Swim lesson with DrN: I'm too rigid!

SWIM 1 hr uncounted distance. Not logging this as a workout :)

First swim lesson with DrN, and so far so good. Summary:

1. His first observation is that I'm too rigid. Mechanical. Stiff. And that doesn't work with water, it works against water. I've done the SwimSmooth website thing and it said I was The Overthinker. So this all makes sense, but I didn't think of it as me being too mechanical and not fluidic. I'm constantly thinking when I swim -- why am I so slow, what's wrong with my form, drill, review, fix, thinkthinkthink. DrN says that I'm past a fear of OWS, I have the mechanical knowledge. But I'm overthinking.

His recommendation -- play music, either in headphones or mentally in my head. Since I don't use headphones, I need to play a song in my head. I did a 100y of this, and oof it's hard for me. The goal is to forget I'm swimming, off my 3 sports I'm unable to do this while swimming. So this is one of my drills: forget I'm swimming by distracting myself.

2. Work with a kickboard to develop my kick. I use fins, he says that is good for ankle flexibility but uses different muscles than kicking with a kickboard. Ugh, I dislike the kickboard.

3. His second major observation is that I'm not rotating. Huh? I've been told before that I have a good rotation, and I lost it? With some thought, I think I know what's going on. I've been so focused (overthinking!) my drills from the Evolve swims of the 10-2 hand entry and fixing my cross-over that I quit rotating. So I'm not using the right muscles, and I'm not taking advantage of the full extension that my arms could get.

His recommendation -- the 3 stroke/6 kick drill. Take 3 strokes then a 6 beat kick. This is tough since I sink and I can't breath too well on my left side, but that's not the point. Instead I'm supposed to feel that feeling of 'about to roll over', like I'm about to capsize. Sure enough, I can feel it. When I'm not thinking about other things to do with my swimming :)

We meet again next week! I'd hoped to swim again in the afternoon, but didn't make it. Hopefully tomorrow or Sunday.