Unlearning /Relearning

Following our revision of day one we took our focus points a little further.  Using 3 thoughts we were aiming to develop 3 repeatable but different swimming experiences.

Thought one was just to float our arm forward and swim with no tension and floating arms. 

Thought two was to open our axilla (armpit), on our extended floating arm and feel the water under our axilla  and along  our chest wall.

Thought three was to let our hand drop down and to apply a little pressure by rolling our forearm over, so lifting our elbow slightly. Our arm was now shaped like we were draping it over a large ball.

We practiced several laps of each variation and then were required to link them together into a 75yd sequence. We counted our strokes for each length.

It was pretty sensational because all of a sudden I had 3 speeds I could reproduce on command. Thought one equaled a SR (Stroke rate) of 14, thought two equaled a SR 15 and thought three a SR of 16. The beauty was I was not thinking slow, medium, fast I was thinking floating arm, open my axillia and add some tension. If I kept the thought, I kept repeating the stroke rates. We did them up 1, 2, 3 and down 3, 2, 1. Then I did some mix ups when practicing.

As long as I was careful to keep my push off constant I could reproduce the sequence at will.  The challenge now is to keep repeating them until they are totally engrained and have developed their own motor trace. Once they are solid you can move onto 50yds, then 75,100,150,200,250 etc.  The sequence is limitless.

Terry talked about competition with the ability to maintain a constant or chosen SR throughout your event. Why not start with a balance focus (thought one) changed to a streamline focus (thought 2) and finish with a propulsion focus (thought three) thereby getting faster throughout the race. What would that do to your results?  Don’t swim harder just control your SR.

What did I learn from session 2.

I have been swimming for years but this was the first time I actually felt I could hold the water. The water felt thick. I have spent years perfecting the EVF (early vertical forearm) and intend to unlearn it as fast as I can. Shaping the arm and draping it over a large ball, produced the desired result. Part of the process maybe was the intense concentration I was struggling to maintain. I had never thought and concentrated on what I was feeling in my stroke like this before.

Maybe one could control speed in some other way than by muscular effort. Happy to have a go, be exposed to the idea that swimming harder is your last choice when it comes to generating speed but deep down I was not convinced there was another option.

Thinking of race plans and with an awaking understanding of mental versus muscular speed I am thinking about getting back to some competition.