3 Reasons Why You Should Get A Stroke Analysis
Photo credit: Todd Lantry
Author: Shannon House Keegan
Perhaps no one has ever said that your stroke needs work…And you can totally mitigate your shoulder pain with a few ibuprofens before practice…Besides, you're training to swim a marathon… what you need are miles! Right? So why should you have your swimming stroke analyzed?
Here are 3 reasons to get your stroke checked and think technique first in your endurance training!
Reason 1: It's easier, and faster, to swim with great technique!
Photo Credit: Gary Golden
If you're looking to go the distance, you can certainly build up your stamina to fight through the water. However, with some fine tuning, you can likely get more distance per stroke. And the more distance you get with each stroke, the less strokes you’ll need to get there.
With great form you can hone your forever stroke. Your forever stroke, is just that: the stroke that you can do forever!
Reason 2: Train less, live more.
There's something to be said for countless hours spent in the pool with your swim buddies - they are usually great company, they tell jokes that make you laugh and help pass the time.
But what if you could still train for marathons without giving up huge chunks of your life. Don’t get me wrong, commitment is required! But what if it was 10 hours a week and a few big swim weekends instead of a part time job? Then would you want to find out what you're capable of?
Reason 3 (actually, the most important!): Reduce your chance of injury!
Photo Credit: Jocelyn Sanford
Especially if you're training for a really long swim and logging hours upon hours in the water, you better make sure that you're not compromising your shoulder health.
The last thing you want disrupting your training is to be sidelined with an injury.
And you definitely don't want to go under the knife for shoulder surgery, if you can avoid it! Can you imagine having to rely on land based sports for exercise? And then there's the rebuild process… slow, painstaking, but necessary.
What if you rebuild your stroke now so that you don't have to rebuild your shoulders later?
But when should you get your stroke analyzed?
Now! It's always a good time. Between big swims? Great! Get it looked at and see if there are tiny tweaks you can make to improve your performance.
Training for something long later this year? Great! You'll have plenty of time to incorporate the feedback and start adapting your training for your new and improved stroke.
Hate doing drills? You might not have to! Drills are just a way of integrating new knowledge. (Spoiler alert! If you're not doing drills right, don't bother doing them!) With deliberate practice and the right cues, good things will come… but you do have to know what to work on…
Don't know anyone local? Technology is a beautiful thing! A good coach can provide basic recommendations with above water footage from a cell phone. When you're ready to take it to the next level, a waterproof cell phone case, will enable underwater footage, which is where we can really see what's going on!
Free footage feedback February! Send me your best shots and let's chat: Email Me!
About the Author
Photo Credit: Julie Moreno
Shannon House Keegan is a marathon swimmer and virtual swim coach who is passionate about helping individuals find out what they're capable of in the water, whether it's working through fear to discover the freedom of the open water, or unleashing their potential to explore the 70% of the world that is water, one stroke at a time.
Find out more at IntrepidWater.com
Facebook: @intrepidwater
Instagram: @intrepidwater
Twitter: @intrepidwater
And get inspired with Marathon Swim Stories: exploring the human side of the superhuman feats of endurance swimmers: Marathon Swim Stories