This site is devoted to swimming. Why is it called Twenty-Three Seconds? Because my goal is to swim 50 meters within twenty-three seconds. Follow along as I analyze my crawl stroke to death and maybe you'll learn a few things to improve your own time.
I found some extremely interesting articles that absolutely every swimmer should read. I will write more as I have time. Amazing!
http://www.h2oustonswims.org/articles/get_better_grip_I.html
There are many parts to it, but the first two should give you enough to think about. It discusses the importance of having a proper feel for the water and how to improve that.
One step closer to my new target of breaking 17 seconds. I am always shocked when I beat my targets.
I swam every day last week; pushing myself too hard on Sunday without warming up. Afterwards my should was sore so I didn’t swim yesterday. So today I was taking it really easy.
I was practicing the roll-over drill below. It is a very interesting drill. The goal is to exagerrate the rotating you do when crawling. It takes a lot of focus to keep yourself straight when rolling. Each stroke rotates your body from a horizontal to a vertical position. I breath on every stroke and if you keep your head in place your mouth will naturally come out of the water. It is also very difficult to remember to keep your elbow very high as you begins recovery. The video is much easier to understand than my explanation so check it out.
I also regularly practice my dolphin kicks and am definitely seeing improvement. At the very end of my swim I jumped off the blocks and hit 17.63. Good stuff.
Here is a bonus video just for fun. (1.418 m/sec)
I was happy on Wednesday to be able to maintain my speed for 35 meters. My meters per second works out to 1.333, which works out to 18.75 seconds on 25 meters, which is reasonable. As much as I am making some progress this time, thinking that I could maintain the speed, on 50 meters would work out to be 37.5 seconds, which is a long, long way from twenty-three seconds.
I wasn’t really pushing myself that hard as far as speed today, rather I was practicing my start. I have been really struggling when coming off the block because as I hit the water my goggles come loose. I can visualize pretty well how it should look entering the water, but actually doing it is completely different. I find that I can tell I have issues with my entry because my legs slap the water when I enter or my feet do.
Entering the water is pretty tricky as I see it. When you watch the video you see the different phases. First you have to really imagine the starting sound. Next your arms give you a little push, but mostly you launch yourself off of the block as if you were going to start sprinting from the starter position. Instead of bringing your legs together and jump out. Gravity will bring you down starting with your upper body, which will be followed by your legs. If you jump out too far you’ll smack your legs on the water. Jump too short you’ll end up going too deep.
I have the feeling that a big part of the start is in being able to curve your back as you enter the water. I need to investigate.
Once I get in the water I rarely have the feeling that my dauphin kick is going well. When I see videos like the one below of Ian Thorpe I think that I using the wrong part of my torso to generate the kick. It seems that his kick starts up in his upper torso and gains power through his hips and legs. Mine, on the other hand, feels like it starts in my hips and moves through my legs.
I need to remember that just like improving my swimming it takes regular practice and study to really improve.
I am constantly having the problem of not seeing my actual speed due to pressing the buttons on my watch. I am considerig getting one of these SportCount finger timers. The thing that worries me is the size. I already hate wearing a watch and if there was some kind of system I could use to by pass this I would. Here is an idea for any invetor out there. Make a little touch sensitive pad that would do some basic functions like laps, etc. Then when you are swimming you could just touch it as you come around.
The other thing that REALLY bugs me is when I requested an image from the company look what they sent me (last image)! This image is either using a funny angle or it has been Photoshopped. I found this other picture and you can see it actually is quite large. With all the amazing technology out there why can’t someone make a very small finger watch? Well I think I’ll buy it anyway and if it turns out to be a skunk you’ll hear about it.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Sports/Running-track-field/Other/photos/a-108900639/p-44743259.htm
I finally reached my current target of 18.50 seconds. As usual I have no idea what exactly makes the difference, but here are a few things I have been working on.
I had seen the video below a couple of days ago of Alexander Popov and I really like it. I think he totally looks like a shark. It’s funny too, because often you see girls or guys not wanting to get there hair wet and so keeping there head out of the water. But here he really looks like he is after something.
You can see it after about two seconds and then again at 22 seconds.
It is MUCH harder than I thought. When I am done with 25 meters of that I am completely winded. I don’t even have the courage to try it on 50 meters. Another drill that I was trying is also by Mr. Popov. I don’t know exactly when he does it, but you can see him doing a dauphin kick on his side. The trick here is breathing. I really enjoy the drill, but I have to take a stroke to breath where he just kind of sticks his mouth out of the water.
I am not sure what it is that really helped me go so much faster, but I am definitely going to keep working on those drills. My next target is a big on: Break 17 seconds on 25 meters or 1.471 meters per second.
Stay tuned.
I swam both Saturday and Sunday at a pool near my house, which was 35 meters long. I was a bit disappointed because I wasn’t able to maintain my best time for the full 35 meters. I think that means that I have some work to do on my level of fitness. I expect that I can keep my speed up for just 10 extra meters. Oh well.
When I went back to my normal pool, which is 25 meters, I was pleasently surprised that I had my time down to 19.27. That’s 1.297 meters per second, which makes me very happy.
There are some really nice videos floating around about Alexander Popov. Here are a few that I have found:
Today I wanted to review the catch position of the hand. I often see people who swim quickly having a very similar hand position when entering the water. Here are some examples from Ian Thorpe:
Each of these pictures illustrates the hand position pretty well. The fingers are relaxed and the hand is slightly cupped. The thumb serves to trap the water in the cup. The last picture shows from the side how much to cup your hand.
I don’t really know for sure but it looks like the thumb position and cupping your hand is more important than worrying about your fingers.
Last note, as I swam at a different sized pool today it’s helpful to show my meters per seconds rather than total time. This works out to 1.220 m/sec compared to 1.316 m/sec. That would have been more like 22.25 sec on 25m. Not really very good. I need to swim 35 m in less than 26.60 to beat my best speed.
I was practicing with the blocks today and was completely shocked at my time. I could tell I was swimming fast, so much so that I could tell I didn’t keep my stroke consistent until the end. I have a lot of difficulty getting off the block as I either dive in a way that knocks my goggles off or I go too deep and slow way down.
Next week I am hoping to try with someone timing me and maybe even my first videos, that would be very nice.
Today my focus was on the underwater part of my stroke. I have read and heard a number of things about how underwater your hand should run in an ‘s’ shape. This hasn’t made a lot of sense of why this was important. I am starting to understand now. The shape isn’t actually important, rather when your technique is correct and you’re essentially ‘reaching over a barrel’ and finish off with a strong push before your recovery your hand will certainly be moving in an ‘s’ shape.
Specifically, as you get a strong catch your elbow stays high against the surface of the water, this allows you to use your shoulder and lateral muscles rather than your arm to push in the water. The other important aspect is that as you push down you can really use your forearm to push in addition to your hand. If you are doing this correctly your hand will be running down a line that is parallel to side of the center of your face. If you kept this line you would end up hitting yourself in the leg. The real point here is not just to avoid hitting yourself, rather it is to continue pushing until your hand leaves the water. The ‘s’ shape means that you are pushing all the way down.
