you're going to get so much faster! you are a paddlewheel. imagine 2 modes of propulsion in watercraft: an old style steam-powered riverboat, like mark twain might have ridden aboard on the mississippi. and a canoe. in a canoe you reach forward, drop that canoe paddle in vertically, and then pull straight back.
the paddlewheel has propulsive surfaces that hit the water facing straight down, and then arc through the water, only pushing straight back at one small, discrete moment during each cycle. that is you.
the 2 things you must do:
1. your arms right now are like opposing propulsive surfaces on a paddlewheel. if you watch videos of good swimmers swim, they don't swim that way. after the catch, the hand stays there, almost immobile, near the surface of the water, and doesn't begin its pull until the hand of the recovering arm is at about ear level. only THEN does the pull begin. you need to spend some time, even a couple hundred yards per workout, emulating THIS technique. maybe not full catch-up (where one hand touches the other out in front before the pull begins), but at a minimum not beginning your pull until the recovering had reaches ear level.
2. you need to be a canoe paddle, not a riverboat paddle. you need to form a pulling surface from the elbow to the fingertip as early in the stroke as you can and then pull straight back against the water (just like a canoe paddle).
imagine if somebody would've come along in 1850 and thought to place those riverboat paddles on two axles, creating something like a tank tread. imagine how much more efficient that might have been, with those pulling surfaces pulling straight back for a long distance rather than making a half circle in the water. that's what we need to do with you.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
the paddlewheel has propulsive surfaces that hit the water facing straight down, and then arc through the water, only pushing straight back at one small, discrete moment during each cycle. that is you.
the 2 things you must do:
1. your arms right now are like opposing propulsive surfaces on a paddlewheel. if you watch videos of good swimmers swim, they don't swim that way. after the catch, the hand stays there, almost immobile, near the surface of the water, and doesn't begin its pull until the hand of the recovering arm is at about ear level. only THEN does the pull begin. you need to spend some time, even a couple hundred yards per workout, emulating THIS technique. maybe not full catch-up (where one hand touches the other out in front before the pull begins), but at a minimum not beginning your pull until the recovering had reaches ear level.
2. you need to be a canoe paddle, not a riverboat paddle. you need to form a pulling surface from the elbow to the fingertip as early in the stroke as you can and then pull straight back against the water (just like a canoe paddle).
imagine if somebody would've come along in 1850 and thought to place those riverboat paddles on two axles, creating something like a tank tread. imagine how much more efficient that might have been, with those pulling surfaces pulling straight back for a long distance rather than making a half circle in the water. that's what we need to do with you.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman