We had our first speed swimming training session today and I felt so fast afterwards! I thought I would jot down some tips so we can refer back to it.
Front Crawl Drills:
1. One-armed stroke: extend dominant hand out front for support. Focus: straight pull (no 's' curve), extend the front arm through a narrow keyhole into the slipstream as the other arm pulls, 40% of your power comes from below the belly button, engage core as your hand passes belly button
2. Catch up: fists with thumb out. Focus: straight line pull (it's the longest line), finding the power in your stroke with your forearm, when you don't breathe rolling as much on your side
3. Catch up: fists with thumb and forefinger.
4. Catch up: Using whole hand. Focus: relaxed thumbs, extending the straight arm into the slip stream
5. Bilateral regular crawl: it takes a few times of catch up to adjust to regular crawl
Back Drills:
1. Flutter kick on back: extend arms out and rise them from belly to above shoulders on a count of 6. Focus: slightly piked, keep face out of water, keep toes out of water, you have to kick hard!
Breaststroke Drills:
1. Double-time arms only breast stroke: breathing every second stroke, let legs drag behind you. Focus: wide elbows, pull with fingers pointing down to bottom of the pool
Let's see how much we can absorb into our day-to-day training! Cojo wants us all to be like Michael Phelps!