Synchronized Swim

Today's hour long swim was better than the last two. We got three detailed stroke tips from Mandy herself, who was suited up and in the pool with us. Wednesday, when I was standing in the doorway of the gym to hang out in the AC so I wouldn't pass out, I read the profiles on the bulletin board. Turns out she's from South Africa (not Australia), she was on the LSU swim team, and she was a semi-finalist and finalist for the Olympics. This means she looks like a gazelle in the water (if gazelles were bipedal swimmers). Or maybe a swan is a better simile, although they are shaped like boats. But it was inspiring.

First we did a "catch-up" drill. This is when you have to touch one hand to the other in front of you (when doing freestyle) before you do the next arm pull. It makes you have to kick a lot more but it also increases your glide. She made us focus on gliding and count our strokes. I hate counting and thinking about lane length and numbers and records, and I kept forgetting to count because I was trying not to drown, but the few times I did, I did around 21 strokes. My best was 17. I think the lanes are 25 m.

(Gliding! What a concept! I thought I had to fight my way to the other side.)

Second, we did a touch turn lesson. We lined up on the side of the pool with one arm on the wall and one straight out in the lane, superman style. She taught us how to bob underwater and turn sideways in a little ball then push off the wall and roll under our stomachs with our hands extended by our heads, one hand flat on top of the other one. Oh, and you have to keep your head down. Sounds easy, but it takes some coordination to get your arm over your head on the "up" part of the bob and not on the push off. I think my years of being trained to copy body movements in dance really helped me today.

Thirdly, we did a "zipper drill" (zippa drill in Mandy's accent). This is a weird one where you drag your thumbs along your ribs and point your elbow all the way up like a shark fin when you're doing your arm pulls during freestyle. I was lagging behind everyone because I took extra breaks and because I wanted some extra space, and when I came up, Mandy was telling everyone to watch how I was doing it. She also told me (during one of my extra breaks) that I was doing so much better than last week, so that was nice. Earplugs and foggy goggles limited me to one-word responses to her questions, but that's for the best.

At the end of class, I stayed behind with a few people to learn flip turns. I got the hang of it except that water got in my nose every time I pushed off the wall backwards. When I watched Mandy do it, she had a nice little air funnel around her nose and she was looking straight up at the surface. I couldn't quite make my own, but I'll keep working on it.

There's a bike ride tomorrow morning but I think I'll work on my jog instead, if I'm feeling up to it. I'd like to start practicing running a lot more often. We've got six weeks left (which also means the end of summer).