(Arm) Recovery

Swimming outside is definitely a luxury!  This is an old photo from the pool on Anderson AFB in Guam.   Today's  T2 Aquatics Master's practice with coach Kevin was very instructional as well as extremely motivational. He clapped his hands for us, and encouraged us through the tough 16 x 100 set. Fun stuff!  Thanks Kevin.  I am excited to report that I am an official member of T2 Aquatics now.

Yesterday I took the day off from practice to spend time with Kim and Joel at the beach. I was on my way to practice at 12pm (rather than 5:30am), when Kim texted me to see if I wanted to meet them at the beach.  I don't get to see Kim very often, so I took her up on that offer, and decided to swim in the ocean, which was fantastic as well.

This morning I cut practice to 3500 so that my body can recover a bit before heading to Nationals next week. We did a nice 1000 yard warm up, followed by a lovely pace set of 16 x 100, then a total of 400 yards of drills.  In my lane to day was Ian, who swam the entire main set with a pull buoy. I was talking to another swimmer (didn't get his name) in the lane next to me and he said that he use to swim against Fernando Canales. (decades ago)

Today we learned that Kevin never asks his swimmers to do the 'zipper' drill or the 'finger tip drag' drill, why? Because, if you ask someone to circle their arms over their head, what does it look like? The arm is loose, relaxed and mostly straight. We don't bring the elbow high, and draw the fingers up to the side of our body to the arm pit. That is exactly what we want to avoid when thinking about the arm recovery during freestyle.  We want to the arm to open up and move with high momentum over the head, with no break in it's path.  He is not proposing to always swim with a straight arm, that is only used for race situations if you are a sprinter.  It's fantastic to learn and know that the sport of swimming is constantly evolving and finding ways to improve techniques and teaching methods for our future Olympians, elite swimmers, and competitive Masters!

Friday 4/17/15

Warm:
400 swim
300 FRIM
200 Pull
100 Kick
Main: 16 x 100 - the fourth one is always fast
4  x 100 @ 1:35
4 x 100 @ 1:30
4 x 100 @  1:25
4 x 100 @ 1:20
Set:
4 x 25 (Left Arm single arm swim, breath to non-swimming side)
4 x 25 (RT - switch arms)
4 x 25 straight arm recovery holding tennis ball or loose fists
4 x 25 superman position - catch up drill
Cool 2-300 snorkel
OR -
4 x 100 @ 1:20 - make it to 15 meter mark under water off walls
more swimming - plus more swimming.................

Stay tuned for Saturday's practice. 

Happy Laps!