Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it? Nelly
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Improving the Gallop Freestyle Stroke
Improving the Gallop Freestyle Stroke In my teaching, I get to watch a lot of younger age-grouper swimmers in club settings swimming 3-4 lanes of 4-5 swimmers. Coaches don’t have a lot of time to iron out stroke imperfections. When I look over the club lanes, I see a lot of first, second and even third year swimmers picking up…
Don’t Panic
Don’t Panic I’ve worked with a lot of swimmers who initially struggle to stroke up and down the pool, typically with head up and moving water anyway they can. The first step in learning to swim well is to work on breathing. By exhaling with your face in the water and inhaling with your head turned sideways and not lifting…
Building a Better Breaststroke Kick
Building a Better Breaststroke Expert coaches know that the kick provides the most propulsion in the breaststroke. To improve your times, improve the kick. Simple, right? So how to improve your kick? Other strokes use your hands and arms for the most propulsion, but it’s the legs that do the most work in breaststroke. More critically, it’s the feet that…
A Little Trick with Your Breaststroke Kick
I recently attended a Cody Miller swim clinic and picked up some advice I’d never heard before. Cody advises that at the end of your breaststroke kick, as you complete the full kick and your toes are pointed* lift your feet up a few inches. *Be sure to point those toes! Make sure you don’t turn the kick into a…
Only Have 30 Minutes? Try HIIT.
Only Have 30 Minutes? Try HIIT. HIIT is short for high intensity interval training. The goal is to swim at near maximum effort in a short amount of time. Your body responds differently than when you put in a 80 percent effort for a longer swim. It’s a great training strategy or weight-lose set. If you only have 30 minutes…
Putting Physics to Work in Swimming
Putting Physics to Work in Swimming When I work with swimmers, I often discuss the physical forces that we work with to swim faster, especially buoyancy and gravity, and drag and propulsion. I’m going to talk about two more principles that govern the point where each arm enters the water and why it is important to “anchor” the catch. The…
Efficient Hand Entry in Freestyle
Efficient Hand Entry In Freestyle Fingertips, Wrist, Elbow, Shoulder A critical phase of the front crawl (freestyle) stroke is your hand entry. This is where we want to focus on the two most important movements in the stroke: streamlining and propulsion. Your hand should enter fingertips first, then wrist, then elbow, and then shoulder. Swimmers should avoid fully extending their…
Drag Races (in the swim lane)
Drag Races (In the Swim Lane) Hey, Coaches. Here’s a fun practice set that incorporates sprints and recovery — all while your swimmers have fun. I call it Drag Racing (and no, it doesn’t use drag chutes or socks, but you could try that too.) I use this in my Masters workouts, but it would be ideal for triathlon coaches,…
Why I Swim
Why I Swim This weekend on the way to a Masters swim meet, I stopped at a rest stop. (At my age, knowing when the next rest stop is coming has become viable information.) As I got back into my truck, I watched a couple who looked to be a few years younger than me climb out of their car.…