Thursday, February 5, 2009

Roll-Over to Swim Faster

I wrote an article on a great drill which is included in my Supplemental Swim Training Plan, and teaches the concept of "pressure". This is something so many athletes lack in their stroke, and why I wrote the article, as well as created the training plans. There is a YouTube video of the drill in the article as well, for better demonstration. Enjoy!

As complex as it may seem at times, swimming fast is just a matter of displacing yourself past the most amount of water you can, and reducing drag to maximize the distance you go with the displacement. This is simple in idea, but complex in execution.

One of the biggest flaws in swim coaching is most coaches don't understand how to relate to a beginning swimmer. Concepts and actions which seem simple to coaches are like astrophysics to novices. Sometimes the wording used by coaches is more complex than it needs to be. For example, most coaches use the term "catch" to describe how to gather water to displace in the stroke. If you're a novice swimmer, catching something which is fluid can seem rather puzzling. It's hard to conceptualize catching water. A better term is "pressure".

"Pressure" is something we can all conceptualize and sense when we are swimming, more so than "catch". Athletes want to feel pressure in the palm of the hand, as well as on the accompanying forearm...

Read the rest of the article at XTRI.com

Coach Vance

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