I’ve been swimming a certain way to stretch out my stroke for the past week and it’s pretty cool. I’ve come up with a bike analogy to explain it:
Your hands are the pedals
Your forearms are the cranks
Your upper arms are the axle (working as one unit)
Your shoulders are the BB (working as one unit)
So the idea is to visualize your front end working as a unit vs independently left arm/right arm. Obviously the axle has to twist & articulate, forward and back for the stroking action, something that doesn’t happen on a bike.
I did some video of this tonight & really like what I see. My DPS is obviously up. I feel like I am challenging & extending my range of motion (ROM) and at the same time tapping some free energy by using the recovery arm to drive the pulling arm - as they are “linked” together by the “axle”.
There are some videos out there we’ve seen posted here already loosely instructing on this subject - but not relating to biking terms.
The reason for this work is I find that over time, my stroke starts to tighten or shorten up. I did a video check with my son on the cam and it looked like I was pawing at the water with a really short DPS . So went back to the lab to work on loosening my shoulders and finding a way to increase range while I swim. Sort of stumbled on the above doing that.
What you have discovered is that the stroking arm at the back of the stroke drives your roll timing onto your side and that the recovery arm drives your roll timing at the front of the stroke to begin your next stroke and that this is driven by your elbow controlling your recovery arm.
Notice how catchup your stroke has now become?
This is what fixed your body poistion with your feet now at the surface.
Freestyle is best swum on your side and that high elbow recovery is very important unless you have super flexible shoulders.
Who would have thought that the stroke is so intertwined and dependent of each part being timed correctly that any one part being wrong can totally disrupt the entire stroke?
Great that you have found your demon that makes it all click.
But pretty much everything you said is gobboldygoop and it only makes sense to you.
This is a great demonstration of why it is so hard to coach some people when they talk of nothing related to the physics of it all and just go on about mystical feelings.
So now you have solved the body balance for that speed you can slowly adapt to the different timing required for other speeds, water densities, flotation suits, lifting head to sight and be able punch and kick those around you without losing you valuable body position.
It won’t be too long before you will be able to say you are a swimmer.
What you have discovered is #1 that the stroking arm at the back of the stroke drives your roll timing onto your side and that the recovery arm drives your roll timing at the front of the stroke to begin your next stroke and that this is driven by your elbow controlling your recovery arm.
Notice how catchup your stroke has now become?
This is what fixed your body poistion with your feet now at the surface.
Freestyle is best swum on your side and that high elbow recovery is very important unless you have super flexible shoulders.
Who would have thought that the stroke is so intertwined and dependent of each part being timed correctly that any one part being wrong can totally disrupt the entire stroke?
Great that you have found your demon that makes it all click.
But pretty much everything you said is gobboldygoop and it only makes sense to you.
This is a great demonstration of why it is so hard to coach some people when they talk of nothing related to the physics of it all and just go on about mystical feelings.
So now you have solved the body balance for that speed you can slowly adapt to the different timing required for other speeds, water densities, flotation suits, lifting head to sight and be able punch and kick those around you without losing you valuable body position.
It won’t be too long before you will be able to say you are a swimmer.
What you are saying in #1 to me is more of an observation, not a focus point or something I can deal with while executing.
What I discovered is that obviously the shoulders are strongest when connected and that the recovery arm can help drive the stroking arm. It does look a bit catch-up but my stroke sure doesn’t feel catch-up. And I don’t think catch up is a bad thing. In my case it’s a bit like winding up a spring - that recovering arm loads up some tension through the shoulders (because of the posture/connectedness) and then the stroking arm uses that.
Couple of updates. I did a post over on a swim forum and another swimmer posted with exactly the same experience. He gets it 100%. I thought I was being pretty simplistic so not sure why gobble-de-gook is tabled. Here is a “kayak” drill that does teaches as similar experience. It’s hard to do!
Lastly I’ve spent like 2 weeks swimming - trending my stroke this way & it feels great, Loving the “flow” - going straighter and faster than ever. I can even apply the same philosophy to back stroke. did 750M of BS today all time high!
