I knew it! Last night, I walked with DH to Mercury Tunasan (my first time there!) to buy new batteries for the radio. I was hoping to get Energizer but there weren't any. I suppose they'd cost so much for size D. Anyway, I tried them at the pool today and I was right. The old batteries were dying and this was the cause of my losing the right radio frequency and the fading volume. The radio was on maximum volume recently but still couldn't hear it. So I was a happy camper. At least it wasn't a failed or broken potentiometer or some innards of the radio. Sadly though the topic today sucks - it was so mushy and fluffy.
Today's coaching at the pool, I realized something that coaches teach students and seems prevalent. Prevalent, in that I experienced it too when I was getting lessons. And this is the coach telling students to splash a lot of water when beginning lessons in freestyle. They want the legs out of the water, faster kicks, stronger kicks, really kicking up a storm! And then, when the students are fairly advanced, the coaches (and swim literature even) tell them not to raise the legs out of the water. What's UP with THAT?
The lady student must've had some difficulty straightening her legs on the freestyle kicks coz here's the coach tying on something that look like splints so as not to bend the knees too much. I've been wondering what the coach was fiddling with the student's legs. It turns out to be some kind of cardboard wrapped with packing tape. This method is certainly new to me!
Here's the lady kicking furiously as coach instructed. No wonder she gets all winded and tired - as I was when I started getting lessons.
It's been quite a while since I reported a breakthrough or milestone in this blog and was afraid that I've been plateauing my improvements. But just when I least expect it, I've reached one again.
Today, I think I've mastered the art of a relaxing backstroke and discovered to do this, you need to be able to do a super slow stroke. I found this almost impossible to do in the past (as in last year). But today, I could do it at will, anytime! I was so happy that I figured I could do the square workout with the slow backstroke as I did when I was drilling with the heads-up freestyle. Man, today's workout was awesome. I did a couple of these square workouts - one clockwise, the other counterclockwise. At first, I was thinking how best to do the turns coz backstroke is so disorienting, not knowing where you're headed and therefore when to turn. So what I did was simply to pause when it's safe to turn, do a mild heads-up breast and then resume the backstroke. Nonetheless, the square workout was successful and I'm sure I could improve more on it.
After I got out of the pool, rain clouds formed and in the shower, I thought it would rain and was worried for the radio. Well it didn't, but it did drizzle as I was driving out. Whew!
Today's coaching at the pool, I realized something that coaches teach students and seems prevalent. Prevalent, in that I experienced it too when I was getting lessons. And this is the coach telling students to splash a lot of water when beginning lessons in freestyle. They want the legs out of the water, faster kicks, stronger kicks, really kicking up a storm! And then, when the students are fairly advanced, the coaches (and swim literature even) tell them not to raise the legs out of the water. What's UP with THAT?
The lady student must've had some difficulty straightening her legs on the freestyle kicks coz here's the coach tying on something that look like splints so as not to bend the knees too much. I've been wondering what the coach was fiddling with the student's legs. It turns out to be some kind of cardboard wrapped with packing tape. This method is certainly new to me!
Here's the lady kicking furiously as coach instructed. No wonder she gets all winded and tired - as I was when I started getting lessons.
It's been quite a while since I reported a breakthrough or milestone in this blog and was afraid that I've been plateauing my improvements. But just when I least expect it, I've reached one again.
Today, I think I've mastered the art of a relaxing backstroke and discovered to do this, you need to be able to do a super slow stroke. I found this almost impossible to do in the past (as in last year). But today, I could do it at will, anytime! I was so happy that I figured I could do the square workout with the slow backstroke as I did when I was drilling with the heads-up freestyle. Man, today's workout was awesome. I did a couple of these square workouts - one clockwise, the other counterclockwise. At first, I was thinking how best to do the turns coz backstroke is so disorienting, not knowing where you're headed and therefore when to turn. So what I did was simply to pause when it's safe to turn, do a mild heads-up breast and then resume the backstroke. Nonetheless, the square workout was successful and I'm sure I could improve more on it.After I got out of the pool, rain clouds formed and in the shower, I thought it would rain and was worried for the radio. Well it didn't, but it did drizzle as I was driving out. Whew!
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