Posts Tagged as "Swimming"
Swimming technique, balance, body position and hip rotation are important elements of the freestyle swim stroke. A coach might critique your balance in the water but praise your hip rotation; or he / she might try to tweak your body position and ignore your balance. It is important to understand what each term means so you can make improvements.
First is balance. Your upper body and your legs should share the effort of moving you through the water. Specifically, your arms should make a 50 percent to 70 percent contribution to your forward propulsion while your legs should account for the remaining 50 percent to 30 percent. Swimmers who drag their legs behind their body, with almost no visible kick, are missing out on the potential core power that is derived from the hips. On the other hand, if your legs are tiring long before your upper body, consider lessening your kick to conserve energy. By swimming with a two- or four-beat beat kick (meaning you complete two or four individual kicks per complete arm stroke cycle), athletes can benefit from the power in their legs without tiring too quickly.
Balance in the water also means having the movement of the stroke come easily and naturally. A swimmer with good balance is not fighting the water; she is efficiently working with the water, gravity and her own body. Both sides of her body are making similar movements. And yes, balanced swimming requires bilateral breathing.
In terms of body position, try to maintain a constant position during the entire stroke cycle. Strive for a horizontal position in the water with your face pointing toward the bottom of the pool and your hips near the surface of the water. You can practice floating with a snorkel or streamline kicking to become comfortable in this position. Your position is good if your feet break the surface of the water with each kick.
Next, try to keep your body position in a straight line. Think about being “skewered” from the top of your head, through your neck and down your spine. You can rotate on this skewer but you cannot move any part of your body laterally. Drag and resistance are minimized with a streamlined position.
Finally, there is the fine art of hip rotation, which actually refers to shoulder, torso and hip rotation. To understand rotation correctly, you must first recognize “disconnect.” Rotation occurs from the middle of the neck to the middle of the thigh. The head and legs are disconnected from the rotation. When the hips, torso and shoulders are maximally rotated 45 degrees to the left or right in the water, your head and legs should maintain a horizontal position. This allows your kick to keep a steady beat at the surface of the water and it keeps your head still at the front of the stroke.
Your breathing is also disconnected from hip rotation. Breathe by rotating your neck just enough to get one goggle and your mouth out of the water. While taking a breath, don’t forget that you have been “skewered.” Head movement should be minimal and should not affect your balance, body position or hip rotation.
Open water swimming is a big concern for many beginner and even some seasoned triathletes. They never really get comfortable in open water and therefore never train in open water… and therefore never get comfortable in open water. I’m sure you can see the problem here.
It is important that you get out of the pool and into some open water. There’s a lot to learn about open water swimming and most of which you can only learn though experience. Yes I can tell you what to do and how to do it, but you really need to do it yourself to get it right. It’s not swimming as you have been taught or as you have read. It’s swimming that needs to be tweaked on the day depending on the conditions and the best way to learn this is by getting into the water in all kinds of conditions and finding what works best for you. Being a fair weather open water swimmer is of no use, as pleasant and wonderful as it may be. Get someone who is experienced in open water to go with you and ask them questions as you go. Get them to help you. Their experience is worth more than what you can read.
Different conditions call for different variations in your stroke. In choppy water, shortening the front end and back end of your stroke will accommodate for the chop. Rolling over more in order to get your face slightly higher out of the water when you breathe ensures that you get less water in your mouth. Swimming using unilateral breathing away from the chop makes you more streamline. If you breathe into the chop you will be opening your chest and face up for a slap and gulp of water. If you’re swimming directly into the chop your stroke length will vary with almost every stroke you take. Mastering this take s a lot of time, take every opportunity you get. It also makes you hellish strong.
Open water is full of all kinds of things that can get in your way; weed, plastic packets, stinging creatures and biting animals. In the event of an encounter with weed and plastic packets you need to learn to keep swimming rather than start treading water in frantic fear of your life. Before a race always get into the water or know what you’re dealing with. If the water is occupied by stinging creatures smear Vaseline (Petroleum jelly) over all exposed skin. This forms a layer between stinging tentacles and your skin. It also helps for cold. Once again, try not to stop. More often than not you would have slapped the jellyfish on its head anyway.
Understanding currents and location specifics also plays a part is making your swimming journey as fast and as pleasurable as possible. If you’re swimming somewhere for the first time, consult with a local no matter how tranquil it may seem. One submerged rock or branch is all it takes.
When it comes to dealing with the violence of flailing arms and kicking legs remember that if you stop swimming it’s more than likely that you will get swum over. If you feel you need some space, get your head up and get a little pushy. Swimming in crowded waters requires a fairly high level of assertiveness. There should be no “after you” tactics, rather “back of the line buddy!”
Good day and welcome the final week of the second month of 2010. Thus far I have had much success with my new ventures which will be in full swing from 1 March 2010. If you’d like to know more about that read my previous post, Change and the Opportunities that Await.
Here is a little testimonial-ish piece from one of my clients, a masters swimmer who has made some drastic improvements. Please see below extracts from the emails which he updates me with following a gala.
This gentleman came to me with 1 major problem and several smaller ones. The major problem was that his one leg would give a huge thump of a kick every second stroke… and that was it as far his kicking went. So after 3 weeks this is how it goes:
Day 1 of 3 of WP Masters at UWC
50m Free (long course)
“Warmed up with lotza flutter kicking + then tried to keep focus on the kicking during the event.”
“Was in Heat 5 of 9 (pretty much in the middle of the range of all swimmers taking part) and was wanting to improve on my last gala time of 33.42 secs.(23.01.10)”
“Looks like I was able to take a second 1.05 secs off my last gala time and equal my PB of last year – 32.36 + 32.35 secs.”
| Date |
Course |
Occasion |
Time (secs) |
| 24.01.09 |
Long |
Paarl Gala |
32.36 |
| 25.02.09 |
Long |
UWC Gala |
32.35 |
| 01.04.09 |
Short |
Long Street Gala |
33.39 |
| 05.12.09 |
Long |
UWC Gala |
32.44 |
| 23.01.10 |
Long |
Paarl Gala |
33.42 |
| 08.02.10 |
Short |
NM Time Trial |
33.60 |
| 16.02.10 |
Long |
UWC Gala |
32.37 |
And now for an even better part:
Day 3 of 3 of WP Masters at UWC
100m Free (long course)
“Did 4 X 50m length warm-up (in 2 X 100m slow sessions) and did manage OK to get the legs working in the warm-up.”
“Was in Heat 3 of 6 (pretty much in the middle of the range of all swimmers taking part) and was wanting to improve on my last gala time for the 100 m Free event this year of 1 : 17: 56 (23.01.10)”
“Looks like I was able to take 4.17 secs off my last gala time at Paarl-East last month (23.01.10) with a 1 : 13 : 39 and better my PB of 2009 by a bit.”
“During the event itself I could feel I was putting most of my energy into the upper bod and not as much as I should have into the legs.”
“Guess I just went back into the ‘old technique’ with the pressure of the competition itself.”
“The training we have been doing must have some influence on the time though – hence the new PB.”
“So am very happy with this.”
“The next frontier (with your help) on the 100m Free will be to break say 1 : 12 : 0 :”
| Date |
Course |
Occasion |
Time (secs) |
| 24.01.09 |
Long |
Paarl Gala |
1 : 16 : 93 |
| 25.02.09 |
Long |
UWC Gala |
1 : 14 : 15 |
| 01.04.09 |
Short |
Long Street Gala |
1 : 14 : 51 |
|
|
|
|
| 05.12.09 |
Long |
UWC Gala |
|
| 23.01.10 |
Long |
Paarl Gala |
1 : 17 : 56 |
| 08.02.10 |
Short |
NM Time Trial |
1 : 16 : 00 |
| 21.02.10 |
Long |
UWC Gala (Paarl) |
1 : 13 : 39 |
So that’s how it goes. Many swimmers think that watching videos and trying to make improvements on their own will make the difference they’re looking for. Not so. And in other unfortunate news: If you have a bad technique you can train all you want, you will only be able to go so fast.
Get a technique coach. Learn the drills and don’t be afraid to substitute a hardcore session for “technique” session… especially when you’re tired.
Happy swimming. Oh and well done Pete. Proud to be of assistance.
Incase you were wondering…
“Every triathlete knows good technique is critical to swimming performance. But not everything you think you know about effective freestyle technique is true. There are many myths floating around. Here are some of the ones to watch out for:
1. Triathletes don’t need to kick much. While it’s true that triathletes need not rely on a hard kick for propulsion (that’s for pool sprinters), a good, steady kick will greatly enhance your body position and rotation. It will bring your hips closer to the surface of the water, allowing you to be more streamlined and enhancing your stroke efficiency.A“good, steady kick” is a noticeable kick (some would call it a four-beat kick, with four kicks for every stroke rotation) that provides some propulsion, enhances body position and doesn’t noticeably tire your legs. The key is to practice swimming with this kick so your muscles will develop to appropriately support this kick during a race.
2. A wetsuit minimizes the negative impact of stroke deficiencies. First of all, wetsuits are not even allowed in some races, including a little out-of-the-way event called the Hawaii Ironman World Championship. That’s reason enough alone not to depend too much on your wetsuit to make up for inefficiencies in your technique. But the bigger issue is the fact that a wetsuit can’t reallymake up for these inefficiencies. True, a wetsuit helps with buoyancy and body position for most swimmers, but it also helps efficient swimmers in the same way, so you don’t gain anything on them if you’re both suited up. And a wetsuit does nothing to ensure proper rotation, catching, pulling and recovery. It won’t swim for you.
3. You should breathe on both sides (breathe on every third stroke). Alternate breathing is a great way to train your stroke to become balanced, as it develops equal left-right muscular strength and reduces left-right technique asymmetries. However, in a long-distance swim, oxygen is very important, and you get more oxygen when you breathe on one side every second stroke. Over the course of a mile, 1.2 miles, and especially 2.4 miles, this will result in the uptake of significantly more oxygen than would occur if you were to breathe on every third stroke. And that’s more oxygen your body can use to power your working muscles. Analysis of the world’s best long-distance swimmers shows that 95 percent of them breathe on every stroke cycle for this reason. They can sustain a faster pace for a longer distance with more oxygen delivered to their muscles.
4. You should cup your hands to grab more water. Ironically, this results in grabbing less water. The surface area of your hand in a cupped position is much less than it is in a relaxed position. Try it: cup one hand and measure the area presented to the water and put the other hand in a relaxed position. In fact, research has shown that a hand in a relaxed position with fingers at their normal separation actually has a “webbing” effect and pushes more water than a flat hand with the fingers pressed together.
Colleen Kelley, PhD., a chemistry professor at the University of Arizona, is a long-time triathlete and an associate coach of Troy Jacobson’s Triathlon Academy.”
Taken from http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/
Technique in swimming is the single most important thing to making a success of it. Unfortunately swimming is more complex than most would perceive it to be. Bad habits are hard to break and because each movement affects the next your technique is important from start to finish.
Head position is vital as your head leads the way. A lot of swimmers have a good head position whilst facing down but as soon as it comes to taking a breath head tilt becomes a factor and the swimmer is making corrections from this point forward thus rendering the rest of the stroke inefficient and the swimmer begins to tire. Maintaining a good head position ensures alignment thereby making the swimmer more streamlined.
Another common mistake lies with hand entry. Many swimmers tend to enter the water just infront of their head. This is often the cause for a dropping shoulder which leads to a number of inefficiencies, such as excessive roll and excessive hip flexation, and is also one of the primary causes of shoulder injury. Hand entry should happen between 20 and 30cm in front of the head.
It is important that the hips rotate in the same plain as the shoulders through the stroke thereby maintaining a good line along the central axis. Arm cross-over is another common problem and is best explained as follows: Breathing to the left can cause the right arm to cut across the central axis and vice versa. This simply threatens the linearity of the central axis resulting in inefficiency.
It is important that your stroke through the water be as effective as possible. Swimmers need to ensure that their hands and forearms are catching as much water as possible. This is achieved by keeping the hand and forearm perpendicular with the bottom of the pool for as long as possible. Remembering to roll through the stroke as the arm rotates from the shoulder will maintain a straight central axis through the stroke.
At the end of the stroke, when the hand is at the hips, it is best to lift your arm out of the water by bending at the elbow from the shoulder. Never lift the hand higher than the elbow. This part of the stroke is known as recovery, the period during which the arm is out the water. Bringing your hand forward in a straight line close to the side of your body increases efficiency. Many swimmers flick their hands out of the water and swing their hands out sideways during recovery. This is not only inefficient but is the most common cause of tired shoulders. It also places strain on the bicep tendons and rotator cuffs.
Injuries resulting from a poor swimming technique are rotator cuff syndrome and other forms of tendonitis. Hip and lower back pain is something that is fairly common too but few blame swimming for those aches and pains.
If you would like to know more or add to this please leave a comment or email me at nic@onceinspired.co.za
Good luck. Happy swimming
Shortness of breath is related to the fact that body heat is dissipated approximately two to four times as fast in cool water as in air of the same temperature. During exercise in cold water, skin heat loss can be 70 times greater than in air of equal temperature.
On immersion in cold water, exercise performance may be significantly impaired at first, as a result of the initial physiological responses to cold. The respiratory response may cause swimming failure within a few minutes, as high breathing rates make the synchronization of breathing and swim stroke impossible, thus resulting in the inhalation of water. It has been reported that compared to thermo-neutral water, cold waterincreases oxygen demands during moderate exercise requiring oxygen consumptions up to 2.0 l/min, but not intense exercise at 3.0 l/min.
Approximately three minutes after cold-water immersion, peripheral cooling may begin to affect performance. The hands are particularly susceptible to cooling, largely because of their high ratio of surface area to mass and, to a lesser extent, their low level of local heat production and variable blood supply. The effects of peripheral cooling are primarily due to alterations in muscle and nerve function. Low muscle temperatures affect several chemical and physical processes at the cellular level, including metabolic rate, enzyme activity and calcium and neurotransmitter release from nerves. In addition, there is increased muscle tone of both protagonist and antagonist muscle groups.
The rate of conduction of nerve impulses is slowed in water temperatures below 20 degrees C. The cooling of peripheral motor and sensory nerves leads to dysfunction equivalent to peripheral paralysis. The result of these alterations is that performance is reduced, as maximum power output is reduced by 3 percent per degree fall in muscle temperature and mechanical efficiency is also reduced.
By contrast, muscle temperatures above 27 degrees C are associated with greater ability to sustain muscle contractions. This may be due to slower production and accumulation of the metabolites that cause fatigue. At muscle temperatures below 25 degrees C muscle fatigue occurs earlier as cooling begins to impair neuromuscular function in peripheral muscle fibers, leaving a smaller number of fibers to produce the same amount of force. The changes in neuromuscular function resulting from cooling explain, in part, the reduction in work capacity in cold water. Other reasons for this decline are alterations in central circulation and reduced core body temperature.
The shivering evoked by cold-water immersion increases oxygen consumption. This effect becomes increasingly pronounced as more and moremuscle groups are recruited and as skin and deep body temperatures continue to fall.There is progressive involvement of the muscles of the neck, torso and finally the extremities. It is possible for shivering to occur during exercise but this reflex is progressively centrally inhibited with increasing exercise intensity. Shivering has been reported to be 80 percent suppressed by exercise at an intensity of 50 percent VO2max and totally suppressed at workloads requiring oxygen consumptions exceeding 1.2 l/min.
Higher fitness levels may protect against the long- and short-term responses to cold-water immersion. If all else fails, the initial responses can be attenuated by slowing the rate of entry into cold water, while swimming performance is significantly improved if the initial ventilatory responses are allowed to subside before swimming is commenced.A fitter individual will also have a greater capacity to cope with the increased work requirements associated with exercise in cold water. With less fit individuals, the combination of the reduction in body temperature and the increased oxygen requirements for sub-maximal work in the cold may seriously impair physical performance. Maintenance of normal levels of muscle glycogen in largemuscle groupsmay be an important factor in protection against the cold. It has been reported that low skeletal muscle glycogen levels are associated with more rapid body cooling during coldwater immersion in humans.
Commercial and recreational divers, long-distance swimmers and triathletes who spend long periods in cool or cold water may experience considerable bodyheat loss. However, if exercise is performed at a high intensity, it is theoretically possible that normal body temperature could be maintained. Most swimmers in long distance endurance events wear a wetsuit for thermal insulation in cool/cold water. However, at least two studies have shown that wearing a wetsuit in moderately cold water does not prevent a decline in body temperature. For example, 1.5 hours of water immersion (14 degrees C, 57 degrees F) performed by a wet-suited breath-hold diver caused rectal temperatures to fall from 37.7 to 36.9 degrees C (99.9 to 98.4 degrees F). Of course, triathletes typically spend less time than 1.5 hours in cool to cold water.
Finally, with regard to thermal comfort, heat flux and maximal swimming performance, the optimal pool temperature for competitive short-distance swimming is 28 to 30 degrees C. For longer distances, water temperature should be lowered to about 25 degrees C, as this will enable thermal balance to be maintained. Outdoor, long-distance swimmers are advised to train in water at temperatures they expect to encounter in competitive events.
Taken from http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/
Many Triathletes struggle with the swim leg which is probably the most technical. So I fugured I’d find you something that can help you. It also gives you something to do over the weekend.
As technical as the sport of swimming can be, it is tough to narrow down the answer to the often-asked question, what should I concentrate on? So, I came up with a top ten list of steps to improving your swim for a triathlon. These aren’t necessarily in any order, but should go a long way in helping you achieve your goals, whether you are a beginner or trying to go pro.
1. Hand Entry Slice your hand into the water right about at your goggle line, and drive it forward. Many swimmers attempt to get as much “air time” as possible by reaching the hand out before entering into the water, but it is actually more efficient to go through the water with your hand as you rotate from one side to the other.
2. Head Position Keep looking straight down when swimming freestyle. It’s important to keep your head down with only a small part of the back of your head out of the water. Also, as you rotate through the water, try not to move your head with the rest of your body rotation.
3. Pull In freestyle, your hands should pull all the way back past your hips. The last part of the stroke before recovery (arms coming out of the water) should be an acceleration behind you, and not up out of the water.
4. Kick Try minimizing your kick as you train for swimming. Most people will kick extra hard to make up for lack of balance in the water. Minimizing your kick will allow you to improve your balance, as well as conserve energy.
5. Training Intensity The best way to measure your training intensity is to count your heart rate immediately after each swim. You can estimate your heart rate by counting your pulse rate for six seconds immediately after each swim. Add a zero to this count, and you will have your approximate exercise heart rate per minute.
6. Master’s Swimming Move to a slower lane to work on stroke improvement. If you belong to a masters team, don’t feel that you always need to keep up with your lanemates at every workout. Masters teams typically have many people with many different swimming goals. It’s important to do your own thing! Remember that technique comes before all else and if this means swallowing a little pride to make improvements, just think of how much faster you will be for this in the long run.
7. Habit: Keep your arm from crossing over One of the most common bad habits I see in swimmers is the arm crossing over to the opposite side on the pull. Breathing on your left side results in your right arm crossing over, breathing on your left side results in your right arm crossing. Often times this happens when one goes to breath, but sometimes it’s caused just from over-rotating. To avoid this, make sure your head isn’t moving with the rest of your body, and try to pull more in a straight line (still bending the elbow) and ending the pull on the same side you started (i.e. right hand slices into the water, pulls back and hand ends up near right hip).
8. Keep the Feel If swimming is your toughest sport, it is important to “keep the feel” for the water, and get in the water at least every other day (no, showers and baths don’t count!) This way, your body maintains its kinesthetic awareness of being balanced in water.
9. Work Those Lungs Mix in some hypoxic training sets into your workouts. For example, do a set of 4×100′s breathing every 3-5-7-9 strokes by 25, with 15 seconds rest in between each 100. Your lungs will thank you for it towards the end of the swim part of your race!
10. Work Your Weakness In the sport of triathlon, most coaches agree that you should spend the most time working on your weakest of the three sports. For many of you this will be swimming! Within swimming, the same concept applies. Spend the most time working on the weakest part of your stroke. If balancing on your side is an issue, do some kicking drills on your side. If moving your head is a problem, focus on head position most of the time.
Whatever it is, you will gain the most by spending your pool time improving on that weakness.
Original Author: Kevin Koskella
Happy Friday
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