My Podcast Site

Slowly Coming Together

I’m writing about swimming this past Saturday. So after a night of drinking and getting less sleep, I woke up to practice. I started to warm up and everything was alright. I did a 400 free nice and slow to warm up. I didn’t care how slow I was I just wanted to warm up so I could be ready for the main set. The next step was the 3 200’s: 50 drill, 50 swim, 50 drill and 50 swim. I was working to align my head and spine as I was reaching for air but aiming my right hand was tough. Again I got to work on aiming my left and right leading hand in a way, which I’m not crossing over when I’m swimming. Jeri did talk to me and said my right hand is a little to far, she said what was important was that I extended my right shoulder so I can move forward. Again I can’t stress this enough I got to make sure I’m not crossing over, and I’m not leading my hand flat, but rather in an angle, say 4 o’clock. As for the main set, as I was trying to swim fast, the faster I tried the more I lost my technique. Holding my technique will be key. Another thing that will be important will be to focus on my kick. My kick will be key so that I can shorten my stroke count.
Today is Tuesday and things are starting to come together. I started off doing 100’s of freestyle, keeping my focus on sweet spot breathing. All last month I started my morning workouts with this set, making sure that my head and spine are aligned when going for air. I’ve gotten used to it, and created a habit out of it so I’ve been able to focus on other things. Today I’ve been working on the pull of my arms. I’ve learned when pulling, you have to pull with your entire arm, not just the forearms. Another thing that I focused on, when pulling in freestyle is to keep my elbows high when pulling underwater as well as to keep them high over-water. So I worked with that and continued to practice rotating my hips. After paying attention to detail, and going it over slowly, I took a run at a 100 freestyle. After using my technique, I felt like I used less energy than usual and swam a top time of 1:18 in a meter pool. This is a REALLY good sign that things are coming together. I think the one step I can take from here is use Monday wednsday and Friday as my technique days, and having Tuesday and Thursday as my speed/endurance days. I’ll be swimming tonight, I got to make sure I focus on keeping my technique together, no matter how fast I swim.

Freestyle Improvements

Hello again, I’m here to give you an update on my progress. Right now things are going really well with rebuilding my technique. I’m keeping the fundamentals my top priority in working on. The two fundamentals I’ve perfected or have greatly improved upon, is achieving sweet spot breathing and rotating my hips as I cut through the water. In achieving sweet spot breathing, I slowly worked at moving my whole body sideways as I was searching for air. When I’m breathing for air, my back is facing opposite to where I’m breathing, one eye is above the water while the other is below, and my mouth is breathing below the valley of the wave. This way, I’m keeping my head low and preventing my shoulders from toppling each other. I started to focus on this, going slowly through the water. Once I got the hang of it, I went on to doing 50s followed by 100s and 200s. It was pretty painless because I was so focused on aligning my spine when going for air. Also when I finished a set and felt very comfortable and not tired, I knew then that I could do more.
The next thing I worked on was rotating my hips. I had worked on this mostly with my pull-buoy and my fulcrums. The fulcrums definitely kept my elbows high. Whenever I cut my arm through the water, I shift my hips toward my leading hand. So when I lead with the right hand my left hip is higher than my right, and vice versa when leading with the left hand. Once again I need to make sure that my hips and shoulders are not on top of each other. Today I did a 1000 of focusing shifting my hips from one leading hand to another. It was rough because afterward I really felt my shoulders hurting.
The next big step is to lower my stroke count and strengthen my kicking. More importantly I need to find the perfect left and right targets with my leading hand. I need to remember to lean on my armpits. I will keep you posted on my progress, take care.

Creating the foundation for success

Hello again,
For this next episode, I’m going to outline my plan to make myself a better swimmer. After a class with total immersion, and learning their principles, I have an idea of what I need to do in order to get better and get competitive within masters swimming.
The plan is gonna be this : learn the technique, build my endurance, and aim for speed. From what the instructors at total immersion told me there are a few kinks I need to fix. One thing they mentioned was my bad habit of crossing paths when I cut in the water to pull my stroke. Instead of aiming right and pulling right, I’m aiming left and pulling around toward my right side, slowing down my time. That’s not the only problem. Last weekend I listed a few of my goals I’d like to achieve in order to perfect my stroke.
First thing I want to work on is to swim down. I was told to swim down not up, meaning I need to make sure my hips are above water rather than below. To make sure I always do it, I kick with my snorkel and make sure my chest is positioned below the water surface, that way my hips will stay up. After working on keeping my hips up, next thing to work on is maximizing my kick and minimizing my stroke. My ultimate goal is to find the appropriate stroke count, but keep it minimal while putting huge emphasis on my kick. So I’m going to be working on a lot of my kicking. The next thing I’m gonna work on is learning to rotate my hips so I can add power to my stroke. When I’m cutting in the water I need to make sure I’m shifting my body and hips toward my leading hand. I’ll be doing a lot of pull sets while using my fulcrums to also make sure my elbows are up. The next thing I’m going to work on, which is important, is to find perfect targets for my hands to aim and commit them to memory. The best way to remember is to make sure my arm is at 4 o’clock and not 3:00. Having it at 4:00 helps keep my hips up and it helps balance my rotation if my targets are aimed right. More importantly I have to make sure my arms are loose so I can move them through water. The perfect target is to make sure my arm is low enough so that my wrist is slightly below my elbow. Secondly I need to make sure my arm is aimed toward the 2:00 and 10:00 position. Finally I need to work on finding the sweetspot for my breathing. I need to be able to rotate my body upward, aligning my spine and head when going up for air. Most importantly when I go for air, I’m rotating my head and spine as if I’m on a stretcher and I can’t move my head.
The overall goal is to not only trim the edges of my stroke so that I can shave seconds, but also lower the effort of my stroke so that I’m consuming less energy and swimming longer distances. I will keep you posted on my progress and inform you of any findings I discover. Take care.

Why I'm Making This Podcast

Good morning, I’m writing today to start a new blog about swimming and the lifestyle that follows my favorite hobby. For five years I have been swimming regularly for the Marlins Masters team. I have practiced on a daily basis, with the goal of being a fast swimmer at swim meets. I have always been passionate about this sport not only because of the desire to be fast but also the will to gain endurance from it. Since 2005 I have achieved several accolades, finished races at #1, ranked nationally, and most recently qualifying for nationals in Puerto rico.
Wanting to Swim fast, and be first in races has been a focal point that has brought me positive effects. Swimming on a consistant basis, added with healthy diet to keep my weight low, added with proper stretching, and also dryland fitness training have been building blocks that led to a result of a healthy lifestyle. While many people today turn to fitness devices and trendy diets, I’ve realized that making simple life-choices and having a passion for something that keeps you moving will pay dividends. Coming to this realization has given me the idea of starting my own podcast to share my lifestyle with others.
As of right now, I’ve been out of the pool for a while due to a shoulder injury. Until it gets better, I will be doing shoulder stabilzation exercises, dryland aerobic training, and only kicking within the pool. I will be working my way to not only becoming the leader in my age group for go the distance, and to be back in the fall swimming in the Indianapolis meet. I will continue to swim the best I can, working to achieve being top recognition.
On a daily basis, I will create a podcast to log my swimming time, my training on land, and the food decisions I’ve made. While it may seem that the podcast is swim-centric, the whole podcast can be applied to other sports. The overall message is if you find a sport or fitness hobby you truly enjoy, you do the best you can, and you change your lifestyle, the benefits will come.
My podcast will be available through different platforms, and will be easy to access through the internet and through your phone. I will be giving tips on swimming, interviewing experts, and demonstrating ways to stretch. I hope by creating this podcast I can share my success of keeping fit and healthy with other people. I also hope that I can introduce people to the sport of swimming.