Ok so the "new blog format" didn't work. darn so I had no motivation to post. And even though I should be spending all my extra time finishing up college apps, I'm dumb.
hm so what do I usually blog about. I think music and swim team. Today I might put some math on here but we'll see.

Regarding work, today's my first day for Session 4 (the last session!). The past 3 sessions I worked on Mondays but not this one. I'm really happy with what I've done with my students. An interesting thing is I was able to fix every single student's breaststroke. (every single student working on breaststroke) I don't think it's their fault; I realized a lot of people teach breaststroke in a not-so-desirable way. It's not technically wrong, but it confuses the kids and causes them to swim wrong. People teach the order something like:


darn I forgot how to center latex. EDIT: nvm derp.

Anyway, this order confuses kids. I might be wrong, but I believe it's because of this: Teachers think of the "kick" as the snap part. However, kids think of the "kick" as the part where you pull your legs in, and they happen to do this part slowly. For proper breaststroke, the snap should come immediately after pulling the arms in (ok maybe not right away, but it should be the immediate next step). Unfortunately, pulling ones legs in slowly after pulling with the arms and then snapping makes everything fall apart.
I think I figured out a solution after the first or second day. To correct the lag in between pulling and snapping, you just have to pull both your arms and legs in at the same time. This sounds counter intuitive because most people want to imagine a sort-of "flow" for breaststroke. Pulling your arms in as you pull your legs in feels somewhat unnatural, forced, and gives a stuttering feel. However, this is the technique that fixed at least 4 kids' stroke. Now, one of the fastest breaststroke swimmers in the world today actually swims like this, causing some now to wonder if this is how breaststroke should be done. In the case of my students though, it just fixes their breaststroke. There isn't lag now.

I've talked about how it gets freezing when not doing much (swimming laps). However, as with everything in life, it's all psychological. If I can tell myself it's not cold, I don't get cold. I see a lot of people shivering and complaining "it's sooooooooo cold~!~!" but I'm just like "nah." Maybe 2 weeks ago I even wore a Speedo the whole time. I'm also related to this freak who can draw energy from the people around him or his surroundings as long as he's having fun and/or winning so I think I have some of that talent too.

By the way, recently at swim team, some of us learned how to do the Martin. My dolphin kicks got a lot better too, and having done ab workouts for almost 2 months, I'm in pretty good shape for them.

I'm so bad at math now that I don't even want to talk about it. I'm going back to Khan Academy to re-learn algebra sheesh.

Maybe it's college apps or just family issues, but my ever-changing music tastes seem to be indicating my stress levels rising again. After discovering the band Amaranthe, I've started listening to more rock. Besides all my electronic playlists on Spotify, I now have a "hard" playlist. (I got the name from a friend at church who has a similar-style playlist on his iTunes)
SFGiantsFan probably knows some of the bands I listen to (Amaranthe, Demon Hunter, 12 Stones, Falling Up, Spoken)
I'm also really into Aero Chord right now (mostly trap-ish stuff) like Titans and Ctrl Alt Destruction. I've always liked Break Them for some reason.

lol I didn't even talk about the ACT. Maybe next post.