After all the feedback from the “Critique my swim” thread, I’ve begun working on the following, in descending order of importance. Hope these notes are useful for those who swim similarly.
- earlier catch / more vertical forearm
- deeper entry
- pull more under body
- pressing the chest a bit more
- less wrist break
The earlier catch is really hard to do. Made my shoulders hurt in a new and different way. Not sure if it’s a bad thing. This will take some time to improve, especially on the left. I worry it’s a Catch-22 thing, where you have to be able to do it to practice it!
The deeper entry is great. So much less stress on my shoulders! I’m normally feeling it get painful at that point in my stroke after 2000y, but not tonight.
I think the pull under the body makes the biggest difference now. I could feel a more effective and smoother pull. Not sure why, but the water felt a little less thick.
Pressing the chest is easy… as long as I remember. And when I do, I seem to naturally hold the core tighter, too.
Wrist break, well, I didn’t think too much about it, but noticed that when I did the other things better, I broke less. I suspect I was doing that instinctively in reaction to my other big errors.
Thanks to all for your comments in the other thread. I couldn’t tell if I was any faster, as the natural variation in times was within my usual range, but it seems pretty obvious that a bunch of work on this stuff will pay off.