Swim Analysis - Part 2
In Part 1, I shared my story how I started my swimming from not being able to swim 25m without gasping for air to steady 2000m swim.
Even though swimming is an endurance sport and you have good endurance in other sports, it is very difficult to go long without improved technique.
My goal is to get to 1:40/100m pace for 2k straight.
Let’s see how I am doing one year after I started swimming. I will share three short clips from where Gordo Byrn and I went through.
Clip 1
This is a normal “Zone 2 pace” for me and I can keep with this one for 1k non-stop.
What is working here?
head and hips are up, so I am quite horisontal
breathing and strokes are in sync
What should be improved (major errors)?
right hand entry is crossing the midline. Should be wider entry.
legs are too far apart. Should be kept closer.
Clip 2
This is an easy pace, most enjoyable swim type for me. I feel refreshed after this type of session.
What should be improved (major errors)?
same problem with the right hand entry.
legs are too far apart. Should be kept closer.
feet are not flexed (plantar flexion). Major issue causing a lot of drag
body is curving to the right.
the push phase of the stroke is not fully completed
the face turn for breathing is too high. I am turning my head too high up
Clip 3
This is a hard pace. It would be difficult to keep it more than 100m
What should be improved (major errors)?
same problems as in Clip 1 and 2
high frequency strokes without efficiency. Here I am tiring myself and gaining 15 seconds at max. Not worth it.
As you can see, there are many things I should work on. The problem with improving swimming technique is that if you focus on many things, cognitive load is too high and none of it will be efficient.
So, Gordo told me to focus on two things here:
wider entry of the right hand
touching the toes
and preferably, not focusing on both things at the same time.
So, what I have been doing is that I would focus only on the entry in one interval. Let’s say, I am doing 5x200m, I would focus on the entry on the first 200m, and the second 200m, I would focus on the toes.
After 2-3 weeks of focusing on these issues, I feel improvement. Learning how to swim is a patience game. I hope this post helps in your swimming game.
Today, I hope to get some feedback from Gordo Byrn and Iñaki de la Parra, because we are going to swimming in 30 minutes :)
Stay healthy,
Bek
Great post! Has crossing your midline and breathing to high caused any shoulder or neck pain? Out of curiosity