California FBM Clinic Trip Recap

Who's ever flown to and from California (from the east coast) in less than 38 hours, worked the entire time you were there, and lived to tell the tale? At this day and age I'm assuming there are at least some of you answering in the positive to this question, but still, it's not a normal thing you do on a weekend. But alas, that's what Dominic and I set out to do last weekend in order to hold our first ever Foundational Breathing Method Clinic, and it was great! That is until a giant fog fell over us this past Thursday that caused me to live off of Oreos, donuts, and Papa Johns for a 13 hour period (it was great, don't act like you're not jealous) and change our bedtime to 7pm...

We landed in CA at 9:45pm EST, which is already well past when we normally get to sleep, and headed to dinner with our hosts for the weekend. The restaurant we ate at claimed to be Cuban, and no offense to CA but it definitely wasn't. Cuban inspired is more what I would call it. If I hadn't fallen in love with all of the authentic Cuban food we had in Miami maybe I wouldn't sound like such a snob right now, but I did, so I'm going to hold my nose up a bit too high for this one.  

Dinner put us back at the house at 12:45am EST, but the clinic wasn't until 10am PST the next day, so there was plenty of sleep to be had. That being said, I've only travelled to a different time zone once, so I'm not used to my internal clock not matching up with the external clock, and I was wide awake and ready to go at 3am. Oops.

All of my complaining about food and sleep aside, the clinic was great. We spent an hour in the classroom, two hours in the pool, and finished off with an hour of dryland. It might seem a bit weird to start off a swim clinic outside of the water, but this really allowed Dominic to teach everyone about the anatomy we'd be utilizing during FBM and how these subtle changes would improve multiple parts of their swimming. Not to mention our participants gained a greater knowledge of how it's possible to manipulate your breathing to aid in day to day aspects of life as well.

Putting everything together in the water is where everyone really started to understand how helpful FBM is. One of my favorite parts of clinics is being there to see the moment someone learns something new. Seeing that spark of understanding in someone's eyes really is a great feeling, and having the chance to be a part of that feeling is something I'm truly grateful for. We had one participant say that she'd never been able to swim across the length of the pool without gasping for a breath before, and now she feels like she can actually swim. Hearing that made the whole trip worth it.

After two hours in the water we headed into a ballet studio to work on some dryland moves. And if your first thought when you read the words "ballet studio" is of those rooms lined in mirrors, you'd be right. If you know me well enough you're laughing right now, because I can't walk past a mirror without looking at myself...I just can't. There's always a hair out of place or my bangs need fixing, so a room full of mirrors is my dream (and Dominic's nightmare). 

Our dryland session was the perfect way to end the clinic. Dominic went over certain PRI moves that help you better understand the strength of your breath and explore how to better gain your FBM when you're in the water. All of the movements are body weight only and can be done in the comfort of your own home. And by that I mean in your living room, dressed in sweats, with the TV on in the background.

Even though the weekend was jam-packed and we spent two full days traveling it was well worth it. We got to meet a great new group of swimmers and triathletes and spend the day learning with them. But the real moral of the story? If you're about to spend an entire Sunday flying from California, to Denver, to DC, make sure you have plenty of snacks with you, otherwise you might find yourself buying a $15 six ounce bag of popcorn while your husband stares at you with his jaw dropped...Was the popcorn good you ask? Sigh, it was okay...just okay. Does this mean it'll be my last extremely overpriced junk-food purchase? No way.

Butterfly Fun with Softballs

If you don’t learn anything from this video, at the very least I can promise you some entertainment, because this one’s a good one. Ever swum in an Endless Pool with two softballs in your hands? No? Well now I can proudly say that yes, yes I have.

This fun drill we came up with works on driving power through the finish of your butterfly stroke (which is also eerily similar to the finish of your freestyle, hint hint). As a kid butterfly was my favorite stroke and 100 butterfly was my best event, but I’d be lying if I said I always followed through to my finish and that I always carried my force during my entire pull through the water. It’s hard to focus on that for an entire 100 or 200.

Take a softball in each hand and start with your arms extended in front of you. While doing fly kick you’re going to take a pull and try to throw the balls behind you as far as you can (maybe have your brother or sister be behind you so you have a target you really want to hit). This forces you to have a strong pull the entirety of the way from your catch to your finish.

If you think this sounds easy, I say ha to you good sir. Ha to you. The first time I tried this I barely got the balls out of the water. I turned around and stood up only to hear Dominic laughing hysterically at my first attempt. Thanks for the support, husband.

After a few attempts I got the hang of throwing the balls behind me and out of the water, but they never went too far. And I was tired, after just a few kicks and strokes of butterfly. I like adding this drill to the end of a workout when my body and my brain are fatigued. It forces me to focus and stay engaged when all I want to do is crawl out of the pool and head to Panera for a loaf of bread.