Back to pool school August 13, 2008
Posted by boardgrl Swim
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Yay, I’m back from vacation and back to Tri training. Tonite was a nice swim with some drills totalling a little over 1000 yards. I’m a right side breather, but we had to use both sides tonight in one of the drills and I definitely drank a bit of water doing that. I’m going to try to work toward being an ambidexterous breather as it would help to be able to direct my breathing away from waves/splashing during the tri swim. I’m definitely an average paced swimmer - I want to be a “fast” swimmer and need to figure out what I’m doing that’s holding me back - gotta get coach to assess.
Workout:
- Type: Swim
- Date: 08/13/2008
- Time: 17:30:00
- Total Time: 00:38:00.00
- Distance: 1,050 yd
- Average Pace: 3:37.6/100yd
Comments
while you’re swimming, study what mechanisms make breathing on your natural side nice. for me, it’s a stronger pull and bigger follow-through with that arm right before the breath, a larger hip rotation to that side, getting my gliding shoulder closer to my ear, and keeping my head fixed in relation to my torso. then, once you’ve determined how you breathe, simply replicate it going to your unnatural side.
i got over my discomfort of breathing to my unnatural side with a simple drill. for 50m, i pull with one arm, with the other arm glued to my side, and breathe to the opposite side. the first 5-10 times you do this, you’re gonna feel like you’re going to drown. you’ll swallow a few pools’ worth of water. but eventually you get used to it, and you won’t even notice the difference between the two sides. one hint for this drill is to pull 3 times with your arm, then give yourself 1 pull’s amount of time to breath, as if you were pulling with your other arm. it gives your hips time to rotate around, so that you’re not just turning your head (something you want to avoid).
i hate the new classes. ugh. i am working out tomorrow morning. good luck getting coach to actually assess you. lol. tims going out of town friday thru tuesday. do you wanna bike this weekend?
Thanks tje210 for the excellent tips! I’m going to put those in motion during tonite’s swim. It’ll be worth swallowing a bunch of water to get that unnatural side feeling natural.