Announcements
Please send in your race reports! As I have no race
reports to include this week, I will instead send congratulations
to Penny (Early Birds) for completing a full legal 200m fly in
Wednesday's workout! Great job!
Please note that the last
8:30-9:30am workout of the session will be held this Friday, June
22nd. From Monday, June 25th to Friday, August 31st the
(MWF) morning workout will be from 7:30-8:30am only. The 8:30-9:30am
workouts will start again around mid-September.
Also, there will be a workout on Saturday, June 30th, but
no workout (morning or evening) on Monday, July
2nd.
Skills Clinics
Early Birds:
The last scheduled clinic will be on Monday. It is
optional and will be held in the diving well during the last 15min of workout
(i.e. either 8:15-8:30am or 9:15-9:30am). Of course, you can ask the coach
for help with skills (starts/turns) during any workout.
1. racing starts: Monday,
June 18th
The key skill for open water swimming is
sighting (looking ahead at the course). After all our work on looking at
the bottom of the pool, in open water swimming, you do have to lift your head up
occasionally when you breathe. Ask for some pointers during a freestyle
set if you'd like to practice this.
Whitecaps:
On Thursdays when the "A" group is in the deep end (next
one is June 28th), we have the space to do stroke and turn/starts clinics in the
diving well for the last 20min of workout (6:50-7:10pm). Please let
me know if there's a particular skill you'd like to work on.
Swimming Etiquette
Rule #4: Be aware of what your
lane mates are doing and help contribute to a safe swim for
all.
It's important to know where your lane mates are in
the lane and what they're doing. If you are coming up behind someone to
lap him, he should know that you're there and ensure you have room to get by (he
shouldn't have to stop!). If your two lanes mates are swimming towards you
and one of them is lapping the other, ensure that you keep near the lane rope
(there should be space for 3 people side by side in a lane!). When the
pool is crowded, it's important to work on your navigational skills (i.e. swim
straight!) -- use the blue line on the bottom, lane rope, and/or ceiling to help
guide you. Before you start swimming, ensure that everyone in the lane
understands whether you will be circling (and which direction) or swimming
straight up and down. And if you find that there is a wide variety of
swimming speeds in your lane and it's making it difficult for all, let the coach
know.
Ask the Coach (lots of questions
this week!)
Dear Coach: I find
that after I get home after swimming, I sneeze for almost an
hour! What can I do? Sick of Sneezing
Dear S. Sneezing: It sounds like you have developed
an intolerance to chlorine. This is very common among Masters
swimmers. While antihistamines and/or nasal sprays could help, the best
solution is to start wearing a nose clip. It will take a while to get used
to (as you must breathe in and out through your mouth), but it should cure your
sneezing. Ensure that it is tight enough so that you cannot breathe out at
all through your nose. As an added beneficial side effect, your turns
should improve (especially your backstroke underwater push offs) as you do not
need to breathe out to stop water from going up your nose!
Dear Coach: You have suggested that
I push down a bit with my chest and look at the bottom of the pool when I do
freestyle. If I do that, the waterline is no longer on my forehead
as I was taught, but is on the crown of my head! What is going
wrong? Puzzled
Dear Puzzled: Nothing is going wrong! The
latest coaching theory is that the waterline should be on the crown of your
head, not your forehead. This is another one of those
many improvements to swimming technique over the years.
Dear Coach: What recommendations do
you have for training bathing suits? The lycra suits seem
to wear out so quickly. Women's suits are expensive and most of
those available for men are very "brief"! Mr. and Mrs. Need A.
Suit
Dear Mr. and Mrs. N. A. Suit: I recommend polyester or
nylon (rather than lycra) suits for training as they last much longer (around 1
year of daily wear). As the women's suits don't stretch much, they
may irritate a bit on the neck or arms, but a bit of vaseline in the right spot
before workout will prevent that. Finding these suits in local stores can
be difficult. Men's training suits are quite "modest" (7-8" side
seams). I usually stock up on training suits when I go to the Etobicoke
Olympium as the store there has a good selection. Two Canadian web-stores
that have polyester or nylon suits for men and women listed on their web pages
at reasonable prices are: http://www.triswim.com (in Toronto), click on
Teams and then either Speedo or TYR and scroll down to training suits; and http://www.cluzeaumode.com (in
Quebec), click on the language of your choice, and then swimsuits and then
training swimsuits. You can sometimes get good deals from US swim shop web
sites, but keep in mind that you will have to pay duty on anything ordered from
the US.
Dear Coach: Why is it that many
freestyle drills seem to emphasize the above water movement of
the arms more than the under water movement? Just Curious
Dear J. Curious: You are correct that some freestyle drills (e.g.
"thumbs up sides" and "catch up") do emphasize the above water movement of your
arms. However, emphasizing the above water movements, leads to stroke
improvement in other areas! The "thumbs up sides" drill ensures that you
have a good roll in your stroke, which will allow you to get more power from the
underwater portion of your pull. "Thumbs up sides", as well as "catch up",
also get you to focus on having your hand enter the water in front of your
shoulder (rather than crossing past the midline of your body), which helps keep
your body straight in the water (avoiding "hip wiggle"). In addition to
helping with your body position, these two drills encourage you to swim with
high elbows and relaxed forearms, as well as good hand entry, all of which will
help prevent any shoulder injuries. Note that there are other drills that
emphasize the underwater movements more (e.g. sculling, finish drill, underwater
dog paddle) -- ask if you'd like to try these!
Dear Coach: Why do we do
difficult breathing patterns in freestyle pull? Very
Breathless
Dear V. Breathless: Swimming with breathing patterns as
we've been doing lately (e.g. 400 freestyle pull breathing 3/5/7/9 by 50), is
called "hypoxic" (= without oxygen) training. Hypoxic training is a good
aid to training if used carefully. However, if you start to get a headache
or feel light-headed, you should stop hypoxic training immediately. It's
also not a good idea to try any really long hypoxic swims (e.g. several lengths
without breathing), as it's easy to pass out after that amount of time!
That said, there are quite a few reasons behind the pull sets we've been
doing. First, it helps to build lung capacity so that you will become more
comfortable doing starts and turns without breathing as soon as you push of the
wall. Secondly, to conserve oxygen, you tend to relax more while swimming
with a breathing pattern, which is key to swimming more efficiently.
Taking more strokes between breaths also tends to smooth out your stroke, as
most people swim more smoothly when they are not breathing. Getting the
feel of a smooth stroke enables you to work towards that when you breathe more
frequently. And, finally, you'll note that the breathing pattern is always
odd, which ensures that everyone works on bilateral breathing (breathing on both
sides).
Early Birds Notes
The second set of time trials is this week!
Please let me know at the beginning of workout if you plan to do your time
trials on that day, and please help put in and/or take out the starting blocks
if you plan to use them. I look forward to seeing some fast
swims!
Keep on swimming!
Lynn
