Happy Halloween TSC team!
In honor of this annual celebration of death, spirits, and all things sugar, I have a special post on a morbid swim topic: sculling. Sculling is the back and forth movement of your hands in and out that propels you forward. Like how propeller on the boat, which cuts sideways through the water and not back and forth, this movement moves you forward. Sculling is an essential skill in swimming since it gives you a feel for the water. When moving your hands back and forth, you can feel how a slight adjustment in hand angle can have significant impact on lift and power.
If you are new to sculling a good way to start is to tread water in the deep end of a pool. Without using your legs, sweep your hands back and forth to keep you afloat. This is not a full arm movement rather you should only be using your forearm from elbow to finger tip. Focus on keeping constant pressure on the water. When you sweep away from your body, your palms should be facing slightly out at roughly a 45 degree angle; when sweeping in toward the center, your palms will be facing each other but at a 45 degree angle as well and not parallel. With the exception of your forearms, your body should be relatively still.
As you get better at this motion you can move into doing it in a swim position (Caution: you will be slow when you first start so move into a slow lane as to not annoy the swimmers behind you). You may want to use a pull buoy also to keep your legs afloat as your focus should be on the front motion. Keep your elbows bent at a 90 degree angle and directly at your sides; now, Sweep your hands in and out like before as you move through the water.
I like to do this drill after a workout to allow me time to give my full attention to the movement and feel for the water rather than the hard sets ahead. Moreover, I can focus on perfect form with tired muscles. I recommend doing at least 3 minutes of sculling–since it is slow moving do it for time and not distance.
A good efficient feel for the water will make sure that you are not left dead in the water come race day.
Train hard!
Coach Chris
This week’s Halloween workout: Before you eat your weight in candy tonight, try this workout:
W/U
10 minute warmup.
8 x 75 Z2 zombie apocalypse drill. That means the first 25 is tip drag,like you’re hiding your finger tips from zombies. The next 25 is catch up… reach forward with both hands in case you need to protect yourself from zombies. The last 25 is swim perfect freestyle, good practice for efficient swimming in case you ever need to swim away from an approaching zombie.
2 x 750 Z2 vampire pacing. You need to practice for long nights out drinking blood. You can’t go out to fast… vampires need to be active from sun down to sun up so going out too fast will mean you will be too tried to make it back to your coffin before dawn
1×1000 Do this set in race pace as if zombie masses are chasing you. However, since they are the walking dead and thus have unlimited endurance, pace yourself so that you are consistent throughout the 1000.
Cool down: 10 minutes: Good job you made it through safe and sound, enjoy your candy!
