Hey guys, welcome to the podcast before I get into it I just want to let you know about the course that our guest today is talking about it’s the five-day catch challenge You might have seen this if you’ve seen our videos on YouTube recently But it’s a five-day course designed to improve your high elbow catch and just make you much more Effective through the water and we’ve had some really good results from it The the promise is you can improve your fight your 100 meter time by five seconds in the course of five days And we’ve had people do more than that But the results we’re getting a great. So I just want to let you know that’s available at effortless swimming doc coach forward slash catch challenge now it will also be in the show notes So just go to the website and look at the podcast and you’ll see it there as well But the five-day catch challenge is the the course that he’s talking about here

And we’ve had over 600 people go through that already with some awesome results So quang fam who’s the guest he’s based in Singapore. He had some some really good results I wanted to get him on just to talk about what it is that he changed in his stroke And you might find that you pick up a couple things to be able to implement in your own here. We go Welcome to the effortless swimming podcast to show that helps swimmers and triathletes love the water become a better swimmer and live a better life Here’s your host Brenton Ford

Welcome to the effortless swimming podcast. My guest today is a quang fan and We I got in touch with quang recently because he’s had some really good improvements in terms of his time And so I thought it’d be useful to have you on to share what you’ve done to To see these improvements in your speed. So welcome to the podcast Great. It’s great. It’s good to be here And so do you want to talk about um, where where your times were in in march and where you’re you’re currently at And then maybe just some of those things that you’ve changed in the last couple of months to um to get where you’re at now

All right, sure. Uh, so I actually uh Star swimming in just january this year So I just started breaststroke and progressively moved to freestyle So, uh in midge match, I want to have like a benchmark something that I can improve on So I uh start I look at my, uh, css in midge match So the timing was uh, 225 in a short course meters And also, uh, I think at that time I couldn’t swim for long distance. So I couldn’t swim 500 meters or so on So that was my starting point So, uh, I start to look around and see, uh, what are what are the changes that I could make to improve my techniques So and then I saw your five days cash challenge, right? Uh, and I took that so basically the I just followed the cost, but actually actually I took like eight sessions to finish the to finish the cost because I noticed that there’s some Uh, uh, I noticed that my left side was a lot weaker than my right side. So I basically

Uh, spend three more sessions on I think they won day three and day five to kind of uh improve my techniques because those sessions they involve Uh, three steps works on only one side and that’s what my weakness

So, uh, I think what it was the start of may Before I took the challenge I tried to swim 500 meters And I swim a couple of hundreds to see where I was at So my 500 meters time was 12 minutes a bit more than 12 minutes on the long long course meters And the 100 meters I would at I think to 225 something 225 So after eight sessions of doing the cash challenge I took the same test again. I swam 500 meters And a couple of hundreds so the timing for the 500 I reduced to I think 10 55 And uh And the uh, the couple hundreds I think on average it was Two two minutes. Yeah So I basically took like 20 seconds off the hundreds Yeah, that’s fantastic. And what what do you feel like? What do you feel like made the difference for you with this the speed? What about your stroke had had changed? Yeah, surely the uh, so the first thing I feel that

My uh, I I can pull with my forearm not just my palm So that was a big chance. So I can feel the water a lot more So what happened was, um, my stroke count per 100 degrees a lot and um Yeah, it’s uh, it’s also reflected in my uh, dwarf core. So those are some uh, like uh, noticeable changes and also, um One thing is I felt a great I feel a lot more comfortable doing doing the 500 So before taking the test I was like gas out after 500 And now after after the test like I could swim 500 a lot more Easy And I also try to swim longer distance, right? So I try to Uh jump to 700 and recently I could do like one kilometers non-stop Yeah Yeah, right. And what and what do you think it’s um become easier for you? Do you think it’s because you’ve got more propulsion now because of a better catch or is there something else that has changed to make it Feel a lot easier Looking back at this I think, uh, more

I think definitely more Proposal is one thing And uh, the second part is I think I got the right techniques. So I think uh, So basically what I was I had a minor Uh, so the Soda is easily on my left. So my left shoulder is not as flexible as my right shoulder So before the challenge, right, I kind of cheat myself So the the left stroke is kind of fast to get myself back to the right stroke So that I didn’t notice So when I took the challenge like the first drill the uh, um The arm entry drill where I kind of isolate my right arm and Do the left arm left arm entry I noticed that immediately I think I think like a rock So but that’s that I focused on improving it So I got some rotations and uh, I think that’s just make the stroke feel Easy on me. Yeah, so I just could just swim more. Yeah

So yeah, you thought you were too flat before because of the way that you were entering the water and Then changing the entry to be fingertips first a little bit earlier was allowing you to rotate side to side and that Really helped. Um, just feel a whole lot easier Yeah, yeah, so I think I think the of course, it’s just amazing. But what works best for me are the drills that like Works on one size only So the the one hands entry the one arm school and one arms freestyle So those just I think really works really well It uh, basically, uh, it improved my uh, left strokes Yeah Yeah, great. And I say that a lot actually typically, um It’s more oftentimes the stroke that you’re when you breathe to the side Let’s say breathe to the right the left arm is often the The arm that’s not going to have as good a catch because that’s when people they sometimes Overrotate and their arm goes very deep and so by For a lot of people there’s not much opportunity at least on one arm to improve their catch

Whereas one side’s often they’re pretty pretty good. And uh, if that’s 50% of your strokes There’s there’s a lot of room for improvement there Which um, which it sounds like it’s made a big difference, which is fantastic. And just for um, i’m curious What uh, what got you into the pool in january to To start swimming because it’s it’s not something that you’ve Um done as a as a kid by the sounds of it. So what got you into the pool and uh and started on this path? Yeah, sure. So uh So actually it starts uh last year So, uh, I had an injury last year like February where I fell off the stairs and broke my bike broke my heels So I basically had to stay home for like two months I couldn’t do exercise a lot. So after two months we uh, we got the corona pandemic and Singapore went to a kind of a lockdown state So I had to stay home for another like four five months So basically, uh, I lost the motivation to do exercise for like

more than a half year so after the lockdown I look at my uh physical My physical state and I was not in a good shape And this really affected my mental health as well So I need some changes. So I was looking for some form of exercise that I can do And the exercise need to be like Not so intense because of my injury And uh swimming was one option back then So I started swimming back in uh, I think august august 2020 So I just started going to the swimming pool and uh I think Over time I just uh realized that swimming makes me feel Better maybe feel great. So basically I feel Better after leaving the pool compared to when I just went in the pool so at first I swim like two times a week and just

I start to increase the session like three times a week four times a week Sometimes five times a week because maybe just feel better. It makes me like improve my fitness and so on. Yeah So uh at the end of 2020 I had a chance to look back at my year So I see that while uh swimming has just been an important part So I just really enjoyed doing it So I decided to like Maybe we can focus more on it Like not just for losing weight getting fitness, but maybe getting improving at it So on January this year. I just spent more time swimming. Yeah

Oh, that’s fantastic. I can 100% relate to Feeling better after swimming. I mean my I’m swimming three times a week at the moment Which isn’t a huge amount compared to what I’ve done in the past But those three sessions when I get out and I’ll do them in the morning like I just feel All right, I’m ready to start the day and you’ve had that physical Exercise and a bit of exhaustion there and there’s something about just hearing the the water come over your ears and shoulders and hearing the water for an hour hour and a half and And just spending some time. It’s just like it’s real meditation in a way and it’s it’s so good For mental health as well. So can yeah completely relate to to that and

you know Seeing how much you’ve improved in such a fairly short period of time I can really see you continuing that in that improvement because it’s been so Short that you’ve actually been been swimming. So, um, you know, you talked about your your css Wrote this in the email this morning that your css pace was was it two 220 or 225 and it’s down to It’s down to 210 now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, sorry So, um, yeah, just watching that that pace come down. So they um, that’s that css pace I don’t think will be too far away from you know getting under the two minute mark Which would be a kind of that next step, isn’t it’s that next Next part of the the journey and what for you? What do you feel like? Where’s the next improvement lie for you?

Oh, I think for now I’m still working on improving my Left side that’s wrong because I think For the catch I learned only spent for now until now it’s only three weeks So still a lot of room for improvement to catch up with the right side So that would be my immediate focus for now And in the meantime, I’m so looking for some What is the next step to do so that part? I’m not sure yet. Yeah Yeah, no, that’s that’s fantastic. One of the things that I’m uh We’re all about to put together. There’s like an eight week eight week course We’ll have sort of workouts and stuff that’ll cover all the parts of the stroke So that’s going to be inside the membership in in june So that’s kind of outside of the the catch. It’s going to work on breathing and body position and and each part of it So because I’ve had that question from a lot of people have gone through the five day challenge Is we’ve had some awesome results from it and now they want it for other parts of the stroke like a better body

Body position and so on. So um, yeah, that’s going to be the the next thing but um, yeah I’m great to hear how much you’ve um, you’ve improved in that in that time. So Um, and it’s all pretty new too. Like if you I’m guessing this is kind of like your first It’s not even formal swim coaching, but um, this is the first time you’ve sort of Had some sort of I guess structure to the way you’re going about your swimming. Um, and so it’s With another few months practice even just on the catch alone I can say it really really changing. Is this the first sort of thing you’ve you’ve done for the use of me Yeah, this uh, definitely this is my first time having like some of the coaching So when I just started I just like I don’t even have any structure to get into the swimming pool Try to swim I just to just for fitness. Yeah, so when I just uh, look I was looking to improve my Assuming to get more out of my sessions and I just start to look for different resources. Yeah

Yeah, that’s awesome Well, um, thanks very much for um for for sharing that. I know you guys you talked about it just before the cold It um, just gone into a soft lock down there in singapore. So hopefully um, you can get to the pool Uh as much as you as much as you still like to but um, Yeah, it’s I mean, it’ll it’ll be over soon enough and you can just continue that improvement So I appreciate you being on the podcast and um, sharing what you’ve gone through the last couple of weeks because I’ve got no doubt people of um Uh, can probably relate. Um, and is there anything else that you um, want to mention or is that um Yeah Yeah, actually, uh, when I got the uh

membership actually found some uh, very useful tip in the membership area But it’s not included in the cash challenge, but it’s very uh, I think relevant So I think uh, maybe like the the side was all and you forgot a bit about something But I think one of the first thing in the membership area. I found is that uh, you mentioned that we should uh, initialize the cash with the ring and um pinky fingers I think that that tip was very very useful That’s interesting. I I I couldn’t found it in the five days cash challenge Yeah, so I think that’s very uh, something very useful and it’s just like a minor change that have like A lot of impact. Yeah Yeah, that’s good. It’s um, you’re right. I didn’t mention that part in the five day cash challenge because there’s um, although I think it’s I’ve for a lot of people That’s been a something that’s helped them tremendously and I I’ve got this from um I think it was from Eany Jones who’s a he’s she’s another swim coach who I’ve had in the podcast a few times

um, so if you if you um, put your hand on on a desk and when you press down with say your Your first finger you push down feel what muscles you use Okay, and then do it with your middle finger and then eventually do it with your Fourth and fifth finger the outside fingers and you find that when you when you do that you engage your lats a whole lot better It’s the the fourth and fifth finger And so when you go through the the catch if you can sort of feel for this outside part of the hand try and Hold the water there and sort of on the outside It tends to engage the lats a lot better compared to if you’re trying to like put that pressure on the Near the thumb or that or that first finger. So um, that’s interesting. It’s um, that’s good feedback and um, something that I I forget to talk about because there’s so much to to cover in in a lot of these things um, but it’s good to um to hear that that has um

Has helped you so uh, yeah, I appreciate that a lot and um, good luck for the next next year, right? So i’m looking forward to seeing where you get to Yeah, thank you so much Thanks for listening to the effortless swimming podcast if you’d like us to help you become a faster more efficient swimmer Go to www.effortlesswimming.com