Tonight was 100s night. I feel like tonight was to build up our endurance, and to strengthen our strokes. I know we focused on each stroke evenly, doing the drills for each stroke in the same amounts.
Going in IM order, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, we did a 50 of the kick for each, 50 pull for each, 50 of the drill for each, and then 2x100s of the swim.
The drill for each:
Butterfly-RABALABA (Right Arm Both Arms Left Arm Both Arms)
This drill helps work our legs and our abs, to make our kick stronger. This drill is also supposed to help our stroke and make it stronger, working both sides. This is my least favorite, probably because it's my least favorite stroke, and because it is the hardest. It takes a lot for me to push myself far enough out of the water to get my arms up and out, to pull enough water and air to push forward. As much as I dislike this drill, and it's tiring, I can tell that when we do this, my stroke does get stronger.
Backstroke- Teacup Drill
I don't mind this drill as much because I like backstroke. This drill exaggerates the rotation of our bodies when we are doing the stroke, which is helpful because the more we rotate, to an extent, the more water we can pull and the faster we can move through the water.
This drill involves pretending we are holding a cup of tea in each hand using our thumbs and index fingers, horizontally, like and OK symbol, and we have to try not to spill the tea.
I find that after doing this drill, I do rotate more, and I know that my time in doing the backstroke has improved because of practicing the teacup drill.
Breaststroke-Tombstone
This drill involves holding the kickboard vertically in the water, so that it looks like a tombstone. The kickboard pushes against the water, slowing us down, and it is supposed to improve the strength of the kick. I dislike this drill almost as much as I dislike RABALABA, because I feel as if I am at the point where I am not moving in the water at all. The water resistance make my glide feel completely useless, and it's frustrating because after doing this drill I don't really feel that my stroke has improved at all. I can't tell after the drill if I'm faster or not because of how slowly I go during the drill.
Freestyle-Elbow Drag/Shark Fin
By default this is my favorite drill. It's purpose is to help us extend our pull in the water when we are doing freestyle. For this drill, instead of pulling your arm through the water, you are supposed to pull your arm up to your ear, creating an effect that makes your arm look like a shark fin. When you are pulling out, you are supposed to stretch your arm out even farther to increase the amount of water you pull, and make you go faster in the water. I find that over the years this drill has greatly improved my reach, and in result, my freestyle is one of my best strokes (the other is breaststroke)
After we did these drill we started swimming 100s, in IM order, on the clock. Each order would go faster and faster. It wasn't as hard as it used to be for me to keep up, which shows improvement on my part, and even though it was exhausting, I felt really good after practice, which I think was the endorphin rush, and I felt stronger.
I missed Monday's swim team due to too much homework and college applications that I needed to get in.
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