Triathlon swimming made easy (14 page)

Lesson Three: Mastering a Compact, Relaxed Recovery

Having mastered Lesson Two, you should now have experienced two important elements of Fishlike Swimming: First, how to generate effortless propulsion by using your hand to simply hold on to a spot in the water while dynamic body-roll takes you past that spot. Second, how to keep your bodyline long and to "lie on your lungs" while doing that rhythmically. Lesson Three will give you an even stronger sense of balance and start imprinting the muscle memory for a compact, relaxed recovery. Having painstakingly developed a balanced, aligned foundation for stroking, we don't want to let an arm-s
winging recovery upset that. ZipperSwitch drills teach you an energy-saving, alignment-preserving, drag-reducing recovery.

Drill #10: ZipperSkate

Why we do it: We used UnderSkate as kinesthetic rehearsal for UnderSwitch. ZipperSkate will prepare you for ZipperSwitch in the same way. But it can be even more valuable in preparing you for whole-stroke swimming because it's the ideal way to gain the most powerful sense of how to
"lie on your lungs."
Once you feel that
in your bones,
you'll know how to have a truly relaxed, unhurried stroke.

Follow this sequence:

1. Begin in Skating Position. Rather than recover under water, drag your hand slowly along your side (as if pulling up a zipper). Keep your hand under the surface, as shown in the photo.

2. Lead with your elbow for as long as possible, with your hand trailing until elbow and hand are alongside your ear. (Tip: It can be extremely helpful to practice this movement while lying on your side on the pool deck or on your floor at home, as illustrated in the photos.)

3. Once your arm is dangling alongside your ear, check that your shoulders are still stacked, then slide your hand back down. Finish by rolling your needle shape
all the way back to Sweet Spot.
Take 3 cleansing breaths, then repeat.

Time to practice: Over time this will probably be your most valuable balance drill and the one you should practice most often. After you've learned the basic movements (particularly the elbow leading the hand, and the hand remaining under water), I recommend you use the practice-till-you're-bored philosophy to fully develop your kinesthetic balance a
wareness and burn it into your nervous system. You could easily practice this drill non-stop for 15 to 30 minutes once a week for the next month or two and learn valuable lessons on every lap. Here are a few focal points:

1. Are you stable or do you immediately begin to sink as your arm comes forward? If you begin to sink right away, make sure you keep your head in line and the extended arm angled quite deep in front. Your goal - if you sink - is to sink in a horizontal position. This is enormously valuable to learning equilibrium. If you're a sinker, bring your hand to your shoulder and
immediately
slide it back to your side.

2. If your body position remains fairly stable as you draw your arm forward, "skate" for a few seconds with your elbow motionless above your shoulder. The weight of your arm in the air should give you a clear sense of how to balance by "lying on your lungs." If you feel balanced while doing this, practice doing the recovery super slowly. This is the nearest sensation thus far of how you'd like to feel once you begin whole-stroke swimming.

3. Focus on sensing the water resistance against your hand on recovery. Don't fight it. Instead yield to the resistance by softening your hand and arm. How compact and gentle can you make that recovery action?

4. If you're in the "sinkers" group on this drill, fins will allow you to sense the stable support a balanced swimmer feels when doing this drill.

Drill #11: ZipperSwitch

Why we do it: The compact, relaxed, unhurried recovery this teaches will effectively linking your armstroke to the power of core-body rotation. This drill will also teach you the front-quadrant timing that keeps your bodyline long throughout the stroke cycle. The purposeful exaggeration on this drill is to slice your hand in alongside your ear, before slicing it forward underwater. This corrects the nearly universal tendency to over-reach on the recovery.

Follow this sequence:

1. Begin as in Drill #10. Do a "Zipper" recovery with your hand under water, elbow leading as far forward as possible. Feel water resistance on your hand, but don't fight it. Soften your arm and hand and keep them close to shoulder and ear.

2. As soon as your hand catches up to the elbow, slice it
in and forward
as you switch and roll to Sweet Spot on the other side.

3. Relax and glide in Sweet Spot for as long as you want (3 yoga breaths), then repeat in the other direction. As you practice, emphasize the following:

• A compact and unhurried recovery. Continue to focus on switching through the smallest possible space, but that space is now
above and below
the surface.

• Hand entry that is exaggeratedly early and close to your head. Drive your hand into the water alo
ngside your ear to over-correct the tendency to over-reach.

• Practice
silently,
taking all the time you need to feel
in your bones
the right moment in your recovery to make the switch.

• Continue to feel "connected" to your core-body as you switch.

Drill #12: Multi ZipperSwitch

Why we do it: As in Double/Triple UnderSwitch, Multi-Zipper introduces swimming rhythms to the movements you've just learned. You're coming ever closer to actual swimming.

Follow this sequence:

Start as in ZipperSwitch, but do two or more Switches before rolling to Sweet Spot again. (Once you've achieved true relaxation and ease, you may be able to do as many as 5 or 6 ZipperSwitches before returning to Sweet Spot.) Some swimmers find they can do effortless, unhurried Triple Zipper for a full 25 yards because they are so economical they use little oxygen to do a full pool length. Focus on the same points as in Triple Under: head hidden, steady unhurried core-body rhythm, consistent "switch" timing. Here are some specific instructions you can give:

• Hide your head... Water should flow over the back of your head much of the time... Look straight down and watch yourself slide effortlessly past tiles on the pool bottom.

• Keep a low profile...
Hug
the surface, as if you were swimming under a very low ceiling.

• Pierce the water... Slip through the smallest possible space both above and below the surface.

• Soften your arms and hands... Feel the water resist your hand, but try to recover without splash or turbulence.

• Feel the complete support of the water and use it to bring your hand forward as slowly as you can.

• And finally drill without making a sound.

Lesson Three Practice Plan

The transition from drilling to swimming starts here. Lesson Three teaches you movements and coordination almost exactly the same as you'll use in fluent swimming. Spend lots of time practicing ZipperSkate to develop the great balance sense that will make you successful in the drills that follow. Spend just enough time practicing ZipperSwitch to master the switch timing. As your skills develop, spend more of your time with Multi-Zipper because it teaches a range of valuable lessons and
can do more than any other drill to make you a truly economical swimmer - able to practically float through a swim of any distance without even breathing hard. Here are some suggested sequences:

100-yard repeats:

• 25 ZipperSkate on your right side, 25 ZipperSwitch, 25 ZipperSkate left, 25 ZipperSwitch

• 25 UnderSwitch, 25 Triple Under, 25 ZipperSwitch, 25 Triple Zipper

150-yard repeats:

• 50 yards each (25 right, 25 left) of Drills 3,4, and 9.

• 50 ZipperSkate (25 right, 25 left), 50 ZipperSwitch, 50 Multi-Zipper

• 25 ZipperSkate right, 25 ZipperSwitch, 25 Multi-Zipper + 25 ZipperSkate left, 25 ZipperSwitch, 25 Multi-Zipper

Lesson Four: Meet Your New Stroke

Lesson Four, though simple to master, will teach you precisely how your stroke will feel for the rest of your life. For some, OverSwitches
are
their form of "swimming," at least for a while, because it gives almost anyone, even someone in the very early learning stages, an easy way to practice Fishlike Swimming.

Drill #13: OverSwitches

Why we do it: This teaches you how your new Total Immersion stroke will feel. In fact, you'll
be
swimming with a TI stroke between pauses in your Sweet Spot. This drill reinforces the timing you began imprinting with Under- and ZipperSwitch, which helps you swim
taller.
It also allows you to practice a deft, knifelike entry... Both of these skills help connect your arm to effortless power from core-body rotation.

Follow this sequence:

1. This drill is a natural extension of Multi-Zippers. Start with at least one length of Multi-Zipper. Make sure you're recovering with a compact, relaxed - almost lazy - recovery. On the second length, raise your recovery hand so it barely clears the water and immediately re-enters. Do three or more "switches" on each cycle before going to Sweet Spot.

2. If you feel good and don't particularly need to breathe, add switches. Most TI students can do four to six switches with ease. The key is to sustain a relaxed, effortless, switching-and-rolling rhythm. You may find yourself able to complete a full 25 yards without pausing in Sweet Spot.

Lock in Efficiency with Patient Practice

Concentrated practice of Triple Over can deeply imprint a far more efficient new stroke. Do 25-yard reps (resting for 2 to 4 yoga breaths) for 7 to 15 minutes. Try to do 4 to 6 switches before pausing in Sweet Spot for three yoga breaths. Here is a menu of focal points:

• Look down so water flows over the back of your head.

• "Ear Hops" Take your hand out of the water for the briefest possible period - imagine you're trying to just hop it over your ear - then put it back in right beside your goggles.

• "Marionette" Ann Let your elbow do all the work of plucking your arm from the water and placing it back in. Your arm should hang from your elbow like a dead weight - or marionette.

• Cut a hole with your knuckles (if wearing fistgloves®) or fingertips and slip your entire arm through cleanly and steeply until it's below your head.

• Steep and Deep Entry. On entry, slice your hand steeply to the spot you've been imprinting since Skating position - with your fingertips angled down..

• Time your switches consistently and move as silently as you can.

Transition to Swimming

Your swimming movements are all in place now. All that remains is to take out the Sweet Spot pauses and replace them with rhythmic breathing. Your goal here is to make breathing a seamless part of your body-rolling rhythm. (A secondary goal can be to breathe smoothly on either side.) Let's review what has prepared you for this:

1. You learned to breathe by rolling your body to the air (rather than turning your head) in all three variations of Skating. Use Skating, Under Skate and ZipperSkate to reinforce that habit.

2. You learned to keep your head connected and aligned as you rolled to the air in UnderSwitch and ZipperSwitch. Use those drills to reinforce this habit.

3. You developed your sense of core-body-rolling rhythms in Triple Zipper and Triple Over. Use those drills to reinforce your rhythm awareness.
4. You've worked on balance in all 13 drills. Improved balance will allow you to breathe without driving your lead arm toward the bottom. Focus on balance to "stay tall" as you breathe. Extensive use of fistgloves® in your practice - both drilling and swimming - can be particularly helpful in developing the "weightless arm."