GHAC Coaches Thought of the Day with Coach Maria

Friday, April 10, 2020

Theme of the Week:

Fishtailing

Fishtailing is where your feet swing side to side as you swim.  Fishtailing increases the amount of resistance you are creating in the water, and reduces the power you can get from your pull.

When you swim, your body should look like a torpeo, straight and strong. As you roll the top part of your body… the hips, knees, feet should also roll.

We do drills to help us with this, but many swimmers perform the drills without really thinking “why” they are doing the drill.  Think about the 6 kick switch drill… why do we do that drill?  Well, there are several skills that can be learning from this drill, primarily body alignment.  As you roll to the left, for example, many of you do a great job of resting your head on your shoulder, and rolling your torso…however many do not extend that roll to their hips, knees and toes.  Ensure you are engaging your core muscles so that you are not arching your back, and maintaining a good 6-8 beat kick.

Some of you have done pull sets with me, where you use a kickboard instead of a pull bouy.  What on earth?  Well, with the kick board I can see if your hips are “rolling” or “swinging”.  When I see that, I can advise you to focus on engaging your core muscles.

Also, I try to enforce the notion of increasing the kick tempo when you take a breath.