Swim Analysis LL 4/20/15

So the good:

• Good rhythm in the stroke.
• Good position in the water
• Continuous exhalation under the water
• Good elbow bend early on in the stroke
• Few bubbles on the hand entry

One of the key improvements Lindsey can make is to her stroke rate which is improving over time and is still an area she is working on.

Other thoughts:

Dropped elbow

The hand entry is clean and the first movement of the hand is into a nice position with the elbow above the elbow and above the forearm like so:

Unfortunately the next movement causes her elbow to drop (as seen in the next two pictures). I suspect that this is where she is trying to be long in the water. Whilst that is a good goal it’s creating a dropped elbow which causes a loss in propulsion and it is not until much later in the stroke that she the elbow is higher than the forearm again.

(But notice the nice body position!) The left hand has more of a drop than the right hand:

Hand Direction

You see a hint in the photo earlier (with the right elbow dropping);it appears to me that her hand is rotating in the water as she strokes. Ideally you want to think of the hand as a paddle. With a paddle you keep the paddle facing the same direction the whole time (i.e. pushing behind you to propel you forwards). In the photo, and the one below, it looks like her hand is twisting so although it’s creating a lot of surface area early in the stroke, by the time the hand is just past the shoulder has twisted so that her pinky is facing back, and her thumb forwards. I’m not sage enough to know what kind of time difference it would make so will let LL figure out where to put this on the priority list.

One other point (you’ll have to watch the video to see it) is that it looks like her stroke finishes at this point. There’s another 4-5 inches of distance she could push per stroke, whilst also engaging the triceps in the stroke more. My only worry with causing this change now would be that by telling her to push all the way back, the leading hand (already set to start the catch in the photo below) might end up sitting there creating a dead spot in her stroke. Given rhythm changes can take a while to nail, and that her half ironman race is coming up soon, it’s something I’d put on the todo list later in the year.

Breathing

When breathing both eyes come out of the water and her body rotation goes to the extreme. Her head position is good throughout the stroke so I’m not sure what is causing this. Perhaps it is just something for her to consciously work on but right now it seems to be less impactful on her speed. I suspect that as the other improvements are made (stroke rate/keeping the elbow high/hand position) she will move faster and start creating a wake which will create space for her to breath into. So this one is on the wait-and-see pile for now.

Summary

In loose priority order (for now leading up to the race):

1. Continue focus on stroke rate improvements
2. Reduce/Cut-out the dropped elbow (may need to film this specifically to test the impact of various cues)
3. Improve hand direction (i.e. prefer the paddle, never the knife)
4. Push the stroke all the way to the end (abuse the triceps!)
5. Review rotation of body and head position on breathing.

4 and 5 should definitely wait until after the race. 3 is perhaps the easier to fix although I would guess 2 will be a better performance enhancer if she can make the change in time.