Catch up...

Thursday evening was swimming lesson numero 3...finally, 6 weeks after lesson number 2.

...and to be honest it wasn't one of my finest half hours in the water. Basically, all the practicing I have been doing has been largely pointless as I am still not driving enough through the hips...which in turn means I'm not gliding enough, which means my leading arm is dropping early...which apparently isn't good.

Strangely I can do the finger touch drill, i.e. the drill that focuses on the drive, but lose that feel once I start to swim freely.

So it's back to basics again for me. More drills with the aim being to really focus on driving my stroke from the hip area - like posting an envelope apparently.

With that in mind I added an unscheduled visit to the pool on Friday lunchtime to get things moving.

Once I got in the water all I did was focus on what Julie had told me - hang out the leading arm until my catch up arm is just about to enter the water...

All up I reckon I did about 1km...a mixture of drills, some with the pool buoy, some without, and free stroke.....but it's really not about the distance at the moment.

I actually felt like I was getting somewhere by the end of the session - mainly because I was thinking about the drill once I was swimming freely, and the motion that it gave me, rather than just assuming that the drill will automatically help my stroke without thinking. Makes sense really.

I'll get there if it kills me!