Straight to video

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I had my first 1-2-1 video analysis session with Paul Newsome at Swim Smooth this morning. For those in a rush I will cut straight to the chase, it was pretty cool.

Why was it pretty cool? Well for a few reasons really. Firstly, I have never actually watched myself swim. Might sound strange, but the swim leg is one that is really tricky to get good footage of (usually being out in the ocean), and it doesn't make particularly compelling viewing, so there doesn't tend to be much footage of it around. So other than making a specific effort to film it like today, getting footage just hasn't really happened before. I have to say my stroke doesn't look like I thought it did.

Secondly I learnt that there are some things that I can improve on. In the end the main point of doing this kind of analysis is to help you improve and I certainly got a couple of points that will help there. Not massive improvement points, but ones that will certainly help. Those little one and two percenters that could be the difference between front group and second group in a race. The nice things about the changes I have is that they aren't complicated. They have the potential to make a measurable difference, but they are not the sort of things that require me to go back and rebuild my stroke. So the changes aren't daunting. Little things like breathing timing etc. Not complicated and there are lots of good drills to help me work on them.

The final good thing from the session is that is showed me that there are lots of things that I do well. Once again, that perhaps shouldn't be a massive surprise to myself, but sometimes it is nice to have these things confirmed. My kick works well, body position is good etc. Sometimes people can describe a thing, and you can feel it for yourself, but then it takes seeing before you properly understand what is going on. I think truely understanding what your body is doing underwater might be one of those things.

So that was my 1-2-1 video session in a nutshell. Now I am really keen to get out and work on some of those improvement areas for a little while before going back for another session to see how it is going.

Beyond the 1-2-1 session, just a bit of housekeeping. I am travelling for a large part of tomorrow. I may or may not make it online. More than likely I won't. I don't get into Bintan that late tomorrow, but I suspect getting online might be one thing too many. If I don't manage it tomorrow, then I will be back online for Friday.