technique work is going to start to get a little more intricate. i hope the drills you were introduced to in Week-1 and since then are getting easier, because the ability to do those drills are going to help you as we begin to work on the part of your stroke that is responsible for forward propulsion.
I’m looking forward to week 5. During week for, the day where we had the 8x50s and we had to get the most DPS on the first 25 of those 50, I think I did it wrong; I did manage to get to the other side of the pool in 1 less few stroke, but I had to pull quite hard, and I think I may have been pulling incorrectly, as that evening I was having a bit of shoulder pain (front part of the shoulder), and this I never have. So I guess I did something wrong.
I managed to do all 5 Guppy swims, which was good.
I just did Day 1 of Week 5’s Workout
What i have noticed so far after 4 weeks:
a. One Arm Drills - I swim so much better with my left arm in front and right arm pulling. Form feels good and I feel like I am gliding now. When I do the right arm in front and pull with my left, my form isn’t as good and I get tired quicker. So I am working on that.
b. My kick still sucks but I am working on it and keeping my feet up. Form form form.
c. I swim with good form with a pull bouy between my legs and they don’t swing side to side.
d. I got an Ameo Power breather for Christmas from my mother in law and I am enjoying incorporating that now in these workouts when it calls for it. Really concentrating on form when I use this tool.
e. Here is the big thing. I am getting faster! My slow and medium paced 100’s are actually a few seconds faster than they were a couple of months ago. And while my fast 100’s seem to be the same speed as before it appears that I am recovering quicker. I assume that soon I will gain speed here eventually.
I am really enjoying the Guppy Challenge and will continue to follow this.
technique work is going to start to get a little more intricate. i hope the drills you were introduced to in Week-1 and since then are getting easier, because the ability to do those drills are going to help you as we begin to work on the part of your stroke that is responsible for forward propulsion.
Hey Slowman, I managed to get some updated footage of myself today. I would appreciate your feedback.
Footage is at the end of the 2800 yd swim, so I’m already a bit tired by then. (Edit: I can see how weird my pull is on the right-side, which I find it very odd, as when I’m swimming I feel my right side is the strongest and the best out of the two).
My progress:
November 2015:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaNub_LtkYA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWDD4yC39F4
July 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_QMy-nRLmw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw6Kf_ZYnZ4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV681YhZih8
September 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSv03b8tUwU&t
i remember how your feet used to sink. seems like they stay much closer to the surface now! that’s great, because that was the major thing that stood out.
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still, my recommendation to you is to kick, and to find new ways to kick torture yourself during your kick sets, such as, with your snorkel, put one arm out in front of you, parallel to the surface, one arm to the side, and kick. alternate arms every length. i hope you can do that with a snorkel. let me know how that goes. the alternative is to do this without a snorkel, just breathe every now and then. roll over a bit on your side, take a breath every now and then.
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from the waist up, looks pretty good. just, think about not beginning the pull until the recovering hand is at the level of your ear.
you’re making pretty good progress!
about the new kicking exercise with snorkel, one arm extended and the other at the side. Am I supposed to stay flat with the torso or rotated toward the opposite side of the extended arm?
the flatter the better, but i know that’s a little tough with one arm only extended. if you are too much to the side the snorkel will foul with water and you’re better off kicking without the snorkel, and you can simply breathe to the side. but my preference, if you can, is to swim belly-down.
Really enjoying the guppy workouts- thanks so much!
I have a hip abductor strain and my Dr would prefer I not quick for a week or so until things settle down, so I guess two questions:
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Any advice on modifying workouts to not kick? Should I basically use a pull buoy for everything and possibly reduce distance to avoid killing my shoulders? Any other ideas?
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Are there areas of kick mechanics I should pay attention to that could have contributed to abductor/groin issues? I’ve been trying to bend my knees less and kick from the hips, but is that wrong?
Thanks again
“Any advice on modifying workouts to not kick?”
either band your ankles, or swim with a buoy or both. just make sure you have something to float your legs. do all your swimming like this. this will be GOOD for you.
“Are there areas of kick mechanics I should pay attention to that could have contributed to abductor/groin issues?”
who knows? not if you do it right. but you don’t do it right. (i don’t either.)
“I’ve been trying to bend my knees less and kick from the hips, but is that wrong?”
that is right. but i have a theory, which is that perhaps adult-onset swimmers might kick better if they have a slight bit more bend in their knees than pure swimmers, and this would be the case if they can’t plantar flex like a swimmer can. but this is not based on anything but a hunch. still, i think it might be a good idea to kick with an elastic band between your ankles to limit the amplitude of the kick. kind of like that gravel bike tube i showed you a couple of weeks ago. keeping your feet so that they don’t splay more than 20" or 22", something like that.
Haven’t quite got to week 5 (or 6 yet) - had two busy weeks for wk 4 and 5 and so I went back and started with wk 3 again. The third workout of my wk 3 redo my swim giddy up arrived! Seeing as I’ve been using swimming to get fit after pneumonia in the summer this was the moment I had quietly been waiting for.
I also noticed from the kicking drills that I used to have a deadspot in my kick, like kick-kick-pause, kick-kick-pause and I’ve noticed it’s disappearing. My “best” form/most fish like feeling comes on the set right after any set that has kicking in it so I might incorporate a kicking drill into my race warm-up. Some of it has been getting my aerobic fitness/lungs to the point where my arms can stroke at my natural cadence and not weird out my legs but even though my kick is still not strong I do see it improving and I love the signs of improvement no matter how small. My 50s kicking have improved from 1:33-1:38 wk1 to 1:28-1:31 in my redo wk 3 (technically wk 5) this past wk.
The alt 1 arm drills made me practise leftside breathing and that has been a good skill to throw in here and there on warm up sets etc as I have a SwimRun in the summer with ocean swim and anticipate the bilateral breathing being useful if there’s chop.
I do need to make myself a band as have been just pulling for the banded sets.
Really love what this challenge is doing to my extremely average swimming and just want to say thanks for all your effort and input Dan!
I’m a couple of weeks behind due to some work commitments so just finished Week 5. “Rewarded” myself by switching workout 3 for workout 4 so I could do the 1,000yd TT and see where I was at. Now when I started swimming regularly about 6 mths and did a few TTs I was coming off no fitness, in fact I was using it to rehab from pneumonia (!) but was consistently on the same time for the occasional 1000 (19:50-20:05).
My week 5 TT dropped that 1000 time by slightly over 2 mins holding a pace that I was thinking the whole time “I’m going to blow”. Very excited by this time - as well as improving as a swimmer, the Guppy Challenge has helped me with pace and I have the confidence to start out strong on sets to the 1000 and then just feather the pace against how I felt. Such fun to see the progress that I’ve felt coming in the water.
Go Guppies!