Discover your life aquatic

Key points:

• Check sessions notes after each session: http://seahiker.com/content/sensational-freestyle-vancouver-aquatic-centre-4-week-program-march-2010
• Practice between pool sessions!
• Use them to help guide your practice by exploring what we covered in greater detail or working on things you feel you need more experience with.
• If you can't get to a pool between Tuesday and Thursday sessions, look to practice dry land drills at a minimum.
• You are looking to supply your coaches with more information on how you feel with the exercises and drills, sensations, questions and any obstacles, or successes you've experienced. Feel free to email or phone us to discuss!

Dryland:  Breath Timing

Two key exercises to practice in the mirror:

1. Arms by your sides, standing up straight, rotate with the same rhythm as you would in a nice relaxed stroke (1,2 hold glide position, then rotate on 3). Practice this until it is fluid. Add the arm movements and extended arm in glide once it feels very comfortable. Key point: Keep your head locked on the mirror, don't let it move from side to side with the rotations.

Part 1: Arms by your sides, standing, rotate with the same rhythm. Slow it down, then after two or three "strokes", begin turning your head slightly toward your shoulder during the "1-2" count and then leave it there so that on "3" you end up looking behind you and your head is still in line with your spine.

Part 2: After practicing the synchronized head turn timing, focus on returning your head to the neutral position on the "1-2" count. Your head should be looking at the mirror again (ie. bottom of the pool) before you count "3" and rotate again.

part 3: Put it all together with rhythm.

Pool Focus: Review of glide, switch skills and propulsion forward with rhythm

1. Glide and glide with breathing review. Focus on head turn and breath movement (review notes from Tuesday)

2. Switch and switches with a breath review. Focus on full pauses to check and adjust your position/breath (review notes from Tuesday.

We saw that some of you need to spend more time on:

• proper arm recovery and reducing tension in the arms
• degree of rotation (stability)

3. Exploration of sending energy forward. Focus on best balance of timing, returning to glide efficiently, and feeling a forward surge in momentum without too much emphasis on either arm. Review notes from Tuesday.

4. Establish rhythmic switches with less and less time pausing in glide. Repeat until your strokes are fluid (3-5 max, then rest), again, without breathing yet.

5. Breathing into the stroke rhythm:

• Take 3-5 strokes and finish in glide to double check that you are in a good breathing position
• Take 3-5 strokes and finish in a breath in glide position (turn your head early on the "1-2" recovery phase and follow your body to air). Keep working on this until it is seamless.
• After getting to air consistently, focus on returning your head back down (nose down) before 1-2 more strokes. You may need to exhale more sharply and have a quick inhale to fit the breath into your stroke timing. Or, just slow down your overall stroke rhythm to fit everything in.
• Limit yourself at this point to these exercises and short distances with an emphasis on synchronization of the head with the rotation of the body. This is really, really important. And also making sure you returning to a good glide position on every stroke.