Can Jellyfish Hear Your Scream?

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics / Camps: Challenge Barcelona Camps April 2014 Full information: here Lancaster SS Squad Full information here Lancaster UK, Video Analysis Consultations Full information here Loughborough SS Squad Full information here Acton UK, Video Analysis Consultations Full information here Richmond SS Workshops Full information here Mallorca SS Camps 2014 Full information: here Loughborough SS Clinics Full information: here Swim/Tri Camps Alicante All year round Full information: here New Forest SS Squad Full information here Richmond SS Squad Full information here For more info on SS Certified Coaches see here

If you are learning to swim freestyle you will be coming to terms with having your face down in the water, finding air to breathe and often doing that whilst being out of your depth. Well done to you, that's not easy at all!

When you're going through these challenges it is important to keep your moral high and not get down about how hard it can be. It can and will get easier with perseverance and working on the right things in your stroke technique. e.g. http://www.feelforthewater.com/2012/05/two-quick-tips-if-you-struggle-with.html

Learning freestyle is often a challenge in overcoming anxiety and one thing to realise is that there's no magic wand here, as you confidence grows it will get easier but nearly every swimmer (even elite swimmers) have some level of anxiety in the water - even if they don't openly admit it. So don't feel bad about that!

To back up that point, here's a funny extract from Coach Annie's journal from her recent trip from the UK to sunny Perth. Annie's an experienced open water swimmer but even she had a little setback she needed to overcome during a training swim:

That morning I accepted the gracious offer of a swim in the Swan River's Freshwater Bay with Swim Smooth's Adam Young. It was a crisp sunny Sunday morning and the blue shark-free waters shimmered in the early morning sunlight.

We met Paul who was half way through his 20km swim building up to his Manhattan Island win a few weeks later. He and the rest of the marathon swimmer squad were putting in regular 10-30km swims in the river:

Feeding from a pole is a skill marathon swimmers need to develop.

Paul started on his second 10km lap (!) and then Adam jumped in the water and headed out after Paul shouting back "There might be a few jellyfish but they don't sting!". He must be joking right, we're in a RIVER, does he think I'm that easily fooled? Please no jellyfish, I don't do jellyfish.

So he swims off into the distance and I get stuck into thinking "please if there are any jellyfish, just don't come near me" coupled with "you can do this, just don't freak out now!".

OMG, it turns out Matilda Bay is actually like a Japanese Jellyfish soup:

(Ed: It's bad but not quite that bad!!)

Every 5 seconds the jellies were slithering over my wetsuit past my body, touching the skin on my feet and neck. Hold it together - hold it together! I did pretty well for about 30 minutes until I head-butted straight into one which then slid down my face:

Ssscccrrrreeeeeaaaaammm!!!!

The guys tell me that if you listen carefully you can still hear that scream echoing around Freshwater Bay and although I didn't know it at the time it caused some alarm to the good people of Perth having a peaceful breakfast on their verandas overlooking the river.

Annie safely back in the pool and
no worse for wear.

Our wetsuit free marathon swimming group (think big burly bronzed manly men) had just finished their own long swim and also heard the scream. They rushed to locate the source and help this damsel in distress!

Frankly I wouldn't have minded being rescued at this point (Ed: especially by big burly bronzed men...) but they were nearly 1km away down the river - I guess I do scream loud! - and I was only 100m from the shore. So I managed to do a sort of backwards breast stroke keeping my head as far out of the water as possible until I could wade onto the safety of dry land and walk back tail between my legs.

The marathon swimmers rushed up and asked if I knew who had screamed. As they were about to dive in and conduct a search and rescue operation I had to swallow my pride and sheepishly admit it was me...

I felt pretty down about myself for a few hours afterwards until I realised that actually, I was taking on my fears - swimming with thousands of jellyfish - and doing a pretty good job of it for quite a time. That was really hard and swimming anywhere else now feels easy in comparison! Onwards and upwards!

Annie


Like Annie, give yourself a little credit for taking things on and pushing your limits, a few setbacks along the way are inevitable but try not to get down about them. The satisfaction you gain from overcoming them will be all the greater for it.

Our best advice is to push yourself a little further every session, try not to get in a comfort zone where you just do what you know you can do and nothing more. Move things forwards a little every time you swim and your confidence will grow and those fears gradually subside. You'll be glad to hear that swimming with jellyfish is entirely optional!

Swim Smooth!

Can Jellyfish Hear You Scream?

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics / Camps: Challenge Barcelona Camps April 2014 Full information: here Lancaster SS Squad Full information here Lancaster UK, Video Analysis Consultations Full information here Loughborough SS Squad Full information here Acton UK, Video Analysis Consultations Full information here Richmond SS Workshops Full information here Mallorca SS Camps 2014 Full information: here Loughborough SS Clinics Full information: here Swim/Tri Camps Alicante All year round Full information: here New Forest SS Squad Full information here Richmond SS Squad Full information here For more info on SS Certified Coaches see here

Here's a funny story from Coach Annie who is an experienced pool and open water swimmer. It's from her journal of her recent trip from the UK to the Swim Smooth home base in Perth:

That morning I accepted the gracious offer of a swim in the Swan River's Matilda Bay with Adam. It was a crisp sunny Sunday morning and the blue shark-free waters shimmered in the early morning sunlight.

We met Paul who was half way through his 10km swim building up to his Manhattan Island win a few weeks later. He and the rest of the channel swimmer squad were putting in regular 10-30km swims in the river:

Feeding from a pole is a skill marathon swimmers need to develop.

Paul swam on then Adam jumped in the water and shouted back "There might be a few jellyfish but they don't sting!" before stroking out into the bay. He must be joking right, we're in a RIVER, does he think I'm that easily fooled? Please no jellyfish, I don't do jellyfish.

So he swims off into the distance and I get stuck into thinking "please if there are any jellyfish, just don't come near me" coupled with "you can do this, just don't freak out now!".

OMG, it turns out Matilda Bay is actually like a Japanese Jellyfish soup:

(Ed: It's bad but not quite that bad!!)

Every 5 seconds the jellies were slithering over my wetsuit past my body, touching the skin on my feet and neck. Hold it together - hold it together! I did pretty well for about 30 minutes until I head-butted straight into one which then slid down my face:

Ssscccrrrreeeeeaaaaammm!!!!

The guys tell me that if you listen carefully you can still hear that scream echoing around Matilda bay and although I didn't know it at the time it caused some alarm to the good people of Perth having a peaceful breakfast on their verandas overlooking the river.

Annie safely back in the pool and
no worse for wear.

Our wetsuit free marathon swimming group (think big burly bronzed manly men) had just finished their own long swim and also heard the scream. They rushed to locate the source and help this damsel in distress!

Frankly I wouldn't have minded being rescued at this point (Ed: especially by big burly bronzed men...) but they were nearly 1km away down the river - I guess I do scream loud - and I was only 100m from the shore. So I managed to do a sort of backwards breast stroke keeping my head as far out of the water as possible until I could wade onto the safety of dry land and walk back tail between my legs.

The marathon swimmers rushed up and asked if I knew who had screamed? As they were about to dive in and conduct a search and rescue operation I had to swallow my pride and sheepishly admit it was me... and then cop a little Aussie banter to boot.

I felt pretty down about myself for a few hours afterwards until I realised that actually, I was taking on my fears - swimming with thousands of jellyfish - and doing a pretty good job of it for quite a time. That was really hard and swimming anywhere else now feels easy in comparison!

Annie


What can we take from Annie's experience? It highlights how everyone feels anxious to a greater or lesser extent when they swim and how even for strong swimmers that anxiety can easily bubble over into outright panic with the right triggers. Nobody is superman (or superwoman) particularly when they are in water.

Wherever you are with your swimming, give yourself a little credit for taking things on and pushing your limits, a few setbacks are inevitable along the way but try not to get down about them. The satisfaction you gain from overcoming them will be all the greater for it.

If you are learning to swim freestyle you will be coming to terms with having your face down in the water, finding air to breathe and often doing that whilst out of your depth. Well done to you, that's not easy for anyone at first - it's probably harder than swimming with oodles of jellyfish in a river!

Our top tip is to push yourself a little further every session, try not to get in a comfort zone where you just do what you know you can do. Move things forwards a little every time you swim and your confidence will grow and your fears gradually subside. You'll be glad to hear that introducing jellyfish is entirely optional!

Swim Smooth!

Can A Glass Of Fine Champagne Help You Swim Better?

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics / Camps: Challenge Barcelona Camps April 2014 Full information: here Lancaster SS Squad Full information here Lancaster UK, Video Analysis Consultations Full information here Loughborough SS Squad Full information here Acton UK, Video Analysis Consultations Full information here Richmond SS Workshops Full information here Mallorca SS Camps 2014 Full information: here Loughborough SS Clinics Full information: here Swim/Tri Camps Alicante All year round Full information: here New Forest SS Squad Full information here Richmond SS Squad Full information here For more info on SS Certified Coaches see here

Actually, it just might...

Many swimmers move their head around on every stroke when they swim:

If you do this yourself you are unlikely to be aware of the motion but you will be stirring up your inner ear which at best will make you feel slightly dizzy and at worst leave you nauseous and give you a headache. Developing a good stroke technique is hard enough without trying to do so whilst dizzy!

To fix this problem, practise by bending forwards slightly in front of a mirror on land. Focus on keeping your head still while you roll your body from one side to the other (move your feet in small steps to help):

When you feel like you are getting the hang of this use the 'Champagne Glass' visualisation to help transfer this still head across into your stroke:

Imagine you have a glass of fine Champagne (or your favourite tipple) balanced on the top of your head. As you swim you've got to keep your head dead still or you will spill the bubbles... and nobody likes to do that! Rotate your head smoothly to the side to breathe but then return to your fixed head position, looking at the black line on the bottom of the pool 1-2m in front of you.

Try this visualisation the next time you swim whether you know this is an issue in your stroke or you are not sure. Does it help? Do you feel more balanced and in control when you swim? If so you've got another thing to like about Champagne!

A useful tool to develop this further is a snorkel such as the Finis Freestyle Snorkel. Not only can you swim without having to rotate to breathe (which gives you longer to practise keeping your head in one position) but if you do move your head you will immediately feel the resistance of the water on the side of the snorkel, giving you useful feedback:

Swim Smooth!

Jodie Swallow: Anything But Boring

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics / Camps: Loughborough SS Squad Full information here Acton UK, Video Analysis Consultations Full information here Richmond SS Workshops Full information here Mallorca SS Camps 2014 Full information: here Loughborough SS Clinics Full information: here Swim/Tri Camps Alicante All year round Full information: here New Forest SS Squad Full information here Richmond SS Squad Full information here Lancaster SS Squad Full information here Lancaster UK, Video Analysis Consultations Full information here For more info on SS Certified Coaches see here

The Hawaii Ironman is this Saturday and if you're a triathlon fan (like us) we bet you can't wait to see the best long course athletes in the world duke it out in the extreme heat and humidity of the lava fields of Kona. The event has a great live internet feed you can tune into here: ironman.com/triathlon/coverage/detail.aspx?race=worldchampionship&y=2013

The women's pro field has a real wildcard in it in the form of Britain's Jodie Swallow. Jodie is an ITU Long Course World Champion (Perth 2009) and Ironman 70.3 World Champion (2011) but is racing in only her third Ironman. Her fantastic win at Ironman Kalmar in August qualified her for Kona with a brilliant 8:54 clocking for the 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run distance.

Back in 2009 in Perth, the very next day after her win, Jodie was keen to jump in the water with us at Claremont Pool and have a little video analysis on her swimming. Watch Paul Newsome's summary of her stroke from that footage here:

We'll let that clip speak for itself but suffice to say Jodie epitomises the Swinger Swim Type with a ton of rhythm and momentum in her stroke. It's important to understand that she's not hacking at the water, she is actually working with it, just with a lot of purpose and rhythm!

If Jodie's bike and run form in the extreme heat and humidity of Kona is an unknown quantity, in the water her ability is anything but unknown. Jodie is one of the best female triathlon swimmers in the world - in fact in Perth in 2009 she caught all but ## of the men's pro field who started ## ahead of her over the 4km distance!

The conditions in the Swan River were very challenging that day with a short chop blown up by a strong easterly wind making it very hard for the swimmers to find a rhythm in their stroke. It wasn't easy for Jodie either but versus anyone trying to swim with a long smooth stroke, her natural style was a huge advantage and Jodie broke away from the field and exited the swim with a lead of ## minutes over second place and continued to dominate from there.

Jodie's stroke technique is a deliberate choice of hers as it's ideally suited to triathlon open water swimming. Make no mistake, she's a very skilled swimmer and if she wants she can swim with a nice long smooth stroke. You can watch her doing that here (make sure you watch right until the end of the clip when she tells us just what she thinks of it):

That's Jodie all over, a no-nonsense athlete and person. The non-wetsuit rough water swim in Kona should really play to her strengths so watch out for her exiting the water with the leaders on Saturday morning - let's hope we get a good shot of her working her rhythmical magic in the water before they get to T1.

Jodie's a friend of Swim Smooth and we're unashamably rooting for her to have a fantastic race #should we say this paul as leanda is a mate too?# Good luck to everyone else racing - the swim is always hard so tough it out and keep a great rhythm in your stroke, there's plenty of time to recover afterwards on the bike ;)-

Swim Smooth!

PS. Why not tweet Jodie your best wishes here: @jodieswallow

Elite Swimmer Visualisation: Don't Start Too Near The Surface

Upcoming Swim Smooth Clinics / Camps: Acton UK, Video Analysis Consultations Full information here Richmond SS WorkshopsFull information here Mallorca SS Camps 2014 Full information: here Loughborough SS Clinics Full information: here Swim/Tri Camps Alicante All year round Full information: here New Forest SS Squad Full information here Richmond SS Squad Full information here New Forest & Malborough SS Clinics September Full information here Lancaster SS Squad Full information here Lancaster UK, Video Analysis Consultations Full information here Loughborough SS Squad Full information here For more info on SS Certified Coaches see here

Below is a series of video stills taken from a selection of elite swimmers right at the very front of their stroke as they commence the catch:

2x Olympic Gold Medallist Rebecca Adlington:

Our original Mr Smooth Jono Van Hazel:

2x Australian 10km Champion Rhys Mainstone:

2x Commonwealth Gold Medallist Ross Davenport:

Elite Junior Triathlete Sky Draper:

Elite Triathlete Guy Crawford:

Looking at the position of their lead forearm and hand, notice how similar they all are and how uncomplicated the position is. The elbow is just above the wrist and the wrist above the fingertips:

Notice also the depth of their arm and hand. The arm isn't right up at the surface as many swimmers believe it should be, it's actually quite deep around 30-40cm (12-16"). Trying to catch the water near the surface shows the palm forwards and drops the elbow, really damaging the catch. We call this position "putting on the brakes" as it not only harms the catch but kills stroke rhythm too.

The next time you swim, picture the position and depth of our elite swimmers' lead arm and feel the extra propulsion and rhythm you gain in your stroke.

Swim Smooth!