Off Season Swimming: back to the basics

As much as I dislike off season, I try to take advantage and analyze how my year went. For having left shin and hamstring problems I was pleased with my run. As expected need to dramatically increase and improve on the bike. Last winter I made a point to improve on my distance swimming which in the end my times improved both short and longer distances. As I was extremely pleased with my swim times this year, I also had a feeling it was slipping toward the end of season. Couldn't tell whether it was my stroke, training, conditioning, etc because I was too engaged in upcoming races. Whenever i'm lost I always revert back to the beginning, in this case the basics. After AG nationals I decided to take a month off of swimming do a small body recovery. The past couple weeks dipping in the pool I've been reverting back to the basics concentrating on form, stroke technique and actually using my legs. For those that know me, my legs have always been useless in the water, but that's going to change this winter. This going back to basics has given me the opportunity to take a step back and truly analyze what is going on and i'm glad i did. The first trip back in the pool I quickly realized how badly I was crossing my arms, not utilizing my legs and how WEAK my core was. As i'm not an expert swimmer, but do pay attention to my coaches and read what I can it didn't take much to realize these issues and how much they affect my efficiency in the water. So the past few weeks i've taken up Cross Fit and increased my core doing basic daily workouts. With these minimum corrections of not crossing my arms, utilizing my kick, increasing my core and concentrating on my form I can already feel the difference in my swimming ability. The Olympics is a far reach, but i'm hoping to continue with these efforts and see where it takes my swimming next year. We all have these barriers once in a while. When in doubt, back to the basics.