Swim Technique Diary: Hip Drop, Tumble Turns & Getting 1% Better

Today's aim was to attempt my 30 lengths again with less stopping. I split it into 10, 10, 10 (plus 2 at the end), swimming mostly freestyle and switching to breaststroke or backstroke whenever I got tired.

Beyond just distance, I focused on a few technical things:

Tumble turns: I noticed I sometimes end up too close to the wall to get a decent kick into the turn, which makes it rushed and awkward especially going from back to front. I'm going to adjust my count on backstroke from 5 strokes to 4, then glide into the turn so I'm approaching straight. I also noticed my legs tend to drift slightly to the right instead of coming together straight, which means my right leg ends up doing more of the work pushing off the wall.

Hip position: As the distance increased, I noticed my hips dropping when my abs weren't engaged. To fix this, I squeezed my glutes and pushed my pelvis up, I used the same cue on backstroke too. This also got me thinking about the swimmer I saw yesterday using paddles and a figure-8 pull buoy. Used sparingly (only around 20% of a swim, from what I understand) they could help strengthen my stroke and prevent that hip drop by engaging my abs more.

After the pool: Since I'd noticed the ab/glute connection, I came home and did a 3-minute Tabata of abs, push-ups, and squats - all muscle groups that support swim technique.

As a dedicated athlete, I'll keep working on this. I thrive on feedback and getting 1% better each time. That mindset shift matters as much as the physical work.

And the stats: my final 2 lengths came in at 52 seconds today. My tumble turn approach was better, and I was faster into the wall too.

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