At least now I know...

This past Sunday, I attended a swim clinic hosted by The Bike Shop in Glen Ellyn (same place I had my fitting right before Thanksgiving). It was taught by Lauren Jensen (pro triathlete and 2nd place finisher at Madison this year) and Karen Austin, an age grouper and TI-certified swim coach. Great clinic--there ended up only being six of us in attendance, which seemed like a shame, but worked out well for us as we got way more individual attention than I was expecting. We all had 100m videotaped, plus we got an individual assessment from one of the instructors (mine was done by Lauren). We then watched all of our videos and Lauren and Karen pointed out what we did well and what we need to improve upon.

For me, it was a great clinic--I learned that, for the most part, my balance in the water is pretty good, but that I tend to lift my head when I breathe on my right side, thereby causing my hips to lower a little to compensate. Also, my hands were entering the water thumb-down and were coming up out of the water too close to my waist--big loss of power in both areas. My hand entry into the water is also too close to my midline--need to focus on that being somewhere in the width between my ear and my shoulder and on keeping my elbow higher than my hand on the catch. At the end of the clinic, they showed us some drills and then watched us do them--I think I got a little better on the elbow and hand position, but I still have work to do, for sure. Interesting thing, though...my stroke actually gets more efficient as I get faster--by about 3 strokes/25 m--which is opposite of what usually happens. Not sure why, but I'm thinking I'll definitely incorporate some speedwork into my swim workouts and see if I can translate that efficiency into my normal pace.

Lauren talked to us about some open water swim stuff, too--we practiced doing a deep water start and also talked through drafting strategies. She's hosting another clinic in January, but it's the same weekend as Disney--obviously won't be able to make that. Karen apparently does clinics and teaches lessons in Geneva, though--I'm considering seeing if I can take either a few lessons with her or see if she has any mini-TI clinics coming up. Regardless, this was a great start to help me understand how to improve on the swim--great opportunity and I'm very glad I took it. Now I just have to buckle down and get better...