Awesome Underwater Dolphin Sets

I love Swimming. I don’t know what else to say, other than, I enjoy every workout in the water. Yes some are better than others, and some days you feel sluggish. However, the sensation of streamlining off every wall, the silence of being underwater, it is always the same.

This year I want to work my underwater dolphin. As a swimmer in the 80’s, we had no idea what an underwater dolphin was, until we watched David Berkoff go 40 out of 50 meters underwater in the 100 backstroke. It was awesome! I also remember having to swim my breaststroke leg after a gentleman named Jeff Thibault led off Cypress Creek HS with a 50 backstroke, most of which was underwater. Needless to say, I could not make up a 2 second defect over a 50 against my competition. Two years in a row, Cy Creek was first, and we were second. I heard Jeff went on to swim at UT and is still lurking in the shadows of masters somewhere.

So that brings me to why an underwater dolphin at 41 years old? Easy, the bar is set so low, I can only improve. Here are a few workouts helping me get there:

6 x (25 Underwater Dolphin on :45, 100 Free on 1:30). You have to make the underwater. This one lights your lungs on fire.
(We call this work out the Gale Strickland, I don’t like Air)

2 x (4 x 25 Underwater Dolphin no fins on :45, 100 kick w/ board dolphin on 1:45, 4 x 25 Underwater Dolphin) – Your core and lungs will go on vacation after this.

4 x (50, 25 underwater with fins, 25 on back on the surface with fins on 1:10)

So far improvement has been made. I feel it with some new found underwater speed, and I am starting to see it in the core. I don’t use a nose plug, and some backstroking friends have told me I am weird. My big nose somehow keeps the water out.

Keep swimming.