my first underwater swim assessment!

2009 was a pretty frustrating swimming affair for me. despite hours and hours clocked in the pool, my swim time decreased ever so marginally. i assured myself that 2010 would not be a repeat performance!

this morning i had my first underwater swim assessment courtesy of the folks at Swim for Tri, Canary Wharf, London. Ray Gibbs was the man in the know.

i was a little nervous going in (read: dead scared). i knew i wasn't a total rubbish swimmer; but what would those cameras reveal? all talk no show??

SO the results!!! i have a DVD of pics but haven't managed to rip them yet. they'll come next post.

in the meantime- here's the top problems;

1. my left arm is incredibly lazy!! a bunch of coaches had told me before; "lift my left elbow" but i couldn't understand why. after watching far too much hideous underwater vision of my pathetic left arm, i finally understand why. like it's become my embarrassing second cousin who picks his nose at the school dance.

2. apparently my right arm is thankfully not so bad, but i've just watched back these videos and realised though most of it is looking good, my entry point is far to shallow. damnit.

3. lazy leftie is so pathetic i'm dragging the water back with my ELBOW. like seriously! what an idiot.

4. Dan thinks that as a result of my love for one sided breathing, the leftie dirty habit has evolved. in training i have to bilaterally breathe. in races i can do what i want. okay, i can work with this.

5. i've got drills to do, the Extension Drill is going to be my friend. when we practised this Dan froze the underwater playback and said that form was like an elite swimmer. i was like YIPPPEEE i looked like an elite for ONE FRAME. hey i'll take what i can.

i can't begin to describe how beneficial seeing myself underwater was; and would totally recommend this for other tri-ers at any level. the proof will be in the pudding, but i'm pretty excited (by the pudding, actually, please see previous post on my current Elimination Diet)

overall; i've got work to do - but i'm not scraping the bottom of the barrel here. if i can look elite-ish for one frame, even a couple, there's got to be hope at a proper 1.5km PB. here she goes.