Hit those abs

If anything is truly missing in my training, it's ab work. It hit me hard watching Adam Mania, the fantastic backstroker and former Olympian that took down my national record in the 50 backstroke SCY not too long ago. He's incredibly strong swimming underwater. His 50 backstroke is a fast 15 meters dolphin kick off of both walls with some quick strokes in between. He's fast on top of the water, yet not blazing fast.

A quick comparison to my 50 back:
I have a decent start and kick out to 15 meters in my best races. But I've NEVER gone more than 9 meters off the turn and those 9 meters are pathetic. If I could match my underwaters off my start and apply them to my turn as well, I think I'd finally be cookin' with gasoline. I suppose the purpose of comparing is to say that in my opinion, this guy beat me entirely underwater. This in no way diminishes his skill level at all! I think improving underwater kicking is one of the hardest parts of training. Adam has achieved it and he should be very proud. In the past I, and others have watched a great backstroker swim 15 meters underwater and write that feat off as easy because he/she is doing so little "actual swimming". It took me actually trying to swim that far off each wall to truly appreciate how difficult it was to swim a race like that. Having learned that, I now realize that swimming a race underwater is not only faster, but also more challenging (by far). I will gladly give serious credit to anybody who can do it, and do it well.

As you may have noticed, these realizations about underwater kicking hit me a few times a year. I typically have this revelation, and basically do nothing about it until I have the epiphany again. Here's hoping I take action and improve.