I constantly think about my stroke. I try different head positions, different angles of my elbows through my pull, change the pitch of my hands as they enter the water. I am constantly looking for something to make myself better.
One of the keys to continually getting faster in the sport of swimming is to become more fine-tuned in the small, technical things every season. We must always continue to evolve our strokes, and discipline ourselves to fix our imperfections. Luckily swimming gives us so much time and repetition to continuously fine-tune. I can definitively tell you what I have done every single season to make myself better than I was the year before. Can you tell me, or your coach this same type of thing? If not, start thinking about it more...
The reason I know I must continue to perfect my stroke is because my body still changes shape a little every season, because I continually get stronger, and because I never think my stroke is good enough. For example, my head position this summer might not put my body at the same position next summer, if I gain three or four pounds of muscle. Maybe I'm stronger now so I can have even higher elbows through my pull. There are a number of different things we must all look at in our strokes in order to adapt to the changes our bodies go through each and every season.
I will tell you flat out. If you want to be successful in swimming, work on your technique everyday. If you fail to work on your technique you will not improve in the long-term. Swimming is about being efficient, and maximizing every ounce of power and energy our body gives us. We cannot take anything for-granted nor waste energy. Start working on your stroke today so you can be more fine-tuned tomorrow!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Always Evolving
Posted by Garrett at 10:29 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
10 comments:
Very true. Swiming is't about being fastest it's about getting faster. Technique evolution is paramout. The best example is 50m free WR progression. I remember when Popov made 21.64 with his "perfect technique"(we used to say) and very powerful kick it looked like this is "the barrier". Although Schoeman was once near with 21.67 performance. This year we had so much unelievable performances. Garrett was incredible during Omaha meet. Tell me the truth? Would you place your bet on him before finals? Obviously Gary Hall accomplishments are gloriuous but we all knew reaching finals was probably everything he could do. There was also Jones and so was Tobriner. Very difficult to point a winner. Not mention 50free is so short you can't afford any mistakes and every detail is crucial. We also had strong showing from Sullivan. Guys showed you don't have look like Alain Bernard and still can get the work done. Garrett there was so much said about suits this year. Tell us please, are they really so good? What's the deal with LZR? Is there really so much difference between LZR and FastSkin? Im also interested in your bodybuilding training. Thing that worries me the most is there's always something (so much in fact) to improve and i'm always lacking time to do.
Sry for my English, looks like I have another area to make some improvements :)
GWG-All great points on technique. It is something that I try (not always succeed) to do all season long when coaching. That includes during taper.
We took it on the chin last night against your old team. We swam 4 per event and ran out of horses.
Keep doing this in the blog. It inspires me that you are so passionate about so many positive things. We need more people like you to be role models for this next generation.
I love doing this blog...I hope I can inspire people!
I'm seriously passionate about so many things that sometimes it's hard for me to choose haha.
Stroke technique is important to work on all the time but I think too many people make the mistake of only focusing on it during taper. Having good technique is all about training your muscle memory. Muscle memory happens over time so it's necessary to start at the beginning of the season.
I completely agree. My Masters' teammates and I were just talking about the importance of technique work this morning after practice (while soaking in the hot tub, of course, ha!).
Technique is SO important, especially if you're an "older" swimmer. You just don't have the luxury of not paying attention and just getting better by proxy. I'll take quality over quantity any day (not that mileage isn't important, gotta work the old heart out too).
Love the blog, by the way, keep posting (especially the recipes)!
haha the hot tub!? That's a great place to be after practice. I agree that quality is good, but we do need to put in the time as well. It's important for people to remember that when practice gets really hard and our arms get heavy that we must still keep our perfect stroke. It's during these times of fatigue that the body really learns what we want it to do in a race.
Sorry! Didn't mean to imply that I didn't think that you don't need to put in the time. As I'm sure you know, a swimmer is only as good as his/her last 25 meters. And the ability to do that takes practice, practice, practice! :)
No that's quite alright. It's always important to keep our fitness up and try to be as fit as possible. You're exactly right, it's the last 25 meters!!!
G-dub, this is WS's buddy. Perfect blog. That was the secret to my coaching success...constant experimenting. Keep it up, I'll be watching! Congrats again on the summer!
I'm not sure I know who WS is?
As athletes we always need to try something new.
Thanks for the support. This summer was really a dream come true!
Post a Comment