Hey everyone! Welcome back to our swim analysis series. Today, we’re focusing on Sally’s technique, who recently participated in the Cairns Swim Clinic. Sally, thanks for diving in with us, and I hope you weren't too exhausted from the Green Island swim the day before!
Let’s dive right into your swim analysis.
Initial Thoughts:
First off, Sally, fantastic work on developing your swim skills. We’re only looking at a few tweaks to enhance your performance.
Focus Point 1: Breathing Technique and Arm Position
When you breathe to the left, you push your hand out wide with a straight arm. This causes a shift through your hips, eventually requiring a big kick to stabilize. The main sign is the leg drift to the left as you counteract this motion.
Solution:
To address this, we’ll focus on integrating a high elbow catch and some bilateral breathing exercises. These drills should make your pull phase more propulsive and eliminate the lateral shift at the rear of your stroke.
Focus Point 2: Kicking Motion
Another point to work on is your kicking motion. When you finish your kick with your left leg, you move into dorsiflexion, which creates significant drag, almost like putting on the brakes.
Solution:
We'll work on maintaining a streamlined kick to reduce drag and increase your speed.
Focus Point 3: Finishing Your Stroke
A key observation from our session is how you finish your stroke. Currently, you’re exiting the water with your elbow first and turning your hand so that your palm faces your thigh.
Solution:
To improve this, we want you to turn your hand so the palm faces the direction you’ve traveled from. Push through the last stage of your stroke to roll your body onto the side, allowing you to extend into a glide with your opposite hand.
Focus Point 4: Breathing
With the high elbow catch and proper stroke finish, you’ll create a push-and-extend motion to maximize stroke length and body roll. This gives you more time in your stroke to breathe effectively.
Conclusion:
Excellent work, Sally! We’ve identified a few key areas to focus on, and with consistent drills, we’ll see significant improvement. Can’t wait to track your progress!
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