This is the first thing i working on.
I was moving my arms in what can i only describe as a windmill motion. I start the the pull and applying force from the moment my arm reached the water, and because of that by the time my arm reach the real pull position i am done…and take my arm out.
Yesterday I start what will be a long change. The way it was described to me is i need to use similar muscles as i was doing a push-up or a muscle up. I was leaving everything to my shoulders, but there is a problem with that. My right shoulder is very effed up (I got a bad injury in my early 20s playing basketball) and i was advise to have surgery in my early 30s…but now at my early 40’s i dont really want to go through that.
Once i use my arms the right way and start moving forward, then phase 2 will start, and thats fixing my body position and making sure i dont pop my head out. I am slightly optimistic on that regard. I think my body position might be align with the fact that im not really moving much. It takes between 26 and 30 strokes for me to get to the end of a 25 yard pool. Thats a lot of strokes.
Yesterday practicing i was able to get the stoke count to between 22-28. May not sound like much but i definitely felt it, specially on the 25s sprints. I was making them on about the same time as before (26s) but with fewer stokes (22) and i was not feeling winded at the end… I was consistent and not slowing down. It will take some time to develop the muscles i am trying to use now.
@JoeX Bruh. Thats me on the pool…haha! they look exactly as i swim!
Ive been practicing the pull, and next will practice the kick. Im want to be able to get to the point where i dont use much of my legs. we need to save them for bike/run.
@mountainrunner the catch is part of phase 3. My buddy told me, that once we get the catch and better align the body to the water, we can fix the catch. As long as the pull and position are there, the catch i will at least be able to move slightly faster than now (and that very slow)
@Power13 catch-up is one of the drills ive been doing. This week has been catch-up, one-arm, finger drags, and fist. Ive seen the alt version of catch up. Some people use a paddle board (thats what my kids are using).
@EmilyS Thanks. I will try them. Would you say correcting how im pulling water is the most important thing right now? The “windmill” rotation is not great and its not helping thing… The approach i was suggested was: learn how to properly do a pull, correct body position then rotations and other areas. Since you are an instructor and I know absolutely nothing, I would appreciate your input
Thanks all for the comments and suggestions. I really hope to improve my swimming. I think getting out of the water, higher than last place is worth the time investment! (yes ive gotten dead last (or very close to it) on races. It has taken a monumental amount of biking (to 10%) and running (usually top 5 overall) to squeeze into my AG podium!