9 AM is a civilized time to start the day. Eggs, toast and coffee, then pool. Coaches got into the water at 9AM to review today’s stroke lessons and drills. The instructor pairings where mixed up again and Kim and I were together. Terry wanted us to do skating drills together, side by side, rotating to face each other. Kim and I could not stop laughing at each other. We laughed so hard that Terry made us change the drill and face away from each other because we were doing more laughing than swimming.
Kim gave me a few tips for my own stroke, reminding me to keep my elbow a bit more forward on my ribs, rather than on my side. This made an immediate difference in whole stroke practice. Something I knew but it’s so easy to forget unless you practice it over and over and over.
Soon the students arrived and I was in Lane 4 with the most advanced group of students, and the deepest lane in the pool. This presented me with 2 new challenges. Yesterday I was working with the least experienced group of swimmers. Stroke errors were easy to spot and some students needed more reassurance that things were going well. Today the students in my lane simply wanted more instructional feedback as opposed to encouragement. While the group of swimmers was better than yesterday in terms of overall skill, it was still very easy too assist them in refining various stroke points. Even though I could barely stand in my lane, I found several ways of providing physical feedback…but in a different way than I did yesterday. Then latter part of the morning lesson my students didn’t really seem to want or need as much hands on, they simply wanted to practice a length, be watched and receive verbal feedback. Everyone was very receptive to the lessons.
At the end, I was really itching to do some swimming myself and I got in 4 x 25 before the lifeguards kicked us out. I’m not totally sure what I was focusing on, primarily the elbow position that Kim mentioned from this morning and a relaxed hand entry in front of me. I managed to cross the 25yd pool in 16 (1/2) strokes with a pushoff, but without any significant glide. I wished that I’d asked someone to film a length of me swimming at that time. It just felt so at ease and relaxed. Things are going well.
I realized that my sunscreen is not waterproof, so that’s what I’ll be doing at lunchtime…shopping!
