Rowdy
Gaines and Mel Stewart at WSC
Photo:
Rowdy Gaines, Jake Gulick, Laura Burke, Billy Geoghan, Mel Stewart ~Billy
Geoghegan writes: Rowdy
and Mel talked all drills. For free, Rowdy pretty much described as
Mel demonstrated. A main thrust was body positioning. The first step
was moving the head down, or "level swimming", not as we
are used to, with the waterline just over our goggles. The head up
position forces the back down, and presents a larger frontal area to
the water, therefore more resistance. And streamlining off turns,
with dolphin kicks was said to be "40% of the job". One
drill was to keep one arm back at your side and stroke with the
other arm. If you were moving the left arm you would then breathe on
the right side to create rotation making the right shoulder nearly
perpendicular to the bottom of the pool (when out of the water). One
must be careful not to crossover when doing this drill. Rowdy also
had the kids swim with their legs crossed at the ankles. This proved
how important the kick is while keeping the feet aligned with the
rest of the body at the surface. The fist drill was then added as a
method of showing the importance of forearm positioning. Rowdy said
that when kicking, to have at most, the heels break the surface.
|
