Silver Cap lapping up the Drills!

Silver Cap appeared again today and seemed interested in drills. SC if you recall is a strong open water swimmer keen to improve.

Previously he had had a go at "Shoulder Tap" and "Popov" as well as "Tap the water behind you" drills.

I mentioned the usefulness of a two beat kick but that was a bit new to him at this stage.

Today I introduced him to Easy Unco and Proper Unco. Easy Unco came a bit easier but he was soon getting the idea. The realisation that the arm action affects the leg drop became evident to him.

However, what really was the Light Bulb Moment for him was when he fitted the Ankle Band on!

This showed him what good swimming is all about - body balance enhanced by good arm action.

When the time came to leave I had to wrestle the ankle band away from him, he was so delighted with it!

Silvercap appeared on Tuesday and said he was not at all happy breathing to the left. He appreciated that this is a vital necessity and bilateral breathing needed to be mastered.

Today he cracked off 800 m non-stop bilateral! Somehow mind over matter had won. He looked fine too although the stroke was a bit cramped and with a lot per lap.

I was working on distance per stroke and suggested he counted a lap doing as few as possible. This came out almost half the previous number and he said he had particularly concentrated on body balance to keep the hips up.

What was interesting during the dps trial was that he used a superb Shelley style arm recovery over the water in order to grab a bigger armful of water underneath.

Finally I mentioned that this effective underwater arm action, above and below the water ideally needs to be done at about 75 strokes per minute. He had a go at this a few times and found it challenging.

It's very rewarding to help people improve. It's so hard on your own.

After Silvercap had cracked off 50 laps non-stop with bilateral breathing he asked for ideas regarding low legs. I suggested fist drill for a couple of laps and noticed insufficient arm bend under water.

If the arm goes too deep and only makes an angle greater than 110 degrees then there is no correction of the body position generated by the arm pull.

He didn,t find a high elbow under water at all comfortable so I showed him how to get a high elbow and "engage the lats".

Standing in front of a mirror with the right arm pointing straight forward, you rotate the arm axially anticlockwise. The elbow goes upwards by several centimetres and the shoulder lifts and can touch your chin. Your body twist slightly anticlockwise too as the arm reaches further forward. The arm now is happy to pull underwater with a high elbow. This video demonstrates:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y5OVXuHGys

A couple of laps later and he was delighted with it!. Right arm action was better than left but I had also noticed a hiccup in his 6 beat leg kick which can,t be helping.