Discover your life aquatic

Key points:

• Practice between pool sessions!
• Use session notes 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:  Review Stroke Recovery, Entry, and Extension

At this stage, continue to go through each phase of the stroke movement, step by step, from recovery, aim, and entry & rotation back into glide. Then look to run through them all as a fluid motion. Using a mirror will really help you pay attention to some key points we identified on deck:

• keeping your eyes and face looking straight ahead at all times (especially after the rotation): try the body rotations drill (keeping your eyes locked on your face in the mirror, eliminate any movement side to side of your nose)
• lifting the elbow as high as it will comfortably go
• keeping your wrist and fingers relaxed during the recovery phase
• maintaining your glide position until your arm is ready for the entry
• extending your hand into the "water" and getting back to the glide position

Run through the key points one at a time.

Pool Focus: Review of glide and switch skills

1. Exploration of sending energy forward.

Some of us explored visualizing and attempting to experience the rotation sending energy out through your arm entering the water versus the focus on powering the water backwards with a pull and push action from your stroking arm.

• Exaggerate both options
• Keep timing patient (wait until you reach "aim" position before you rotate into glide)
• After experimenting with both ends of the spectrum (stroke and forward energy), look to find the best of both worlds with a relaxed and comfortable movement into glide on each switch.