Category: Swimming Technique

What It Takes to Be a World-Class Medley Swimmer Bowman, Bob The IM-and, in particular, the 400 IM-has progressed to the point where you need to be technically proficient in all four strokes, have superb endurance, great speed and power, and the ability to think strategically. There are four major components that go into developing […]

boomer boom, The Melina, Lois There’s been a boom in Bill Boomer’s ideas on coaching. The former coach at the University of Rochester has thrown out the conventional approach to swimming fast and has given coaches and swimmers a whole new language for discussing technique. Dara Torres had only swum two laps on her first […]

lowdown on hypoxic training, The Milak, Kevin Hypoxic (low oxygen) training, developed by legendary coach Doc Counsilman, has significant value in helping swimmers learn to keep their stroke smooth and stable in the face of anxiety and physiological adversity. Why do we swim freestyle, breathing on 3, 5, 7, 9 by 25s? Are we strengthening […]

A platform for fast swimming Bailey, Morgan Through observation, questions and positive debate, we as coaches can improve our own skills and help swimmers perform better than they ever have before. One way this can happen is by examining how and why we train when it comes to the biomechanics of the crawl stroke. Over […]

Hidden factors in freestyle swimming Colwin, Cecil The mobility of the shoulder girdle, combined with the timing of the arms, plays an important role in rhythm and momentum. At the higher levels of talent and skill, the main reason for the superiority of the crawl stroke lies in the continuity of movement produced by accurate […]

Windmill Revolution Volckening, Bill Although not widely used m previous years, the recent wave of sprinters using straight-arm freestyle has triggered a philosophical rethinking of the technique. In the early 19th century, the British swam in a very polite and peaceful manner. Civilized swimmers entered the pool carefully-without getting their heads wet-and glided gracefully along […]

Swimming for perfection Gaines, Rowdy The key to swimming fast freestyle is to perfect your technique.’ And the only way to do this is to work on each component of the stroke with drills that are specific to that component. When you put it all together, it will result in faster swimming. n 1984 at […]

Crossover or Modified Roll Turn With Pullout, The Milak, Kevin Michael Phelps demonstrates the difficult crossover or modified roll turn from backstroke, the following breaststroke pullout and the breakout. Before the rule change that allowed a rollover turn on backstroke, the modified roll turn was the quickest way to turn from backstroke to breaststroke in […]

Six fundamentals for fast breastroke Pontz, John John Pontz has had success in coaching breaststroke, as evidenced by two of his prize pupils, Kristen Woodring and Kyle Salyards. Here, Coach Pontz discusses his philosophy of breaststroke training and how it developed over the years. Last year, I was very fortunate to coach two of the […]

Best of “Tips on Technique” Swimming Technique’s website, SwimInfo.com, regularly publishes “Tips on Technique.” Following is a sampling of some of the tips that have appeared online-The Drop Push, Freestyle Flip Turns and Breaststroke/Butterfly Turns. Be sure to check out www.SwimInfo.com regularly to learn more on technique. Proper Getaway: The Drop Push Drop-pushing off the […]