Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The Shotgun Approach by Brenton.....

[Effortless Swimming] The Shotgun Approach

I've been fortunate enough to work with many top swimmers across many different sports.

Open water, pool, distance swimming...

Yet the 'shotgun approach' to training is something they all avoid like the plague but it's something I see too many athletes doing.

Watch this week's video

Have a great week!

Regards,

Brenton Ford
Effortless Swimming



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Effortless Swimming, 3/31 Levanto St, Mentone VIC, 3194

Vai ce multe subjecte poti gasi ....

Trending Swimming World Stories - August 27, 2013

 
SwimmingWorldMagazine
A Semi-Monthly Wrap-up of News from Around the World by Sports Publications Intl.
August 27, 2013
NEWS!!!! Taken from Lane9 www.SwimmingWorldMagazine.com/lane9/

Mack Horton Wins Double Gold to Open World Junior Swimming Championships
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates. OLYMPIC champion Ruta Meilutyte was not the only headliner of today's competition at the world junior swimming long course championships, as Australia's Mack Horton impressed with two gold medals in distance and sprint events.
Alicia Coutts Rattles World Record; Takes Down Commonwealth Standard
SYDNEY, Australia. DURING the second night of full competition at the Australian Short Course Championships, Olympian Alicia Coutts made a run at the women's 100-meter IM world record before settling for the Commonwealth and Australian standard in the event.
Michael Phelps Continuing to Change the Sport With Skill Centers
SACO, Maine. AFTER 12 years of working with agent Peter Carlisle and his team at Octagon Sports, Michael Phelps finally made the trip to the company headquarters in Maine this week, under the guise of checking on the progress of a new business venture.
Would You Swim In the Hudson River For a Sponsor? Ryan Lochte Did
NEW YORK CITY, New York. ONE of the responsibilities that comes with being a professional athlete is fulfilling sponsor obligations. Normally, an athlete would participate in a photo shoot or make a brief appearance to promote the brand that's paying them a large sum of money. But that's not how Ryan Lochte does things.
USA Swimming To Undergo Voluntary Review of Safe Sport Program
PHOENIX, Arizona. USA Swimming's Safe Sport Program, designed to protect athletes by investigating and eliminating members who violate the organization's Code of Conduct, will be thoroughly investigated by a leading child abuse expert this fall.
Six Southern California Trojans Pay Visit to Coach Peter Daland
THOUSAND OAKS, California. LEGENDARY coach Peter Daland and his wife, Ingrid, are settling into a new retirement community northwest of Los Angeles, and earlier this week got a surprise visit from six of his superstar athletes from the heyday of his stint as head coach at the University of Southern California.
Georgia Kicks Off Swim Season With Release of Harlem Shake Making-Of Video
ATHENS, Georgia. THE "Harlem Shake" viral video craze has pretty much ended, but no one told the Georgia men's swimming team, whose popular video netted more than 37 million views and an appearance on the "Today" show.
Water Polo Player Chay Lapin Proposed on Live Television! Did She Say Yes?
LOS ANGELES, California. OLYMPIC water polo goalkeeper Chay Lapin has battled the utmost pressure from some of the world's best players hurling balls at him through a successful career, but nothing could match the pressure he likely felt last night on the Bravo television series "Watch What Happens Live."
Team USA Wins FINA World Women's Junior Water Polo Championship
LAUSANNE, Switzerland. THE team of USA won the FINA World Women's Junior Water Polo Championships, organised in Volos (GRE) from August 19-25, 2013. In the decisive game of the competition, the North Americans triumphed over Spain by 9-7. The Iberians were the 2011 champions, and at senior level had also lost to the North Americans in the 2012 Olympic final, clinching however the world title at the recent 15th FINA World Championships in Barcelona (ESP). For USA, this result was a huge improvement compared with the eighth place two years ago in the Junior World Championships.
USA Diving Crowns First-Time Champions At Summer Nationals
IOWA CITY, Iowa. THE USA Diving nationals featured a few members of the country's world championships team collecting titles in various events, though Sam Dorman was the highlight of the meet with three individual wins.
Alex Meyer, Christine Jennings Win 19-Kilometer Open Water Swim in Poland
GDYNIA, Poland. ALEX Meyer and Christine Jennings pulled off decisive victories in rough and chilly waters today at the BCT Gdynia Marathon swim in northern Poland.
Veterans Win Inaugural Kaiwi Channel Swim
SANDY BEACH, Hawaii. TWO teams started right in the early morning hours on August 24th at the inaugural Ka'iwi Channel Swim on Kepuhi Beach on the western shores of Molokai Island - and they nearly finished together 9 hours later on Sandy Beach on Oahu.
Reymond Axel, Martina Grimaldi Take Home Titles at FINA Open Water Grand Prix Stop
LAUSANNE, Switzerland. REYMOND Axel, from France, and Martina Grimaldi, from Italy, won the 30km-race on August 24 in Ohrid Lake (MKD), the seventh leg of the 2013 circuit of the FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix.
Morning Swim Show: Elizabeth Beisel On Turning 21, Starting Senior Year
PHOENIX, Arizona. ELIZABETH Beisel joins today's edition of The Morning Swim Show on the cusp of starting her senior year at the University of Florida.
Streamlined News: Punishment in Australia, Prepping for World Juniors
PHOENIX, Arizona. DOWN Under in Australia, the six members of the Olympic 400 free relay that had pulled pranks during a pre-Olympics training camp last year were faced with the possibility of getting more severe fines and punishment from the Australian Olympic Committee, five months after Swimming Australia had already fined them and issued deferred sentences. But earlier today, the AOC decided to only hang a warning over their heads, saying the six -- James Magnussen, James Roberts, Matt Targett, Eamon Sullivan, Tom D'Orsogna and Cameron McEvoy -- could lose the chance to compete at the 2016 Olympics if they "bring themselves or their sport into disrepute" in the next three years. They could also be fined up to $150,000 in addition to losing out on their Olympic dream.
Poll of the Week: A Current in the World Championships Pool? (Results)
PHOENIX, Arizona. IN the days following the world swimming championships in Barcelona, there was much talk about the possibility of a water current existing in the pool in the Palau Sant Jordi, which would have affected outcome of many races, including the 50s. Our friends at the Counsilman Center at Indiana University crunched the numbers and concluded that an anomaly was present. We wanted to know if you agreed with those findings, and the results in our last poll were as close as we've ever seen them. By a margin of just 2.08 percent, the majority of voters believed that a current did not exist in the pool, with 51.04 percent of the vote, while 48.96 percent said a current did exist.
Last Day to Register Online for ASCA World Clinic Coming Up
The last day to register online for the 2013 ASCA World Clinic being held in New Orleans is this Friday.
Dr. Detective: Digging for Clues Behind Shoulder Labrum Pain
SANTA CLARA, California. SHOULDER pain can sometimes be due to the rotator cuff muscles. However, there are numerous passive and active structures in the shoulder which cause pain and dysfunction. Luckily, surgery isn't also required. This case of Dr. Detective takes the case of an age-group swimmer and water polo player with a history of shoulder pain, but luckily, resolves without surgery.
Suspended Breaststroke Kick Exercise from JR Rosania
PHOENIX, Arizona. JR Rosania, of JR HealthPlex, has University of California, San Diego incoming freshman Jaimie Bryan demonstrate an exercise that can be used to improve a swimmer's breaststroke strength.
The Morning Swim Show Library - View current and past editions of The Morning Swim Show
Reaction Time - Read what others have to say about today's top stories in the world of swimming
USA College News and Results - Find news and results of your favorite school
USA High School News and Results - Find news and results of your favorite school

What you'll find in the September 2013 issue of Swimming World
Feature Article:
Back-to-back
The Bolles School remains the best boys’ high school team in the country, winning its second straight Swimming World Magazine national championship and third in the last four years.






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Monday, August 26, 2013

Annie's Tips For Your Kick! ...........


From: Swim Smooth
To: adi
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2013 2:14 PM
Subject: Annie's Tips For Your Kick!


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This week on the blog, new Swim Smooth team member and coach Annie Oberlin-Harris gives you her tips on improving your kicking technique for beginner and intermediate swimmers. Go Annie! :

I've been coaching all levels of swimmer from beginner to advanced swimmers for many years and have seen all sorts of kicking technique along the way: bendy knees, sinky legs, feet pointing downward, half breaststroke kick (with freestyle arms!), the classic overglider-kickstart and even a full whip kick! As you probably appreciate, none of these are good!

For example the swimmer below is bending a lot from the knee as he kicks. Notice how the whole of the front of his thigh will be causing drag by pushing water the wrong way (forwards):


If you're learning to swim freestyle it's quite likely that you are kicking ineffectively and this is making things much harder than they need to be. By this I mean either bending your knees too much when you kick, kicking too hard or even dragging your legs low behind you making staying streamlined virtually impossible.

There's no magic to kickING efficiently, it is actually really easy when you know how! Studies into Ian Thorpe’s leg kick showed that even he could only generate about 10-15% propulsion from it (with super flexible size 17 feet!), the vast majority of his propulsion was from his upper body. Pool sprint swimmers may wish to develop a strong leg kick but for the majority of people doing triathlon or long distance and open water swimming, you should be looking to minimise your energy expenditure from your leg kick. You are just using it to keep your legs high to reduce drag.

Here's three of my favourite exercises to try to improve your kick:


1. Lie on your front on the floor or poolside with your forehead down, body straight with legs together. Now lift one of your legs up straight. Look behind at what that leg is really doing - are you bending at the knee? If you are then you need to learn to lift your leg up WITHOUT bending your knee, so you can actually kick from your hip. Use your lower back, glutes and hamstrings to pick that leg up about 15cm / 6 inches off the ground, keeping your knee straight and your toe pointed. Repeat a few times on each side, then have a go alternating with a faster rhythm as you would in the water.


2. In the pool, hold the wall or steps with both hands and keep your arms straight.  Put your head in the water looking at the pool floor beneath you and gently exhale.  Lift your legs up so your body is fully horizontal kicking lightly with your new straighter leg technique.  Think about trying to keep your legs within what I call 'the shadow of your body' - no deeper or wider than your torso behind you.

Turn your feet in like pigeon toes and brush your big toes together lightly as they pass. Close your eyes and tune into what you can feel - can you feel the surface of the water or bubbles with your toes? It should feel very soft as you lightly break the surface with your ankles (don't lift your whole foot clear of the water).

Kicking like this will remove the need to use lots of energy but keep your legs high up to reduce drag. If you keep your core engaged and you are kicking correctly from the hip you'll notice your body starts to roll slightly with every kick, right up to your shoulders!


3. Perform a normal torpedo push off with your hands streamlined one on top of the other, head underneath your arms and push off the wall, legs straight and together, and toes pointed.  Just at the point that your momentum slows, start to lightly flutter kick. Tap your big toes together as they pass, let your ankles stay floppy and let the kick bring your legs up high. Perform this drill without lifting your head to breathe if you can, if you lift your head you will immediately feel more downward pressure on your legs.

Whilst moving down the pool, make your kick gentler and gentler until eventually you feel a threshold and they start to sink. When you're kicking with good technique you will be amazed at how gently you can kick without sinking. This low level of kicking effort is what you should be aiming for in your full freestyle stroke - if you are kicking any harder you are burning a lot of energy and oxygen doing so which will leave you really short of breath.

Push off again but this time go into your full freestyle stroke, reproducing that gentle kicking technique you just learnt. Remember nice straight legs, floppy ankles, feet pointed inwards. Let your arms do the work instead and feel the difference.

So, get down to the pool and use these new techniques to start kicking effectively. You’ll be amazed how much easier swimming freestyle will feel - let your arms do the work!

Post on the comments of this post and let me know how you got on!

Annie! @swimsmoothannie

Also see our full article on leg kick on the Swim Smooth website here: swimsmooth.com/kick
Something to add or have a question? Reply to this post here.


Swim Smooth, 12 Davies Road, Claremont Swimming Pool, Davies Road, Claremont, WA 6010, AUSTRALIA

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Mai multi .....

Get People Swimming Conference 2013 - More People Swimming More Often

Get People Swimming Conference 2013
More People Swimming More Often   

The Get People Swimming Conference 2013 will take place on Friday 18th October at the Daventry Court Hotel, Daventry.
 
The ASA's GPS team aim to increase regular participation in swimming as both a recreational and competitive activity across the UK. We provide a quality service in partnership with pool operators to enable them to offer a high quality experience to both recreational swimmers and competitive swimming clubs.

The health benefits from regular physical activity are well documented and nowhere more so than in the swimming pool so we aim to provide products, services and support that will enable operators to deliver these benefits for all.

We encourage pool operators and facility managers to come along for the opportunity to hear from guest speakers and attend three of the following workshops:  
  • What is the British Gas ASA Learn to Swim Pathway and how is it delivered?
  • Getting people in the pool with British Gas Swimfit
  • Aquatics in the National Curriculum
  • School swimming: learning the lesson
  • Inspirational swimming lessons for adults
  • Industry leading learning techniques from the ASA
  • Promoting the importance of water safety
  • Question time with ASA staff members

Delegates will also be able to speak to ASA staff in the Communication Zone about current and new and exciting programmes and products to be delivered for aquatics.
This email was sent to scanave@yahoo.com by newsletters@swimming.org |  
ASA and British Swimming | SportPark | 3A Oakwood Drive | Loughborough University | Loughborough | LE11 3QF | United Kingdom

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Coaches 'dialogue' ....

Coaches dialogue ...
un nou comentariu privind postarea dvs. "GOVS + Jurnalul lunar de autocontrol":


from book SWIMMING by Newell, Cross, Cowcher, Bernabei to 'Mounthly Grafics for Himself Control' by M.Olaru {see -http://swimmingpedia.blogspot.ro/2013/06/govs-jurnalul-lunar-de-autocontrol.html)

I received the book 'SWIMMING' [serious about your sport] by N. Newell, D. Cross, P. Cowcher, T. Bernabei, 2011 ed.New Holland Pub. UK, as a present and in the chapter - Fitness & traning / Training zones, I met a very accurate formula for calculating the different intensities of exercise practiced during training [ie in its planning stage].

This is how it goes <220 -="" age="" heart="" rate="" resting="" your=""> [RHR] and to determine target zoning effort ... very simple , that means.

I hope I'm not wrong :
'
220 '= Heart rate maximum allowable effort to be accepted without causing complications in heart function {see' myocardial infarction];
'Age' = is simply how many years has the subject;
'Resting heart rate [RHR] = is the value of cardiac frequency in basal conditions [is preferably in the morning on awakening]

For me everything is ok but against RHR I have some more'scholarly' approaches;
if the subject still counts his pulse, lying in bed right after waking up [clinostatic] ... why not do the count again, about 1-2 minutes after waking up but this time in vertical stand {orthostatic position]. The question could be natural 'why still had to count again’?

Sports doctor and the coach know if between the two counts of the pulse is a noticeable difference, it cautions that the recovery work, rest after exercise the previous day was not recovered very well and so the athlete can enter a new workout tired and so the chances of a visible target work rate.

I sensed the importance of these indicators since about 40 years ago when, as federal coach, I had to give the athlete a personal tool for tracking activity, sporting his life.

'Instrument' /'Tool' is called 'monthly chart of self control' that occur daily values: Weight, Km swim, Pulse [supine / standing] and hours of sleep.[see - - http://swimmingpedia.blogspot.ro/2013/06/govs-jurnalul-lunar-de-autocontrol.html]

"Tool" has a section that is a statistical evidence of the main indicators of preparedness month and a 3rd box that appears' weekly school schedule + daily training schedule.

'The instrument' can be bent to form a triangle [as everyone knows is the packaging of chocolate 'Toblerone] and can stand on desk and it is accessible at any time etc..

Important are the interpretations that can be correlated with each other regularly and which can give a clear picture of how they evolve, how the athlete lives.

So 'Tool' provides ujn RHR larger and very closely related to the individual, athlete 'in the flesh'
(Open - http://swimmingpedia.blogspot.ro/2013/06/govs.html)
================
Ana Maria G
Turkey, Adana, University of Cukurova, Lecturer
Turkce - Romence - Turkce authorized translator/conference interpreter
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Tel: +(90) 532 264 2397
Messenger: Yahoo ID, Skype ID, MSN ID: anamariagunsel
OBS: Ana Maria is my doughter... + ocasionally my translater [she is very busi....]

see http://swimmingpedia.blogspot.ro/2013/06/govs-jurnalul-lunar-de-autocontrol.html






Tehnica corecta se poate explica ....

What's The Right Amount Of Rotation In Your Stroke?


From
To

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Swim Smooth
To: adi
Sent: Friday, August 16, 2013 2:09 PM
Subject: What's The Right Amount Of Rotation In Your Stroke?

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One of the most common emails we get at Swim Smooth is from swimmers wondering how much rotation (also called "body roll") they should have in their stroke. There certainly is a lot of confusion out there about this and there has been some wildly differing opinions from coaches over the years:

- In the 1990s a movement started telling swimmers to rotate to 90° on their side every stroke to "swim like a fish" and to remain in this position for as long as possible between strokes. Although this has now been recognised as too much rotation, you can still find this advice given in books and DVDs today.

- Other coaches have instructed swimmers to rotate as little as possible. In fact one of our swimmers in our squads in Perth tells how she learnt to swim freestyle with the Red Cross in the 1960s and the instructor would walk alongside the pool with a stick and rap her over the head if she didn't swim completely flat!

What's the right amount of rotation? Let's answer this question by looking at some footage of elite swimmers. Here's double Olympic Gold Medallist Rebecca Adlington at the point of maximum rotation in her stroke (you can click the images to expand):



You can see how she's rotating to about 45 degrees; from a side angle you can see that she's doing this from both her shoulders and hips, she's not twisting through the core:


There are some quite technical debates in swim coaching about whether the hips stay a little flatter than the shoulders but if you think about stretching tall through your core and rotating your whole body (including your legs) this will give you the right outcome for distance swimming.

Rotation is an important part of your stroke technique as it allows you to develop a high elbow catch like Rebecca's while engaging the large muscles of the back and core to power the stroke. Good rotation also reduces the forces through the shoulder joint (lowering the risk of injury) and allows the arms to recover easily over the surface.

Nearly every swimmer rotates a little more when they breathe, even Rebecca:


The fact that breathing tends to drive rotation in the stroke is the main reason why we recommend you breathe to both sides regularly. Swimmers who only breathe to one side tend to have poor rotation on the non-breathing side and the simplest way you can correct this is to introduce breathing to your bad side.

However, be very wary of over-rotating when breathing. This swimmer has rotated fully onto his side as he takes a breath, causing him to scissor kick his legs apart to stabilise himself:


Does the amount of rotation depend on your stroke style? Sometimes but not as much as you might expect. Here's 7 time World Marathon Swimming Champion Shelley Taylor Smith displaying the shorter punchier 'Swinger' stroke style used by many elite open water swimmers and triathletes:





Above the water Shelley doesn't appear to rotate that much with the recovering arm swinging around the side (top photo) but this is deceptive. Below the water we can see that in fact she's rotating nicely to 45 degrees on every stroke.

Your Rotation

How much rotation should you aim for? We recommend something in the 45-60° range. Obviously you can't swim with a protractor to check (!), so how can you tell? Ask a friend to film you with your phone and watch the clip back carefully or get some feedback from an experienced coach. If you are worried about your rotation, consider investing in a Finis Tech Toc which will give you live feedback on your rotation on every stroke as you swim.

Developing Better Rotation

Besides bilateral breathing, we recommend side-lying exercises such as our kick-on-side and 6-1-6 drills with fins to help you improve your rotation:


During these drills you rotate to nearly 90° which is too much for the full stroke but by performing the drill and then breaking into full-freestyle, the right amount of rotation should transfer nicely into your stroke:

Even if you feel that you over-rotate when you swim these side-kicking drills are useful because they teach you to become aware of and control your rotation. The improved stability and posture you will feel will mean you are less likely to over-rotate in your full stroke.

A couple of additional points:

- If you have low lying legs in the water you will find rotation hard to develop. To bring the legs up, work on your exhalation technique to rid your lungs of excess buoyancy and work on improving your kicking technique (see next week's blog). Then you should find it much easier to roll from one side to the other.

- If you only breathe to one side in your stroke, focus on your rotation to the other side. A good visualisation to try is to think about rotating your hip out of the way before the hand gets there. More on that here.

Swim Smooth!
Something to add or have a question? Reply to this post here.


Swim Smooth, 12 Davies Road, Claremont Swimming Pool, Davies Road, Claremont, WA 6010, AUSTRALIA