Swimming Tips

Archive for the ‘Swimming Strokes’ Category

I started competitively swimming last year. As it turns out I suck at freestyle, but am one of the best at breaststroke (technique-wise, not speed-wise yet :/ ). Are certain people built for different strokes? I’ve been swimming after the season with a swim club, and my freestyle is still incredibly slow, even though my technique is great.

Former Stanford Cardinal swimming coach Tom Haynie dies
Former Stanford swimming coach Tom Haynie has died.

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Swim regularly. Routine swim practice several times a week helps improve swimming skills more quickly than longer sessions which take place with less frequency.

Use specific swimming drills in your practice sessions. Try to swim the same amount of distance each practice session and utilize the same methods and drills. This should apply to the way you leave the wall and conduct your turns as much as it does the particular techniques of the strokes you want to improve.

Time your swimming with a waterproof watch or by watching the clocks visible at most public swimming pools. Set goals for yourself depending how quickly you can swim a given distance, and then work on improving those times.

Try the Finis Swimmers Snorkel which allows a swimmer of any ability to relax in the water and concentrate on body balance, rotation and alignment by eliminating the complicated breathing motion.

Incorporate flippers in your swim practice. While you shouldn’t use them all the time, they do help perfect your body position and strengthen your leg muscles. When you remove them, try to maintain the body position they give: you’ll find that your speed and technique both improve.

The Finis Wave Monofin and Finis Rapid Monofin are a great source of fun and entertainment while teaching children and adults the correct dolphin / butterfly kicking technique.

Record your swimming with a video camera. It allows you to study your form and identify areas which can use improvement. Some swimming pools (especially those in universities or with serious swimming programmes) are set up to record swimmers, but even if they aren’t, you can still tape your swim training sessions with just a video camera and a helpful friend.

Watch your hand movements as they enter the water while you are swimming. You want to slice them in like knives and drive them in right about at your eye-line, then drive them forward through the water from there. This will improve the efficiency of your swimming stroke. Cupping your hands also allows you to pull yourself through the water–if you leave your fingers spread out, you lose valuable traction.

Zoggs flexi paddles are the first swim paddles created for all swimmers whether recreational or performance and set new standards in product function and safety. The flexible Vylux is not hard or sharp like conventional paddles and is designed to allow the user to create the hands natural contour which improves stroke technique whilst reducing the risk of shoulder strain and injury.

Kick boards are a very handy swim training aid for advanced swimmers and beginner swimmers alike. Typically made from high-density foam, kick boards allow swimmers to use only their legs as they swim. There are many different uses for kick boards and many different ways to use them.

Choose a kick board that fits you comfortably. It should be wide enough that your arms can rest on it comfortably without rounding your shoulders.

Grip the kick board with both hands at the top and hold it just under your chin in the water. Alternatively, you can hold it just ahead of your forehead and keep your face in the water. Some people like to use outstretched arms, but this position is hard to maintain for longer workouts.

Focus on your kick when using the kick board in your work out. Kick boards take your arm stroke out of the equation so that you can focus only on your legs and perfect your kick stroke. Training with a kick board is particularly helpful for perfecting the dolphin kick. Use a kick board to extend your workout beyond the limitations of your arms.

For your gym training sessions try a heart rate monitor to control the intensity of your activity by way of an audible and visual alarm. The unit will bleep when you are exercising too hard, or too lightly. A heart rate monitor will help you to manage a constant effort throughout atraining session, thus vastly improving you total training time and quality.

Do you want to achieve the right body position in freestyle swimming? Body position is extremely important for a smooth and effortless swimming stroke. It’s a major ingredient for any swimmer who wants to take their speed and endurance to the next level. A greater improvement in overall swimming comes from correcting body position more than increasing fitness.

Each training session work on swimming with the correct body position rather than exerting more effort in the pool. You will not only feel better in the water, but your technique will come more naturally and your times will improve with less effort. The are 3 steps to achieving a killer body position in swimming which will blow your competitors away:

1. Lengthen your body – The reason many swimmers hit a plateau is because they get too ‘caught up’ with where they should be pulling with their arms, how hard they should be kicking and many other ‘minor’ issues compared to their body position. The swimmers which focus too much on the other things usually aren’t lengthening out there body. The longer your body line is in the water, the faster it moves and the less resistance which is created. Think of your body as a long yacht which glides effortlessly through the water, and avoid being a big wide barge which is slow and cumbersome.

2. Rotate your shoulders – To move more easily through the water in freestyle, you must rotate your shoulders. No doubt you’ve been told to rotate in the water, but too often swimmers are told to rotate the entire body as they take each stroke. This is incorrect. Elite swimmers work on rotating only slightly at the hips. This allows the hips to generate a powerful kick and provides a strong core for the upper cody to leverage from. The shoulder should rotate to the point where the shoulder is out of the water as it is taking a stroke. This reduces frontal resistance and allows for a high elbow recovery which is a key part of freestyle.

3. Stay flat to the water – Resistance increases exponentially as you get faster. This is why it’s important to reduce your total resistance created by your body. Keep your body flat to the surface or slightly raised at the front, but don’t allow your hips and legs to sink. This creates resistance on your lower body and makes it difficult to swim faster. Remember, the easy way to swim faster is to reduce your resistance.

In your next session, try focusing on improving your body position by lengthening your body line, rotating your shoulders more and keeping your body parrallel to the surface. This will help you swim faster, smoother freestyle.

I’ve been wanting to get in rly good shape so i’ve started swimming a bit.
i was just wondering what specific muscles each of the strokes work on.
..and which is best specifically for abs?

Freestyle, Back, Breast, and Butterfly.

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What’s on Tap for May 30
The 25th annual Howard E. Deppe All-Star Baseball Classic will be held on Saturday, June 5, (rain-date June 6) in Limeport. The cost is $5 for an all-day ticket and the proceeds will benefit the American Cancer Society.

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