#417 : If Your Arm Collapses When You Breathe, Do This with Brenton Ford

Brenton Ford· Host0:00

So when she joined the Effortless Swimming Coaching membership, she uploaded a video from her lane at the pool. She'd filmed herself using her phone, just propped up on the side of the pool. So the angle wasn't perfect, but I could see enough. And I watched the video once, then I watched it again, and I slowed it down and watched it a third time, and I saw immediately that her arm was collapsing in the front of her stroke. So here's what was happening. When she would turn to breathe, her shoulders would over-rotate, her arm in front would drop straight down, and at that point she would have nothing in front of her head.

Speaker 20:35

[upbeat music] Welcome to the Effortless Swimming Podcast, the show that helps swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer, and live a better life. Here's your host, Brenton Ford.

Brenton Ford· Host0:45

Last month I had a swimmer join our weekly coaching members call. She's 39, she was training for her first Ironman, and she'd been swimming for about a year, and she was very consistent with it, training three times a week and following her program. But the thing was she was exhausted after every session, and her pace hadn't improved in four months. So she was sitting around two minutes 10 per 100, and she just couldn't figure out what was wrong. And we spent about 45 minutes on the call in total with a, a few other swimmers there as well, and I had a look at her video a couple of times and I gave her one change, just one. Three weeks later she sent me a message. She'd dropped 15 seconds per 100. Her pace went