I sit naked before you

[G-dub]

I dread what I'm about to hear! What I see is bad wrist angle, hunched in the shoulders, arms snap too quick, not sequencing the recovery right, and I'm not sure I should banging my stomach with the handle. And I'm fat.

[dblinden]

The main thing wrong that I see is that you have no head

Dennis L

[jackarabit]

Glenn, your arms really are in early pulling right from the catch. And I don't see how you support your unique version of the "Mantis" wrist at the finish. Coiling up a weight plate onto a dowel rod day in day out maybe? Most folks land the handle at sternum height with or without the puppy foreleg move. That curl under with the handle looks painful but I think you're strong enuf to not notice. If you start getting numbness, ache or burning in the web of the thumb, you will stop but maybe now would be the best time to swap out the wrist curl before that happens.

As for use of legs and back, maybe the armstrong approach to flicking the chain is allowing you to de-emphasize the main sources of power. Your ability to do a lot of work with the arms is standing in the way of improvement. I'm betting you're ready to get more amplitude in the back movement to lengthen the drive on both ends. I think you know what to do and how. That leaves when. And no fair crying that you're not an ectomorph. Your leg drive is strong each and every stroke! Jack

[Citroen]

Get two popsicle sticks and four elastic (rubber) bands.

Two bands and one stick on each wrist, not too tight, just so they annoy you enough when the mantis wrists happen.

[Cyclingman1]

Too much arms too early.

[G-dub]

Thanks so far. For some reason I can't delay the snatch with the arms! It's reflexive as soon as I feel a pull. But now that I see it, I can work on it - maybe at a real slow pace. I think I can work the wrist issue out too over time - not sure why I thought that was appropriate! It doesn't feel bad though. And you are right, I can get more action on the lean on either side. I went for a long time without straps and I feel like it got my hips and back less active. Lots to work on!

[mg6682]

It looks to me the wrist issue comes from tight shoulders - if your elbows went back further, you wouldn't have to bend the wrists. You have a thick upper body, probably from lifting, and mobility is usually an issue (was for me). Tons of shoulder stuff out there, but this is a good start https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=skHV4sTF3hI

[hjs]

Two main things I see, first, you don,t hang on the handle but pull in right away, second, you hardly have a layback, this shortens your stroke a good bit.
The handmovement is just a habit, not needed, if you lenghten the stroke you can also pull in a bit higher.
For the rest, ok ish, but mostly too short and to tight. The stroke should be longer, the arms should wait, the end should be later. All together would give you more stroke.

[G-dub]

Those are the first things I noticed, after the shock of seeing the wrists, is that it was lots shorter and tighter than it feels when I'm doing it. MG - I woke with those thoughts about shoulders being too tight being the reason for the weird mantis. And the back rotation is non existent - this vid was actually the most languid! I think the only part that I'm worried about fixing, since the hip rocking and shoulder part happen in a more relaxed part of the stroke, is the quick pull part - it seems to be something I can't tell my arms not to do!

[hjs]

Those are the first things I noticed, after the shock of seeing the wrists, is that it was lots shorter and tighter than it feels when I'm doing it. MG - I woke with those thoughts about shoulders being too tight being the reason for the weird mantis. And the back rotation is non existent - this vid was actually the most languid! I think the only part that I'm worried about fixing, since the hip rocking and shoulder part happen in a more relaxed part of the stroke, is the quick pull part - it seems to be something I can't tell my arms not to do!

You now pull your elbows, you should feel it in the back of the shoulder. The arms really don,t do that much. You start the drive and pull, really stop doing that.

[G-dub]

Give me a month and I will put up another vid. I can practice the start as part of my warm ups and really focus on it in my LS rows. I'm wondering if I can use a bungee cord to create some resistance at the handle and practice moving away in one piece. Ever heard of anything like that? The coach in the video MG put up holds the handle for the young lady, so maybe I can duplicate that. I'm also going to video more sessions so I can see what's happening. And more flexibility. Thank you all for the comments. It's a nice thing to be able to reach out to you all.

[hjs]

Give me a month and I will put up another vid. I can practice the start as part of my warm ups and really focus on it in my LS rows. I'm wondering if I can use a bungee cord to create some resistance at the handle and practice moving away in one piece. Ever heard of anything like that? The coach in the video MG put up holds the handle for the young lady, so maybe I can duplicate that. I'm also going to video more sessions so I can see what's happening. And more flexibility. Thank you all for the comments. It's a nice thing to be able to reach out to you all.

First try leg/back only. That way its easy to keep you arms straight. I don,t think you should make it to complicated though. You don,t need extra resistance.

[Cyclingman1]

First try leg/back only.

Make the back move the handle back after the legs are straight, instead of the arms. In other words put your back into play. Now you're not getting much out of it.

[jackarabit]

Here is yet another interpretation of back "stop" drill home-brewed fitter-style. Ms. C. refers to this as a "legs only" drill but it involves more than doing leg and arm isolation STARTING from backstops; it necessitates abruptly stopping an actual laybck at finish without the turnaround cantilevering fwd of arms and torso initiated by hands away. This is precisely the sort of thing that the genpop shouldn't see first thing but will. The C2 demo girl also uses posed stop motion a couple of times just at the beginning of her warmup drills but the poses ARE NOT incorporated into the actual drill. I believe Morgan has been in and out the gym door enuf to treat this vid as another semi-static illustration of stroke sequencing rather than a shortcut to back problems. Comparison to Ms. Smythe's pick and backstop vid is worthwhile. Some stuff is strictly "Do as I LOOK, NOT as I Do" so please restrain leg and back velocity if you try this!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9a3zSSdew ... ode=NORMAL

[Bob S.]

Comparison to Ms. Styler's pick and backstop vid is worthwhile. Some stuff is strictly "Do as I LOOK, NOT as I Do" so please restrain leg and back velocity if you try this!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9a3zSSdew ... ode=NORMAL

The fascinating thing about that video is the complete mastery that she shows at using the heel cups only to stop her backward momentum. That whole thing was done strapless, including all the legs only stroke.

I didn't check out the Waddell video to see if he used the straps or not. I suppose that he did. What I did spot was that he did not bother with any kind of footwear other than the straps. Another interesting item in the Waddell video was the brief showing of his force curve. It had a large area, of course, consistent with his 1:4x.x pace, but it was well rounded with a slight lean to the left.

Bob S.