Good morning!!!!

Improve your butterfly

Butterfly has a bad reputation among most swimmers as being difficult. They complain about having to race or train fly, and when they are allowed to choose their own races at meets, they avoid it. Swimmers have the choice of using a racing stroke or a survival stroke. Racing stroke is forward and fast; survival stroke is vertical ans slow. Most swimmers (particularly age-groupers) think butterfly is difficult because they swim survival stroke in practice all the time ans in races as soon as they get tired. Survival stroke is indeed difficult, exhausting, inefficient, and ugly. 

Standing hip drop (TRX for swimmers)

Today's post is about a TRX exercise that will help you strengthen your obliques and increase your hip mobility, while you'll be placing great demands on core stabilization. This exercise is called standing roll out. 

To set up your TRX you should fully lengthened it in single hand mode. When you're done with the set up, stand sideways to the anchor point. Now, there are two different ways you can place your feet. The first one (the one you'll see on the video) is to place one foot next to the other.

European Short Course Swimming Championships (Days 1&2)

Yesterday was the first day of the European Short Course Swimming Championships which last till Sunday the 25th. Yesterday's finals were the 400m Free (M), 200m Back (M), 200m I.M. (W), 200m Fly (W), 200m I.M. (M), 50m Free (M), 50m Breast (W), 4x50m I.M. (M), and the 4x50m Free (W).

Pros and cons for the various options of teaching an aquatic class

Today's post is for you, who enjoy being in an aqua class. You have already watched your instructor teaching your class either from on the pool deck, from in the pool, or by going back and forth between the deck and pool (these are the three options an instructor has while teaching an aquatic fitness class). Which are the advantages and disadvantages of each teaching position? We'll find out today.

Teaching from the pool deck

This is the preffered method for the Aquatic Exercise Association (AEA) in most situations. AEA recommends that the instructor remain on deck when there is no additional lifeguard on duty, when there are new participants in the program, or when new movements are being demonstrated.

Roll out (TRX for swimmers)

Have you ever tried TRX suspension trainer to enhance your swimmers strength? Well, I have to tell you that you'll notice that your swimmers will become stronger and leaner in a way that free weights and weight machines cannot do. Today I'm going to show you a great exercise (it's a basic exercise if you are familiar with the TRX), that targets the abdominal and core stabilization muscles. This exercise is called roll out.

Nutrition for swimmers

Competitive swimming is a high calorie burning activity. To stay competitive, what you eat is just as important as how hard you train. Without proper nutrition, including hydration, your training may sink before it gets going.

Nutrition planning

Like all high intensity exercise programs, planning your nutritional requirements weeks or months ahead of your competition date can greatly enhance your readiness to compete. The days of ''carbing'' up the night before the big competition have been replaced with more successful eating plans. A beneficial approach includes the timed consumption of more complex carbohydrates, like those found in fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods. Protein and fat also contributr significantly to both long term endurance and quick speed agility. No matter the type of swimming you are doing, some food rules stay the same: long term eating plans give way to successful outcomes.  

Spiderman crawl (dynamic warm-up)

Another great exercise you can add to your dynamic warm-up is spiderman crawl. This exercise will help you develop functional range of motion in the hips and lower back while it'll increase strength in the arms, shoulders and core. 

How to avoid common mistakes in swimming

If you recently started swimming, you probably have noticed that there are quite a few things that need to have in mind when you are in the water. You have to locate a pool, find a time that lap swimming is available, acquire the proper equipment, and then there is the act of swimming itself. You have a lot to think about before, during, and after a workout in the pool, but when things line up just the right way, swimming is a rewarding experience. Here are a few tips to help the variables put into place and make some room for what's more important, fun!

Health benefits of water based exercise

Swimming is the second most popular sports activity in the United States and a good way to get regular aerobic physical activity. Just two and a half hours per week of aerobic physical activity, such as swimming, bicycling, or running can decrease the risk of chronic illnesses. This can also lead to improved health for people with diabetes and heart disease. Swimmers have about half the risk of death compared with inactive people. People report enjoying water based exercise more than exercising on land. They can also exercise longer in water than on land without increased effort or joint or muscle pain.

Tips for a perfect backstroke turn

Being blind to the upcoming wall unnerves many swimmers, whose tentative backstroke walls cause them to lose a lot of time to their competitors. Aggressiveness walls can cover a multitude of swimming errors. Here are some tips, devided into the three parts of a flip turn, that will help you do perfect backstroke turns.

Exercise in the water helps for stress relief

Exercise in the water can help in a number of ways. It can help people to begin to restore their lost functionality and improve their sleeping patterns. Furthermore, during exercise in the water endorphins - a natural painkiller and mood lifting substances - are released and can be very helpful in relieving from depression. People who started an aqua aerobic program lost weight and have raised their pain threshold, meaning that they were more able to tolerate pain.

Tips to improve your freestyle turn

There are two basic kinds of turn, the flip turns and the open turns. No matter the kind, it is helpful to think of the turn as having three parts: the approach, the turn on the wall, and the send-away. When the turn is done correctly, it speeds up the swimmer while allowing a brief break from swimming.

Improve your breaststroke pull

Two days ago I wrote about the key points that swimmers and their coaches should have in mind during the breaststroke kick. Today's post will be about breaststroke pull.

Of all the competitive strokes, breaststroke is the slowest, and there is a reason for this. The double arm pull, though truncated, is strong, but the recovery of the arms creates resistance that slows the swimmer. The kick is powerful, but again the recovery of the legs creates tremendous resistance that slows the swimmer. The puzzle for the coach and athlete is to find ways to lessen the resistance and maintain the momentum created by the powerful pull and kick. Because of the dramatic decelerations, streamlining is key to the stroke, especially at critical moments such as the transition from pull to kick.

Improve your breaststroke kick

Yesterday I wrote about some key points for backstroke that swimmers should have in mind during their practice. Today's post will be about the key points swimmers and coaches should focus on during the breaststroke kick. For the majority of the beginner or leisure swimmer, breaststroke is difficult to learn and even more difficult to master. Some coaches prefer to teach it first and before they start to teach any other stroke because it's easier to learn the breaststroke kick if you haven't learned the flutter kick. Either way, it needs time and effort to master this skill. I'll provide some key points of the breaststroke key to help you.

The aim with the breaststroke kick is to catch onto and press backward against the water with flared-out feet and sins, all the while maintaining horizontal streamlining with the rest of the body. This takes specialized ranges of motion of the hip, knee and ankle. It;s easy to describe the kick but difficult to do well.

Key points to master backstroke

The fundamentals of backstroke and those of freestyle share many similarities. Both strokes are swum horizontally in the water with the body rolling on its long axis, both are asymmetrical with alternate arm stroking and alternate leg kicking, and in both, the arm pull is down the length of the body. In backstroke, however, the head is more easily controlled and does not lead to as many problems as in freestyle, and freestyle is faster because of biomechanical advantages.

There are some key points that all swimmers should focus on if you want to master that stroke. It is better if you focus on one point each time to gain the most out of each point. If you train an age-group squad you should try to mix the focus on every set (e.g. 20x50 back, change focus every 1 or 2 length).

Lunge with rotation (dynamic warm-up)

Another great exercise you can add to your dynamic warm-up is the forward lunge with rotation. This exercise primary targets the abs, hips, and legs - thighs and builds lower body strength and core stability.

Improve your forward starts

There are four kinds of forward starts: the traditional grab start and three variations of the track start, including a leaning forward track, a full backward track, and a medium backward track. Swimmers should try each one of them and use the one that works best for them. Generally, track starts give swimmers more stability on the block, and both of the leaning back track starts allow the swimmer to use the arms to pull against the block for momentum. They also create more impulse, or greater time of force applied against the block. The forward track start is the quickest to the water but the least powerful. The full backward is slowest of the block, and often the back leg is bent to an extreme that compromises the power that the start produces. The medium backward splits the difference - it is quick and powerful.

Traditional grab start

Medium backward track start 

Dynamic warm-up for swimmers (knee to chest)

Today I'm going to describe another dynamic stretching exercise, which is called knee to chest, thar is great for a swimmer's dynamic warm-up. Knee to chest warms up and builds dynamic flexibility in the hamstrings and lower back. It also challenges balance and core stability.

Procedure

1. From a standing position, lift tha right knee and pull it to the chest. Simultaneously raise yourself up on the toes of your left foot.
2. Hold this position for a count of two before returning to the standing position.
3. Pull the left knee to your chest while rising up on your right foot.
4. Continue alternating right and left sides until you perform 10 to 12 repetitions on each side.

Qualities a talent should have (part 2)

Today I'm going to continue yesterday's post on the talents a swimmer should have and improve. Today's post is about the physical qualities and the anatomical characteristics.

Qualities a talent should have (part 1)

Success in swimming derives from certain skills, qualities, behaviors, habits, abilities, and attitudes which from now on will be named as talents. No one talent will make a swimmer a champion; conversely, there is no one talent whose relative lack will prevent a swimmer from becoming a champion. Just as no swimmer has every talent, no swimmer has none of them. Coaches can teach these talents, or at least most of them, and swimmers can develop them. These talents fall into three groups: psychological qualities or skills, physical qualities or capacities, and anatomical characteristics. Today I'll refer to the psychological skills and the other two groups will be analysed tommorow.

Dynamic warm-up (caterpillar progression)

Today I'm going to show you a video of a dynamic stretching exercise, called ''caterpillar'', which is great for warming up the body. This exercise improves the dynamic flexibility of the shoulders, upper back, core, hamstrings, and lower legs, and it also helps keepin the body temperature elevated.

Recovery mistakes in butterfly

The three most common mistakes swimmers make when they recover the arms are to recover them too high, recover them with too much effort, and drag them through the water.

Periodization for swimmers

Periodization is the scientific and systematic process of designing a season by breaking it into various phases. For as long as athletic records have been kept, the best athletes in the world have recognized the benefits of periodized training, starting with the ancient Greeks as athletes prepared for the Games of the Ancient Olympiad. More recently, Eastern European nations used periodized training to maximize performance in athletes participating across a range of sports. Through the 20th and now 21st centuries, the principles underlying periodization have continued to be developed and become scientifically validated. In most sports, the season is typically broken into four phases:

Kicking mistakes in backstroke

The mistakes that swimmers make most often are to (1) pedal the legs and (2) kick too deep. In addition, swimmers who lack ankle flexibility will not be fast kickers.

Body position mistakes in backstroke

The most common mistakes made with regard to body position are (1) swimming with the head too high and (2) piking excessively at the waist.

Purposes of goal setting

Elite athletes are goal-setting machines, and the habit of continual goal setting is a primary reason they climb the ladder to the elite level. An important part of creating an environment of excellence is encouraging continual goal setting. Too often, goals are thought of as big intentions for the end of the season. But for goals to nurture future high performers, they have to be everywhere all the time. Goal setting means having a point or purpose that you are trying to accomplish in everything you do.

Testing the kinetic chain (the tests)

Todays post is about the tests you can use to assess swimmers' physical strengths and weaknesses aling with the health of their kinetic chain. These test are: (1) the core stability test, (2) the shoulder flexibility test, (3) the scapula stabilization test, (4) the rotator cuff strength test, and (5) the vertical jump test.

Testing the kinetic chain

The body is set up in a series of links called the kinetic chain. It's easy to think of the body as a set of individual segments that do not interact or influence each other: you have your shoulders that you use to generate propulsion during your pull, your legs that help with the kick, the torso that assists with body rotation, and so on. However, all of these segments are in fact linked together, much like the links of a chain. What happens in one part of the body is influenced by what is happening in other parts of the body. When viewed this way, the force you can generate with your pull is affected by a variety of other factors:

Aqua aerobic and pulmonary diseases

Pulmonary diseases limit the body's ability to provide oxygen to the body's tissues. They generally fall into two categories: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and asthma. The ACSM recommends that all participants with pulmonary disease receive physician's clearance prior to participating in an exercise program. The body's need for oxygen intake and carbon dioxide removal is increased during exercise, so participants with pulmonary diseases must learn how to cope with diminished lung capacity and increased oxygen demands. Gas exchange impairments also create problems for the cardiovascular and muscular systems. 

Body position mistakes in freestyle

Mistakes in this area usually mean that swimmers have done something to disturb their (1) horizontal or (2) lateral alignment.

Developmental advice for parents of age-group swimmers (8-12 years old)

In todays post I'm going to advise parents on how to prepare for and deal with the ups and downs of this challenging  yet rewarding sport. 

12 tips for youth swimmers moving to the senior level

Following are tips for youth swimmers who are moving on to the senior level. Coaches can put them on a board so that these tips are visible all the time by the young swimmers. 

Insweep and leg lift mistakes during the kick in breaststroke

This post concludes the mistakes that swimmers might do during the kick in breaststroke.

The most common mistakes made in this phase of the kick are (1) extending the feet back before the insweep is finished, (2) failing to lift the legs after the insweep is complete, and (3) keeping the legs too close together.

Outsweep mistakes during the kick in breaststroke

The most common mistake swimmers can make in the outsweep are (1) to push the legs down too deep or, conversely, (2) to push the feet back without circling them out. Swimmers may also make the mistake of (3) executing the outsweep with the feet plantarflexed (pointed back) instead of dorsiflexed (flattened).

Recovery mistakes during the kick in breaststroke

The breaststroke kick has five phases: the recovery, the catch, the outsweep, the insweep, and the leg lift and glide. Today I'm going to talk about mistakes tha breaststrokers do during the recovery and the other phases will follow in the next few days.

The most common mistake during the recovery is when swimmers push the thighs down and forward against the water. Other common mistakes include: (1) recovering the legs with the knees too wide or (2) with the feet in poorly streamlined positions, (3) lacking the flexibility to make a high catch, and (4) failing to set the feet in the proper catch position before extending the legs.

Breathing mistakes in breaststroke

The most common mistakes include: breathing too early, coming to the surface at too steep an angle to breathe, and keeping the head above the water during the kick.

Timing mistakes in butterfly

The common mistakes swimmers make with regard to timing are: kicking too early during the recovery, gliding too long after the entry, and kicking only once during each stroke cycle.

Kicking mistakes in butterfly

Ankle extension ability is a major asset in dolphin kicking. Swimmers should be able to extend their feet more than 70 degrees from the vertical. Those who do not possess this ability will need to increase the range of motion with specially designed ankle flexibility exercises. Good ankle extension is very important during the downbeat of the dolphin kick. Swimmers with good ankle flexibility can maintain a backward orientation to the water with the feet until late in the downbeat. On the other hand, swimmers with poor ankle extension ability, will simply push down with their feer, just like with their legs, on the water during the latter part of the downbeat.

Aqua aerobic for obese individuals

Overeight is a condition in which an individual's weight exceeds the population norm or average, which is determined by height and weight tables based on gender, height, and frame size. Although a standard approach, the definition lack the ability to account for significant muscle mass. A better measure might be percentage body fat, but this approach takes additional time and effort and thus has not replaced the simpler method in all situations.

Obesity is a condition in hich there is an excess of body fat, frequently resulting in a significant impairment of health. Obese individuals are at a level of 20 percent or more above ideal body weight. Obesity is generally defined and accepted as above 20 percent body fat for males and above 30 percent body fat for females. There is some variance in obesity thresholds as determined by different organizations or criteria. 

Aqua aerobic and cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a general term for diseases of the heart and the blood vessels. Cardiovascular disease includes high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, heart attack, stroke, congestive heart fialure, rheumatic heart disease, and congenital defects. Some of these diseases affect the blood vessels whereas other affect the heart itself. 

Cardiovascular diseases are a result of both genetic and environmental factors. Lifestyle habits (low fat, high fiber diet and exercise) along with medications play a major role in terms of treatment and prevention. In addition, lifestyle changes can help maintain optimal cardiovascular function following cardiac rehabilitation. 

Pace plans for 200m events

The pacing plans seem to be similar for all 200 m events. Ideally, swimmers should start out at the fastest pace they can maintain throughout the race without losing speed at the end. They should swim the first 50 m of these races 2 to 3 sec slower than their fastest time for 50 m. The first 100 m should also be 2 to 3 sec slower than their best time for that distance. Their drop off times from the first to the second half of freestyle and backstroke events should be between 1 and 2 sec. In butterfly and breakstroke events their drop off times should be 3 to 4.5 sec. There are two main reasons for the larger drop off in those events. First, velocity flunctuations are greater in butterfly and breaststroke than in the other two competitives styles. Thus, more effort is required of breaststroke and butterfly swimmers to accelerate their bodies during every stroke cycle. Second, the split for the first 100 m does not include a turn in these races, whereas the split for the second 100 m includes a turn. 

Pace plans for 100m events

A properly paced race will be faster than a poorly paced one. Pacing involves swimming the first half to three quarters of races slower so that the remainder can be swum faster. Swimmers find that the total time for races is faster when they do this.

Athletes can race at maximum effort for only 40 to 45 sec before severe acidosis sets in. This does not mean that athletes can maintain maximum speed for 40 sec. The effects of progressive acidosis actually begin reducing the rate of anaerobic glycolysis after approximately 15 sec of all out effort. In races of 100m or longer, swimmers delay acidosis by swimming slower in the early stages.

Breaststroker's knee

One of the more common swimming injuries in the lower body has been termed breaststroker's knee. It is actually a strain of the medial collateral ligament on the inside of the knee and seems to result from a combination of overuse, muscular weakness, and poor flexibility. In the breaststroke, the legs are extended rapidly and rotated outward during the kick. While this position puts the knee into the best position to generate propulsion, it also places a great deal of stress of on the inside of the knee as the legs are brought together forcefully during the kick. Not surprisingly, knee pain increases with use; as training age and volume increase, so does the risk of developing knee pain. A kick that is directed straight back will place less stress on the inner side of the knee.

Flexibility for swimmers

Muscular functions is based on a a balance between strength and flexibility. Muscular strength is important, but the ability to produce force through a full range of motion is what allows you to become truly proficient in the water. You ask your body to do some pretty amazing things in the pool. Flexibility training is just as important to your performance as strenth training. Not many people think of stretching as training, but that's how you need to approach it. If you make stretching an integral part of your overall training program, you will start to see results in your performance. In addition to improving performance, adequate flexibility can prevent injuries throughout the body. 

 

Timing mistakes in freestyle

The usual problems in this area are: the movements of one arm get out of synch with the other, body rotation gets out of synch with stroking movements, the downsweep is started too soon, the arm in front glides too long before starting the downsweep, and poor synchronization between the leg and arms.

Swimming during pregnancy

Swimming is in fact one of the best forms of exercise and even more so during your pregnancy. The beauty with swimming is that there is no additional stress and strain which is placed on your body and joints while you are exercising.

Of course, during the summer months it is an added bonus as it will give you some welcomed relief from the heat.

If you used to swim on a regular basis prior to falling pregnant you can continue to swim without having to modify your routine too much. However, as with most exercise routines if you haven't been swimming on a regular basis, you wont be able to simple 'dive' in. You will have to start off slowly, being careful not to over do it too much. Don't forget that you also need to warm up before you swim, as well as spend a few minutes stretching and cooling down after your session.

Kicking mistakes in freestyle

There are three major mistakes many swimmers make in the flutter kick: kicking too high, kicking too low, and bending the legs too much on the upbeat.

Breathing mistakes in freestyle

Each stroke is divided into the armstroke (which is divided into the entry, the downsweep, the catch, the insweep, the upsweep and the recovery), the kicking, the timing, the body position, and the breathing. There are common mistakes that swimmers do and I'll try to help you diagnose and correct them. Todays post will be on breathing mistakes that swimmers usually do in freestyle.