Swim-Swim-Swim

After some down time training wise, I am about to ramp up training again. I sat down with my coach Mike McMahon and discussed what my main priorities will be. Or better so, what my single main priority will be: THE SWIM.

Tying together what I have learned from Mike, my own experience and newly gained insights on Motor Control and Learning (University of Queensland), this article will supplement my endeavor to convince my athletes that even swimming for 10’ to just “get in and feel the water” is important for swim technique (and therefore performance) improvement.
Yep! I am serious. It has to do with re-shaping Internal Models in your brain. I will break up the topic in a few Chapters.

1. Improving Swim Technique – Better Hydrodynamics
2. The Brain Part 1. Bringing Swimming Technique to a “lower level”
3. The Brain Part 2. Internal Models
4. Scheduling Practice Session to get the most out of it
5. Some other thoughts I might have. Functional training for swimming maybe. Or so.

1.Improving Swim Technique – Better Hydrodynamics

Decreasing your swim time involves two factors: Increasing your fitness level and increasing your efficiency in the water.
Better strength and endurance will increase your fitness and therefore the propulsive forces that can be applied to the water. Increasing efficiency in the water means becoming more hydrodynamic, which can be achieved by improving stroke biomechanics. Improving your technique will allow you to reduce drag by streamlining, hence safe energy and gain speed.
In fact, to swim 10% faster one would have to increase power by 33%. At the same time, to swim 11% faster, one would have to increase efficiency (reduce drag) by only 10%.

That is why I highly recommend a Personal Swim Analysis. Here is what you will get:
While observing your stroke above and below the water surface I will recognize the components of swimming and make notes about your stroke pattern. After discussing the Basics of Swimming with you and explaining the components of the stroke I will work with you on several drills, individually designed for you. You will receive a technique workout emailed to you, which allows you to make further progress. There will be a follow up session, where I make sure that you learned the drills correctly.

For more information, please contact Marion at sumarion@web.de or 808-227 5549.

My sister and Me - Reborn

May I introduce: my nieces. Sarah-Mia (left) and Elisa (right). The strange thing is that Elisa totally looks alike my sister Michaela and Sarah-Mia so looks like me when I we were that age. I will visit them in mid January and I look very forward to it. They are just simply cool. Schnuggibuggi-Schlawiner!!