Bowman consults Turkish swimming

Exciting news for fellow swimming fans from Turkey. The Turkish swimming federation has signed a three and a half year agreement with TSE consulting, and specifically Michael Phelps’ former coach Bob Bowman, to lead their National swimming federation from grassroots to elite level. TSE noted that Bob would be "assisted by a team of experts in the areas of biomechanics, physiology, coaching, and others that have worked with Bob in the past. This will be coupled with an important component of sports development that will see young people throughout Turkey getting more involved in swimming”.

Test sets for evaluating the aerobic and anaerobic muscular endurance of swimmers

The reason that coaches and athletes want to test the aerobic and anaerobic muscular endurance is to get an estimate of the changes that are taking place above the anaerobic threshold, principally changes in buffering capacity. This type of set provides information about the slope of the lactate-velocity curve and whether it is flattening above the anaerobic threshold. This test may be the best measure of how well an athlete is maintaining the balance between aerobic and anaerobic training.

Breathing mistakes in butterfly

The butterfly stroke has five elements: armstroke (entry and stretch, outsweep, insweep, upsweep, and recovery), kicking, body position, breathing, and when you put them altogether, timing is crucial. Swimmers tend to do mistakes in each one of these elements and through this blog I try to help them identify these mistakes and correct them. I have already blogged about the mistakes that swimmers do during the recovery (here), when they kick (here), and timing mistakes (here). Today I will go through the most common mistakes during breathing when swimming butterfly.

Nutritional self-checks for swimmers

Swimming is a very high energy demanding sport and as we have already blogged about (see here), without proper nutrition (including hydration) your progress may be stall. With the right kind of nutrition, swimmers may notice an up to 20% improvement in their performance.  

Hormonal responses during exercise

Hormones play important roles in providing energy to the muscles and nerves. They are also involved in replacing that energy. In addition, they play roles in repairing and building tissues. The following are some of the most important functions that hormones perform for athletes.

Endurance work increases the use of glucose by muscles. The following hormones facilitate the use and replacement of muscle glucose. An increase in secretion of the hormone glucagon facilitates the movement of glucose from the liver to the blood, which carries it to the working muscles. The hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine are also secreted in additional amounts. They aid in the movement of liver glucose to the blood. The secretion of cortisol facilitates the conversion of liver glycogen to glucose. The increased secretion of the hormone insulin, is directly involved in transferring blood glucose into the working muscle fibers.

Swimming officials school in Port Moresby (PNG)

The 2013 edition of the FINA Swimming Officials schools in Oceania was successfully hosted by PNG Swimming Inc. at the Gateway Hotel in Port Moresby from April 6-7. The school had a total of 36 participants made up of past swimmers, school teachers, coaches and parents.

The school was opened by PNG Swimming Inc. patron Bart Philemon, who welcomed the participants and course experts Don Blew, FINA TSC Vice Chairman and Soren Korbo, FINA TSC Honorary Secretary and then introduced the PNG Government Minister for Sports and Pacific Games, Justin Tkatchenko to open the FINA Officials school and speak on the preparations of the XV Pacific Games 2015.

Sunday's motivational quote 4

"The Albatross" story

Michael Gross (born 17 June 1964), was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, is a former swimmer from Germany. He is 201 centimeters (6 feet, 7 inches) tall, and was called "The Albatross", among fellow swimmers, swimmers fans, and coaches, due to his especially long arms that gave him a total span of 2.13 meters. Gross, who was competing for West Germany, won three Olympic gold medals, two in 1984 and one in 1988 in the freestyle and butterfly events, in addition to two World Championship titles in 1982, two in 1986 and one in 1991.

Importance of core stability in swimming

Balancing and maintaining a streamlined body position are critical in swimming. Being able to control your body improves efficiency and allows swimmers to move through the water with minimal resistance. To achieve this position however, swimmers need to have strength and control of the muscles through the middle part of their body – the area known as core. This muscles in short are: the erector spinae muscles, the internal and external oblique muscles, the transverse abdominis, the rectus abdominis, and many other muscles that attach to and control the pelvis and spine, such as those that flex and extend the hip.

Bohl and Taylor named new National Team Coaches for EnergyAustralia Swim Team

Swimming Australia has named Michael Bohl and Rohan Taylor as National Team Coaches that they will lead EnergyAustralia Swim Team through to the 2013 FINA World Chamnpionships in Barcelona this July and August. They will both be working with Michael Scott, the new Director of High Performance, and Bohl will lead the women while Taylor will lead the men.

Michael Bohl

Tips to improve your kicking

Kicking is a very important aspect in swimming and we all know that better kicking equal better swimming. Here are a few tips from Wayne Goldsmith that will help you improve your kicking in no time.

Fear of swimming success

During my coaching career I have come across many swimmers that are scared about winning a race, often feeling too scared to finish a race off, or pass a particular swimmer in a race or during swim practice. I’m sure you’ve come across athletes with such ‘problems’ too. This is the result of a variety of reasons like intimidation and fear but the bottom line is that these swimmers are simply scared of success.

Effects of training on blood pressure

Blood flowing through the vessels exerts pressure on the walls of these vessels. This pressure is called blood pressure and is measured by the number of millimeters that the blood causes a column of mercury to rise. We need two measurements of pressure to identify the force of the blood flow: the pressure when the heart beats and the pressure when it is resting between beats. The first is called systolic and second diastolic. Typical resting systolic and diastolic blood pressures are 120 and 80 mm Hg respectively.

Red card in open water swimming

The red card in an open water swimming race indicates that a swimmer has been disqualified due to unsportsmanlike conduct or a serious infraction of the rules during the race. The race referee shows the swimmer a red card or a red flag to let him know that he has been disqualified. 

Programme goals for 11-14 years old swimmers

These are the most important years for creating future national level senior swimmers. With their training, swimmers are determining what level of athletes they will be later. During this time, there is a gradual and proggresive buildup in the intensity and volume of training. The training for this age group should have the following goals: