Notice Board

News

COACHES TIPS FOR THE JANUARY 2010

Competitions Results

Coaches Tips

10 Tips To Improve Your Technique

1. Be flexible

Swimmers have got to be flexible. Good flexibility is important for streamlining, stroke technique and to help recovery. Before you leap in the pool do some stretching.

2. Use it, don’t abuse it

The water is your friend. You don’t have to fight with water or try “too hard”, which results in wasted effort. Aim to share the same spirit as the water.

3. Be a smooth operator

Streamlining is one of the best ways of swimming faster, when you start and turn you push off a solid wall or block. This is when you travel at your fastest in the pool. As you push off, get your arms tightly together above your head and your head in between your arms in a straight line down your body to your pointed feet.

4. Kick out

Good swimming is about having a strong kick. Too many swimmers bend their knees and forget about their feet altogether. Poor ankle flexibility will act as an anchor and is like driving with the handbrake on. Kick from the hip, with your knees hardly flexed and your toes pointed.

5. Control the power

Underwater arm actions should be “Slow to Fast”.

6. It’s at your fingertip

Aim to pull with your fingertips this well help you to achieve a “firm” paddle with your hand and maximise the efficiency of your “catch”.

7. On a roll

For alternating strokes top swimmers roll the core of the body from one side to the other, while keeping their head fixed, as if rotating the body on a spit. When you roll like this, you can reach further forward on each stroke and maximise your stroke efficiency.

8. Make it count

Try counting your strokes in a length occasionally. Then try bringing your stroke count down by one, but swimming equally as fast. This means you are swimming more efficiently and “holding” the water better.

9. Core!

Core strength is really important for stability. To have good core strength you need to work on core abdominal and back strength (lots of sit ups, press ups and back arches). In swimming this helps keep your legs up towards the surface of the water, meaning less drag and faster swimming.

10. Turn on a sixpence

For touch turns, as you touch the end, keep your eyes fixed on the wall in front of you as you bring your knees up sharply to your chest For flip turns your feet should start the push just before they touch the wall so you “bounce off the wall