An open discussion about swimming.

I read from a magazine some very intriguing thoughts which I first found ridiculous to almost a turn-off but I re-read it again to make sure I get the most info out of what the author is trying to express.

The article was about using a continuous pulling stroke is better in the open water swimming and to erase thoughts completely (stating thinking is the worst enemy of open water swim.).. just shut the mind off and keep pulling.

What do you think? The following is what I think.

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Redefining Swimming Efficiency.

Firstly, lets go back to the era before Ian Thorpe (The mid distance olympic gold medalists). Thorpe is the guy who kind of introduced the gliding-style of swimming into the swimming world. Or rather, he's using the front-quadrant freestyle swim instead of a continuous arm pull kind of freestyle swim.

*Definition of "Front Quadrant Swim": Keeping the lead arm extended until the hand of the recovering arm reaches slightly beyond forehead, then lead arm starts pulling.

*Definition of "continuous arm pull FS": Upon recovery of the arm that finished pulling, the lead arm will start the catch phase immediately and both arms will not be catching up with each other. When one arm finish, the other starts working.

So, before the introduction of front quadrant swim, swimmers like Alexander Popov are using the continuous arm pull FS. This lead to an argument/discussion between those two type of swimming techniques.

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The views below are from my personal knowledge acquired from reading and extensive digestion of what I've read. Some books to quote are , , and many more online articles that I've found in my constant research (even til now).
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Some points to consider when talking about swimming efficiently.

1) Law of Inertia
- It takes energy to move an object that is stationary
- It takes energy to change the direction of a moving object
- It takes energy to stop a moving object
- A moving object will tend to keep moving until a resistant force is applied to stop it

2) Personal Aerobic/Anaerobic Capacity, Or how fit are you?
- Fitness of swimming is defined by the ability to swim fast over a specified/required distance. And in order to do that, it is imperative to that one need to be able to hold a streamlined body position and consistent power output.

3) Streamlining
- Reducing body-decelerating drag is the cheapest way to swimming fast (no increase in power output needed + speed gain).

There are 3 types of drag.

i) Friction Drag

Friction drag:
Also known as form drag. It is the resistance caused by the contours of our body(streamlining or the lack of) and friction of our skin (notice our body is unlike that of sea snake or fishes that are smooth and allows water to pass by easily). Take note this drag is also the reason why our pull can make us move.


ii) Wave Drag

Wave Drag:
Occurs when the swimmer or any object moves through the surface of a liquid. The pressure around the swimmer’s body increases because of the different water velocities, which result in waves. These waves can be problematic because the amplitude of the waves increases with the swimmer’s speed so there is more resistance as the swimmer goes faster.

iii) Pressure Drag

Pressure Drag:
As the speed of the swimmer increases, pressure drag becomes a factor. The faster the swimmer is moving, there is increased pressure on the front region of the body (the head). This increase causes a pressure difference between the two ends of the body and results in turbulence.


4) Rest point in strokes
- Being a firm believer in active rest, I believe every cardio sport have a recovery point of which the working muscles can take a rest and let momentum or its bilateral component take over for a short while.

E.g: Cycling in a pack at constant speed whilst keeping up with the leader. Just give one uber hard pedal and let the wheels spin freely for a couple of seconds, you got 2 seconds rest!

Swimming FS - After finish pulling, allow the arm to rest at the side and glide for a bit, you're still moving and you get the rest whilst not moving.
Or After finish pulling and upon recovery, work on a superbly relaxed recovery such that minimal energy is used during the recovery phase, you get the rest as you recover!

Running. Whilst leaning forward as a plank, just lift your heel towards your butt til its near parallel to the floor and let the feet land. Every step is almost effortless as long as you do it with a gentle lift and let gravity do its job whilst you lean forward, instead of exploding off your toes on every step. Endless running made possible!

5) Ensuring energy used on forces applied is solely for propelling the body forward/towards the desired direction

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Is there really a difference between open water stroke and still (pool) water stroke? Or is it all about quantum physics of moving an object through water and applying the rules of the different laws accordingly?

Taking into consideration of moving through the still peaceful water in the pool, the only resistance or "worry-factor" that comes into play is from the water itself and your body contour/skin friction.

When swimming in open water, the following factors come into play:
i) sea waves
ii) Numerous people swimming with you
iii) Additional Floatation due to salt water/wetsuit (if allowed in race)
iv) Impaired visibility

Is there a need to change from gliding strokes to the continuous pulling stroke? If there is, why the change?

Lets review the pros and cons of changing from one stroke to another and how it affects the swimmer relative to the water condition.

Gliding strokes:
Pros
- More rest per stroke (recovery phase + gliding phase when one arm is at the side of body (whole body is doing nothing))
- More distance travelled per stroke
- Lesser overall stroke count per whole swim
- Lower heart rate count per whole swim

Cons
- Depending on the power output per stroke AND the consistency of power output per stroke throughout a whole swim, the speed may maintain or drop (if there's a drop in power output due to fatigue) due to a drop in gliding distance and velocity per stroke.
- Gliding to a decelerating state incur a need to reaccelerate each stroke. According to Law of Inertia, energy per stroke is actually used to accelerate instead of maintaining a constant speed (which according to the law to inertia again, is easier to do as a moving object will tend to keep moving in the same direction).

Non gliding strokes (Continuous pulling):
Pros
- Faster swim speed. (as long as the stroke length maintains (consistent power output per pull over the whole swim), an increase in stroke rate (pulls/minute) will make the swim velocity increase)
- Rest at the recovery phase

Cons
- Increasing stroke rate often result in shortness of breathe
- Increasing stroke rate + Maintenance of stroke length is difficult due to the effort of continuous exertion
- Increasing stroke rate often result in "shortcut" pull path


Qn: Will gliding longer expose your body that is moving through the water MORE to the elements of open water swim, such as people thrashing you and sea wave to alter your swim speed and direction? Will doing the opposite help?
No.
1) Whether or not you're pulling continuously, people will be thrashing you at the start of a swim.
2) Even if you pull continuously without the gliding phase, the sea wave will still hit you on and on and alter the position of your body. Even though pulling continuously can cause a spike in body velocity through the water, the sea wave will still affect the position of body regardless of the forward velocity. In fact, looking at the definition of Wave Drag, the amplitude of the waves increases with the swimmer’s speed so there is more resistance as the swimmer goes faster.
3) The only pros comparing gliding stroke and non gliding stroke is probably (when technique is perfect and one's power output can be consistent) the increase in swim speed.

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Triathletes being triathletes, we should be innovative and implement both strokes accordingly to the different stuations that can occur in an open water swim. In the event when you need to sprint pass a group/chase a lead pack or leader, use the non gliding stroke and get pass that phase fast. In a open path situation, use the gliding stroke to conserve some energy and still travel at a consistent speed. Upon the "rest period" with the gliding strokes, one can use the continuous pulling stroke again to chase more people at the front or get a better timing.

Personally I feel that it is not advisable for beginners or even normal age group triathletes in general without a strong swim base to be using the continuous pulling swim stroke throughout the whole swim leg. I personally find that it takes up way too much air out of oneself in the shortest leg of the competition and that may impede the performance of the later legs. Not really a fair trade off in my own opinion.

Feel free to drop your comments.

Cheers
KK

Apologies for the delay in swim squad review. Am in the build phase of Aviva training and taking up alot of time to train and rest.. :( This is the best piece of info I could squeeze out of my drying brain after a gruesome swim just now.

Will update ASAP.

Swim Squad - 10/2/2010

Jiawei
Marianne
Gen
Sam
Leon
Me

W/U
300m swim (100 fs,100bs,100fs)
200m pull
100m kick

M/S
3x100, on 2:20
30 sec rest
3x100, on last person + 5sec rest

3x200 on 4:45

C/D
200m easy mixed

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KH
Wilson
Pauline
Robert
Teck Beng
Kian ming

Warm up:
4x 25m free 25m breast
200

Pyramid: 25-100-25 20sec rest OTOT
400

10x50 15sec rest OTOT
500

200m TT

Continuous swim
300m breast stroke/free

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Review:
All these observations are made whilst I was swimming up and down.

Robert:
- stroke was ok every first half lap of the swim
- after which, breathing became gasping for air (too hard breathing in, should be relaxed as per easy run breathe in 2steps, breathe out 4steps)
- took too long to gasp for air, as a result body sink after breathing ends
- that in turn caused body to be deep and thus the next breathe to be difficult and you have to pull harder , COME UP HIGHER to breathe... The higher you comes out of water, the deeper you get and the vicious cycle continues.

-solution: more conscious time spent in water by yourself to discover what works for you and is comfortable.


Pauline:
I thought the stroke was beautiful but it lacks a bit of force. I think it's high time you try to push it a little to see exactly how fast you can get for 50m of hard pull + gliding..:)

When I hear the timing of 200TT, I'd already know you went pretty hard on the first 50 and then felt like you could carry on the same effort on the 2nd 50, then strokes properly starts to breakdown from the third and fourth 50 due to oxygen debt and never train speed endurance before yet..

It's good to know you feel like you can still hold yourself together in the 200m TT as that means you know what you doing and is in a state of conscious incompetency.. You should be able to swim like fish once you go through some hard swims! :)

Wilson:
Good job on the 200m TT of 4:45.
1:07
1:12
1:16
1:10
For 200m set, its usually a challenge to maintain stroke length + amount of force applied on the third lap onwards (its different from perceived rate of exertion... you will have to consciously pull harder).. You'll soon be training with us!!! :D

Issues:
No hang time! Especially when tired.. Don't pull with your left arm when breathing!!
Pulling still with straight arm, looks like shoulder flexibility issue to me though. Right now you're in the "can swim" category and threads a thin line between staying like that to clock average timing or be disciplined enough to look into your mistakes persistently EVERY SINGLE F-KING pull you do. I chose the latter. :)

Teck Beng:
Next week you're joining our group! When I saw you swim pass, I thought "who is this guy? Leon? Looks longer leh.. Quite fast what.".. Haha..
I felt like your kick can be improved and I still don't know how well you fare when doing sets of 200s.. The good news is being able to clock below 4:30 (you did 4.15 to be exact) for 200, that is a pretty good thing to do, next step will be to learn how to maintain that over longer distance! We'll see how you fare next week in sets of 200s! (ooops, is that what the next training is about? hehehe..)

KH:
Your pulls are picture perfect under the water most of the time. In fact the swim too.. Which is why you kept feeling how come I'm doing the same thing as you but you don't seem to be moving.. The reason is when you're fresh, you can know what you're doing and have full control... But when you're tired, you lack mental awareness of what was changed by yourself to compromise to your breathelessness.. Things you did when your stroke broke down are below:
1) left arm pulling when breathing.. Should wait til right arm finish pulling straight and come pass forehead then start.
2) left arm pulling straight down.. must have high elbow catch water position..
3) left arm not doing anything but just going through motion.. Next time swim warm up with 25m of fist swim by clenching your fingers of left hand together tightly then open up for second half of the lap.. You'll feel an improved feel for catching water and that'll help your left hand..:)
4) right arm push (2nd part of pull) phase is shortened and thus also your breathing time.
5) kick open too wide, you need easy and fast tap -the-water-and-go kinda kick.. Not hard kick focused solely on downward force.
6) sometimes when you noticed you're rushing things, you will finish your breahe and bring your right arm back side by side with your left arm and go into a fully extended flat position.. That caused body to sop moving and thus the problem caused by law of inertia.
To correct that, remember that rest time is when you're on your side gliding! Not flat!

Next week we work on threading water.
For your breast stroke, try to do it in short laps at shallow pool.. once you feel struggling, stand up, reset and do again. Remember, the arm extended in front, FOR EVERY STROKE, is supposed to be relaxed and straight. A dead weightless arm is what they call it.

As for breaststroke breathing, work on the below:
Stay on the surface..
once you're just underneathe the surface, you can use your neck to get out of water to breathe.
Thus you won't be shifting the whole back out against the water! :)
Any questions, let me know!

Kian Ming:
You got SERIOUS issues in the below points:
1) Streamlining from fingertip to toe.. your body is literally CRUMPLED!
2) Changing the bad habit of sprinting... you have to glide more...
3) Not used to doing the 2 beat kick per pull
4) Head too high out of water when breathing. Causing hip to sink and body to slow. Try to aim for half a face out of water.

Work on the above points first and you'll be able to improve A WHOLE LOT. trust me. Reducing drag is KEY to fast swimming.

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Marianne:
I am guessing between these two options for your feelings during the 3x200m...

1) You feel so sianz abt the laps that you don't feel motivated to push yourself to go harder.. (Just like how sam feels sianz about her running that she stop at half a round and feel like she can't go on mentally.)

2) You can't feel your arms already and thus you could barely move the arms through the water... and you're just going through the motion in your pull.... no more strength... thus can't go any faster even in the last set?

Which one is it?
If its the first one, I could only help you by telling you "only you can help yourself! and i think you should use jiawei as a goal as you're really almost as fast as he is and just need a little bit more to be on par in longer distances!"

If it is the second, then I'd suggest you do one more extra swim in the week by yourself.. just easy to moderate swim, no need hard effort.. just clocking the mileage and polishing stroke kinda laps.. probably 20 will do... That should increase your arm endurance by quite a lot.

Sam:
Told you fatigue is accumulative. Even though this is a build week in your program, you should really try to have enough rest and feel strong through the practices.. Doing 3 days of swims just won't give you quality strokes at all for now. Endurance will increase no doubt.. but make sure you stay very conscious in your swim!:)

At the last 2 200s I saw your knee bend getting from bad to worst and breathing becoming very high out of water and your body is literally sinking all the time! Thus the dropped timing...

When you train in a structured program, you have to see the program as a whole and pace yourself in your trainingS. For example, if i have a L3 run tomorrow and a swim today. I won't be going all out during the swim unless I have a rest day after the run which can allow me to rest well. In your situation its easy as you're training just 6 days a week. It gets more complicated when you train 9 times a week... Jiayou in learning ok!

Good thing that you corrected your stroke in the shoulder injury prevention part... sometimes, consciously tweaking your stroke to see what works in removing/reducing the bugging ache in the joints will help. Looks like you've grown pretty good in being aware with your own body!

Anyway, Great swim nonetheless! I'm scared. :Pp

Leon:
You're improving HEAPS in this short amount of time! I think your main issue lies in the shoulder flexibility--> bad recovery.. also, you tend to bury your head into the water when you're tired.. as per described by me after the swim.. the spine alignment thingy. Let me know if you don't understand and I'll help you out.

You got good endurance and your body weight is great for triathlon sport.. Keep training smart and hard! You'll make it big someday if you keep at it I believe!

Gen:
Swimming fast over a distance over 50m requires you to pace yourself over a WHOLE SET. Going all out in the first set then allowing yourself to get slower meaning you're being controlled by your pace.. I always believe in having control over every elements you know.

An example of what happen if you're being controlled by your energy/pacing is exactly what happened this training.. You cramped up and couldn't finish the training.
During a race, if we can't finish the distance, you'd be DNF. Did Not Finish. Whatever reasoning we can give to soothe our ego/pride/face... the fact is that once you're busted, thats it - You're Gone, DNF will still be DNF.

Despite all of the above, I still have to applause for your swim as they're indeed really FAST and POWERFUL in the 50 to 100m region.
If you can learn to master this power and how to spread the energy capacity over the distances properly, you'll have a very even fast timing for every set and still be able to give it the last minute push to get your personal Best.

I don't know how much you understand/believe in this.. but give it a try, you'll see it for yourself. :)

Jiawei:
As usual, I see a great catch position in the starting of the pull..and the overall body position seems to be quite streamlined. the best thing is it is almost automatic as it happens still as picture perfectly even in the last of all laps. :) It is only in a matter of time when your aerobic capacity and your muscular endurance improves and you'd be able to maintain the amount of strength you can apply through out the strokes for longer laps.

One issue I see in your stroke is probably the kick opening up too wide during hard swims and the pull tend to shorten when you feel weaker at near the end of the swim. Increased stroke rate plus shorten distance per stroke usually = to slower timing at the end of the swim sessions due to the decrease in power too.

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Shiming & Seema:
You'd have to work on the breathing.. Remember that if you can't breathe naturally in and out of water.. the constant gaseous exchange of O2 and CO2 is critical for the system to maintain aerobic in swim and not go into anaerobic zone.. basically, for it to feel easy and you'll not reach the other side of the pool feeling like you've just finished 100m running sprint.

For shiming's freestyle, work on lessening the kick.. not more than 2 kick to go with 1 pull.

Seema, use short laps on the shallow pool to practice your swim with the breathing.. Practice the bubbling before going into the stroke practice.. :)

Cheers,
KK

030210 swim training

Well well well, we're 4 weeks away from Tribob Sprint biathlon, 5 weeks away from Singapore Biathlon and 6 weeks away from Aviva!

Time to up the intensity and peak for the races!!!!!

Tonight's swim:

Lawrence, Alan, Jiawei, Leon, Gen and Sam..

Warm Up: 200m Easy FS500m Mixed FS, pull and kick.
Main set:3x500, Sam and Gen on 12:00, the rest on 12:30 for every 500
Cool Down: 300m Mixed Easy

Wilson, Teck Beng, Kian Ming, Robert..

Warm Up:
4x25m FS (30secs rest), NO MORE THAN 20 pulls per 25m.
50m FS kick + Breaststroke pull
50m breaststroke swim
4x25m FS (30secs rest), NO MORE THAN 20 pulls per 25m

Main set:
6x50 on 30secs rest (O.T.O.T)
Pyramid from 50~200~50 (increments of 50), with 20seconds rest (Robert do 25~100~25, increment of 25).

Cool Down:
200m Breaststroke
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I love the cai fan that sam bought me... thank god i have that with me.. 2am now.. damn hungry.....

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Reviews:
There are only 4 issues I'd like to raise up here:

1) Streamlining from Fingertips to Toes
2) Pulling straight through until thumb passes mid thigh
3) Keeping the body in a compact position (legs together, arms reaching forward in water and body in neutral spine position) and staying on the surface.
4) Keeping core contracted and feel relaxed.

I see Robert having problem with number 4, anxiety is a performance killer. I believe you're taking it in your stride well enough seeing you complete multiple 50m swim is really a very good improvement in my eyes.

I see kian ming, jia wei and Leon having absolutely No core activation and as a result swam like the arms, body and legs are all separate Units working in its own department.

In order to be streamlined, the body movement has to be first coordinated by the rotation of the hips. And the pre requisite for the coordination and synchronization of pulling and kicking rhythm to occur is to have the abs locked and activated so that the hip rotation will pull the top and bottom part of the body along as it turns left and right.

I hope to have a show of hands how many of you understood my demonstration of sit up and core activation?

If you don't understand, kindly ask me now and get it learnt immediately. Core activation is the key to all activities(from walking to multi sports to doing laundry and hanging the clothes) and injury prevention.

Somemore....

I see Leon, LawLaw, Gen (Why you?!), Jiawei and Kian Ming all not pulling straight back until the arm is fully straightened.

Let me repeat this:
Distance Travelled Per Stroke is WAY MORE IMPORTANT than Frequency of Pulls...

If you have a pull that can move you 10metres forward, do 5 pulls and you'll reach the other end of the pull. If you have a pull that move you only 1m forward, you need to do 50pulls to move you forward! And what if your streamlining is THAT BAD and your pull moves you Zero metre forward?

Try doing 1000 pull with zero stroke length, you'll still get Zero metre traveled.

If distance per pull is compromised when the whole stroke is done in perfect form and you need to increase stroke rate to move faster (timing) then it is understandable. But just by increasing stroke rate with a compromise in the technique is just plain wastage of energy.

The guys team except Alan, is probably doing 1.5x more pulls than Gen and Sam, and yet look at the timing below. Lawrence is feeling relaxed and gliding slightly more than the other guys but still doing more pulls than gen and sam because of the streamlining and pulling issue.

There is a limit to how much strokes you can increase without compromising too much stroke length even with perfect pulling technique. Lets see the below equation.

Swim Velocity = Stroke Length(SL) X Stroke Rate(SR)(eg: 50pulls per minute)

So first you learn how to position your body so it moves as far as it possibly can with each stroke (Good SL, ie distance per stroke), then you get fit enough to take those strokes at a higher rate. But get the SR real high and you probably will be doing bad pulls and bad streamlining due to the rapid body movements. (Phelps do only 30 strokes for every 50m of his 200m event) and his timing is like sub 2minutes?

Now, you see that to increase swim velocity, you have to increase either SL or Stroke Rate Or both.
Unless you train freaking mad, then you can probably flail your arms like some motor engine powered blades.. else the more feasible option should be to increase SL and let the SR remain the same all the time.

Streamlining will help you do just that.

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Timing for 3x500:



Some personal messages...

Gen: I'm sorry for making you cry.. Almost cry. Nah, Kidding.. I'm not. :P hahahahaa.. :ppppp

Sam: Sorry for pushing you so hard even though you're still having a nose that run. I hope you out swam it and got it back on your face already. Great swim, even though I expected it to be a little faster.... :P

Wilson: Great job. Good luck on driving! You don't have a F up instructor so I believe you'd pass with Floating colors!

Lawrence: Rest well! Hope this is still a fruitful session for you with the photos!

Leon: Impressive swim! As usual died off at the end. Next time, use the 30seconds of rest to drink some water.

Robert: I believe you are cleared up on what you need to work on already. Western Aus IM, I believe you can do it.. Gotta be disciplined! For now, really really try to spend more time in the water and do what you know you need to do yup. No use for me to nag anymore because that thing you need to do, is not within my nagging control. :D

Jiawei: Surprised you finish the swim without your hamstring bothering you! Glad you're recovering well!

Marianne: We miss you!

Kian Ming & Teck Beng: Welcome! Hope to see you guys next week! Remember to work on technique, not clock the mileage.. If wanna clock mileage, go find some fish that is yellowish in color. My swim team use brain, not just brawns. :D

Alan: Bao Dao Wei Lao... Bring your wife come see you swim! She'll be SOOOO proud of you and she'll pick up swimming too!!!! hehehe..

KH: Hope your 5 injections healed up.. now you're Immune + 1000 already... so sure won't fall sick one. :P See ya next week!

Cheers
KK

Teck Beng Stroke analysis

Shoulder impingement occurs when you recover your elbow. High elbow should point to the sky, in front of your chest and at the side of the body (green line), NOT leaning towards the back (orange line). The latter causes the humerus (long upper arm bone) to poke into the socket of the shoulder and long term injury known as swimmers shoulder will occur once there is inflammation of SITS (Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres Minor and Subscapularis) muscles that stabilizes shoulder hold the arm in place.

Red lines shows the legs are opened up, not together and thus causing drag.

Left arm is too deep when breathing.

Try to reach forward towards the surface with your left arm when breathing.

White line being the streamline position, the legs and arms are way off.. :)

The video was short on your side but i took it on impulse. Still, it doesn't matter if its long or short as swimming is such a habit-based exercise, every single stroke will look exactly the same. Thus having 1 stroke is more than enough to see how you will fare for the whole lap.

Good news is since you're very tall and have long limbs, the biomechanical advantage helps you to overcome some stroke problems but when you do serious long D swims, all those advantage can turn into Disadvantage as long limbs in bad position causes MORE drag than those with smaller and shorter body and limbs. Thus wastage of energy.

Welcome to sapphire swimming team and hope to see you again next wednesday!

Cheers

KK

ps: For the video, please go to youtube.com and search for gqsamsam ... i've uploaded it there.

Lawrence stroke analysis.

Right arm pull slightly across center axis. Left arm recovery no high elbow (straight arm recovery + not enough rotation to the left can cause the left arm to drag along water and cause drag)...
The white line is the streamlining position line. Meaning a swimmer should have his fingertip to toes forming a straight line whilst in the water.. when you take a look like that with a straight line draw across the body's center axis, you'll see that your pulling arm (left arm, circled red) is way off. The position of the left arm during this pull phase should be at where the green circle is.

Legs opened up instead of kept together, left arm is pulling on the right hand side again!

Close up:

1) Legs opened up creating loads of drag.

2) The pull exits at STOMACH AREA! should pull straight through til thumb touches mid thigh and beyond then exit at the thigh area....

3) Good streamlining whilst gliding on the left hand side as per always

Again, legs opened up... and your right arm is exiting water liao.. meaning you should actually be on your side now but this pic shows that you're still flat, I.e not enough rotation or too late rotation resulting in a un-synchronized swim stroke between arms and legs.

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

Hope these rings some bells!

Its usually when we're tired that we show the most mistake that cost us valuable energy and time in the late stage of the races! So i'm glad you came and you can now see what you can work on when you're fresh!

Cheers

KK

ps: For the video, please go to youtube and search for gqsamsam, I've uploaded it there.

Team Jerseys

Dear all,

I've checked the quality of the Tri Suits and Price of each set of top and bottom is $100 after adding customization and logo design.

I believe it is still a great deal given the qualty is almost as good as pearl izumi. (Pearl Izumi is made in Hokkien in China by the way.. :D).

Pearl Izumi are selling about 200 per set of top and bottom..

For half the price, we get our designs and we get quality. Not too bad eh?

As for sizing, I am wearing M Top and M bottom.

I have a 31inch waist line, plus Tri suit should be a little tighter at the Torso region to facilitate drag reduction in the swim leg.

And of course, it expands as you wear it more often too.

I will get design from them ASAP so you can choose!

Cheers
KK

Ramblings...

Having taught kids for 3yrs since 2007, I've found the quality of kids' manners and sense of respect for elders to be more than disappointing and still deteoriating.

I believe the new generation parents have been very focused on many other things that has no concern to what a kid should be equipped to grow up to be a fine person who not only have good IQ but also EQ.

Without much spare time for family, people usually try to make the time to be of as high quality as possible. Same goes to training where everyone always try to focus on speed work to get the most breathelessness and torture out of a short period of time.
In this case, a quality family time will often equate to keeping the children at a stable state of emotions without any flaring up or crying from the children.
I've observed too many parents shifting their focus from providing the needs to the children to providing Every "Wants" of the children to buy themselves some quiet and "quality" times.

Obviously more often than not that backfires and made the kid a spoilt person who just whine to get his way through whether or not he thing he's doing is right.

It is really sad to see kids telling his mum off when the mum saw him shivering and thus gave him a cup of water that was a little too hot.
And I have kids who don't look at me in the eyes when I as his coach/teacher is talking to him. Some don't even bother to listen during one on one teaching, let alone reply.

Respect should be earned, but when one faces a teacher or a mentor, or even someone who wishes to share knowledge with us, the basic courtesy will be at the very least to listen and see what this generous man has to offer. I believe that courtesy should apply to everyone regardless of status of a president, king, coach or just a Small kid.

Many will argue they r still small and they don't know what they r doing. But ask yourself, if you as the parent don't even try to teach or share the values that are correct, because you felt and assume that he's too young to understand, then how can he have the chance to even just get exposed to the values that all parents should inculcate? Wait til the CIVIC AND MORAL STUDIES IN PRIMARY 1?!

所谓的「家教」，本来就应该是家里的人教的。。要是家里的人不教，那又那里来的家教呢？

Many parents underestimate what a kid as young as 4 yrs old can understand and many simply don't know how to put the teaching into words that can pass as a understandable conversation to the kids. And many of them stopped trying right there.

I'm thankful that I have the opportunties to get exposed to many kids and explore their potential of intelligence in my job as a swim instructor. At least I know how I can and I should find ways to express the values I hope my future children should have.

Cheers
Kk

PS - people sorry for the long nonsensical ramblings.. 4 weeks to tribob sprint biathlon and 6 weeks to Singapore biathlon, 7 weeks to aviva HIM. time to up the intensity!