Cottmiler in Perth 2016

[cottmiler]

For amusement purposes, here is cottmiler swimming a few strokes less than 20 hours after arriving from England to Perth, WA.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g2eh3fdVKVI

[smootharnie]

Shelley will be proud.
Looking light and floaty.
In hinsight, was there any significant drill that made the difference?

[cottmiler]

Thanks. This wasn,t my Shelley style but rather more like Sarah McLarty,s "slap-slap".

Best drill? 3 guesses?

Yes, right first time! - Swimming with all year with an ankle band.

[nightcrawler]

Hi Cottmiler,

I see that band drill has given you excellent timing of the stroke.

IMHO, you should better work on the following issues for progression:

1. you have very high head position, do NAD drill

2. your right hand entry is soft and middle finger is not extending forward in line with shoulder, this causes lack of acceleration during forward extension... do side kick, spear fish drill and broken arrow drill.

3. left hand completion(press/push back phase) is inadequate, do scull#3 drill

4. dont swim crawl only add other strokes to your session for developing flexibility and the other supportive muscles which will contribute to your power, mobility, range of motion, core stabilization, feel for the water... distributiom may be crawl 70%+ strokes 30%, you decide it.

5. stop watching youtube videos and forget about imitating swimming superheros, if you were a superhero DNA, you would be a recordholder 40 years ago... do %80 gentle 6bk and %20 2bk in the workout sessions for sustaining better kick and arm timing.

Cheers for tears,
N.C

[smootharnie]

Cott, your roll looks very easy, rhytmic and connected now. Only the right arm slaps flat on the water a bit too much.
Do you feel the kick and the weight of the recovering action help the roll, and the pull does less to help the roll compared to your one arm ankleband swimming?
Does it feel like you are swimming in an automatic roll frequency now? It looks that way.

[cottmiler]

NC - comments noted, thanks.

SA - the body,s axial rotation change of direction has several contributions. One is help from the hand pressure on the water at the front, a second is the foot,s pressure and a third is the "twitch" from the core.

I know TI mentions the arm weight helping. TI also mentions a hip flick action.

Regrettably, Shelley,s Open Water Tuesday has relocated to Coogee Beach from Matilda Bay so I will not be able attend.

[smootharnie]

SA - the body,s axial rotation change of direction has several contributions. One is help from the hand pressure on the water at the front, a second is the foot,s pressure and a third is the "twitch" from the core

.

just cheking, same here. Arm throw can increase pressure on arm and leg anchors on the low side if you like it that way.

[Adivio]

Looking very good cottmiler. Congrats!

You know what I'm going to ask next . Did you do a time trial? Curious to hear how your speed has improved.

Adrian

[cottmiler]

People of my age can only hope to own one or two of the following options:

Rythm
Cadence 75 spm plus
Bilateral breathing
Stamina and strength
Flexibility
Flappy feet
Long distance endurance
Style
Good technique
Open water sighting
Open water competitive toughness
Speed
etc.

I am still chipping away at this list. What is your strongest point Adivio, because speed isn,t mine!

[Mike A]

Looking good, Cottmiler. Really nice solid core and good rotation, plus feet kept well in the streamline - at least, as far as I can tell from this angle. A bit more oomph in the pull and you could be really shifting with that form!

[Adivio]

Very good list cottmiler.

It would be easier for me to list my weaknesses I believe . Or instead of a list I could just state my target:
getting faster every year in all triathlon distances.

If I think hard, I believe that my main strength is consistency. Having the will to train week in and week out all year
around.

[cottmiler]

This video taken today was accidentally slow motion but to me it is strangely hypnotic.

https://youtu.be/NGSMkj-I1EA

I can see the usual problem of the hand hesitating out front.

[cottmiler]

Adivio:
These words are from a well known American swimmer from T.I in his Nov 29 blog.

"Between age 20 and 55 I slowed by only 10%, or an average decline of only .28% per year.
Between 55 and 64 (last March), I lost a further 21%, an average performance decline of 2.3% per year."

I am 68 and so speed has to remain elusive.

[smootharnie]

Cottmile, what are you doing here?

Are you using your body to help the pull? Pushing the arm deep to hook up the arm in the water by body bending and pushing the legs down at the rear to dig in at the front?
Looks like you are pulling over the centerline here. and everything goes a bit out of wack by trying to pull too hard.
Are we seeing the battle between the core action to keep the body aligned, and the urge to use the body to help the pull?

[Adivio]

Hi Cottmiler,

I did not mean absolute speed. It is true that speed will decrease naturally as we age but it depends very much
on the starting point. As I have started swimming few years back, there is plenty of space for speed improvements
even when age is going in the opposite direction. For me it has happened for all the sports I started late: running, cycling, cross country
skiing. Every year I am faster even though I get older . Still (not) waiting for the peak year when regardless of how much I train, I will start to
get slower.

[Tom65]

Hi Cottmiler,

I did not mean absolute speed. It is true that speed will decrease naturally as we age but it depends very much
on the starting point. As I have started swimming few years back, there is plenty of space for speed improvements
even when age is going in the opposite direction. For me it has happened for all the sports I started late: running, cycling, cross country
skiing. Every year I am faster even though I get older . Still (not) waiting for the peak year when regardless of how much I train, I will start to
get slower.

Probably hit my sprint best time alreay after 4 years of swimming but expecting to get a lot faster over longer distances over the next couple of years, 51 now.