Swimming Under the Stars

summary: approx 1 mile swim plus stroke work (1 hr)

Thursdays are our 'on your own' swim workout day. I usually go at lunch time to enjoy the mid-day sun and break my day in half. One of our coaches, Mary Jo, is a really good swim coach and she offers an optional group "swim help" workout on Thursday nights. I opted to check that out today. It was at the Valley Vista ClubSport in Walnut Creek (where I think MJ works). It is a really nice facility and they are so kind as to let our TNT team use the pool for free on Thursday nights.

It's funny how I keep forgetting that most pools in California are outside. When I envisioned an evening workout, I was thinking indoors. How silly of me. It's early March. Why wouldn't we swim outside? I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that as I turned my head to breath, I could see stars! (and airplanes) Oops. that probably means I was turning my head to far.

I don't recall the exact details of our workout. But I do recall it was about 1800 yards. And then coach MJ had us work on some different aspects of our stroke while she watched and pointed out things we could improve or tweak. That was super helpful. I may try to go again even though it is a bit of a trek for me to get to.

Here are some of the stroke areas we focused on:

1. head position in the water - split head in half, both face down & turned. and look straight or a little in front when turning. don't look behind you.

2. leave your arm out in front for a little extra time and glide

3. finger tips enter the water first pointing in the direction that you want to go (the end of the pool) Finger tips should enter the water first, followed by the hand, wrist, forearm then elbow. Like they are all going through a bracelet. Also, where your hand enters the water should be a bit out to the side - it shouldn't cross over your head. (I need to work on that)

4. keeping elbows up high. Your elbow should always remain higher than your hand for the most efficient pull. As you start your catch of the water, you want to act as if you are reaching over a half barrel(as I told people last night, I am from WI and like beer, therefore the analogy!). To help in this feeling of reaching over the barrel, make sure you take your fingertips and point them at the bottom of the pool. If you fingertips are pointing at the pool bottom you will have the correct position of your elbow being higher than the elbow.

#. finger tip drag??

. pulling down the center of our body

. hip thrust. roll back and forth. this is the source of power and speed of your stroke. if you want to swim faster, thrust/roll your hips faster (not pull harder with your arms)

. kick - not like riding a bike but like you are kicking a soccer ball

. dang, I forgot a few of them. looks like I should go again next week.