Saturday Swim and Pull Technique

As I child I didn't swim much...I played around in the pool but never really learned how to swim formally. I asked my mom and she claims that I didn't want to take lessons but I remember having a crush on the swim instructor...Lynn...I think was her name so that doesn't make sense.

I learned how to swim through Well Fit Training which teaches the total immersion concept. Basically, it focuses on rotating your body to make it more hydrodynamic. When I started Masters Swim, both Alessio and Matt severely changed my stroke. They said that I over-rotated and that my pull was very weak. Their directions were completely counter to total immersion. I quickly learned that triathlete swimming was different than pool swimming. Which was correct? I have been swimming like a triathlete or like a total immersion triathlete.

Today, I realized that maybe pool swimming may not be that different from triathlete swimming and that pool swimming is different than total immersion swimming and pool swimming is the correct way to swim.

When I say pool swimming, I mean swimming the way high school and college swimmers are taught - minimal rotation, head slighly above the water and bending your elbows depending on the distance of the competition.

When I learned Total Immersion, I was taught to bend my enter the water, bend my wrist, elbows and then pull....this would create three opportunities to "catch" the water. When I joined Galter, Alessio told me to not bend my elbows and just pull but also follow through and touch my thumb to my thigh.

This week we have focused on pulling and have done many drills. I guess the proper way is as follows:

1. enter water at the point of the opposite wrist;
2 extend the arm past the opposite hand
3. pull

Now, depending on the distance, the pull is different.

Short Distances - 25-50

Complete 1 and 2 above but during the pull, the arm stays straight.

Medium Distance - 50-200

Complete 1 and 2 above but during the pull, slightly bend the elbows while pulling

Long Distances - 1+ mile

Complete 1 and 2 above but during the pull, bend the elbows while pulling. This is very close to the type way I was taught to pull.

Interesting....very intersting...

• 1oo warm up
• 50 kick with a kick board
• 4x25 with a kickboard alternating arms and focusing on extending the arm prior to the pull
• 4x25 with a kickboard alternating arms and focusing on extending the arm prior to the pull and catch up
• 4x100 at 1:00
• 2x200 at 2:00
• 50 easy