What to remember before and in a Butterfly Race...



Photo Credit


There are lots of things to remember in a Butterfly race:

On the Dive:

Put your goggles on at the side of the block,
When the first whistle blows you climb on to the block,
Then when the official says ' Take to your Marks' you pull back on the block as hard as you can,
Then when the seconds whistle beeps you push off the block with all your strength.

When you enter the water:

When you enter be streamline as possible,
You need to be about 1-2 feet under the water not to deep but not to shallow,
Then do a few quick fly icks underwater making sure you get past the flags on the dive,
Then come up and go straight into the stroke.

On the Swimming:

You should keep your legs together at all times,
As your arms come over:

When they come by your sides you kick once,
Then when they come near your head you kick once again so in the end you are kicking twice per stroke,

On the Turn:

You must touch the wall with two hands then as the same as breastroke you lift one arm over you head as the other whon goes up your body they then meet and you are streamline,
Then do a few fly kicks again like the dive and then come up and do the stroke again,

Streamline
 Photo Credit

On he finish:

Touch the wall with two hands and hit the wall as hard as you can making sure that you actually hit it as this could knock off point 0's of a second.

Training Tools....

Pull Boi



Hand Paddles



Kick Board



Fins



Snorkel

These items are the ones we use regualary....

________________________________________________________________________________



Underwater Camera Mask
Photo Credit



Underwater headphones
Photo Credit 



These items are the ones that I have seen on the internet and would like to have a go at....

What is a swimming gala....

A swimming gala is an amateur swimming competition between clubs or groups of swimmers, usually of young people.In the UK swimming galas are traditionally held at the end of the summer and through the autumn.
As well as the usual swimming events, there are often more fun events such as mixed relays and special races are often staged for the group leaders.

Swimming galas serve several purposes including competition, fund raising and social bonding.

Photo Credit

Famous olympic swimmers...



Tarzan
(picture from heyoscarwilde.com)



There are lots of famous swimmers but here are just a few of my favourite ones....

Johnny 'tarzan' Weissmuller: Johnny Weissmuller, of the tarzan movie fame, was also one of the best swimmers of the world during the 1920's. He won 5 olympic gold medals as well as a bronze medal. Plus, he also set 67 world records and has never lost a single swimming race, retiring from his swimmming career undefeated. Of course most people remember him portraying Tarzan, along with the characteristics Tarzan call, which he had invented.

Johnny
( picture from canada.com)

Dawn Fraser: Dawn Fraser is regarded as the greatest female swimmer in the world, being the first woman who swam the 100-meter event in less than a minute. When she was 12 years old, in 1952, a Sydney coach at one of the local baths spotted her. Dawn earned acclaim in 1955 when she broke currently held records in the freestyle events right up to 880 yds. She shot into international fame at the Melbourne Olympics held in 1956 when she broke the 100-meter freestyle record, which was set 20 years back by Willy Den Ouden. Just 18 years of age, she won 3 medals from her first Olympic games.


Dawn Fraser
( picture from schools.ash.org.au)

Ian Thorpe: An Australian, Ian Thorpe has won 5 Olympic golds as well as 11 gold medals in the World Championships. No one else from his country has been able to match is Olympic gold tally, while his World Championship feat has put him in the second place in swimming. Plus, he has been nominated four times as the World Swimmer of the Year by the Swimming World International magazine.

Ian Thorpe
( picture from daybreakingnews.com)

Jennifer Beth Thompson
( picture from browsebiography.com)

Jennifer Beth Thompson: She has won 12 Olympic medals, which includes 8 golds, while she represented the United States in the Summer Olympics of 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004, making her the most decorated Olympic swimmers in history.

Mark Spitz
(picture from olympicgamesonline.org)

Mark Spitz: Born in 1950, he has won 7 gold medals at the 1972 Olympics held in Munich, setting world records in all of the seven events. Widely regarded as the one of the all time greatest athletes, he was named the swimmer of the year in 1969, 1971, and 1972. Plus, the Sports Illustrated Magazine voted him one of the greatest Olympians and the athlete of the century in 2000. In addition, the International Olympic Committee has named him as one of the 5 athletes of the century.

 Mary T. Meagher: Named ‘Madame Butterfly’, she set a record in 1981 in the 200 meter butterfly event. Another record she had made was in the 100-meter butterfly in the same year. Later, she blazed her way to various other feats that brought glory and fame to her. For example, she won gold medals in the Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, in 1984, in the 200-meter and the 100-meter butterfly races, plus another gold for the butterfly leg of the medley relay for women. Then, in 1988 Olympics, held in Seoul, she won a bronze in the 200-meter butterfly.



Mary T. Meagher
(picture from sportsillustrated.cnn.com)

Matt Biondi: Born in 1965, Matthew Nicholas Biodi has won 11 Olympic medals, participating in the 1984, 1988, and 1992 Olympics. He equalled Mark Spitz’s feat of winning 7 medals in a single Olympic Games, in 1988. Biondi won 5 golds in Seoul, while he set records in four of the events.

Matt Biondi
(picture from 2008.nbcolympics.com)

Laure Manaudou: She is a French World, European, and Olympic swimming champion, and holds the world records currently for the 200 meters freestyle (long course) and the 400 meters freestyle (short course).

Laure Manaudou
(picture from thebizofknowledge.com)

Michael Phelps: He is a holder of world records in a number of events. Amongst his achievements are the 8 medals he won at the Summer Olympics of 2004 held in Athens, of which 6 were gold. He was named the World Swimmer of the Year in 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007.

Michael Phelps
(picture from hollywire.com)

These are just a few but they are all amazing olympians and great history in swimming.

What you should remember before and in a breastroke race....

Leisel Jones doing breastroke.
(picture from dailytelegraph.com.au)

In a race there are lots of things to remember....

On the dive:

Put goggles on at the side of the block,
On the first whistle you climb onto the block,
When the man says 'take to your marks' you pull back on the blocks,
Then when he says 'go' you use all you effort to push off the block as hard as you can,

When you enter the water:

Streamline for about 6 seconds,
Then pull your arms down to the side of your body hold this for about 3 seconds as you do this you are allowed to do a small flutter kick,
Then pull your arms back up the front of your body and stretch into streamline by this point you should be nearing the surface point of the water you then break into the stroke.

On the turn:

You MUST touch the wall with two hands other wise you could be disqualified,
Then put one arm in front next to your ear as the other arm comes over the surface of the water,
Then slam your hands together so that they are streamline,
Then do the same as you would on a breastroke dive do the pull down,flutter,push up, streamline motion you then break into the stroke.

On the finish:

You MUST touch the wall with two hands. Slam into the wall really hard with your hands so that you are definate that you touched the wall on the finish.

facts about swimming....

History:



(Picture from fina.org)
Ancient drawings.



1) Ancient drawings and paintings were found in Egypt detecting people swimming which date back to 2500 AD.

2) Swimming became an amateur sport in the late part of the nineteenth century.

The Olympic Rings
(picture from en.wikipedia.org)

3) Swimming became a part of the olympic games in 1896.

4) Swimming in the olympics started men's event only but women were able to participate in 1912.

5) The first man to cross the English Channel was Captain Matthew Webb who was an Englishman he did it in 1875.

6) The first woman to swim the English Channel is Gertrude Ederle, who was actually just a teenager at that time in 1926.

7)Mark Spitz was the first Olympic swimmer to win seven gold medals in a single Olympiad in the 1972 games.

Strokes:

Breastroke
(picture from china.org.cn)

1) The oldest form of stroke used is breaststroke.

2) In butterfly and breaststroke, swimmers need to touch the pool with both handsat the same time when they finish. Swimmers touch the pool with only one hand when they finish in freestyle and backstroke.

3) The most popular freestyle stroke is front-crawl, which is considered the fastest stroke.

Health and Excercise:

1) An hour of fast swimming could burn up to 650 calories. It burns off more calories than walking or biking.

Your heart and lungs
(picture from hsc.uwe.ac.uk)

2) Swimming strengthen your heart and lungs.

3) Swimming works out all of the body’s major muscles.

Other interesting swimming facts:

1) The first ocean liner with a swimming pool is the Titanic.

2) The two-piece bathing suit known as bikini got its name from Bikini Atoll, a US nuclear test site in the South Pacific.

3) Over 50% of world-class swimmers suffer from shoulder pain.

Meal Plan Nutrition...

A swimmer in training burns between up to 10 calories a minute. So a two-hour swim may require nearly 1,000 calories to use as fuel. So you need to pay close attention to your meals to maintain a properly balanced diet if you're a competitive swimmer.

Swimmer's diets require:

Carbohydrates,
Protein,
Fat,
Electrolytes,
Fluids.

Not only does a swimmer need to eat the right foods before competition, you need to eat right all year. Indulge in fast foods or sweets occasionally, but otherwise follow the rule of making 80 percent of the right food choices at least 80 percent of the time.

You should stay away from white pasta, rice, breads and bagels as much as you can, because of their big effect on blood sugar levels. Avoid high in fat beef and pork,hot dogs,chicken nuggets and most fast foods because of their high levels of saturated fats, which can slow down your performance.

All these things will help you in a race and keep your performance good.

What you should remember before and in a freestyle race...

There is lots of things to remember in a race...

On the dive:

Put goggles on at side of the block,
At the first whistle you climb onto the blocks,
When the man says 'Take to your marks' You pull back on the blocks,
Then when he says go push off with all your strenghth.

When you enter the water you have to be streamline,
Then do a few flutter kicks making sure you get past the flags on your dive.

On the tumble turn:

DON'T GLIDE INTO THE WALL AS YOU COULD WASTE SECONDS DOING THAT AND THOSE SECONDS COUNT.

Do a stroke so that you are a tiny bit away from the wall,
Then put your hands by your sides and flip over making sure that your legs are on the wall ready to push off.

The push off the wall bit has to be streamline,the longer you are under the water the better as you can go all the way to 15 meters of the pool (5 fifths of it).

Before coming up to take a breath after you have pushed off the wall you need to do 2 stroke swithout breathing just to make sure you are getting way past the flags.

The finish:

Make sure that you are fast slamming into the wall so that the water comes back to you with the force of your hand slamming hard.

IF YOU DON'T SLAM HARD YOU COULD LOSE A RACE BECAUSE SOMEONE HAS BEATEN YOU BY A 0.1 OF A SECOND BECAUSE YOU DID NOT SLAM BUT THEY DID.

They key thing to remember in a race: be streamline at all times!!!

Review- Aqua-sphere swimming goggles....



Photo credit



I subscribed to SportSister magazine, and as a subscription gift I received a pair of free swimming googles.

They were  Aqua sphere swimming goggles...

I really like this about the googles:

1. The part of the goggles is triangular shaped this gives me better vision of the pool and this especially works well when I am doing backstroke and breastroke,.

2. They are easy to fit to the size of your head as you can just press the button on the side of the goggles to make them bigger or pull the straps to make them smaller/tighter. This makes it so much easier to adjust.

 I have tried lots of other brands of goggles but have found the Aqua Sphere my favourite so far...

I have seen them on sale here...

There is only oe thing that I am not keen on which is that sometimes they steam up when not expected, apart from that I personally think they are very good goggles.

Gala Essentials....

This post is going to be about what I think are the essentials at a swimming gala....


1. A club hat and a spare hat incase one snaps or breaks.
2.Two Pairs of goggles for the same reason above.
3. Two towels one for poolside to keep your body warm and one to dry yourself after the day has finished.

4.  3 drinks so you should be hydrated through the day ( more would still be great as long as you just keep drinking).

5. Different sorts of food:

Thngs with sugar in such as Jelly cubes, Jaffa cakes, Chocolate is as well but it might melt on poolside (the temperature is quite hot on poolside).



Jaffa Cakes (picture  from lolitics.wikispaces.com)



Pasta (picture from walldesk.net)



Or

Or other great food is things like pasta because it has lots of carbohydrates in.

WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT My first competition - an orange Giveaway...

Oranges are great for energy before a race, so I decided to do a giveaway on my blog...



My own 'orange' competition

In the giveaway there is:

A drawstring bag (great for holding your swim kit!)
Sanctuary Spa Essentials pack which includes:   body wash, body scrub, body lotion and luxury bath float all in handy travel sizes so great for use after your swim training..

To enter this competition just do the following:

1) Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect
2) Leave a comment below saying you have done this and please leave a form of contact

That's it! So easy.... competition ends 31/7/11 and a winner will be chosen using Randomizer.org from all valid entries. UK only and no correspondence will be entered into.  I will announce the winner via this blog and Twitter....Good luck x


Using Randomizer.org the winner has been chosen as number 7: @lindylubilou Please DM @swim666 on Twitter with your address details.
CONGRATULATIONS!


Time Trials.....

Just got back from an exhausting 2 hours of time trials...


I had to swim:
first was the 200m Freestyle
200m Individual medley (fly back breast free)
400m Freestyle
50m Fly
and last was the 50m Freestyle

In the 200m Freestyle I got a 9 second P.B.
In the 200m I.M I got a 27 second P.B.
In the 400m Freestyle I did not get a P.B.
In the 50m Fly I got a big P.B because I did not have a time before as I had never done that race in a gala before.
And Last in the 50m Freestyle Idid not get a P.B.

But the times were all still great even though I did not get P.B on all of them.

Silent Sunday...

Running at Dearnford Lake...

Here is an image of the lake.
Taken from dearnford.com

The Lake is beautiful.(as you can see)
We ran the lake 3 times around. The scenary is amazing with colourful flowers.

With a loveley cafe and fishing facilities.
The food at the cafe is loveley and the staff that serve are very friendly.

Salford Swimming Gala....

Last weekend I was at the City of Salford for a swimming gala.

Here is a picture of the pool,
from http://www.salford.gov.uk/fitcity-bp.htm

I had 5 races to swim:
The first race was the 200m Breastroke,
200m Backstroke,
50m.. Breastroke,
100m Breastroke,
and last was the 400m freestyle.

I got pb's ranging from 54.0 seconds to 0.2 of a second.

The medals for my age were placed 11 and 12 year old's together so I did not really have a very good chance of getting a medal considering there was a lot of 11 and 12 year old's there.

My highest place was 18th and my lowest place was 36th.




Here is a picture outside of the pool we were at,
taken from http://www.cityofsalfordswimmingclub.com/competitionsresults.htm



The pool was very nice and pleasant to visit and would love to go again.

Silent Sunday