Paddles!

Oh goodness, so that's what it's like to swim with paddles...

I swam in a shorter pool today, probably 20y.  Worked a lot on arm position when entering the water.  Need to widen the reach for my left arm and stop swooping my pull to the side with my right.  Did six laps of one-arm freestyle to focus on this.

Swam 6 laps with paddles to think about stroke and pull.  I really liked it.  It was nice to see how to achieve the most resistance when swimming by using the angle of your hand/arm.  I also noticed a difference in the way that I glide with paddles.  I feel like I reach further with my front arm during the pull.  Additionally, I felt like the angle of my hand upon recovery was more accurate.  Generally a good experience.

Now, when I took the paddles off and swam a lap, I felt like I had no hands and like my body was all over the place.  I decided to swim two laps with finger drag to "correct" myself.  I think that I will use finger drag as my safety drill when I'm racing.  If I start to freak out or lose my technique during the race, I will do a few strokes with finger drag to regain my composure.

This is the plan, anyway.

My shoulders and upper back are pretty sore today.  Swimming the remaining laps was difficult.  I felt like my recovery stroke was pinched and it was hard to keep my head in position because of the discomfort.  I spent much of the last set practicing sighting.  I need to continue to work sighting into my workouts.  Once every length.