Swim - Front Crawl 101

Another Friday, another drill. But this week is not much different from the last.

Started with few warm-up laps, and went away with some 1-arm pulls. It felt better, with improved and more efficient kicks. Now I could really feel the water pressure as I push the water out. As Coach says it, there are 4-steps/stages involved when it comes to arm movement;

1) the catch - when the palm enters the water, it catches the water (like a pecking duck) 45 degrees into the water, fast, swift and relatively quiet. The most important step for efficient swimming (huh?) but the least important to the overall swimming momentum (huh! again), it has to glide forward, and remain leveled for the transition of the other arm

2) the hug - when we pull the arm, hugging the water. It starts with a slight cup of water by the palm and twist (in a twist? ewahh!), and hug the water towards your body by ending at the elbow. Pressure should be light

3) the pull - a short pull from the hug to get the arms ready for the powerful push. I still cannot visualize this pull efficiently. To ask coach next week!

4) the push - mighty power to push back, beyond the torso and out of the water. The pressure is medium-to-hard, and the triceps should be burning at this point, as well as some on the lats. This propels us forward, faster and more efficiently.

We finished the drills with a 200x5, but only had time to do 4. I could see that my speed has improved in tandem with being more effortless, with minimum kicks, better glide etc, as I paced and finished neck-to-neck with the Ultra Richard for the first 2 sets. But my lack of experience and untrained heart which did not offer full stamina yet, I fell back in the remaining 2 sets. 

Well, the purpose of today's drills was to correct the technique, more than anything. And it will take a while.

My left arm feels weak, although Eric disagrees. I realised that when my right arm was doing the drill, sometimes the left arm drops do to balance and offer support. But the pressure is felt more when pulling and pushing. Perhaps it did not glide enough during the catch etc, so perhaps I did not have the required 50% energy to push, and hence felt powerless.

On another note, I had a jaw-dropping brief conversation, learning the many moolahs people spent on bikes, even a body suit. To be honest, I did not have a culture shock when I went to the UK at the age of 19, but I did today hahahaha! For now, I'll stick closely to running and swimming :D.

The weekend is just a few hours away. The challenge is a 30k run tomorrow with the HRH and the High Ministers... Happy Weekend and train safely... simpan kaki for Sundown next week. Sapa tukang kipas Tuanku esok?