Wilson's reflections... plus some pointers for all.

"My reflection on swim training.

I felt really awesome to be able to be able to glide through the first few 6 X50m warm up. It took me a while to break away from my normal ‘power- through the water via dragon boat strength’ (A.K.A Raw Strength) swimming style. I find that what Coach KK said was really true: no matter how hard we fight against the water, we will never win.

At the beginning of the main training segment, stretching and gliding through the water was relatively easy. A lot of focus was placed on reaching as far as I could and holding on to that position to glide.

However, as the number of laps increases, more and more concerns came popping into my head. Issues and thoughts such as: ‘drinking in water instead of taking in air, accidently colliding into people (obstacles) without knowing & I’ve done 50m and another still got another 150m to go!? 0_0’ kept me away from focusing on my body posture and strokes.

As a result, I reverted back to my old self by trying to power through the water (with really bad body postures) to complete my laps. It drained me out a lot faster. I’m sure there will be 101 more concerns I will have when swimming in open waters during competition day but I’ll just have to stay focus on my strokes and not freaked out! (more practice needed)

Finally, I’m happy to be able to swim for 200m without stopping (good job to James too!) It really blows me away! I’m very sure that this is the start of many other 200ms I’ll conquer along the way! Till next time 
Cheers!
Wilson."

Looking at how you progressed from day 1 when Lawlaw brought you along.. I am MORE THAN PROUD of what you can do now.. It is nothing short of amazing and those who saw you right from day 1, will know I ain't kidding nor lying..:) Of course there's a long way to go.. and the most important thing here is that you know that and you accept that. That way, improvement will come in heaps in no time! Jiayou!

So from this practice we can see that Wilson lacks mental focus. Sam too, have weak mental focus like yours in sports.. but we have to remember that it is in a controlled environment that we're practicing in.. thus if there's something for us to focus on, it is NOW.

One thing for sure, if you can't shut out everything else and think SOLELY about your strokes, then you'd Defintiely NOT be able to do so in the open sea.

I purposely didn't let you guys swim in 1 lane (so other's will know where to avoid us) because in open water swims, you won't bump into a grumpy auntie or a sexy chao ah lian.. the person probably will kick you in the face. and the best part? They did that without knowing they actually do and you got no one to blame. :Pp Better to practice now and get used to bumpy swims.....

Okay, Seriously, being able to do 200m repeats is more than good enough for 750m swims in race.

If you guys read marianne's comments in her facebook, she said "I haven't been doing 30laps one shot for a long time!"... And yet she did a respectable 35minutes 1.5km swim in the end!

The point is this... When you do swim training, we seldom do LONNNGG swims because of how much performance is weighed on the TECHNIQUE compared to the stamina.

Repeats of shorter laps with rest in between allows swimmers to accomplish MORE in terms of having fresher neuro-muscular coordination (i.e. good strokes from your mental thinking to controlling your muscles)... and having shorter rest with higher efforts trains the cardiorespiratory systems just as hard, if not harder than just plain long swims.

Given 500m time trial versus 5x100 hard effort swims with 10secs rest, I'd rather do 5x100 even though it'll hurt more in short burst swims.. for the plain reason that it is more boring to wack the water for 10 laps straight without resting and taking a break. :Pp Like i said, the heart still pump, your lung still need to breathe.. so even with the short rest, the result of number of heart beat is probably the same or even higher, plus you get better strokes due to the muscular rest!

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Lawrence's cramp condition, I will take a look into and research something useful for you once I have the time. I am really impressed with your fitness. Now that your stroke is better, your cardiorespiratory fitness from MTB is coming into play. Yes there is no link between MTB and SWIMS, but your heart and lung does the same job.. if you can hit 5beats above your maximum heart rate, You're a DAMN FIT veteran I tell ya.

Having said that, yes I will watch my back in the SG Bi. :Pp

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Marianne...
When I watch from atop, you're pulling an average of about 10 to 15 strokes more than sam but you're not exactly catching up. Even if she's stronger than you in terms of strength (i don't know if its because she mastered how to use her back muscles).. your 10 to 15 strokes should be able to compensate and bring you right beside her or at least on her toes!

After giving it some thoughts and observing your pulling... Your left arm pull is not catching a lot of water at all. In fact, it is just going THROUGH the water instead of the anchoring motion I've been telling you guys.

One very easy solution for you.. when you're swimming by yourself.. Do ALOT of fist swims.
You NEED to build up water feel for your palms so you'll know how to pitch the palm for the catch phase of the pull. 50m fist swim, 50m normal swim will be good repeats. Do 10 if you feel like it. When you change from fist swim to normal swim, you need to slow down on the starting part of the pull.. and feel your palm pressing onto a semi solid fluid space and then hold on to that space with your palm and pull your whole body through that space.

Do it slow.. then you'll feel it better.

Feedback to me if you understand what i'm saying and how you're doing with it. I need to know how you're feeling about that practice and if you really get what I mean.. in order to help you.

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KH's swim is really pretty good. The only fault I can find is the inability to shake away the panicky feeling that hits you when you experience shortness of breathes. This inability will cause you to have EVEN SHORTER breathes... so its a vicious cycle that eats into your energy tank. let me know if that is correct.

You're doing a good job on the back float and resting on the move.. Right now, you're just going through a first training session.. justl ike running, your arms endurance will build up.. and gradually the swims will feel easier. It is different for Wilson as he had cheerleading base thrower and dragon boating background and thus strength is already a plus point for him wherelse your plus point is your brain from the games you play.. :D

Be patient, keep practicing and talk to me about the feelings about your swim and the issues.. with our brotherhood chemistry, i'm pretty sure I can help you resolve whatever problems you face quickly as you understand me REAL easily. :) From these conscious minded and super awareness practices, your endurance of your arms and body will go up and that's how your swim's going to improve. :)

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Last but not least, the person i'm gonna comment on is James. Good job on the continuous breathing! I can see the conscious effort is paying off and you can now swim reasonably well without the nose clips and ear plugs!

Still, breathing in and out with the mouth and nose respectively requires practice to make them second nature and panick-free. It applies to you, wilson and KH and all beginners. This is a point that alot of beginners tend to miss out.. even coaches, they don't teach proper breathing feelings.

I find your stroke to be rather robotic too as in too controlled. Try to just throw your elbow in front after your pull instead of really coming out of the water as a spear and bringing it in front in a really controlled manner then piercing it through and reaching forward.

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To all:

As per all sports.. mastering a technique means you can do it as a second nature. Notice when I demo, I never wear goggles and I can't see I also can do.. it means that I've gained a certain comfort and confidence level in what I can do in the water. Aim for that... Be patient and keep trying.. the good things will come !!!!

Cheers
KK