Getting my elbow far enough out of water

Greetings all!

I am new to TI swimming and quite eager. I love being in the water but have struggled to swim (imagine the classic problems Terry spoke of). I've started self-coaching and am taking it very slow to develop good habits rather than rush on to the next skill just for the sake of it. I'm working mastering the Superman Glide with strokes. I've tried the elbow swing but find that I'm having trouble getting my elbow as high out of the water as the dvd shows because my body is deep in the water. Any advice or thoughts on this?

See this is where it all falls down for me, i found that in order to do any of the recovery drills i needed to be highly rotated on my side to perform fingertip drag / sharkfin / sailboat drills etc

otherwise the elbow / upper arm got behing the scapular plane

this is ok when drilling but apply that to full stroke swimming and your left with a slow stroke rate rolling from one side to the other etc

Now i know it can be done using scapular retraction (and this is how i swim) but i found it is much easier to blend the exit into a semi straight arm recovery for a higher more continuous stroke rate

If you really want to crack it (your op) then my tip for you is to really extend that lead arm out from the shoulder this will kind of give you a scapular retraction across the back and make it easier to get your recovering arm out of the water
so spear in and reach massively forward and as you pulling arm is exiting you will feel it pulled more in to the trunk by the shoulder baldes retracting across the back
(dont let it get behind the scapular plane though its a fine balance swing the arm out away from the body dont pull it over and behind the back)

spear and reach like your reaching up on tiptoes to screw a lightbulb into the ceiling
Youll fell the shoulder blades contract across the back pulling towards the spine

[Streak]

As you start your recovery, when your hand is near your hip, swing out wide leading with your elbow (keeping finger tips low to the water) as if you are trying to give the person next to you a gentle one arm hug.
I find that this automatically gets my elbow in the right position and corrects on of the many issues pointed out by Stuart in the video below.

[CoachBobM]

Originally Posted by paznut7

Greetings all!

I am new to TI swimming and quite eager. I love being in the water but have struggled to swim (imagine the classic problems Terry spoke of). I've started self-coaching and am taking it very slow to develop good habits rather than rush on to the next skill just for the sake of it. I'm working mastering the Superman Glide with strokes. I've tried the elbow swing but find that I'm having trouble getting my elbow as high out of the water as the dvd shows because my body is deep in the water. Any advice or thoughts on this?

There are quite a few steps in the TI drill sequence between Superman Glide and the drills where we first have you bring your elbow out of the water, so I'm not clear on where, exactly, you're running into trouble. For example, do you have any problems rotating from Core Balance to Sweet Spot and back again?


Bob

Maybe I'm missing something. In the materials I have, it goes from Superman Glide with strokes to Elbow Swing, no mention of specific work on rotating: (

[CoachBobM]

What materials are you using?

Historically, we've had swimmers master the Skate position before we begin working with stroking and arm recovery.

Spearskate and Spearswitch were introduced into the TI drill sequence more than a decade ago because we found that the over-the-water recovery used in freestyle causes some swimmers to sink, particularly if they're doing it slowly, and it helped to have them use an under-the-water recovery first.

The reason I asked about rolling from Core Balance to Sweet Spot is because when swimmers are encountering problems with sinking, it often manifests itself by making it hard for them to rotate to their Sweet Spot (Interrupted Breathing) position (i.e., they find their face completely underwater).


Bob

Hi Bob,

I appreciate you taking time to try to problem solve!
I'm using the swim ultra efficient videos and workbooks. The order of lessons goes:
Torpedo
Superman & Superman w/ glide
Elbow Swing
Paint a line
Hop and Slot
Superman to Skate
Skate + strokes

It does seem like Elbow Swing should come later because at this point, there's been no conversation about skating until much later.

Thanks!
Terna

[IngeA]

That puzzles me. Are you sure you downloaded all the stuff?

I first learned with TI-material much older and then purchased a newer video but even that was much older than your material.

Even in these old materials there were various exercises between superman glide and elbow out of the water.

Best regards

Inge

I'm sure I downloaded everything. Even the workbook, it goes from superman to elbow swing. In your materials what came right after superman?