Thursday, March 12, 2009

Swimming, one recovery strategy

Today, I made another 12 lap swimming at one shot and didn't get tired. Total of around 40 some laps. At this point, doing many laps without improving swim skill is meaningless. So, I thought what will be the first one to fix?
I made several laps just checking as many I can see myself, and found I made inconsistent recovery especially on my left arm. Sometimes I make a splash during recovery. So, let's fix this during March.

Recovery is a procedure of an arm going back to front for the next swing. Each arm takes turn to propel. The best strategy to recover is to relax or spend the least energy to its original position. Splashing obviously isn't good. Splash by itself isn't bad. Drag after splash is bad. So, I took this approach. During recovery, focus on the elbow. Forearm just hang below elbow. While driving the elbow above the water, stay 'stream-lined'. That is important not to waste energy. At the final stage of recovery, Imagine that a hand opens a hole at the surface of the water, and put the entire arm through the hole. While doing this, the next swing starts and the body rotates. Obviously, this is the best time to initiate the propel.

So, again, at the final step of recovery,
1) push the arm through the imaginary hole,
2) kick the other foot to initiate hip rotation,
3) start the other arm swing. ( Remember the best efficient path of arm )
4) stretch for the stream line.

Swim is so much fun!

Monday, March 9, 2009

Swimming is just fun.

From beginning of this year, I began to swim. The whole first month was just struggling in the water, but after two months later, I can do 8 laps (200m) without taking a break. For me, the process to improve my swim was like tuning a sloppy software. But, in the end, nothing is more important than the fact that "Swimming is just so much fun."