Quote:
Originally Posted by sclim
How do I distinguish these " unnecessary movements" from unavoidable movements due to poor balance, but covered up in the hurry of a brisker tempo?
My understanding was that a central benefit of doing stupid slow tempo swimming is to unmask those imbalances and to learn to correct them intrinsically, with improved core stability, rather than to keep on compensating with non propulsive limb movements.
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Hi sclim,
Coach Werner answered succinctly. Slower tempos do highlight balance issues, i.e. low side arm sculling/pulling for stability, over-rotation, leg-splay, etc. But once swimmer has a good sense of balance often little movements will creep in triggered by instability too, excessive knew bend or kick from knee, flipping hand over hip at exit and other interesting and unconscious moves which eat up time preventing you from hitting faster tempos while maintaining core stability/balance. When you do swim at tempos that are faster than skill level or just outside comfort zone, those added movements are minimized and not necessarily masked. Terry wrote a blog recently swimming at fast tempos helped him trim up his kick, knees didn't have the time to bend as much.
In any case a swimmer should experiment with many tempo ranges, from very slow to very fast, well outside the comfort zone, even if that means popping out of the green zone briefly. This helps identify and become aware of added movements to stabilize the body (at slower tempo), and help clean up added movements that prevent a swimmer stroking at faster tempos, tempos they are probably capable of.
"Effective practice is consistent, intensely focused and targets content or weaknesses that lie at the edge of one's current abilities"
Frequently experiment outside "the zone" of comfort and enjoy the journey of continuous improvement :-)
Stuart