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| Swim Like a Champion Today |
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We had a special presence on deck between Wednesday and Saturday of last week. Ed Spencer, coach of multiple Olympic medalists and National Champions in Industry Hills (near Los Angeles), Reno Swim Club, and Dynamo Swim Team (Atlanta, GA) was on hand by decree of USA Swimming to find out how we are getting to the successful level we have acheived and also to help us determine a course for more improvement. In our talks about age-group one area in which he noted that every age-group squad in the nation can be doing a better job was working with the underwater dolphin kicking. It is obvious that most swimmers at the international level in every short free, every backstroke, every fly, every any IM race are doing it and are doing it very fast. If the big boys and big girls are doing it, why isn't everyone else? For the same reason that swimmers decide to skimp on their streamlines, fail to keep their arms straight in butterfly recovery, let their legs sink in free and back, and shorten up on their breastroke...IT'S HARD TO DO IT RIGHT (at first)! When you do something over and over and over and over and over and over, until it becomes second nature...IT BECOMES EASY! There was a time that you could not walk, you could not feed yourself, you could not swim at all, you could not write your own name. You practiced those skills and became proficient (for the most part) in all of them and now you don't even need to think about it! I frequently ask our swimmers to look to role models for examples of great swimming technique. Watch what they are doing right! Yes, the breathing patterns may vary. Yes, some swimmers may have some idiosyncracies that your coach does not want you to emulate. Watch what they are doing right and copy that EVERY DAY at EVERY OPPORTUNITY. Here is a direct link to WCSN's coverage of the world championships from Australia (and other swimming events), brought to you by youtube.com. Check it out: Now for our HOT (Hungriest Of The) WEEK Swimmers:
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