Nightcrawler's Journey to World Masters Swimming Championships 2017

I hope that you are doing the pushups on the fronts of your feet and not the toes!

Helps get those ankles broken in and floppy.

cottmiler wrote:I hope that you are doing the pushups on the fronts of your feet and not the toes!

Helps get those ankles broken in and floppy.

Pushups are the fastest and easiest workout also requires no equipment.

I m doing standart pushups on toes with staight legs and core. This routine not only develops chest and triceps muscles but more than this mainly helps to develop core muscles such as abbs, hips, rectus femoris as hip flexor, scapula as shoulder stabilizers; this is the main reason I m doing.
But since you are emhasizing on this subject, I guess you have already understood my reason at the outset  

After listening the song and Izzy Stradlin's gutiar all the night, today I mumbled an old song all throught the workout, Guns n Roses - Dont Damn Me

Sometimes I wanna kill
Sometimes I wanna die
Sometimes I wanna destroy
Sometimes I wanna cry
Sometimes I could get even
Sometimes I could give up
Sometimes I could give
Sometimes I never give a fuck

It's only for a while
I hope you understand
I never wanted this to happen
Didn't want to be a man
So I hid inside my world
I took what I could find
I cried when I was lonely
I fell down when I was blind

But don't damn me
When I speak a piece of my mind
'Cause silence isn't golden
When I'm holding it inside
'Cause I've been where I have been
An I've seen what I have seen
I put the pen to the paper
'Cause it's all a part of me

Don't hail me
An don't idolize the ink
Or I've failed in my attentions
Can you find the missing link
Your only validation is in living your own life
Vicarious existence is a fucking waste of time
So I send this song to the offended
I said what I meant and I've never pretended
As so many others do intending just to please
If I damned your point of view
Could you turn the other cheek

Don't damn me when I speak a piece a mind
'Cause silence isn't golden
When I'm holding it inside
I've been where I have been
An I've seen what I have seen
Put the pen to the paper
'Cause it's all a part of me
Don't damn me
I said don't damn me
I said don't hail me
Ah, don't damn me

05.07.2017- Afternoon session-6000m-LCM
2*3000m crawl easy with 1:30 pace

Today i swam 10k in total.

06.07.2017 - Morning Session - 4500m
Set: 140x25m int:23" (avg:19", SPL:19)
Kick: 12x25m int:30 (avg:23")
Ankle Bands Drill: 16x25m int:23" (avg:20", SPL:19)
Kick: 6x50m int:60" (avg:48")

Notes: During the set I focused on my race pace and race technique. Used mixed kick and mixed arm frequency (tempo trainer cant provide this mixed frequency with resonance, so that I wont use TT until the race).

07.07.2017 - Morning Session - 4500m
Set1: 60x25m  crawl int:23" (time:18"-19", SPL:18-19)
Set2: 60x25m  crawl int:22" (time:18"-19", SPL:18-19)
Kick: 5x50m crawl kicking with board int:60" (avg:50")
Ankle Bands Drill: 5x50m crawl int:60" (avg:40")

NoteS: When compared with yesterday today I got one step further and did the 2nd set on 22" instead of 23". After the set I had delightful pain in my legs, shoulders and lats.
At lunch time session I will try a milestone set such as 8x100m crawl int:1:25 with 1:17 pace.

07.07.2017 - Lunch Session - 1500m
Warm up: 100 easy
Set1: 8x100m int:1:25 (avg:1:17) Yes, I did it!
Set2: 20x25m int:21" (avg: 18") Yes, I did it!
Cool down: 100 easy

Notes: "3 hours right after the harsh morning session", at lunch time I broke 2 barriers and realized my 2 milestones:
- 100s on 1:25
- 25s on 21"
While doing the 25s, my "brother in arms" recorded my clip
https://youtu.be/XIQi6U7FqtA
https://youtu.be/GlYq81mXgJc
https://youtu.be/5-YD0Sx0Yk0

And my friend's swim technique - he is also my student who started swimming a year ago, used to have "fear for the water", but now swims like a newly born baby
https://youtu.be/2E8HdLfA75o

So what is next untill Budapest? Instead of developing more speed and straining my body, I want to keep my pace and lenghten the number of repetitions with the same interval periods.

So what do you think SA and Cottmiler? Both of your comments are really valuable for me.

Impressive as usual!

The student is rather good too.

We've not heard from SA lately.

Thanks Cottmiler.
Hard to improve by doing diet and working in a full time job, but i m happy that i have job, we have economical crisis at the moment, people are being fired.

my impression about your latest clips compared to 1 year ago.(havent watched them, only from memory)

Looks smoother and more relaxed
more whole body stroke bigger movement in the body , more full shoulder dip in the water.
Less ripping of the arm pull and a little less stall at the front.
You are closer to a connected backward speed of the armpull to the rotation of the body. In an ideal world there is no ripping anymore, the pullspeed and the roll speed are rigidly linked together.
basically you look like a stronger swimmer. You know how it looks and feels if you back of the effort a bit and its easier to swim a big and smooth stroke while looking relaxed.
I still think your pull rips to much through the water and you need some more anchor at the front with a bit more shoulder extension and setup before launching, but thats my pet experimentation topic lately.

still waiting for some good underwater footage to see the details.

Anyway I think you are swimming better than ever.

On your latest clip your pull rips less. Do you feel the difference?

SA wrote:my impression about your latest clips compared to 1 year ago.(havent watched them, only from memory)

Looks smoother and more relaxed
more whole body stroke bigger movement in the body , more full shoulder dip in the water.
Less ripping of the arm pull and a little less stall at the front.
You are closer to a connected backward speed of the armpull to the rotation of the body. In an ideal world there is no ripping anymore, the pullspeed and the roll speed are rigidly linked together.
basically you look like a stronger swimmer. You know how it looks and feels if you back of the effort a bit and its easier to swim a big and smooth stroke while looking relaxed.
I still think your pull rips to much through the water and you need some more anchor at the front with a bit more shoulder extension and setup before launching, but thats my pet experimentation topic lately.

still waiting for some good underwater footage to see the details.

Anyway I think you are swimming better than ever.

On your latest clip your pull rips less. Do you feel the difference?

The clips were taken after a 5000m harsh swim(when i m not fresh), could look faster and stronger if it would taken in the beginning. But, yes, i have better middle traction and relaxed body roll when compared with last year.

You wrote: "you need some more anchor at the front with a bit more shoulder extension and setup before launching"
TRUE! But when i extend and anchor a bit more i budge from the stroke frequency and in total i loose my speed. Maybe doing stronger recovery and more harsh hand entry help me to extend more snd anchor further front, need to be tried.

Today morning at my swim clinic my students gave me speedo lazer racing suit(high waist) as a gift, i swam a 400m(4:56) with that suit without pushing so hard. It is my PB in my life

Some drill clips of mine for Cottmiler:
https://youtu.be/GOrZ9DgSoNw
https://youtu.be/-ORnbKqU00o
https://youtu.be/3zEc2b9x-ug
https://youtu.be/JmTJ3gReAl0
https://youtu.be/yljugv1kro4
https://youtu.be/mDQQJkD4QLw
https://youtu.be/WDpM_iahOO0
https://youtu.be/KDqoyL5AZag
https://youtu.be/4Z03joO35QE
https://youtu.be/mW-kK5EsSwk
https://youtu.be/15wWlN7EBg8
https://youtu.be/fimvb5Y9CNc

I think I know what you  mean talking about the timing problem when having more anchor at the front.
I am experimenting with the gliding down on a stable wing like a loper does on his non breathing side and indeed there is something weird about the timing and the force required to get the stroke more continuous.
Once you glide down on your wing it feels great and you sense you get free forward speed for almost nothing , but you cant exnjoy that feeling very long otherwise your speed will drop too much, even if you fall and glide down on your weight. You have to continue pulling after a split second. If you wait a microsecond too long its crap and if you dont finish the fall ist to tiring too. timing is very critical there.
I think there is the difference between different swim styles.
Havent figured it all out yet.

Look at the left arm of this swimmer. this is ideal arm connection to trunk at the start of catch I think. (He is not strong enough to get the forearm vertical, but the paddle setup to trunk is good).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVRDzJYKx4s
Its almost impossible to get this catch at both sides of the body. It requires much rotation and a lot of trunk muscle action to pull that whole paddle backward every stroke. Gets you really sick if you ate too much baklava.
If you can get strong enough to pull this action at both sides at an almost continous action right after the small fall you will be swimming very fast, but it simply takes a lot of power too.

Compare your extension, slight pause and start of pull (especially when you get tired) with this action.
You are looking like a TI swimmer with a long glide and a ripping pull if I exagerate the difference in description.
This extension and slight pause together with how the arm is connected to the trunc at this stage is very hardwired in your swimsystem. Very hard to change.
Its to little time to change it all now for the race, but you are moving in the right direction. Looks already pretty good now.
Focussing on throwing the recovery weight into the extension does change the dynamics of the start of the stroke. Takes over some of the muscle action of the arm at the start of the stroke to set up catch position, and can eat away some waisted time. Try to direct the kinetic energy to the right spot, so you dont have to sweep out before going to catch , but having the entry and catch almost at the same line.
(the swimmer in the clip looks good from the side, but not so good from the front with too much arm angles and motion)

SA,
I think you are getting where I am with the Unco-Breathing Both Sides. See thread.

nightcrawler,

I have examined all your drills and you have mastered them well.

A couple of points: you know how to keep the head really low when doing Unco and other kick on side drills. I found last week that my Unco BBS was deficient because I couldn't keep the head low enough especially on one side, pulling with left arm.

Your Tarzan is excellent.

Fist Drill is a fuzzy video.

You are quite right when you say that all these take a good many kilometers to do properly. I do 7 km a week of drills.

Cottmiler, tou may change the video qualities to higher resolution on youtube, just select 480p or over.

These are my demonstrations in the morning clinic today to my students.

Hi Cotty and SA,
Here are the underwater footages of my above drills that i demobstrated today morning, you may choose the video quality:

https://youtu.be/hyw965McQAM
https://youtu.be/nuWkCoIqjJY
https://youtu.be/2GgqCELkX80
https://youtu.be/ft_W9XarO4U
https://youtu.be/R4Jgq7Sn5DM
https://youtu.be/iWJDI9lX6Ts
https://youtu.be/00ukNbC3G30
https://youtu.be/QaPG-M8_Po8
https://youtu.be/RMCLIVwawZU
https://youtu.be/kQFLjunvH4g
https://youtu.be/pxqyyEW3Wik
https://youtu.be/abPAptbmwEg
https://youtu.be/mwZ30YqKT6s
https://youtu.be/yUkIEM9mVoM

interesting. And more or less as expected. In fact a bit worse as expected.
Just talking about the pulling mechanics. Everything connects and timed fine given the crappy armpull.Your kick and alignment is again your best asset.Kick goes together with push very well giving a powerfull punch.
You dont have a frontend, just like Terry. Thats why you throw so much water up at the end. You need all the power at the end and the arm shoots out the water when traction really reduces to zero.
Other swimmers have used the force much further upfront and are feathering out at the very end.

What does that prove?
That my obsesion with armpulling mechanics is misplaced?
That armpulling mechanics is more a detail, like the inside out school promises?
That you can swim faster with better mechanics?
I dont know, but I cant believe there is is no technical improvement is possible to make you swim a bit faster.

An interesting drill is swimming one arm with a pull buoy (and ankle band to stop your nonkicking).
Curious how that will look.
Solar used a pretty high elbow pullingtechnique combined with waiting for the roll timing to get that done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7b-dgpUXhU
Or some footage of your normal swim stroke.

I start to get curious about my own swimming too now. Must be a mess in some parts.

I dont undrstsnd what you mean by frontend traction, coaches say that i have a good catch and pull. If you mean extending and gliding more, i also tried it thousand times, it is weaker than my current technique, with my current technique i m doing my personal best time with less effort(5*400m on 5:40-5:07 avg).

I think that, power is generated in different ways in every person, everyone has a different anatomy, pshychology, imagination, mental and physical capacity and as a result a technique, and also thats where TI fails, because everyone cant swim the same standart technique. A good example of this  Gennadi Touretski's 2 students: Alexander Popov and Michael Klim, thry have different body types and different techniques although they train together with the same trainer and for the same distance events, both of them are 50-100m swimmers, tgey are completely different in all cases but swimming almost the same times in the races.

https://youtu.be/WOGeWc5lzdc
https://youtu.be/K_34uuPKvDA
https://youtu.be/rJpFVvho0o4

See the backend push of elite open water swimmers':
https://youtu.be/wX8XUu1BDhQ
So what is success, good time or Shinji like graceful technique with poor time? Actually i dont want to swim with poor pace like Shinji or Terry, I prefer choppy stroke but faster stroke.

You had sent a video of Charles(solarenergy), i m doing the same drill in 25m pool on 25 seconds with 21 seconds pace for each lap, can do 20 times easily. Here he could do it with 26 seconds pace.

I think it is much better obeying and admitting our DNA than resisting or trying to change it.

tgey are completely different in all cases

Not how they connect the front of the stroke to the body.
All reach with the shoulder to lift the armpit and underside of upperarm on top of the barrel instead of spearing and gliding just straighforward.

09.07.2017-5500m

Set: 3*5*100m crawl int:1:28 easy (1:21avg) R:15" between sets

Drill Set: 16 drills respectively by 8*25m R:5" for each drill

Set: 3*400m crawl 1-3 descending int:5:40 (5:12-5:07-5:06)

This week i swam 35K in total.

10.07.2017 - SCM 3300m - Morning Session
5x(20x25m int:22") (7:22 - 7:24 - 7:27 - 7:25 - 7:20)
200m drills among the sets.

Notes: Started the week with a crappy mood and with a worn out body and so that the set times didnt satisfiy me. Yesterday for the first time since the year 2003 I saw 72kg on the weight (lost 8 kilos in 45 days). I am fed up with brainless people around me at the office and also on the streets in Istanbul. The city has already a bad energy with crowded and ignorant people, cant move to another city immediately due to economical situation.

11.07.2017 - 4000m
120x25m int:22"(avg:19", SPL:19)
1000m easy recovery with good technique - SPL:16 (15:10)

Notes: Yesterday evening did 100 manmakers with 3kg dumbells and some stretch cord exercises, after the exercises didnt have time to do any stretching. In the morning had some pain in my shoulders, lats and hamstrings, in this circumstances still tried to do the 25meters on 21" but when I reached the 8th one I m done and switched my watch to beep on 22 seconds and continued with 22" interval(120x25m on 22"), if I can do these on 21" until the race it will be satisfactory for me.

I am bored with the invaders' videos such as TI and SS on the internet. I found a very simple and easily understandable video, i liked it, hope you will so:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWVAgfw3Uis

12.07.2017 - 4700m
50m crawl
Set1: 2000m crawl with pullbuoy+paddles (27:37, 1st 1000m split time: 13:57, SPL:16-17) (Average Pace:1:22)
50m crawl kick
Set2: 2000m crawl one arm drill - one arm extended - 2 left arm 2 right arm (31:50, SL:18) (Average Pace: 1:35)
50m crawl kick
Set3: 20x25m crawl int:21.5" (avg:18.5")
50m crawl kick

Notes: No comments!