Hallo Gary, Thank you for the very informative materials I received from you. Late last month my daughter participated in the CANA zone 3 &4 championships in Lusaka. She is 12.

We have noticed that she panics a lot and doesn’t do well in competitions compare to training. During trainings she swims very well and fast this isn’t seen at all in competitions. what could the reason be?  She really looked prepared and good before the meet, even though her times dropped , she could have done much better.

Thanks B

ANSWER:

Hi B,

What your daughter is experiencing is not unusual for some swimmers.  They can train really well and then when it comes to their main swim meet they do not perform to their expectations.

What I have done in the past as a coach of swimmers like this is twofold.

Firstly, we introduced ghost races during at least one training session a week.  This was were I would include in one session each week the opportunity for everyone to race an event for time during a session. Most times I would tell them what distance or stroke they would be doing and sometimes I let them choose.

Secondly, I had the swimmers compete in smaller swim meets once every 3 weeks in the lead up to the major meet. This way, they practised racing on a more continuous basis and were ‘race fit’ when they came to their major meet.

I believe either of these solutions may help your daughter learn more about racing and being prepared to swim fast.

The key to racing well is to forget about everyone else and focus on yourself and your lane.  It is the time to put into action everything you have practised in training.

Good luck.

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

Hi,

Could you please answer a question relating to how to breath correctly for freestyle swimming. On the exhale phrase, do I breath out, underwater of course, through my nose or through my mouth or a bit of both, in a long release?

Also, when I use the 3 stroke method with a alternating head turning left and then right on the inhale phrase, I seem to run out of air, like I am rushing or something, maybe I should switch to a 5 stroke method?  I haven’t being able to find too much information on this question. I can’t seem to get this phrase of my freestyle swimming right.

Thanks

Shawn

ANSWER:

Hi Shawn,

Most swimmers learn to exhale underwater through their month, however there is no reason you could not use a combination of exhaling through your mouth and nose.  From what I understand, swimmers who try to exhale through their ‘nose only’, sometimes struggle to exhale all the air before turning to breath in again.

So to answer your first question I would say exhale primarily through your mouth.

In regards to your concern in regards to ‘running out of air’ and  the feeling of ‘rushing’ when you breath, this is often related to not exhaling fully before breathing in again.  If a swimmer does not exhale fully when they turn to breath in, there is not enough room in the lungs for a deep breath in. The air remaining in the lungs is stale air and needs to be exhaled to be replaced.  This often explains the ‘running out of air’ feeling.

Practise fully exhaling through your mouth before turning your head to take a deep breath in. It will take some time to get used to however should help you a lot.

If anyone else has some suggestions for Shawn, please leave them in the comments section below.

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

Hi Gary
Can you please explain the reason why you use flippers when training? And is it better with flippers or with out?
Anne

ANSWER:

Hi Anne,

There are many reasons why flippers are used in swimming.  These can be summarised as follows:

• Using flippers will improve a swimmers body position and their technique. When a swimmers uses fins, they gain more speed and sit higher in the water. For poor kickers, their feet will stay higher in the water providing a more streamlined position.
• Using flippers will increase your fitness and cardiovascular conditioning. Many swimmers forget to use their legs when swimming. Your largest muscles are located in your legs. By activating the large muscles in your legs, you will get greater cardiovascular benefits, burn more calories and increase fitness levels. By using fins, you increase the load on the legs and so long as you put in a solid effort, your cardiovascular system will have to work even harder, leading to greater benefits.
• Using flippers will help you to increase your ankle flexibility.  An increased range of motion in your ankles when you do not have fins on will provide you with improved forward propulsion.  This is particularly important for those people who are not flexible because when they kick, their feet act like hooks and it feels like you are being pulled backwards.  Good swimmers will plantar flex their ankles and feet, or point their toes so that there is a straight line from the knee to the toes. By wearing fins, there is an increased load on the feet from the increased surface area. This forces swimmers to extend their ankles more when kicking with fins.  This leads to more flexibility in the ankles over time, and a more efficient and propulsive kick.
• Using flippers will give you the feeling of swimming fast through the water.  When you take your flippers off, you should be aiming to replicate this same feeling. The transfer of this feeling of swimming higher in the water and faster to doing the same when you are not wearing fins is called neuromuscular patterning.  The aim is for the muscles and nerves in the body to remember the feeling of swimming higher and faster and duplicate it the next time you swim with or without fins. By switching between wearing fins and not, you can duplicate this pattern over and over again leading to body position, technique and speed through the water.

So going on the information above, using a combination of swimming with and without fins would be very useful for swimmers.

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

Hi Gary,

I would be very interesting in your opinion on what breathing pattern would you would recommend to young competitive swimmers (10-12 years old) and kids 5-6 years old?

Our coach is strictly follows one-side breathing while I have a fear that this will develop very unbalanced technique for kids. Moreover, I see that as long as the body is not rotated to the ”unbreathing” side, the small kids do not have enough strength to pull the arm outside the water and drag on water surface or even underwater.

Thank you, Michael

ANSWER:

Hi Michael and thanks for your question.

In my opinion, some children will swim freestyle well breathing only to one side and others will thrive breathing bilaterally (or every 3 strokes).

As a young coach I always taught swimmers to breath every 4 on their left, breathe every 4 on their right and to be able to breathe every 3 or 5 strokes too.

I had a very good swimmer who was 13 years old and breathed bilaterally all the time.  My former coach then did some work with her over an 8 week period and her 400m freestyle time dropped by 8 seconds in that time and she (just) won the Australian Age Championships… breathing every 4 strokes.  When she breathed every 4 strokes, she looked a lot more balanced in the water and was able to get into a better rhythm than breathing every 3 strokes.

This experience really opened my eyes to the benefits of breathing on one side only and so long as the swimmer is able to hold correct technique with both arms and rotate effectively to both sides, it can be very effective.

Having said that, I still coach young swimmers to be able to breathe on both sides and bilaterally as I believe this helps them develop balance in the water and equal rotation to both sides and provides them with choices to breathe on the left, the right or bilaterally as they get older.

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

To Gary, Just a quick query re: the IM, and in particular the backstroke to breaststroke turn.

Once the swimmer touches the wall on their back, must they flip backwards or just push off on their front before gliding and pulling through under the water.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated-ie step by step pictures or sequences.

Thanks very much, Gary R

ANSWER:

Hi Gary,

For the backstroke to breaststroke turn, swimmers must always touch the wall with their hand whilst remaining on their back.

Once they have touched the wall they may:

1. flip their legs backwards over their head and then push off on their front for the breaststroke split stroke under water, or

2. pull their legs up under their body so that their feet touch the wall and then push off on their front for the breaststroke split stroke under water.

I will look to put the two turning styles into a video for you in the future Gary to assist.

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

As a swimmer I had the opportunity to observe my own parents first hand and how they managed me as a swimmer, and how they worked with, and communicated with my coaches.  I was also fortunate enough to be coached by three of the most talented and experienced swimming coaches in the world - Julie Dyring, Bill Sweetenham and Leigh Nugent.

As a coach for more than a dozen years I worked closely with swimmers of all ages and have been directly involved in the introduction of parents to the sport of swimming.

For a swimming parent, understanding the role of the coach, the role the parent is required to undertake, and the responsibilities of a swimmer is critical to ensuring a positive and successful experience for the whole family. Yes, the whole family is affected by having a swimmer in the family and learning how to balance your time and other family member’s needs around the swimming schedule can be a challenge.

Over the years I have observed many parents who are introduced to swimming for the first time when their child is promoted to a junior squad.

For most swimmers who train for competitions, the measurement of their improvement is through performance and parents are encouraged to understand the many different aspects to training and competitions in an effort to provide parents with a more complete understanding of the sport and what a swimmer is experiencing.

One of the aspects I love about swimming is that when swimmers compete, no one else can affect their performance.  They have their own lane and no one can tackle them, bowl them out, hit the ball past them or affect their performance in any way.  It is just the swimmer and the black line.

Children who choose to train and swim competitively learn so many life skills as they become more exposed to the sport.

In general their grades improve at school, their time management skills improve and they learn how to win and how to lose with grace.  They are introduced to goal setting and taking responsibility for themselves.  They are also exposed to the concept that if you work hard on a skill and commit to doing something correctly over and over again, it will improve.

‘Swimming for Parents’ is a vital resource for all swimming parents.  The book, available also as an eBook with instant delivery, is a lifelong project that draws on many of my experiences as a swimmer, coach, swimming administrator and now as a parent of young children who enjoy swimming.

This book has been written to educate parents of junior and teenage swimmers and has sold more than 3000 copies all over the world.

The second edition is now available at www.SwimmingForParents.com.

Hi Gary,

In the breaststroke, should the elbows stay locked until the arms reach the “Y” point of the out sweep?

Looking forward to your advice,

Howard (UK)

ANSWER:

Hi Howard,

Yes, I believe they should. Too many swimmers bend their elbows at the beginning of the breaststroke out sweep and this leaves the back of their hands pointing towards each other.

Remember that in swimming you primarily move in the direction of the back of your hand.  By bending the elbow early in the pull, there is no forward movement gained from the out sweep.

Begin the stroke with the elbows locked and the hand angled slightly at the wrist so that the back of the hand points slightly forward, then as you part the arms to a point just wider than the shoulders, the swimmer will get good forward momentum.

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

My 7 year old son is a keen swimmer and trains 3 times a week (7 – 9 km per week). He has a problem on his crawl whereby when breathing his arm on the opposite side crosses under his body. Can you tell me the best way the fix this ?

Looking forward to your advice,

Howard (UK)

ANSWER:

Hi Howard,

This question is asked regularly as many swimmers, both young and old, have this problem.

As a swimmer turns to breath on their right hand side, their left hand should be entering the water out in front (and vice-versa).

As the left hand pulls through, the head is turned to the side to breathe and some swimmers will cross their hand over midline to gain balance in the water whilst they are breathing.  They will also often drop their shoulder and elbow and let their hand go straight towards the midline (and further) at the beginning of the stroke.

To correct this, when the front hand enters the water, the swimmer needs to scull (or press) slightly outwards and then scull back in towards the midline whilst maintaining a high elbow position. I will be doing a video on this soon and this will help greatly for your son to understand this better.

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

Hi Gary,  I appreciate your time and dedication

First of all, I want you to get to know more about my 12 years daughter whose life dream is to become an Olympic champion and a world champion Her life is dedicated to swimming and actually she is a champion here in our country ( Egypt) I always encourage her and give her all the support she needs.

My question is, her coach advised me to start giving her protein supplement as a way of helping her having stronger muscles

I know that it’s better for kids to have a complete healthy meal rather than having supplements but my concern is that she has no time to eat a proper meal, she stays late at school till 6PM then she comes home for her training sessions. I can only control her supper late at night after her training but the rest of the day she eats at school.

she trains 6 days weekly, 2 hours each in water and 4 times weekly, 2 hours each in the track ( running and jumping obstacles,…)

P.S. she didn’t reach her puberty age yet ! Please advise !

Thanks,

Best Regards, RY

ANSWER:

Hi RY,

I do not believe in protein supplements for children and encourage children to eat a healthy meal and healthy snacks in between.

Protein is well known for its role in muscle development and recovery.  This role in development is especially important for the adolescent athlete who is still growing and maturing.

Protein is found in meats, meat alternatives and dairy products.  Good sources of protein include beef, lamb, goat, pork, duck, turkey, fish, tofu, egg, nuts, seeds, legumes (beans, lentils), soy products, milk, yoghurt, cheese and ice cream.

It is important that you look for ways to eat some of these foods at school when she is not in your care, as well as foods with the necessary carbohydrates and other vitamins.

For a 12 year old girl she is doing a lot of training 6 x 2hrs in the water and 4 x 2 hours on the track.

Please keep a close eye on her energy levels as 10 x 2 hour sessions a week is a lot.

I would strongly recommend that you download the following two eBooks to read, which will help you as parents and your daughter.

Swimming for Parents – www.SwimmingForParents.com

Nutrition for Swimmers – www.NutritionForSwimmers.com

All the best,

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

Hi Gary,

How do I stop my legs from dragging low in the water when I’m swimming freestyle?

Thanks, Terry

ANSWER:

Hi Terry,

This is a common question from males particularly.

A humans centre of buoyancy is in their mid chest and their centre of gravity is closer to the chest than a man’s centre of gravity, leading to a lower leg position in the water.

The attached photo demonstrates this and is quite exaggerated compared with most swimmers.

Interestingly, in the Journal of Sports Sciences: by Scott P. Mcleana and Richard N. Hinrichsa
• tested the center of buoyancy in males and females vs. their kicking rate
• found that female’s center of buoyancy was higher up on their chest than on men’s (meaning that the males have more of a pivot point than females)
• as a result, males have to kick more than females to go the same distance
• this is because the females have a better level of balance while in the water

My suggestions are to:

1. really work on your kicking to be able to kick your legs up higher near the surface

2. make sure your head is down in a streamline position and not lifted slightly (as this will also cause your legs to drop)

Give this a try and let me know how you go?

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert