June 11, 2009

Before I start talking about what we have been practicing the past few days; We will take an official weigh in and measurements on Saturday morning. So please check on the blog, I am interested to see if any of this hard work has paid off.

Chris went on a business trip and a wedding last week, so he missed June 3, 5, and 6 (three days of swim practice). When we got back in on Monday, June 8th, he said he felt extremely horrible and out of shape. This is what happens when you do not swim for just a few days. You think it is just a few days of swimming, and it can't hurt to take a little time off.... but you are wrong.

With the Club Gators swim team (the age group team I coach at River Oaks), I stress attendance is important, but I guess what is more important is constant attendance. It doesn't do any good if swimmers come constantly for 5 weeks, but then take 3 weeks off (for whatever reason..... homework, stress), and expect to be in the same shape and/or form they were in prior to their mini break.

Each week, each practice, we build on what we learn the prior practice/week (Think school structure and the different grades for each year). Once kids start missing practice, or a week of practice, they fall further behind on the learning scale; at which I need to make a hard decision:

a. Teach the kids what we learned in the last week of their missed practices at the expense of the kids who have been coming to practice.

b. Continue to teach new things to the kids who have been consistently coming to practice and hope the other kids pickup and learn the new techniques (which never happens).

Anyways, on Wednesday, we looked at whats wrong with Chris's stroke. His breast stroke is pretty good. This is because he can keep a good straight line with his body, and his body is always 'floating' on top of the water (which means less drag).

His freestyle is another story. Chris's says he has shoulder problems, which is why his freestyle is so terrible. I think otherwise.

When Chris swims freestyle, his body is at a 45 degree angle. Chris kicks with his knees bent, which makes his body position terrible in the water. A bad body position increases drag, which makes him work harder, which makes him more tired.

We started to fix this by putting longs fins and a pull buoy between his legs. There was tremendous body position improvement (it actually looked like he was floating in the water). The buoy helps with two main things. 1. To help float the body on top of the water, and 2. Helps you kick with straight legs. Once you start kicking with a bent knee.... that buoy falls out between your legs.

For the next few practices, we will continue to swim with fins and a buoy. This should help Chris' body position in the water, and help him be more efficient in the water.

Please check back with this blog in the next few days. I will be posting measurements after Saturdays weigh in.