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What's wrong with me?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 90 days.
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why overtrain just go and be with the sea! we are not fish. and if we were it wouldnt be sport!!! relax brother some of the biggest fish i have seen have been in water no deeper than my waist its just being ready and relaxed!

peace
 
Nice shooting. Doesn't look like you need much advice on spearo technique. I'll assume you are looking for longer dives. If you are not using a minimal breathup approach, that is a technique shift that will help your bottom times. That techique fits right in with a relaxation approach, which, I think, would help you.

I dive FRC, minimal breathup, very very relaxed. It works great for very long bottom times until I start getting into the fish. At that point, it is seriously hard to maintain the relaxed attitude, breathing rate goes up, bottom times go down, etc. I'm still working with it. A certain amount of faster breathing, lower dive times is inevitable in those circumstances, but retaining as much of the relaxed approach as possible helps bottom time.

Play with it.

Connor
 
hey guys, been a while since i have posted haha been busy working two jobs and training haha. I can probably at the moment i have hit a wall, decided to go back and do some inhale training dynamics and statics. My first problem i have encountered is my body likes to dive on frc, in the ocean i find myself having to make sure i take a full breathe in before i go haha :p. But some 5 months later in dynamic and statics i have hit a wall. Because of my physical job when i get to training in the arvo im stuffed and dont perform no where near my best. Just to give you an example a few weekends ago i did some dry full inhale statics and on the third just though see how it goes, at 4:15min first contraction hit. 5mins flew by and at 5.15 i was worried because usually i would be pushed by this stage. I went 5.30min with really light contractions and did one tiny hook breathe and new that it could have been an easy 6.00min+ static. So recapping just because your results dont seem to be improving try something different. Even dynamics will suffer if you have had a hard slog during the day before it. But frustrating it can be, at the moment if i look at consistency 5min inhale statics contraction starting around 3.45min regardless of breathe up. For FRC statics usually around 4.00mins best being around 4.40min. Just another thing i might add my statics dont really replicate what i am capable of out in the ocean, in the ocean access to deep water is limited so i usually work on statics type dives, with moving after first few contractions. Im 10-12m on FRC 3.25min and on inhale close to 4.00mins. Personally what i have found and am enjoying is no warm up full inhale apnea walks, wake up in the morning stretch then hit one up. haha they feel horrible as crap at the start but i have found them quite nice. walks are around 350 steps total time walking over 2.30min havent time them properly :P Most importantly just have fun and enjoy what you are doing. Its when you start associating negative thoughts towards disciplines ie hate doing this, why im i doing this, waste of time.... is when you need to change things up because after all arent we doing this for enjoyment haha sorry guys bit of rant.

hey Conner hows the FRC going mate, haha i may have gone back to inhales but soon as i get to the ocean FRC it is haha

regards,

Ktreloar
 
Hi guys, here's a link of me performing dynamic at a 25 meters pool, I have to fix my technic, please take a look and let me know what you think I need to change.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/user/yodecha?feature=mhee#p/a/u/0/zep6NtxoKKI]yodecha's Channel - YouTube[/ame]
 
I'm not technique guru, but here are a few suggestions.

Better streamlining:

Get your arms out front, elbows nearly straight, arms tight to the head.
Straighten the knees. You may need softer fins to make this work.

buoyancy:

Notice how you are swimming at a downward angle, use some weights to make you neutral and balanced. A neck wieght works great.

Stroke style:

If you have a decent dolphin kick, try it. You might find it works great for dynamic.

Connor
 
Hi Menny,

Nice outside pool! - good filming light! :D

Ok a few things:

1) buoyancy, it looks like you're too positive, add 2x 0.5kg on the waist. (buy 1 LBS / 0.5 KG weights so you can fine tune better)

2) rolling with your shoulders.

3) kind of big amplitude fin stroke that is lacking in balance.
What I mean is that if you balance the upstroke of one foot with the downstroke of the other the hips and shoulders remain much more still. You'll see what I mean when you look up some other dynamic video's. (I couldn't find the Tom Sietas underwater Dynamic WR's video's) So tighten that stroke up a bit and maybe increase frequency a bit.

4) <edit> from the impression I have I think you shoulder flexibility isn't enough for having the monofin streamlined position in a relaxed way, therefore keeping your arms to the side is at this moment the best option. Though you will have a benefit if you do the monofin arms over head at the start and turns following that up with an arm stroke.

Overall it looks relaxed and it's cool to see you find more relaxation from 15m onwards.

As of the start you can gain there a bit too, by having a nice smooth relaxed routine there. The experience I have is that one cannot gain relaxation after the DR kicks in. In order to safe energy I want to start relaxed and slow so I don't disturb the is relaxation with strong abrupt movements. <I need to work on my wording here..>

Have the next camera recording from a meter further and the side so we have a better overview.

Have fun!

Kars
 
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Couple of things:

1. Incomplete advance phase (downwards kick) - buoyancy doesn't help but I think it could also be strength related

2. Bending of knees in the return - technique/strength issue

The above are causing you to roll your shoulders too much - basically you are not driving the big fins as you should (I have similar issues). I would practice with rubber fins until you get the technique right and build strength - focus on wider, more symmetric and more fluent kick. Some weights will help.
 
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Thank you guys for your hints and suggestions, it seems I have some work to do.
Simos and Conor, you both suggest the advantage of using a softer fins, can you give me an example for a rubber/soft fins? except of the Nemo I have a Buchet mundial fins which are far more softer, are there any good? In that case, I'm not certain about the lack of strength in my legs because I know I can kick powerfully, but still, I don't understand why am I doing that wrong movements..maybe it's the matter of genetics?
I attached here a link of me performing CWT dive.
Watching it I notice that something is wrong with my feet, the blades of the fins aligns inwards and towards each other. Why is it happening? and how can I change it? are there any specific exercises to fix it? can it be a metter of genetics? And generally, I'de like to know your feedback about that CWT dive.
Please let me know what you think,
My best,
Menny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXAUw0IGgak&feature=youtu.be
 
The Beuchat pockets are quite soft and the blades can be removed. Their competition blades are fairly stiff(that is what I have). I'm pretty sure Beuchat makes very soft blades for that pocket. Easiest solution if its available. Otherwise, Specialfins and lots of other blade makers can make very soft blades. Alternatively, get a pair of scuba fins and work on technique. You look like you are plenty strong enough, so it should be mostly a technique,not strength, issue.

Look particularly at your left ankle, it is turning inward as you stroke the fin, spilling water off the blade and losing power. I think this is a genetic tendency, some divers have it much worse than you, but it is trainable. More of a negative is the right knee, it is often bent about 90 degrees from the line of travel. Think about how much drag your whole upper leg represents, uses up lots of 02. Softer fins make it much easier to keep the knees straighter and more streamlined.

Generally, the power being developed from your two legs is not balanced, that is probably what causes the rolling. Better balance will lead to better, more efficient power transfer.

On the cw dive, there is lots of inefficient fin motion, particularly when you are finning slowly. That works for spearing, but isn't good for efficient 02 use. Better to fin efficiently when finning and relax totally otherwise. It takes a bit of practice to do that.

Get your buddy to observe, video, you in the pool. Try to stroke and keep your legs completely straight. You will be surprised at what it looks like. Work on it and it will get better

Connor
 
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Well from what I've seen you have your toes turned inwards.
You even maybe walking a bit like that.

I think if you pay attention and train for it you can correct this.
Instead of your toes, turn you heals inward. Also work on your foot flexibility.

Actually I think your current state is great when wearing a monofin. I've seen people with turned in toes showing some great monofin style. I think this is due to the heals being outward it's easier to have strait legs while monofinning. :D

Use the soft blades to learn to have the heals inward and your legs strait and your fins moving up and down instead of rotating. With a coach and camera doing say 16x50m you can learn and correct this while having a nice workout. - Have you coach give you 1 direction each lane. Filming from the rear can also reveal how your fins are moving.

Furthermore, using stiff fins or soft ones people tent to take the feedback of the pressure on the foot as a sign that they are still within the effective range of movement.
So feeling a load on your feet = efficient thrust.
This is NOT true. This is easily understandable when you think of going into more extreme angles, still you feel much blade pressure, but you are only braking/stopping yourself. What to do is to build awareness of your feet's angle with the water. At this point in training my simple suggestion would be to have strokes (feeling) half the amplitude then you show in your video.

So it's experimentation time, coach and camera ready?
 
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