General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Specific swim drills Rss Feed  
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2012-05-31 1:45 PM

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Subject: Specific swim drills
I've done two HIM and one IM, so always thought my swimming was not to bad (pretty slow, but effective - 45min for HIM swim, 100min for IM swim). I only learned to swim about 18 months ago. But I got a big fright when I saw footage of myself swimming in gym's pool and can now see where I'm losing loads of time and energy: I feel more comfortable breating to my right, but while breating my left hand crosses WAY over the centre line (my left elbow passes under my head as I pull, with the left hand way to the right of my body). Any specific drills I can work on to keep my arms/hands from crossing centre line, especially while breathing? Might be a balance issue, but then again might be a whole host of other things too.


2012-05-31 2:06 PM
in reply to: #4237576

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Subject: RE: Specific swim drills
When I was crossing over, I was told to do the Tarzan drill.  It was suggested that I do it for 1/2 the length then put my head back in the water and continue the rest of the way to get the right feel.
2012-05-31 5:43 PM
in reply to: #4237576

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Subject: RE: Specific swim drills
You don't have to bilateral breath. This is one of those triathlete religious battles.  Even though I can breath bilaterally I am faster and more fluid using my dominate side.  On thing you can do to work on balance is kick on your side with hand extended.  After you have the done you can add in some rotation where you kick for a few seconds then take a stroke and rotate to the other side.
2012-05-31 5:57 PM
in reply to: #4237576

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Subject: RE: Specific swim drills

Yup, I had this problem, and in fact suspect I'm still approaching a near-midline x-over with one of my hands despite thikning I don't. (A masters coach pointed it out to me, and sure enough, my hand's creeping that way!)

 

One armed swim drills, starting with one arm extended while other strokes, and then moving to no arm extended while stroking, help a lot with reducing crossover. With the arm out, it's hard for the stroking arm to cross the midline, and with the arm back, if you cross the midline, you'll fishtail more and go off-axis. 

 

Graduating from the one arm extended drill to the 'catchup' drill is a decent way to progress to normal swimming while avoiding that x-over.

 

I've read that the tarzan swim is supposed to help, but I haven't found it helpful, honestly. First off, it's too dang hard to swim more than 25-50yds with head up and out of water, and next off, the head up position is so far from normal swimming that you'll revert to your problem stroke once you're back head in water. (I did a fair amount of this before with little result.)

 

The one arm swims helped the most for me. You can also focus on the "EVF" with one arm swims as well as true flat body position. I'm a pretty MOP swimmer, but after a bunch of practice, I can readily swim 1000 straight at 1:45/100yds with one arm and a minimalist wimpy kick. 

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General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Specific swim drills Rss Feed