ease and coordination. Good. But if you have a poor kick, each time you return to Sweet Spot, your body may stop moving. If your body comes to halt after each cycle, you end up lurching down the pool, spending energy trying to overcome inertia, rather than efficiently conserving momentum. So a reasonable kick is essential to efficient drill practice. And because the main point of drills are to teach you ease and economy, it really is an enormous benefit if using fins allows you to practice ease as you drill.
But I recommend that you try to complete Lesson One without fins - and with a TI Buddy helping if needed. That helps to ensure that if you later use fins, they'll mainly help conserve momentum, not mask your balance problem. And if you do use fins while doing drills, kick as gently as possible, so the fins don't overwhelm the subtle movements you're trying to learn.
Should I use fins while swimming?
The best kick for 99 percent of triathletes is a non-overt kick - i.e. one you're hardly aware of. If your drills teach you balance, it should be much easier to just let your legs follow your core-body. Wearing fins while swimming tends to encourage you to overkick and you can easily lose your feel for balance, fluency, and for swimming with seamless whole-body harmony. So: Do use fins if they contribute dramatically to your ease while drilling. Don't be too reluctant to try some drilling without them. And take the fins off when you start swimming.
Lesson Two: UnderSwitch Drills - Tapping Effortless Power from Your Kinetic Chain
Lesson One taught you balance and slippery body positions. In Lesson Two, you'll learn to use rotation of your balanced and slippery core body to generate effortless power for propulsion, via the first of our three Switch drill sequences. These will be the most dynamic and powerful movements you have yet practiced.
Drill #6: UnderSkate
Why we do it: You learned the most valuable form of balance in the Skating position. That position becomes the basis for other ways of practicing balance that bring a different dynamic to your balance practice. This drill is also a rehearsal for Drill #7: UnderSwitch. Finally, it reinforces the key skills of staying on your side as you swim, and of breathing by rolling a balanced, slippery body to the air.
Follow this sequence:
1. Begin as in Drill #5. After you look down, pause and check: Is your head hidden and aligned; is your extended hand below your head; do you feel great balance - even a downhill gliding sensation?
2. If so, then sneak the trailing hand forward under water (wipe it across your belly and past your jaw) until you see the hand right under your nose. Check that you're still on your side with your shoulders stacked - as shown in the underwater photo - then slide the hand back to your side. Finish by rolling back to Sweet Spot. Keep following that laser line, as you rotate nose-down, nose-up, nose-down.
3. Take at least three yoga breaths, then repeat the sequence. You'll probably fit in three cycles in each 25 yards. Switch sides on the next length.
How to practice: Your key focal points are the same as for Drill #5, but with added emphasis on remaining on your side as you bring your hand to your face, and on slipping through the smallest hole in the water as you do it. Practice UnderSkate by itself, alternating sides. Or practice it in a series with Lesson One drills: 50 yards each (25 right, 25 left) of Drills 3, 4, 5 and 6. Some athletes can master this drill after no more than 10 minutes of practice. If you feel you've got it, move on. If not, spend as much time as you need because the skills learned in UnderSkate are key to every drill that follows.
Drill #7: UnderSwitch
Why we do it: This is the first drill to tap the power of the kinetic chain by teaching you how to link an armstroke to core-body rotation for effortless propulsion. It also simplifies the process for learning the "front-quadrant" timing that keeps your bodyline
But I recommend that you try to complete Lesson One without fins - and with a TI Buddy helping if needed. That helps to ensure that if you later use fins, they'll mainly help conserve momentum, not mask your balance problem. And if you do use fins while doing drills, kick as gently as possible, so the fins don't overwhelm the subtle movements you're trying to learn.
Should I use fins while swimming?
The best kick for 99 percent of triathletes is a non-overt kick - i.e. one you're hardly aware of. If your drills teach you balance, it should be much easier to just let your legs follow your core-body. Wearing fins while swimming tends to encourage you to overkick and you can easily lose your feel for balance, fluency, and for swimming with seamless whole-body harmony. So: Do use fins if they contribute dramatically to your ease while drilling. Don't be too reluctant to try some drilling without them. And take the fins off when you start swimming.
Lesson Two: UnderSwitch Drills - Tapping Effortless Power from Your Kinetic Chain
Lesson One taught you balance and slippery body positions. In Lesson Two, you'll learn to use rotation of your balanced and slippery core body to generate effortless power for propulsion, via the first of our three Switch drill sequences. These will be the most dynamic and powerful movements you have yet practiced.
Drill #6: UnderSkate
Why we do it: You learned the most valuable form of balance in the Skating position. That position becomes the basis for other ways of practicing balance that bring a different dynamic to your balance practice. This drill is also a rehearsal for Drill #7: UnderSwitch. Finally, it reinforces the key skills of staying on your side as you swim, and of breathing by rolling a balanced, slippery body to the air.
Follow this sequence:
1. Begin as in Drill #5. After you look down, pause and check: Is your head hidden and aligned; is your extended hand below your head; do you feel great balance - even a downhill gliding sensation?
2. If so, then sneak the trailing hand forward under water (wipe it across your belly and past your jaw) until you see the hand right under your nose. Check that you're still on your side with your shoulders stacked - as shown in the underwater photo - then slide the hand back to your side. Finish by rolling back to Sweet Spot. Keep following that laser line, as you rotate nose-down, nose-up, nose-down.
3. Take at least three yoga breaths, then repeat the sequence. You'll probably fit in three cycles in each 25 yards. Switch sides on the next length.
How to practice: Your key focal points are the same as for Drill #5, but with added emphasis on remaining on your side as you bring your hand to your face, and on slipping through the smallest hole in the water as you do it. Practice UnderSkate by itself, alternating sides. Or practice it in a series with Lesson One drills: 50 yards each (25 right, 25 left) of Drills 3, 4, 5 and 6. Some athletes can master this drill after no more than 10 minutes of practice. If you feel you've got it, move on. If not, spend as much time as you need because the skills learned in UnderSkate are key to every drill that follows.
Drill #7: UnderSwitch
Why we do it: This is the first drill to tap the power of the kinetic chain by teaching you how to link an armstroke to core-body rotation for effortless propulsion. It also simplifies the process for learning the "front-quadrant" timing that keeps your bodyline
Similar Books
