Fist Drill

Free-10 Brst-6. There's somebody else at the pool today; a tall Chinese guy who did the 25m length breaststrokes. I attempted open turns after a warmup of 3 free and 3 breast laps. I wasn't getting near enough to the wall after touching the wall. Am I lacking speed? The legs are not getting in the correct position to pushoff. I was more successful when I grabbed the gutter because there was a slight pulling on it to raise the head out of the water. I may need to stop this practice of holding and pulling maybe gradually by removing thumb and then the fingers until it becomes just a tap.

I also tried the closed fist drill for freestyle. Surprisingly, I could still swim! - even with closed hands. I could only conclude that body position is very good and that I had good body roll to sustain movement and the (slow) speed. I wasn't impressed much with the drill coz I think I already have good tactile sensitivty. Closed, I could still feel water rushing inside the fist. With focus, I could grab with an open "grabbing" hand enough water and push that water back. Maybe I'll just use this drill sparingly.

Do not waste the speed of the streamline. Wait until you slow down before stroking. To increase endurance with the end result of doing laps on the 25m length:

1. Time the rest phase in between widths.
   
2. Do the open turn in every lap or whatever is easy. Gradually move from grab turns to open turns.
   

A New Twist

7/28/04 7:20-8:20
I have a new idea on the torso twist. Turn your back on the pool wall, facing the pool. Twist the upper torso to face the pool wall and hold on to the gutter. Feel the stretch. Count to 10 seconds. Do the same for the other side of the body. The streamline is not as tight as I'd like it and needs to improve. Maybe this is the reason I swim crooked, zigzaging rathern than shooting straight.

I did 2 good laps with open turns! I think I can do these after a good warmup of 3 laps. Lapping with turns will prepare me for the 25 meter pool length. I tried the new blue nylon suit with blue piping today and it seems to ride up on the thighs. It's also a little tighter than polyester but I guess it should dry faster.

I still sink when I do the backstreamline at the last 5 mins. Maybe my legs were just too tired. I had water in my nose and it hurt. I wasn't too conscious on the breaststroke kick. My guess is legs were kicking poorly. Practice the legs first by gutter kicking emphasizing the foot/ ankle positioning and ingraining that before doing laps. I may need to do this drill periodically if breast kick deteriorates.

Mang Ruben was there. He didn't swim but just washed his bike. I didn't do sidestroke. I forgot. I need a practice sheet next time. Try counting strokes next time? See how many strokes for beaststroke. Try the 10 yoga breaths - slow, deep breathing. Meditation/ visualization exercises for swimming. Time to try the fist drill? Think of mantras - I'm strong and I float. Hold pebble to close fist.

Bead Counters

Was able to finish 6 free laps and 7 breast laps (a lap is 2 widths). I overslept today coz of the previous day's weight session - heavy on the dumbbell shoulder presses. I learned the names of the receptionists: Agnes and Vivian.

This is the first time that I used the bead lap counters. It just needs getting used to. I confirm that 3 laps is a good warmup to be in the right groove for freestyle. The laps thereafter become a little easier. Tactile sense also improves.

For breast, I need to feel that glide to go further. How about a definite count of 1 second for a sure glide? Also, I seem to glide when the arms have recovered after the in-scull. I feel this especially when my back is intentionally relaxed when I breath. I'm still sinking when doing the back streamline. Maybe I need to do some backstroke drills.

To facilitate counting of laps, I color-coded freestyle laps to be the blue beads and the breaststroke laps to be beige beads. I then count the beads for each stroke after my swim. Neat, huh? Try arching the back more when legs start to sink. Today's the first time to use the beads for counting.

Len-6: 2 half length back drills. Felt fast today but only with right breathing. Maybe a 50m lap (2 lengths) is not too far.

Stag Party for Bing

Party was at Lovely May Resort, Pansol, Los Banos. At the left is a collage of pics taken at the place. We started at 6:30pm Friday and ended at 3:30am (at least for me!) of Saturday. I was in the pool roughly 6 hours! The rest of the time was eating, resting, singing, and watching the girls perform. Something I noticed is that it is better to lead with the crown of the head when pushing off from a start or turn. That means really dive the head down. This prevents water from entering the nose. Lightly exhale with the nose when diving the head. Bing's style on turn is to hold to gutter, no flip turns

To do the backstreamline: Outscull, inscull down, parallel palms and then assume the arms behind. This is a graceful and "cool" move. Immediately take a big breath. This gulp of air is for slowly and lightly exhaling air through the nose just before the head drops/ sinks into the water. Breath freely through the mouth when good streamline is achieved.

I felt my backbone aligning straight when doing the breaststroke. I guess this is a good "two-thumbs up" sign for alleviating my scoliosis. With breaststroke, I noticed that with a narrow kick and clashing of feet together makes it faster. A nice drill is the front and back streamline combo in the width of the pool. Start with backstreamline. After touching wall with arms behind, lower arms and kick the wall at the back to do the front streamline.

Comments: "slow"-Mar, "smooth at tahimik"-Tony, "long/ distance"-Bing. Steve was surprised I had swim lessons late in age. Nice to hear that guys, but after I've seen some pics and videos of me swimming, I thought I still looked atrocious. I breath on the right and it appears that I slam down on my right arm when it begins to stroke so that I could raise the head. And the head raising appears too much.

The longer I stayed in the water, the more heightened the tactile sense becomes. Catching and pulling is felt better and becomes efficient. The importance of a balanced stroke is very much emphasized. There is no more "panic" as was felt before where loping was the result. Just focus on rolling/ snapping the hips, press the buoy, breath relaxed, try to look sideways and feel the water with the fingers. Avoid shoulder injury and follow the sequence:

1. Hip snap first.
2. Reach further while other arm drops.
3. Pull.

Pool according to caretaker is 6m x 13m. This is the first time that I used the Arena Sports Towel and it is nice!

"Survivor" Drills

I need to list the stretching exercises required for shoulders, tris, chest, back, quads and calves. Maybe I need to count 10 meter laps - width of pool? per stroke (freestyle & breaststroke). I did not do any backfloats to relax today. I inquired about roomrates at RnR. I'm feeling a little better, breathing better after 30 minutes. Is this the second wind? Whatever, I need more conditioning. Thoughts for counting laps in one hour. Chalk marks?Whiteboard marker? Abacus/ bean type counter? create one? coins?

I find it hard to remove goggles in between widths coz it pulls the hair. I didn't eat this morning, just coffee. I've no water bottle either. The weather wasn't too warm anyway. Next time, I'll try a jump-to-a-stroke maneouver. This means not starting from a relaxed glide from a wall pushoff. Imagine a "panic" situation.

1. From a standing position, jump up and assume horizontal position to begin stroking.
   
2. From a submerged crouching position, jump, get a breath and then assume horizontal to begin stroking.
   
3. From submerged position, glide forward, and without taking a breath, begin stroking.
   
4. For fun, try half-half. Half of width, try breast and second half do freestyle without feet touching the floor. Mix this up with the backfloat.
   

Try to use the legs less. Maximise the glide. Don't forget the hiproll BOTH ways. Keep streamlined and relax. Not kicking at the extended glide phase will prevent wiggling of the body or sashaying of the hips. Try mentally focusing on the stroke despite swallowing water. Relax and continue stroking. On body wiggling, avoid it. Touch toes together on the extended glide. Kick only for balance.
Stretches:

1. Head push with hand left and right.
   
2. Head push front and back.
   
3. Tricep stretches: back, front, above.
   
4. Trunk twists, side bends with arms extended above.
   
5. Calf stretches.
   
6. Quads: front and side(hurdle) stretch.

Survival Drill

1. From breaststroke, go to midpool and without legs touching bottom, go back.
   
2. From breaststroke, go to midpool. Dive down first to pick object then proceed to finish lap.

Have improved the tactile sense of the water. While resting, feel the water with simulated strokes either free or breast. Prevent shoulder pain.

1. Lower the hand first after entry before catch, then pull back.
   
2. Butterfly type entry, preferably pinky first.
   
3. Maintain slightly forward thumb.
   
4. Descend into catch position before pulling.
   
5. Pull backwards, not downwards
   
6. Avoid internal rotation (right arm/hand counter-clockwise)
   

A nice quotation:

"In my (racing) experience, I was always confronted by opponents pulling that kind of stuff. To me it indicated they were feeling so insecure about their own capability that they needed to fall back on juvenile antics as a last resort"

Focus

Need to layoff the dance choreo for a while. Need to focus on stationary biking during Tuesdays. Make it prolonged, not just 5 minutes in order to build conditioning and rehab the knee muscles.

Let's get physical

Start on a fixed swim sked at 2x a week - Wednesday and Friday. With no workout buddy, it's just my own raw self-motivation that's jumpstarting me to get in shape without re-injuring my lower back. Other than swimming (or biking?), there really aren't much sports/ exercises I can do that aren't bone-jarring.

Arrived 6:45. Had to finish at 7:45 because of a meeting (which didn't push). I also used the Arena sports towel for the first time.
Free - Practiced the hip snap and felt slight soreness around the back and hip. I need to do stretching and slow twisting for the hips.
Brst - Again, relax on the forward gide and breath phase. There is glide at the breathing (after hand scull) phase.
For at least 30 mins, I did a free one-way, then walk, then breast one-way. The walk was the active rest phase.
For variety, I did 2 widths of back floating with hands stretched to touch first the wall.
Stretching - Do more for shoulders, triceps and chest.
Here's the plan:

• Mon - Rest
  
• Tue - Bike
• Wed - Swim
• Thu - Weights
• Fri - Swim
• Sat - Badmin
• Sun - Badmin

What a plan, huh. Of corz the weights will be easy since back will need the proper rehab it can get. Well, we're just starting, so let's aim for the moon!

25 Years Later

The pic at the left shows the back side of the villa where we stayed. The villas at Fontana are nice and our reservation were courtesy of Rency Carlos and Atty. Boyet Andin. At this point, we're about to leave Fontana on the way to the new site of the school (Don Bosco Pampanga) which is just nearby at Mabalacat. Twenty-five years ago, when we graduated, the school was still at Bacolor. After the lahar disaster in 1995, it was finally transferred to Mabalacat.

At the new site, there was lots of food. The pic at the right wast taken inside the gym where we had the activities. The food was mostly Kapampangan dishes. It was good! I remember the burong-nasi though was not as presentable and enticing as what Mommy prepares. I don't know. It was rather grey-colored and was not as tasty. It smelled like buro but it certainly didn't look it (at least not the one I'm familiar with).

The attendance at the reunion was great! There was a lot of picture-taking, chatting (where have you been all these years kind of a chat). We actually started off with the Holy Mass and then proceeded to the gym. In the pic at the left (click image to enlarge), we're actually sitting on the same bleachers that were "rescued" from the lahar debris in Bacolor! Yup, these are the same benches we used when we were still students more than 25 years ago.

The pic at the right (click image to enlarge) was taken at the stage. The guy in the orange shirt was our Drafting teacher (Mr.Liangco); the elderly guy in glasses was our principal (Fr.Carmona); the lady was our Algebra teacher(Miss Zita-Kabigting); the other guy in polo was our Workshop teacher (Mr.DelaRosa); the other guy was our English teacher (Fr.Inocencio). The guy at the extreme right is the present principal (Fr.Joey Paras)

It's been 25 years since we last saw each other. The pic at the left (click image to enlarge) is the entire High School Graduating Class taken in 1979. There were 81 who graduated. Among those, more than half (45) showed up at the reunion with their families. It was such a happy and nostalgic affair.



Until we meet again !

Lower Back Sprain Treatment

It's been almost a month now since I've started the rehabilitation therapy for my back sprain (lumbosacral, L4-L5). The therapy I'm undergoing includes the Williams flexion exercises for the lower back.

Most of the exercises are performed in a lying position and are preceded by 20 minutes of warm compress and ultrasound. These exercises are progressive from one session to another. I assume these were instructed by the rehab doctor to the physical therapists who attended me.

Fontana Leisure Park

This journal starts with my High School Reunion Weekend Affair. It was a weekend long celebration that for us, started with an outing/ swimming at the Fontana Water Park. The pic at the left is the the park's wave pool. That's Irene with the kids: Che (yellow goggles), Sandra (blue goggles), Karen (pink goggles) and Renz doing the "peace" sign. I did my swimming here coz it's the only attraction that is deep and wide enough were you could actually swim.

The park has so many attractions like this galleon insipired water playground called "The Admiral". There's Che in the black trunks and blue swimsuit leading Karen and Sandra to the slides. Tita Gay and Renz are probably there somewhere too at the other side of the boat.

And then there's the Water Factory on the left pic with Che and Karen. Renz had a blast turning the steering wheels. You basically turn the wheel to hit the other kids with the water. This park has so many stuff for the kids.

There's the picture of the "Marina" girls and Renz, the Syokoy. I don't know, they just HAD to do this pose pretending to be mermaids. I took so many pictures that I just can't post them all here. When I have time , I'll put them in an online album somewhere.

Finally it's time to go home. Home here will be one of Fontana's very nice villas. Courtesy of one of my Fontana member batchmates, we were able to get a 2-room villa for an overnight stay at half the price! The pic on the left shows one of the entrances to the water park. In all honesty, I couldn't figure what the water park's theme was! They had bull elephants, lions, monkeys, snakes and then there's a "factory", a galleon. Well, I guess it must have been an Adventure theme of some sort. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. We stayed until closing time! Renz was too pooped to even pose for the camera. Poor little guy.

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