I don't think it is any secret that swimming is my least favorite (and most challenging) discipline. I have worked pretty hard on my swimming for the last year and a half, yet have still struggled to get my times significantly faster. I have improved, but not nearly as fast as I have expected and hoped to. Swimming legend TJ Fry has helped me immensely over the last couple years to both improve my stroke and improve my swim training and racing. He's helped me use pacing for all of my training, do longer sets with shorter rest, swim all the strokes, and do long pull sets. In the last 2 months, we have met twice to do some underwater videotaping of my stroke. Wow, what a difference a couple of technique changes have made!! I have started using a two beat kick in a more coordinated manner and entered my hand in the water closer to my head. This has helped me get faster and helped to eliminate the shoulder tendon irritation I would get during pull sets. With these two technique changes, I have seen my times literally drop by about 3 to 5 seconds per hundred in ALL of my workouts. Fun stuff!!!
TJ has compiled years and years of swimming and triathlon experience into a website (www.badig.com). Check it out if you want to learn how to be a better swimmer, particularly a better open-water swimmer!
Here's a link to the videos of me (before using the two-beat kick) and TJ (with PERFECT strokes): http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=badigcom&view=videos. Check out his website and his videos if you want to become a better swimmer.
Thanks again TJ for all of your help!
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