Ah, short course season. There are several reasons you have to peel me off the deck of an outdoor 50m pool and shove me indoors to 25y training at the end of every summer. One of them is “all those turns.”
To be fair, there are factors beyond “fewer turns” that make me better at long course. But I know sluggish turns is one aspect I really need to work on to improve my short course swims.
Turns have been my achilles heel since the day I graduated from 25s to 50s as an age grouper. Over the years I’ve taken any opportunity that’s come along (on-deck coaching, clinics, the good nature of fellow swimmers who excel at turns) to figure out what’s slowing me down on the walls. I watch the experts’ technique revealed by underwater cam views during big meets on TV, such as Worlds, the Trials, and the Olympic Games.
It’s been really frustrating then, to be able to comprehend what I have to do, even visualize what I need to do, but then still suffer from some sort of brain-body disconnect at walls. I can just feel myself slowing down as I approach the wall and “pace-disrupted” off of it.
Thanks to “coach” Brett, a fellow teammate (a sprinter who really knows how to work the walls) who has devoted countless after-practice hours to one-on-one work on my turns, the mechanics of the “flip” part of my turn have greatly improved. I’m planting my feet better (deeper than my hips, and wide enough to apply full strength to push off). I’m also thinking “dive into the turn” as I head into every wall which is a big, aggressive step up from my former “drift in” approach.
Heather (or “Lady COMSA” as she is known in our local swim circle) watched my turns as she counted for me during the 1500 at LC Nats this past August. Her assesment? The actual turn isn’t that bad now; it’s time to focus on streamlining.
Here’s my current plan of attack:
–My goal this month is to do at least one dolfin kick off every wall. I hope to build to two the following month, and ultimately get to three. The beginning of the short course season is a great time to try this out — I can take advantage of the slower “get back into shape” practice intervals to get used to exerting more energy off the walls and hold good technique for each repeat.
–I am going to attack every wall every repeat every practice. Yep, I definitely used to be lazy on the walls, but no more!
–I have added yoga and pilates to the weekly training mix to improve flexibility.
–After practice I’ll throw in a few “push of bottom” streamline drills in the deep end.
–Continue to get expert help as well as experiment. For exmaple, I know I’ve seen swimmers dolfin kick off walls on their sides, but it took me forever to realize that it’s easier to kick on my side than my stomach off walls. But hey, now I know…
Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist