Problem balancing/being stable on left side

[Marcos]

Hello,

I've been trying the TI method for a while now. Have gone through the drills and then started swimming full stroke for while. However, due to shoulder pain (left shoulder), I decided to go back to drills only and build up to full stroke. I guess I really never mastered the drills but felt that if I started swimming consciously of my movements I might improve - that proved wrong.

I've been doing drills for about two months now (five times a week for about one hour). I can do skating on the right side reasonably well, but I struggle on left side (specially when turn to breath (sweet spot on the left is not sweet to me) and then cannot go back to a balanced position when face down). Despite my struggles, I have made some progress and have introduced the zipper skate and the under switch drills.

My drills consist of skating, zipper skate, underswitch. Balancing on the left is a real struggle, and doing single switches, and double switches are generally more difficult then triple switches.

I would appreciate advice on drills to do to correct my problem balancing on the left. I feel this is critical to achieve easy with my swimming, am I right? I also would like to know whether I should pursue in the mastery of single and double switches or should I just concentrate on triple switches. I have noticed lately that I have for the first time acquired the sensation of my feet moving in the water and can albeit with difficulty and without the needed coordination, consciously kick my feet coordinated with hand entry (opposite diagonal - left foot again more difficult and less forceful).

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Marcos

[daveblt]

So the trick is to get your left feeling like the right, so you have to remember exactly what you are doing on the right side .

On your left side,
-Relax the head and neck and look down ,top of your head pointing toward the far wall like a laserbeam
-Keep the lead hand on track , not in the center
-Keep the lead hand below the elbow , experiment with proper depth
-Lean into the water for support
-Don't over roll to a side lying position as this can make you sink more
but roll enough to clear shoulder.
-RELAX whole body with a light flutter kick


Dave