Thank you for all working hard for Chrissie while I was away last week.  She has given you all a glowing report!  Chrissie has kindly offered to help with some more coaching in the coming weeks, when not coaching the juniors, so I will bring the video camera along for the next few weeks for anyone that wants to see what their stroke looks like above and below the water.  We will use the end part of both sessions for the videoing so please speak to Chrissie or myself if you would like to see yourself and get some analysis.  There won’t be time to do more than a few of you each week but I will do my best to get all of those filmed over the next few weeks that want to be.

We will be starting time trials again at the end of November and running them every two months on the last Saturday of November, January and March to allow you to track your progress over the Winter.  The November time trial is a great way to set a baseline for measuring any changes in technique and fitness that you make over the Winter.  I know many of you don’t like time trials but why not set yourself the challenge of trying to learn to enjoy them a bit more by practising getting better at them this Winter?!

In the session this week I’d like everyone to think about the start of the pull with a high-elbow catch so we will be doing some different drills to help you work on this.  The drills will go as follows:

  • Double-arm pull
    • Use a pull buoy and look straight down at the bottom of the pool
    • Do a double-arm breaststroke pull finishing with your arms by your hips, recovering underwater
    • Focus on getting your forearms vertical (in the Early Vertical Forearm (EVF) position), with your elbows still pointing forwards, before you put any power into the pull
  • Sideline kicking with quarter pull
    • Same as sideline kick but doing the first quarter of the pull with your lead arm
    • Recover the pulling arm underwater, as you would for puppy paddle or doggy paddle drill
    • Swim it slowly without pressing hard – you are not generating propulsion just practising keeping your elbow above your hand and getting ready to catch
  • Reverse doggy paddle
    • Like normal doggy paddle but starting and finishing each stroke with both arms at your sides (like reverse catch-up)
    • Let your shoulders rotate as you would on normal front crawl and breathe to the side
    • Focus on keeping your elbow nice and high at the start and throughout the pull
  • Full stroke
    • Keep the high-elbow catch you have just been practising
    • Do the catch slowly – don’t start pressing hard until your forearm is pointing to the bottom of the pool so you only push the water backwards

 There’s a video also here of me explaining these new drills if you need it.

See you Saturday!