Triathlon swimming made easy (13 page)

Should I use fins in drills?

The Sweet Spot pause in every TI drill helps your ease and coordination. Good. But if you have a poor kick, each time you return to Sweet Spot, your body may stop moving. If your body comes to halt after each cycle, you end up lurching down the pool, spending energy trying to overcome inertia, rather than efficiently conserving momentum. So a reasonable kick
is
essential to efficient drill practice. And because the main point of drills are to teach you ease and economy, it really is an enormous benefit if using fins allows you
to practice ease
as you drill.

But I recommend that you try to complete Lesson One without fins - and with a TI Buddy helping if needed. That helps to ensure that if you later use fins, they'll mainly help conserve momentum, not mask your balance problem. And if you do use fins while doing drills, kick as gently as possible, so the fins don't overwhelm the subtle movements you're trying to learn.

Should I use fins while swimming?

The best kick for 99 percent of triathletes is a non-overt kick - i.e. one you're hardly aware of. If your drills teach you balance, it should be much easier to just let your legs follow your core-body. Wearing fins while swimming tends to encourage you to overkick and you can easily lose your feel for balance, fluency, and for swimming with seamless whole-body harmony. So: Do use fins if they contribute dramatically to your ease while drilling. Don't be too reluctant to try some drilling without them. And take the fins off when you start swimming.

Lesson Two: UnderSwitch Drills - Tapping Effortless Power from Your Kinetic Chain

Lesson One taught you balance and slippery body positions. In Lesson Two, you'll learn to use rotation of your balanced and slippery core body to generate effortless power for propulsion, via the first of our three Switch drill sequences. These will be the most dynamic and powerful movements you have yet practiced.

Drill #6: UnderSkate

Why we do it: You learned the most valuable form of balance in the Skating position. That position becomes the basis for other ways of practicing balance that bring a different dynamic to your balance practice. This drill is also a rehearsal for Drill #7: UnderSwitch. Finally, it reinforces the key skills of staying on your side as you swim, and of breathing by rolling a balanced, slippery body to the air.

Follow this sequence:

1. Begin as in Drill #5. After you look down, pause and check: Is your head hidden and aligned; is your extended hand below your head; do you feel great balance - even a downhill gliding sensation?

2. If so, then sneak the trailing hand forward
under water
(wipe it across your belly and past your jaw) until you see the hand right under your nose. Check that you're still on your side with your shoulders stacked - as shown in the underwater photo - then slide the hand back to your side. Finish by rolling back to Sweet Spot. Keep following that laser line, as you rotate nose-down, nose-up, nose-down.

3. Take at least three yoga breaths, then repeat the sequence. You'll probably fit in three cycles in each 25 yards. Switch sides on the next length.

How to practice: Your key focal points are the same as for Drill #5, but with added emphasis on remaining
on your side
as you bring your hand to your face, and on slipping through the smallest hole in the water as you do it. Practice UnderSkate by itself, alternating sides. Or practice it in a series with Lesson One drills: 50 yards each (25 right, 25 left) of Drills 3, 4, 5 and 6. Some athletes can master this drill after no more than 10 minutes of practice. If you feel you've got it, move on. If not, spend as much time as you need because the skills learned in UnderSkate are key to every d
rill that follows.

Drill #7: UnderSwitch

Why we do it: This is the first drill to tap the power of the kinetic chain by teaching you how to link an armstroke to core-body rotation for effortless propulsion. It also simplifies the process for learning the "front-quadrant" timing that keeps your bodyline long, by giving you a visual cue for when to make the switch.

Follow this sequence:

1. After the movements of UnderSkate feel like a "no-brainer," move to the full drill. Start as in Drill #6, but when you see your hand under your nose, keep moving it forward to full extension as you roll (switch)
past
Sweet Spot on the other side.

2. Take at least three yoga breaths (relax, normalize your breathing, and get your bearings) as you check your balance and make sure that you
are
in Sweet Spot again. Then, swivel to Nose Down/90.. .pause.. .and repeat in the other direction.

3. The basic movements are simple, but the opportunities for refinement are many. Practice these focal points, one at a time:

• Be patient. Don't switch until you see your hand under your nose.

• Finish the switch by
rolling past
your Sweet Spot. Reinforce this by switching as if you were planning to breathe with your belly button; your head just goes along for the ride.

• Stay connected as you switch: When you see your hand, move arm, head, and torso as a unit.

• Stay slippery: Switch through the smallest possible hole in the water.

• Focus on doing the drill as
quietly
as possible. This will help you do any drill more fluently and economically.

• Final step: Pause your kick at the moment you see your hand and switch. Resume gentle kicking once you're back in Sweet Spot.

Drill #8: Double UnderSwitch

Why we do it: Switch drills teach powerful, coordinated, effortless movement of the core body. Multi-Switch (2 or more switches) drills introduce swimming rhythms (steady, rhythmic core-body rotation) to these movements, but retain pauses in the Sweet Spot, to allow time to regroup, evaluate your practice, and make fine adjustments.

Follow this sequence:

1. Start as in Drill #7 but do
two
Switches before pausing in Sweet Spot again.

2. After you roll to the Skating position, pause to check your head and extended-hand position, then sneak your hand forward.

3. Wait to see your hand before both switches. Keep your head "hidden" and look directly at the bottom through both switches.

4. Finish in Sweet Spot and breathe three times before rolling to nose-down again.

5. Start the next length on your other side: Look down...see your hand... Switch... glide a moment... see your hand... Switch... Breathe in your Sweet Spot.

6. Practice on both sides until you feel yourself gliding effortlessly in balance.. .and until your Switch timing is consistent.

Drill #9: Triple UnderSwitch

Why we do it: This drill will give you even more space to make yourself more Fishlike and learn the feel of a swimming rhythm.

Follow this sequence:

Add one switch to the previous drill. Use the extra rhythm time to feel all of the following:

• Keep your head hidden. Water should flow over the back of your head during all three switches.

• Keep your timing consistent. Switch at the exact moment you see your hand under your nose.

• Extend both hands fully, front and back, then
glide just a moment
before recovering for the next switch.

• During your glide, feel yourself fully supported by the water.
That's
the feeling of great balance.

• Maintain a focus on
piercing
the water, particularly while sneaking your arm and switching.

• When all of that begins to feel somewhat natural, see if you can pause your kick during the three switches...Pick it up again in Sweet Spot.

• Finally reduce the glide between switches. Roll your body a bit less and keep the rear hand moving (no pause at your hip), to increase rhythm.

Lesson Two Practice Plan

The movements and coordination were relatively simple in the first two lessons. Lesson Two involves more complex movements, though we've presented them in a way designed to ease your learning curve. More complexity brings more opportunity for confusion. Simplify by doing two things: 1) Allow more practice time for Lesson Two before advancing to Lesson Three and 2) spend a bit more time on focused practice of each of the Lesson Two drills by themselves before combining them in the sequences suggested below.

Here are some suggested sequences (warm up with at least 10 minutes refresher practice of Drills 3, 4 and 5).

• 200-yard repeats: 50 yards each (25 right, 25 left) of Drills 3, 4,5, and 6.

• 100-yard repeats: 25 UnderSkate on your right side, 25 UnderSwitch, 25 UnderSkate left, 25 UnderSwitch.

• 150-yard repeats: 50 UnderSkate (25 right, 25 left), 50 UnderSwitch, 50 Double UnderSwitch (25 balance on right, 25 on left).

• 150-yard repeats: 25 UnderSkate right, 25 UnderSwitch, 25 Double UnderSwitch right + 25 UnderSkate left, 25 UnderSwitch, 25 Double UnderSwitch left.

Until you have put in a cumulative total of several hours practice in Lesson Three drills, rest for at least 3 yoga breaths after each length. Similarly, take three yoga breaths in your Sweet Spot between cycles of each drill.

Let Go of Your Kick: How to Make it Economical and Relaxed

Most adult swimmers kick too much, not because they want to but because they feel their legs sinking. This kicking is not only non-propulsive and energy-wasting, it also wrecks your rhythm and any chance of achieving fluency. The ideal kick for most people is one that is non-overt and nearly effortless. Your drills are the perfect device for helping you replace an energy-wasting kick with an economical kick, called a 2-beat kick (for two kicks in each stroke cycle).

The only overt kicking that should happen as you drill is a gentle kick in Sweet Spot to maintain momentum between drill cycles. But when your body rotation is providing momentum, let your legs take a rest. You can train them for this by using Switch drills to learn the timing of the 2beat kick. This kick does a wonderfully efficient job of helping the body roll from side to side, which generates ample power for propulsion. You can swim with this kick virtually all day without tiring.

The learning process is fairly simple. Whenever you do any of the Switch drills stop kicking as you make the switch. Try to glide in balance without a kick fora few moments in Sweet Spot, then resume gentle, steady kicking. Keep kicking easily as you swivel to the nose-down position, but as your hand slices forward to initiate the switch, pause your kick again and let your body glide forward on the momentum from your weight shift and body rotation. After you rebalance in Sweet Spot, pick up the kick again.

It's the same with the Multi-Switch drills. As in the single-switch drills, maintain a gentle kick while in Sweet Spot and when you swivel to the Skating Position, but once your hand slices in on the first switch, let your legs pause. They won't actually remain motionless. Instead one leg should beat down as each hand enters the water. As your right hand enters, your left leg kicks; as your left hand enters, your right leg kicks.

Don't use too many brain cells
trying
to coordinate this. Instead, focus on letting the legs do what comes naturally when you just pause the steady kick you'd been using prior to the switch. Your arms and legs already are well acquainted with moving in a counter-balancing fashion. Running or walking, they do the same: Right arm and left leg swing forward together, then left arm and right leg.