Sam
Gen
Lawrence
Marianne
Jiawei
Leon

warmup:
300 as 2(100free+50back/breast)

Main set:
10x50 on 1:15
5x200 on 5:30

100 breast cooldown

1.8KM for second group
800m for first group.

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Can see the tiredness from those doing 5x200m. It is quite taxing especially for those doing it the first time and only hae about 30seconds to 40seconds rest. I personally hate this sets but did them at 4:15 until i grew to love them.
I feel that they push my aerobic and anaerobic capacity pretty hard when I go hard at them for 5 sets. I almost always recover and find myself stronger in my subsequent swim after doing every 5x200.
It was great seeing everyone going 5min and below for every set. *Happy*


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Group 1, I thought there was a little more rest than there should be. But then, its ok as for now, your stroke technique is most important and thus being fresher beats doing the laps just to clock mileage.
Also, there were some confusion in doing the drills.. its ok, i will smoothen out once you join the training more often. :)

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Individually:

Robert, Pauline, KH and Wilson.
I can see generally that Breathing pattern's a problem, that's why I introduced the 1357911 secs bubbling. Practicing as a group will ease the feeling of being treated like a kid.

Robert:
Improvement is present after you started activating the core and breathing slightly faster. There're still loads of room for improvement especially in the streamlining aspect and breathing control and power exertion + relaxation control. Check the video entry after this for more info.


Pauline:
Silky like satin strokes enables you to swim pretty fast but then you're still out of breathe. After analysing your video, I found that you're breathing REALLY short breathes! Open the mouth to breathe!!!!!! Nobody will say its unglam one la...
You have to take yoga breathes (into your tummy) every stroke you take! That way, fresh oxygen will help you relax and swim better! TRY IT!


KH:
When I first saw your swim tonight, I was like "Wow... not bad eh..".. It was impressive, I bet Wilson share the same sentiment but he's a dragonboater (plus he's always heaving 45kg worth of load up into the sky as a cheerleader) and you're a gamer... so he definitely stronger than you in terms of strength. Still, as per spoken at our computer table, you should try to exert lesser force and focus on streamlining like what Pauline is doing. She is taking in incredibly little amount of oxygen each time she breathe and she can still last the whole length of the pool, it shows she's not exerting any much amount of force. *Robert and Wilson please take note, you guys are doing the opposite when tired, DEEP BIG HEAVY BREATHES PLUS SUPERMAN STRENGTH KINDA PULLS.*


Wilson:
I see vast improvement in your swim but the flexibility around the shoulder area and limited ROM from the tricep and lats ought to change to allow for more room of improvements. I believe any swim coach in SK will say your swim's pretty good but its stiff. I can specifically pinpoint to you which muscle group is "shortened" in terms of Range of Motion. Contact me on FRIDAY gym session after my swim for more info. Core strength is also a challenge for swims above 50 or 75 I believe.

Tips: Look at the mirror with your hands at your side, you'll see your knuckles are forward facing, it shows tight chest and weak back, anterior rotation of shoulder and thus causing inability to activate lats at 100%. You gotta keep the shoulders back if you need some REAL POWER *Ouuhhhh Yeah...*


Lawrence:

This is one consistent swimmer I'm seeing here. I can tell you probably know the work of pacing as well or possibly even better than me does.

I can see you are CHILL in all 5x200. If nobody notice that, its because they're not as chill as you were.

I got no complaints but just praises so I'll keep that to myself to prevent any ball carrying here.

Keep up the good work. Your MTB fitness is starting to come in to swimming as you master the stroke better.

Just like you said, reduce on the kick, keep them straight and together, let the body be streamline and just pull through it. In the pool, try to keep the head lower as it s a little on the high side even when you're not breathing (looking in front to check traffic i suppose) but it can become a bad habit if you just keep practicing swimming that way. :)


Leon:

Awesome swim! The fact that you know your strokes won't holding up well is good sign that you're learning the importance of the stroke in immediate reference to your swim speed.

From what I can see from my side when I swim, your pull is REALLY SHORT. take a look at the upload of vid and pic later, there is a picture where pauline is doing a short pull. with the thumb exiting at the hip area.. you're doing just that.

That happens when swimmer tries to increase stroke rate beyond the limit when they can still pull all the way back and maintain a good pull form.

Remember that speed gains come from these:
Stroke length (the strength of your pull with Good technique) + Stroke rate (This only count if your stroke length is good, imagine doing 1000 pulls of 10cm movement...hmmmMMmm.. -_-.. )

When you're tired, you have to learn to be patient to actually slow down your movements. That way, you'll get faster. If you just increase the stroke rate to compensate the drop of form, you'll just create MORE drag.

Ask wilson:
"Don't fight the water... because...?"
Wilson: "You'll never win!"

It's always giving you cubic form of resistance.. how strong you are, its cubic times stronger.. thus it only make sense to go with the flow when you're tired and running out of strength. To pull gently and make use of hydrodynamic and streamlining. Think about it and I hope to see some improvement in the next swim!

PS: Stop chasing the girls la.. brush up the strokes first, gen's probably stronger than you (she can smash the shuttle with the badminton racket until the RACKET BREAK. Beat that.)... Sam's mileage in the pool probably wins EVERYONE OF US in the pool.. I highly doubt her good stroke endurance is gonna give way anytime soon. :Pp

Work on your stroke, you'll see wonderful things happening.

Hope to see you on my side during the swims soon. :)


Sam:
Damn, you're becoming a threat.. I'm only 25seconds faster than you on 200s... haha.. 4min flat for 200m on the 5th set was impressive even though your fast swim meant you have more than 1 min of rest between each set.:) I'm so proud of you.
I thought you held out really finely on the 10x50, very clever to go slow there but you're still under 59seconds for all the 10x50!

5x200:
1) 4:19
2) 4:15
3) 4:12
4) 4:07
5) 4:00

Perfect pace! Try to go consistent on 4:15. :)


Marianne:

5x200 was a new experience eh? But its getting a little nuah already, You're doing 4:48 for ALL 5 SETS! Good relaxed pacing. It isn't reallY a pace but you're probably just letting the body do its job at a Comfortable pace. Our muscles don't have memory but your body's nervous system does. AKA Your brain is very comfortable with your body doing 1min 6secs 50m, 2m23secs 100m and 4m48secs of 200m. If i did not remember wrongly, all your swims are same timing all the time.

Time to push it a little. When its 50, nothing much you can do. But once more than 1 lap, you can play the easy-go-hard-return game. Look below for explanation.

I'd give you credit for the stroke improvement! Pulls seems longer now but you should really swim beside gen and sam because they're masters of gliding and they're around the same speed as you at the beginning.. just by rotating to the side to see how they swim will help you gain lots of insights on how long they stay on their side to swim.<----- EVERYONE please take not too.


Gen:

Injuries are creeping up as far as I can see. Hamstring and shoulders are usually the first to go.
Stretching is your best bet now. Contact me for more info on where to stretch. I don't trust sam on remembering this. Sorry dear.

Also, pulling back your shoulder whilst pulling is important too since weak shoulder is evident in your family.

I find your pull really short at times and you tend to glide more on one side than another. I couldn't see clearly as you were pretty far on the side and water was murky. Still I got a feeling you're gliding much longer on the non breathing side. Stroke symmetry is KEY if you need distance per stroke.
Go do the math yourself... if you do 2.5m of gliding per side then you'll only need 20 strokes to finish 50m, but if you do 2.5m on the right and only 1.25m on the left then you'll need 26.5 strokes.

If you're going to catch your sister then that 6.5 strokes is gonna cost you a total of 26 strokes per 200m. Do 5 sets and you're doing 130 strokes more. No wonder you're getting slower and not faster despite being so strong.


Jia Wei:
When I saw your first 50m of the 10, I saw myself when it was 3 months back. Back then I still believed when I swim fast, my hands and legs has to move as fast or faster than a speed boat's rotor. But it turns out the opposite and I was glad I learn it through an experiment of 2x500m Time Trial swims I did on my own. I did the first one with flying arms and legs (each lap getting more and more in terms of quantity of stroke cycles as I want to go faster and finish strong)... then the second set of 500m, I did with more gliding + HARD push phase of every pull. Note that there was only 2min of rest in between and the second set I did SIGNIFICANTLY LESSER AMOUNT OF PULLS.

Guess wat?

1ST 500M: 9:55
2nd 500M: 9:47

I had it in my training log if you need proof I can show you, sam was there to watch too.

When we do long D swim, it is vital that we can maintain our stroke length with good ratio to our energy expenditure over time. You can see for yourself that the swim was gradually deteoriating through the first 5 of the 10x50m. If still in doubt, we can try it again when your hamstring gets better.

I personally feel that you should glide more, use your bull strength sparingly and you'll definitely be able to outswim lots of us. You got a GOOD catch and pull position. I can really see you holding and anchoring onto the water at the beginning of the pull but its a pity you always die off after 17.5m as the anaerobic is already used up. Just imagine if you can maintain a lower stroke rate, at AEROBIC threshold and not Anaerobic... You should be able to maintain that speed much longer. :)

Hope you'll come more often if you're willing and we can share more! :)
Remember that this swim clinic is for triathlons and long D swims.. no longer 3:15 or 4:15 or 6mins of rescue oh.. :)


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For those maintaining same pace all the time, it is inevitable the pace will slow down despite still feeling comfortable. Its like lifting a 5kg dumbbell, you can lift it for 10times then on the 11th time you're struggling, you pick up a 4kg dumbbell and you'll be able to continue lifting.

In swimming, the dumbbell's weight is equivalent to the resistant of the water and the harder you pull, the more the resistant, ie heavier the dumbbells.

For example,When you're doing the first lap, you'll apply 5kg of strength to do x number of pulls to reach 50m and lets say your timing is 1min. As you do more laps, your muscles will tire out, and then the common thing to do is to swim in a way that is still comfortable, as comfortable as the first lap. How?

If you need comfort to remain when strength has already dropped, you will have to carry a 4kg dumbbell, Ie doing a shorter pull or applying lesser force per pull.

Then? the timing will increase for each lap and you get slower.

Thus, for those who wants to break out of that sack and just push it a little, i recommend you take the 50m timings I've taken your moderate effort swims and just multiply by 4 and try to aim for that timing or lesser for your 200m repeats.

If you're doing 1min moderate swim 50m. Then do a 4minutes 200m swim. You'll probably find that 1 min for first lap is easy, and to get 1min again on the second lap continuously will be slightly harder and on the 3rd lap and 4th lap you may be busting your lungs out a little just to hit 1min per lap.

Have fun trying. :) Oh, and for a goal, I'm doing 3:30 for about 85% of my max effort for 200m. Its pretty slow in terms of a Pure swimmer but it should be suffice for you guys to aim for until august or end of year(unless you train 7 days a week and clock 70km on swim mileage a week then you'll probably overtake me in a couple of months. :P)!

:)

Cheers
KK