Question on Lack of Forward Direction

[CoachDavidShen]

Originally Posted by jenson1a

Coach Dave

You said: if balance and streamline are good during drills, then i would look at the "falling during Skate" aspect which can happen regardless of either seem good during drills, which are more static situations, so it's about side-side balance and not front-back balance while moving in stroke.


Just to be clear, can you clarify falling during Skate? I take it to mean not staying on your side and falling into a flat position. Or do you mean sinking while on your edge?

yes i meant falling from angled to flat position and not sinking! make sure you work to stay on your edge during the glide phase and you've finished the stroke back and are recovering forward. don't anticipate the entry by letting yourself start falling flat; wait until the entry happens and then use the rotation to help drive the spear forward. if you used up part of the rotation by falling flat, it means less energy driving forward, as well as an increase in drag by changing your vessel shape from a canoe (angled body) to a barge (flat body)!

Originally Posted by jenson1a

Yesterday I experimented with some of your findings and found that my old nemesis of not keeping a patient lead hand was still lurking in my stroke. Something else I found, but don't know if it is relevant. I try to maintain a steady trickle of air in exhaling by pursuing my lips. The bubbles are small. As I tire I noticed that the steady trickle became almost a raging torrent. The bubbles were large and that maybe made me feel breathless. When I consciously controlled the exhale and bubbles became smaller, some of the breathlessness decreased. Well I guess it is relevant if it works!

if the lead arm has dropped, then drag will increase and it could stop you in your tracks for a moment!

hmmm i think there has been a lot of discussion about letting bubbles trickle out or not. i personally have made a habit of not letting air trickle out due to OW swimming and basically wanting to have a reserve in case i go for air and realize that there is a wave about to slam into my face!

i think that the raging torrent sounds like it's your body saying "i need air NOW". let's make sure we fix breathing and things should fall in line nicely. hmm, have you tried not letting air trickle out? i wonder if you're letting too much air out that it starts getting you into some O2 deficit over time.

[sinker]

"hmmm i think there has been a lot of discussion about letting bubbles trickle out or not. i personally have made a habit of not letting air trickle out due to OW swimming and basically wanting to have a reserve in case i go for air and realize that there is a wave about to slam into my face!

i think that the raging torrent sounds like it's your body saying "i need air NOW". let's make sure we fix breathing and things should fall in line nicely. hmm, have you tried not letting air trickle out? i wonder if you're letting too much air out that it starts getting you into some O2 deficit over time".[/quote]

Coach Shen
Perhaps I have missed some discussion re: NOT letting bubbles trickle out, but all official TI videos and coaches discussions I have seen have consistently advised NOT to hold your breath. Are you saying "hold your breath" between breaths?

[jafaremraf]

Re the breathing issue..... As soon as effort increases we do breath harder hence the bigger bubbles and I feel I can relate exactly to what you describe. Sherry, what is your pace/ speed of movement like? What I have found is that I prefer to breathe every third stroke, but I can't sustain it.....partly I think because my pace is fairly slow, so the gap between breaths is too great. Therefore, I swim 1 length breathing to one side every second stroke and the next length, to the opposite side, I.e. I always breathe towards the same wall of the building. I have found I can sustain this and swim constantly for an hour and I never find I get breathless, even after an hour of hard (for me) swimming. It also means that I can miss a breathe (if it's a bit choppy in the pool!) without any real difficulty. Having said that, I'm new to front crawl, only started about 18 months ago, and still learning, and I would still like to develop my abilities to enable me to breathe every third stroke!

Jane

[jenson1a]

Originally Posted by jafaremraf

Re the breathing issue..... As soon as effort increases we do breath harder hence the bigger bubbles and I feel I can relate exactly to what you describe. Sherry, what is your pace/ speed of movement like? What I have found is that I prefer to breathe every third stroke, but I can't sustain it.....partly I think because my pace is fairly slow, so the gap between breaths is too great. Therefore, I swim 1 length breathing to one side every second stroke and the next length, to the opposite side, I.e. I always breathe towards the same wall of the building. I have found I can sustain this and swim constantly for an hour and I never find I get breathless, even after an hour of hard (for me) swimming. It also means that I can miss a breathe (if it's a bit choppy in the pool!) without any real difficulty. Having said that, I'm new to front crawl, only started about 18 months ago, and still learning, and I would still like to develop my abilities to enable me to breathe every third stroke!

Jane

Regarding speed--just took a video and did 19 strokes in 26 seconds, or about 1.36 per stroke. I have been doing a lot of breathing on my "off" side which is the left. The video showed that I am lifting my head more than I thought. Was hoping to see some sort of example that I am exhaling when head is down in water, but either I am not doing that, or the camera was too far away to see. If I can remember how to post this video, maybe someone more resourceful than me will see some evidence of the exhale.

As far as breathing patterns go, I have tried many-every other stroke, every third stroke, every fourth, then 3 on one side and 2 on the other. Sometimes one pattern is better than another, but haven't gotten any consistency with any one pattern.

Sherry

[CoachDavidShen]

Originally Posted by sinker

Coach Shen
Perhaps I have missed some discussion re: NOT letting bubbles trickle out, but all official TI videos and coaches discussions I have seen have consistently advised NOT to hold your breath. Are you saying "hold your breath" between breaths?

I have also seen lots of discussion. My comment was directed towards only myself and why i don't let bubbles trickle out. I'm not saying any/everyone else should do the same.

Note that if you choose to not let bubbles trickle out, you need to learn to hold the air in without any tension whatsoever. you can see tension in the cheeks when they bulge out, or when you tense the lips together to hold the mouth closed, or feel tension in the chest to resist letting the air back out. You should train yourself to have a totally relaxed face and lips held together with the absolute minimum tension, and no cheeks bulging out.

Experiment on yourself. Try letting air out gently and see if that works best for you.