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Category: Swimming

  • One Arm Swimming Progression and Notes

    One Arm Swimming Progression and Notes

    For those who are curious, the progression I swam to build my one arm swimming strength is below: 4×100 – 25 R, 25 L repeat; 4×50 – 25 R, 25 L; RI :10 2×100 – 50 R, 50 L; 3×100 – 25 R, 25 L repeat; 4×50 – 25 R 25 L; RI :10 3×100…

  • One Armed Swimming

    One Armed Swimming

    Every now and then, my swim coach would make us do what he called the “scooter drill”. You take a pull buoy and hold it one hand in front of you, as you swim with one arm for a set number of strokes. Then you switch hands and swim with the other arm for a…

  • Importance of the Negative Split

    Importance of the Negative Split

    If there is one training principle I have come to both love and hate, it’s the negative split. It’s also one of the most important. In short, it means that you increase effort and, thus (hopefully) speed, on the second half of your workout or race. Workouts can also be gradual in increasing effort, resulting…

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  • Swimming Cheek to Shoulder

    Swimming Cheek to Shoulder

    In the last USMS Swimmer magazine, there was an article depicting a swimmer showing perfect streamline, one arm extended, form in the water. She was practicing the extension to pierce the water in as needle-like form as possible, and practicing to maintain this form. One thing they talked about was the fact that her head…

  • Shaving for Triathlon

    Shaving for Triathlon

    A few years back, I got hooked on the notion of shaving my legs for triathlon. I remember hearing about it and the supposed benefits of shaving my legs. Some of these were: 1. Biking – if you get in a crash and you need to put a bandage on, pulling it off is less…

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  • Constant Propulsion Swim Method

    Constant Propulsion Swim Method

    A while back I took a Total Immersion Course. I thought it was really good but it only gave me half the solution to swimming fast, which was to maintain a good body position while in the water to ensure minimal slowdown due to drag. The other half had to do with stroking. You’d think…

  • Bubbles

    Bubbles

    These last few weeks swimming I’ve been thinking about bubbles. Not bubble bath mind you, but the bubbles I create while swimming. If you read about bubble formation in swimming books, some of them say that it’s the byproduct of wasted energy. Energy that could have gone into propulsion gets wasted in creating turbulence in…

  • Focus: Counting Sucks!

    Focus: Counting Sucks!

    Marc Evans once asked me during a private swim session if I could actually do a drill and count how many strokes I do. It was a strange question, but very relevant as the task was very simple, which was to do 3 one arm-left arm strokes, then 3 one arm-right arm strokes, and then…

  • My New Heroes, Or There Ain’t Such Thing as Growin’ Old and Weak

    My New Heroes, Or There Ain’t Such Thing as Growin’ Old and Weak

    Today I pulled out an old issue of USMS Swimmer magazine, issue September-October 2006, which featured the XI Fina World Masters Championships held this year at Stanford University back in early August. Here are some of the folks who competed and how fast they swam: Laura Val, 55, 50 Free 29.59, 100 Free 1:02.63 Richard…

  • Pulling with Paddles, Swim Training Controversy

    Pulling with Paddles, Swim Training Controversy

    These last few months I’ve been building up my use of paddles while swimming. It was hard in the beginning, as they put a lot of stress on my shoulders. Slowly, over several weeks, I built my endurance to use them to about 400m now. Over the same period, I’ve noticed the pull in my…

  • Ways to Improve Your Swimming

    Ways to Improve Your Swimming

    Someone asked me what I thought about swimming and why they seemed to swim many times a week for months on end and never seem to improve. So here is what I’ve learned, and what has been told to me. Also some useful resources: 1. I think that swimming early, or doing any sport for…

  • CANCELLED!

    CANCELLED!

    UGH! The Waikiki Rough Water Swim this last Sunday in Honolulu got cancelled due to extremely rough conditions. Strong trade winds blew in and sent swells rising 10-15 feet. Wind whipped up the water and the surfers were lovin’ it, but not enough to risk the non-experienced swimmers of our race. 2 years ago, conditions…

  • Head Positioning

    Head Positioning

    One more thing I neglected to mention about my head positioning. I try to look about a few degrees forward of the vertical, and press the head and chin down. In that way, I know the water is not flowing over the back of my head which creates drag. When the water hits my forehead,…

  • Swim Secrets

    Swim Secrets

    These last two weeks I’ve been trying really hard to reinforce two things in my swimming. 1. The Catch My coach tells me about 2 weeks ago that I drop my arm and I don’t catch before I stroke. So I start really relaxing my upper arm and make sure I bend at the elbow…

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