Should I do a track start or a grab start?
That is a question I get asked quite a lot. My answer usually is that it really depends on many things.
Such things could be your body agility, what type of event you swim, how deep you want to go on a dive and what you feel comfortable with.
If yo...
Do you swim breaststroke every time you have a swim workout?
If you do, perhaps it is time to start learning other strokes and give your knees a bit of a rest.
I know quite a few competitive breaststroke swimmers who did not train properly during their younger years and now suffer from knee...
Final rating: 5/5
One of the toughest things to learn in swimming is a proper effective and efficient kick.
Many coaches can tell you that having a great kick is the essence of fast swimming, however, they also struggle with teaching the proper kicking technique.
No wonder though, the r...
Many beginners and even advanced swimmers dread the words "butterfly".
When swimmers come to practice and see the butterfly stroke written on the board or the practice sheet, the mood suddenly goes from wonderful life enjoyment to a sad end of the world like expressions.
As a coach, I can ju...
I love the Little Britain comedy show and the humor the main comedians, David Walliams and Matt Lucas, bring us in their other sketch comedy endeavors.
You don't see very many celebrities joining the swimming crowd and therefore, I was quite excited when I saw that David Walliams is putting on...
Not Only For Beginners
Now that you have had some time to practice getting used to the water
doing bops
blowing bubbles
putting your face in the water
holding breath and relaxing
It is time we start focusing on floating in a proper body position.
However, don't neglect the other...
This is the second post in the series of articles regarding what constitutes a great swimming start. If you have missed the first post, please click on the link below to get caught up and then come back.
Let's recap what are the 5 key elements of a successful start from a starting block.
1) Fast...
Everyone is different, but some commonalities arise when it comes to right-handed or left-handed swimmers.
The majority of us have one side of our body stronger than the other and this also shows during swimming specific movements and exercises, especially when deciding which foot to put forward...
The efficient movement of our bodies in the water while swimming, does not come naturally to the majority of our water filled planet's population. Putting our faces in the water and having fun around and in our local pools, lakes, oceans, seas or rivers is, however, as common as your favorite brea...
When it comes to learning your swimming start, there needs to be room for experimentation.
Without trying new things, you will never improve.
With that in mind, let’s examine some key aspects of the track start.
As I discussed in the grab vs. track start post before, the track start is bec...