Friday, May 24, 2013

I Be Strokin'

So currently I'm a) on a Z-pac for bronchitis, b) sitting here with a head (kinda) full of bright blue stitches and crunchy neosporin hair c) all of the above.

If you picked C, you're the WINNER!  Of my most anti-climatic post-race letdown week in HISTORY!

Okay, that's a *bit* dramatic.  But seriously...had a little surgery on the head today that involved removing two non-threatening-but-very-annoying cysts that were in my scalp.  Had this done 4 years ago for 5 of the lumps.  It's a nuisance and it hurts like the dickens.


GIFSoup

(Did I just say "like the dickens?" What does that even mean?  And, am I 80?)

Anyway, since I am not allowed to swim for (gulp) at least 10 days AND can't do any physical activity until TUESDAY (let that sink in for a moment...and think about how NOT fun to be around I'm going to be), I figured I might as well ask the interwebz for some swimming advice.

My teammie RobbyB had this badass underwater camera thingy in Chattanooga and got all kinds of cool shots while we were running (in the rain, too!) and swimming. I asked him to send me some so I could send them to Coach Emily.  He did more than that--he made me the star of my very own "Mediocre-Triathlete-Swimmer" video!  Yippeeeeee!

Seriously, though--so "real" swimmers, I know my stroke could probably use some tweaking. I already asked a few of my "real swimmer" students and they gave me some advice. I won't say it yet because I want to see if you out there give me the same advice, too!  I will say that I am aware that I don't completely follow through in my stroke and push all the way down towards my legs--I kinda cut it off halfway.

And that butterfly?  There are no words.  I actually feel WAY worse than it looks--it doesn't look nearly as bad as I thought it would, but I do have a weird little hesitation in there and I'm not sure what's up with that.

If you ever have the chance to have your stroke taped like this, DO IT DO IT DO IT.  There's so many little things you can catch with a camera that you just don't really know you're doing.  I've already been practicing pushing my stroke all the way through and notice a huge difference.

So I'm throwing it out there to you, internet!  Give me some more advice.  What else should I tweak in my stroke?

4 comments:

Jumper 2.0 said...

From worldwide words.

Q From Jan Walsh: Do you know where the phrase hurts like the dickens comes from?
A Let’s focus in on dickens as the important word here, since there are lots of different expressions with it in, such as what the dickens, where the dickens, the dickens you are!, and the dickens you say!
It goes back a lot further than Charles Dickens, though it does seem to have been borrowed from the English surname, most likely sometime in the sixteenth century or before. (The surname itself probably derives from Dickin or Dickon, familiar diminutive forms of Dick.) It was — and still is, though people hardly know it any more — a euphemism for the Devil. It’s very much in the same style as deuce, as in old oaths like what the deuce! which contains another name for the Devil.
The first person known to use it was that great recorder of Elizabethan expressions, William Shakespeare, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: “FORD: Where had you this pretty weathercock? MRS PAGE: I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of”. That pun relied on the audience knowing that Dickens was a personal name and that what the dickens was a mild oath which called on the Devil.

Kathy said...

High elbow catch?

Anonymous said...

High elbows are overrated...read Joe Friel's books. Looks pretty good to me except the exit. Yes, finish it! :-)

Jason & Jess said...

You might be losing a bit of energy above the water so I would try a finger tip drag drill and see how it feels. Finger tip drag is also a great way to get your stroke back if you lose it during an open water swim, it calms you down and resets. Also, it looks like your catch and pull on your right arm is not the same as the left. The left is coming under you during the pull, but your right is passing on the side of your body rather than beneath you. You're doing great and good idea to use the camera!! :-)