Rotation and kick in freestyle - Natalie Coughlin

Here I am again today, I feel quite enthused today, so I'm adding a video from Natalie Coughlin - 10 time Olympic medalist and recent Dances with Stars contestant. The video quality is very good. You can see the smooth rotation of her stroke and the tremendous use of the kick. Notice the "early catch" from the Thorpe videos on the earlier post.

enjoy



Now go and practice - what else you gonna do?

Early Catch Freestlye Demo by Ian Thorpe

Hello all, here is another first for me. embedding a video clip in a blog. hope it works.

here are two clips of 20sec and 17 sec of Former Aussie Swimmer and Olympic legend Ian Thorpe. For all those you have been swimming with me before know that I advocate a "early catch" or High elbow insweep on Freestyle. you can see here to what extent Thorpe was able to attain this.

Enjoy






Now go and practice - what else are you gonna do?

Thursday Nov 19th Regina Masters Swim set

Warm Up

1x400 Easy Choice (long and loose)
8x50 Kick/Swim (working on what kick, determines what stroke on the swim)
16x25 - 4 on each stroke ez/fast x25

Main set

3 sets (all on 10-15 sec rest at a moderate pace)
4x75 R1- Fc/Fly/Fc R2- Fc/Bk/Fc R3- Fc/Brst/Fc
2x150 IM/Fc x25
1x300 Pull breathe 5

Total 3900m 90mins

Blast from the Past

Remembering the "S Pull"

The idea of swimming with the 'S-Pull' was a development in swimming around the mid/late 70's by the Coach to Mark Spitz, Doc Counsilman - who suggested it allowed the pull duration to be increased. This was also to suggest a movement away from straight arm pulling. This "S Pull" required the swimmer to place had entry at the front of the stroke with thumb down, then sweep the hand in an outwards direction, then sweep back in before sweeping out again by the hip. Thus making an "S". Many swimmers including myself were taught this method.

The S-Pulls' suggested benefits were dispelled in the late '80s (could have been 90's), as upon analysis of the stroke it didn't seem take account of rotation of the body when swimming. Also when looking at other activities that use the hand to pull the body over, like rock climbing or even climbing out of the pool, we notice that to effectively move the body upward we need the hand to press in a linear fashion. we wouldn't get very far if, in order to get out the pool our hands slipped away as we pressed.

Also most swimmers trying to perform an S-Pull overdo the sweeping action, drawing a "2" instead causing the hips to swing, the feet to fish tale and therefore create more drag (and that's not the rocky horror show type of drag I'm talking about either)

Injury, Injury they've all got an injury

A major problem with the S-Pull is that it usually requires the swimmer to enter a thumb first entry in to the water. This more often than not will lead to shoulder injuries. This action twists the rotator cuff and as the hand is being pressed with a straight arm, all the strength of this is transfered along the arm and creates an enourmnous amount of pressure onto this twisted rotator cuff. you should avoid an S shape pull if you suffer (or don't want to suffer) from any shoulder injuries.

Instead of trying to create an S-Pull, the "I Pull" is the letter of choice - focus on the hand entering flat, finger tips first. and press directly back behind you. Concentrating on fingers facing the bottom of the pool with the arm pit open. Pull the finger tips/wrist then bend the elbow so that the wrist is underneath the elbow and the forearm is near vertical. This is the "high elbow" we all hear and talk about. If any part of swimming is the "Holy Grail" this high elbow is it. It will take practice, but then again, what else you going to be doing huh?

Thursday 12th Nov - Training set Regina Masters

Warm Up
3x300m #1 F/c Drill/Swim x25 or x50
10x50m odd - kick/swim (no board) even - Drill/Swim

Main set ( IM based)
2 sets
2x75m as 100IM -25m of 1 of the strokes
2x100m as 100 IM
2x125m IM as 100IM +25m of 1 of the strokes
4x50 Fast Kick
1x400 F/c dev 100's 1-4

Swim down

1x300m easy choice

Total 3900 in 90 mins

Who Am I and What do I do?

I am known in the Regina area as "Swimcoach Jason", I am very fortunate to be coaching some great people in Masters swimming and in the Trialthon game. I coach the Regina masters Swim Team, City of Regina Masters Noon Hours, Level 10 Fitness, I also coach the Regina Marlins and advise Synchro Regina on aquatics training.

In a pervious life I was a full time swim coach in the UK working at the University of bath with Ian Turner (Great Britain Head Coach) and Andrei Voronstov (now head coach of Russia). I was lucky to have a great bunch of swimmers and assistant coaches striving for swimming at a high level. I was on the British swimming world class potential team as a team coach. I coached successfully with the Regina Dolphins with Jasen Pratt and have had high performance trips for Sakatchewan. I also represented Canada as a team coach to an International meet in the US with the Canadian Para Olympic swiming team.

In the Beginning.....


It would seem that the whole world is blogging but me. I'll see how it goes, as I was never a very good diary keeper. For those who know me I have a nerdy/geeky obsession with all things swimming, even synchro.....yes even that.

It was the summer of 1976 that my life really changed. A small little event called the Olympic Games was on. in very strange and foriegn land. Representing Great Britain David Wilkie a moustashioed God would win the 200m Breaststroke breaking the world record by 3 seconds (by the way he way the 1st high level swimmer to wear a swim cap in races). I was in awe, the whole familly was crammed around the B&W TV set and cheering. That was it, i wanted to swim like him. So I begged my parents to take me swimming.

The following summer I was watching Patrick Duffy and Ron Ely in the mid 70's. Patrick was the man from Atlantis and Ron was Tarzan and both had adventures that involved lots of swimming. I remember clearly my cousin Wayne and I spending all summer playing "man from Atlantis" and taking turns at who was tarzan and who was the crocodile, at the Halifax Baths in the town centre of Halifax West Yorkshire, England. we could swim underwater doing dolphin kicking better than swimming on the surface. Come to think of it all this underwater stuff that Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlan do so well, was actually started in the 70's with Patrick Duffy (who knew?).

What should I blog about?

I will endevour to put up some interesting training sets, points of techneque, ideas for pacing and news from either the local and the international scene. stay tuned for futher details.......