On Saturday, 10/25/14, PTC rented out the Winning Swimming Endless Pool for 5.5 hours to work with our swimmers to help them improve their stroke. This is part of a "Before and After" series we are doing as we help clients improve their stroke during the winter/out season. Each was swimmer was given 20 minutes of time in the pool where myself (Coach Colin) and coach Trent evaluated and provided feedback on each swimmer's technique. This also included the option to have the video session recorded so that our clients could review the video after and also hear the audio during the session. It has been said that swimming is about 80% technique and only 20% fitness. As a result, it is critical that you work on your technique and ensure that you are working to swim as efficiently as possible. As a result, I am a very big advocate of getting to the pool to see my swimmers in action. As an athlete myself, I like to have someone I trust look at my stroke at least a few times a year. The reason for this is it continues to amaze me how much of a difference there may be between what someone "feels like" they're doing as opposed to what they're actually doing. For example, I've had athletes tell me they're going out extremely wide with their hands upon entry of the water only to find that their hand is still crossing the mid line or barely over it. By having someone actually look at your stroke and provide this feedback can be huge. If you don't get this feedback at least on occasion, you may think you're doing everything right, develop muscle memory with BAD habits, and never even realize it. This is where video recordings of session can be very helpful. Its one thing for me to tell you what you're doing and its another for me to be able to show you what you're doing. Again, you may feel like your stroke is better than it actually is and even though I tell you're doing something inefficiently, it doesn't really sync in until you see yourself. For example, one of my top level athletes, who is a GREAT swimmer and has been swimming his whole life, was really dropping one of his arms during the pull portion of his stroke. Had he not come and had his stroke looked at, he would probably have continued on for a very long time with no idea about this issue. Now that he has been made aware of the issue, he can correct it, and get even faster! Here is a link to some video of some of our swimmers on Saturday. Please note this is NOT the video we are providing to our swimmers that requested their session be recorded: nbsp;
nbsp; So this is what we're seeing with our clients' strokes right now. Our goal is to provide them with specific drills and swim sets that will help them improve their technique this winter. If everything goes to plan, when we rent the pool out again after the winter, we'll see much improvement with everyone's strokes and they will be far more efficient and faster in the water as the upcoming season approaches. This was a lot of fun and it was great to see everyone that came as we were able to see many of our clients and get them some great feedback. I must admit I was amazed how exhausting this was as a coach. We did get 2, 10 minute breaks while the pool was being cleaned, but essentially non stop focus for 5.5 hours. When I got home, I was smoked! Thanks to everyone that joined us. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to see everyone's improvement in the early Spring!