This week seemed to "fly" by.(sorry, that was an awful pun...),

I was pretty excited this week when I was able to accomplish one of my goals. I was able to pull off a full and complete back bend without the use of my hands including recovery of it. 

If you are wondering, it looked a little like this...

So that was really exciting. This is not the first time that I was able to accomplish it, but it was the first time I was able to do it for a camera. It was hard. My problem is that I put a lot of weight on my head so when I need to get back up, I have to shift a lot of weight to my feet so either I end up falling back over when I crane my neck up, or I give a pretty big stumble when I do come up. But this can be fixed, and will be fixed. 

Some things that will help me: 

1. My back isn't too flexible yet. I need to do a lot more stretching there so it is not as tense when I do this.

2. Because my back can't bend too comfortably yet, I sink too low with my legs and loose a lot of strength they give on the way back up. I need to use them more for the upward pull then for letting my body down.

3. I also need to start practicing with the mace I will be using as a counter-balance instead of the camera stand that I am holding in this picture. The mace is lighter but most of that weight is down near the ball on the far end so it is a completely different feel.

The nice thing about my efforts is that this is the clothing that I will be wearing while trying to perform this move. This assures that I know what kind of weight my jacket has(which feels really heavy at times like these), and also allows me to feel the "stretching limits" of the uniform. With long dress pants, your legs don't bend too well so i have to set my legs just right in order to receive the maximum "stretchy-ness". The shoes are also a little weird. They are just loose enough that the soles want to stay flat on the ground allowing my feet the slide sideways in the shoes. This is a problem for when I need to get back up.

As for swimming, I was not able to get into the pool again this week. I will be continuing the workouts of push-ups and such until such times that I am able to be swimming again. I am currently doing several practices for a Ultimate Frisbee Club team that I am on. This provided a lot of coordination that is really nice to practice and also endurance training. Both of these I can take back to the pool for fly improvements.

But as it goes, this is my last mandatory blog post. My overall view of this project is very positive. Though I couldn't achieve a much more improved Butterfly, I did improve upon my back-bend a lot.

In the future both of these goals are thing that I will be trying to make a reality. One day maybe I will have a picture of myself flying through the water or, even more important to me, a picture of me kissing the turf with the crown of my head to the ecstatic cheers of the crowd.

Until next time. Stay classy.

Brigham

Again, due to lack of internet access, this one is up a little later than I wished.

Well due to my found lack of usable pool area, I have decided to add(which I know that I have the "presentation" like this week) to my project. I have been working since the beginning of this summer on a thing called the back-bend. This is a position in which one would attempt to bend over backwards in an effort to touch one's head to the ground.

Why would I do this? Well along with having an exceptional swim team, my high school also sports the biggest marching band in the valley. It consisted of over 200 members this last year. This is big for us as that is like 1/6 of the schools size just in the band. I am one of the 4 drum majors of this band(you know, the guys who stand on ladders and conduct the band, sometimes also performing extremely cool stunts). One of the traditions that is upheld, when their is a capable drum major, is that during the pre-game march onto the field, a drum major will perform the back-bend during the fanfare. My brother did it his senior year and was really good at it. He was able to touch his bare head to the ground(which is impressive as some previous drum majors just touched the top of their hat and plume to the field). That was one of my main reasons for wanting to be a drum major, to follow in his footsteps and copy that move.

It has been a lot of work. The hardest thing is that the muscles that you need to stretch, those of the lower back, are apparently un-stretchable for me. Nonetheless, I have made considerable progress and, when I am loose, I am able to always get within maybe 3 inches of the ground. I have successfully done a back bend a few time but I need to work on getting consistent.

So my goals:

1. Continue stretching. I need to build up more flexibility, especially in my lower back.

2. Continue with personal exercises to help my shoulders, core and arms for the butterfly.

3. Make a sweet presentation for the project fair*

I hope all goes well with my presentation. I don't know exactly how I want to present what I've done. I was thinking videos but maybe not. I have (some very little)time to work it out.

Well as always, until a possible next time, stay classy.

Brigham

*The project fair is where we are hosting the presentations with all of my classmates. 

Sorry for the lateness of this post(it was supposed to be up by last Friday).

Well I was actually able to get in another day of swimming. I was out of town but was able to go a nearby rec center. Fortunately they had a really nice competition pool. I was given about two hours to swim around. From that experience I was able to learn that:

1. The air(even inside of a building) in Utah is SO much thinner than the air at home. Even though swimming the fly is very tiring, I was hurting after a length of the pool. To help make up for the tiredness, I also worked some on my freestyle but I was still dead even after swimming 2 lengths of the pool.

2. My timing on the stroke is coming along really well. I was able to take the stroke really slow and work on getting my head in the water before my arms come out and around(I think I talked about wanting to improve on that in an earlier post so I'll check that one off my to-do list). I also am getting more comfortable at my kick. My legs feel more together on the dolphin kicks and when I did kicks with a kick board I actually was making considerable progress(which is weird since I've never been good at that)

3. You can learn things much better if you also help others in learning. While I was warming up, a girl in the lane next to me asked how to do a flip turn. It was a learning experience for me(and a humbling experience) as I feel it is just so easy now that I've done them (literally) thousands of times but then felt like a babbling idiot trying to explain it in an easy-to-understand-and-follow sort of a way. I think I may have given a sliver of help. I'll say that to make me feel better...

I was also able(last week) to attend some of the open swim sessions for the school team that started then. Those have been helpful for any stroke I swim but mostly are getting me back in shape.

Goals for this week:

1. I need to re-structure a workout routine. I have late nights so I may need to make a shorter one.
2. I should be attending more swim practices when I can.
3. Get some video and/or pictures.


Until next time. Keep it real. Stay classy.

Brigham

Well, it is another post.

I was actually able to accomplish quite a bit this last week over spring break. My father took my little brother and I to the local community center so as to help me a little with my stoke. He was able to do quite a bit. This is what my first, fresh attempt looked like...(And just a note, they look much better full-screen)

 

this taken via my dad's iPad...

On of the main things you may(but I highly doubt) you will be able to tell is that my arms tend to drift so that they do not look symmetrical. One arm (usually my right) tends to come out of the water a little high than the other. This can make my stroke lop-sided. Also, my feet come apart on my kick which a lot a bit illegal. It changes the kick from a dolphin kick to a flutter(that kick is used in freestyle and backstroke). The dolphin kick has a lot more power than a flutter but is a lot more exhausting for me.

One of the things my dad did to try and correct my kick was actually to tie my ankles together and guess what? It totally worked. You can totally feel the difference though it is hard for me to replicate that feeling without my ankles being bound. This is a video(also via my dad's iPad) of that exercise.

And this is what happens when I Streeeeeeeeeetch my stoke out(via iPad again)...

I also started up on some workout routines as swim conditioning started yesterday, though I was unable to attend the first practice. I have been doing a lot of crunches at night to build up some core strength.

So I think I will sign off but first wish to end this week with a couple of goals.

1.) Continue my daily personal exercises with at least 50 crunches, 5 pull-ups, and sets of push-ups.(This may sound pathetic but that is what I feel that I can do at this point)

2.) Look up some ways to work on the technique of the stroke, maybe even outside the pool

3.) Build up my endurance by doing everything I can at these spring swim practices and maybe taking up some running on the side.





Until next time. Keep it real. Stay classy.

Brigham

Wow. Well now the project begins.

Well, I have to say that I must really love swimming and pain in order to do this blog. One month respite and I already am bored of the inactivity of the off season. I mean, I haven't been totally bored. I have joined a club ultimate Frisbee team and I still am in school(which means that life never gives up on hardships) but swimming is so much different than all of that.

I have been swimming for almost as long as I can remember and have always enjoyed it. I was on a swim team in 5th grade and then took some time off swimming just for fun until my sophomore year of high school. That's where it got serious.

My high school has a prestigious swim team. We have been the valley champions in the sport for the last dozen years and it isn't going to cool down anytime soon. We've just been getting better. Since I joined last year, I've witnessed our team breaking at least 5 team records and 1 area record. We are really pretty fast.

So this project is about improving myself in some way. Well based on the information I've given above, you have probably figured out what the basis of my goal is. Yes, it is to do with swimming. But really, swimming has its ups and downs for me. Of all the different strokes that are possible to be swam, I have always been a Freestyle swimmer. But the stroke I've always wanted to be good at was the Butterfly.

Butterfly is considered by many to be the hardest stroke. It involves incredible coordination and both mental and physical toughness. So why would I want to be able to do this if it is so hard? Have you ever seen those pictures of Olympic butterflyers on the back of cereal boxes? They always have this sweet picture of them with their head, shoulders, and arms out of the water in mid-stroke. That picture makes them look AWESOME(reference this link). If I could get a picture of myself under those same conditions, my muscles flexed and my game face set, it would make my entire swimming career worthwhile.

I have other reasons for this as well. My father was a swimmer in high school as well. During his senior year he was a team captain. He swam butterfly and was good enough to qualify for and place 4th in the state competition. I like my dad and think it would be sweet to get good at what he was able to do so well.

So, I have my standards set and goal outlined. So far I only know of a couple things i will be doing to help myself(the list will grow). First, I am going to start doing a lot more dry land workouts such as push-ups and pull-ups to really condition my muscles so as to better my speed in the stroke. I am also looking to find time in pools around(maybe he local community center?). Also, swim practice starts up the week after spring break. These practices will consist of working on kicking, strokes, and dry land workouts as well at a nearby college facility. I hope to get mentoring from my Dad before the swim practices start and when they start try and get a little extra time from the coach.

Until next time. Keep it real. Stay classy.

Brigham