One of the best ways to improve your freestyle is to incorporate “fist” swimming into your practices. Of course, you would never know this because all of my swimmers groan or mutter profanities under their breath whenever I assign it at swim practice. If you read most triathlon books or…
Want to become a faster swimmer and enjoy swimming more? Start by figuring out how to swim effectively in the water rather than immediately trying to build up your training volume. The reason that it’s more important to focus on how you swim rather than how far or how hard you swim…
Our students and parents always ask us where they can swim and practice outside of classes. While joining a health club is always an option, Chicago is a super cool city because the Chicago Park District has indoor and outdoor pools in nearly every neighborhood that have family, open, and…
I found this article in the March 6, 2014 “Chicago Tribune” online. As we move into Spring Break season, take a peek for some advice on keeping the kids safe around water. The article highlights some points that we make to our parents and our children in swim lessons: 1) …
I was going through email this morning and came across this interesting article from Phil Maffetone’s website on how an unhealthy diet can be found in Olympians as much as the rest of us.
I was working with a client this morning and we were talking about swimming on the back. New swimmers have some discomfort with swimming on the back because (a) they can’t see where they are going and don’t want to hit the wall, and (b) they can’t swim straight and…
One of my clients sent me a link to an article in Triathlon Competitor magazine called Do you know your Ape Index? The article talks about how arm length can affect your cadence — short arms yields a higher cadence and long arms yields a lower cadence. He asked me if…
I was reading through the Total Immersion Coaches Manual and came across a helpful chart. It provides a general stroke count range based on the height of the swimmer. A couple of caveats: 1) If your count is above the range, don’t think that you have to start swimming in…
I read an article on the American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA) website a while back. It’s written by John Leonard, the head of ASCA, and it’s a response to an email that he got from a coach about practicing with good swimming technique. For those who have not met John…
I’ve been getting a lot of questions recently about newspaper and magazine articles and a Today Show spot about the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) easing their past stance that aquatic programs for children under the age of four would not reduce drowing or teach swimming. Now they cite benefits…
