all about sport

Having a swimming pool offers you and your family a great place for exercise and recreation. Regardless of whether you spend your time in a backyard swimming pool or frequent commercial pools, safety should always be top of mind.

Also, remember that safety doesn’t take place just in the water but around the pool as well – the deck and other swim facilities should be properly maintained. Maintaining safety in and around the swimming pool is a product of knowing what you need to tell your friends and family what needs to be done to prevent injuries or accidents around the pool. You also need to impart information about what should be done in the event of an accident.

The swimming pool area should always be kept clean. Pick up discarded food, spilled drinks or other waste items from around the pool area. Not only will this keep the area bacteria and algae free but it will prevent slips and falls. Your pool deck needs to be washed down and disinfected at the end of each day. If you aren’t disinfecting the area, you can leave your swimming guests open to infection such as athlete’s foot.

Always keep safety equipment nearby and make certain everyone knows how to use it. Safety equipment includes floats, hooks for pulling in swimmers who are in distress. Have kick boards and life vests close to the pool and have them easily accessible. If you have a lot of people in and around your swimming pool you might want to invest in a loudspeaker or a piercing whistle in the event you need to catch everyone’s attention.

Maintaining proper pool water chemistry balances prevents eye and skin irritation and infections as well as keeping the water clean and swimmable. Keeping your swimming pool water’s chemicals in balance requires diligence and daily checks. Keep in mind that rain water can alter the chemicals in your water as can the number of swimmers you have in and out of the pool on a daily basis. Sweat and saliva can negatively effect the pool’s cleanliness and pH levels. Also, maintaining correct chlorine levels will prevent burning eyes and dry skin.

Learn CPR and other first aid skills. At least one adult – the one who will be around the pool the most frequently, should know CPR and other first aid skills. Basic first aid should be taught to others who will frequent the pool.

Always enforce the rules of the pool. Depending on the number of swimmers who are in your pool, you may want to prominently post a list of swimming pool rules visible for all to see. You also want to reinforce the rules about diving off the sides and the diving board, running (which should never be done) on the deck area, jumping into the pool when there are a lot of swimmers in the pool.

Being vigilant about swimming pool safety will lead to more fun in the sun and in the pool.

So many people would like to lose weight, but despite the best intentions in the world never get around to doing something about the problem. The word exercise creates fear of actually having to do something out of the ordinary, spoiling the comfort zone that so many people live in. Combine healthy eating and exercise to achieve overall health for your body.

Suspension in the amniotic fluid that surrounds us before birth is partly why tiny babies apparently feel at home in water. It is early swimming and everyone has done it! The naturalness of going into water is a given for most people, admittedly there are even some adults who are frightened of the experience. Swimming needs promotion as a great exercise, as it supports the body in an almost weightless environment. That factor alone is worthwhile, especially if you are horrendously over weight. Pounding the pavements is just too painful and embarrassing for many people.

You do not have to be able to swim to go in your local swimming pool. You can exercise by just walking up and down for as long as you want to or are able. Called pool walking, it is a pleasant and easy way to exercise. Using your arms as side paddles stopping the water; you will get resistance for your legs and chest muscles. This means the whole body is actually working, pushing blood round the circulatory system. The heart has to work harder and in doing so strengthens the heart muscle. The beauty of swimming is that for every hour you spend in the pool is equal to 2 hours pounding the footpath.

It is a safe exercise within the confines of a community pool when help is available should it be needed. A lot of people recovering from operations need rehabilitation, they find the gentle comfort of the pool very beneficial. Some one suffering from joint pains will find swimming or pool walking an ideal aid to improving their overall health. On a weekend, there are large numbers of athletes who use the pool to relieve stretched and uncomfortable muscles, followed by time in the spa. It is also a something you can do alone.

The fitness or weight loss you desire will not happen over night, it does require a focused view of going to the pool daily and slowly extending the time spent there. It will take at least three weeks to make it into a habit, to get your mind to accept that you are doing something differently. You will suffer from guilt trips if you do not go to the pool! Keep it up for at least 5 days of the week for results you will love. Include a more sensible healthy diet and before long, you will find yourself climbing two flights of stairs without being shattered!

The butterfly stroke is named after the graceful motion of a butterfly’s wings. It is one of the fastest swim strokes, and is also considered to be one of the most difficult. However, with practice and perseverance, you can perform the butterfly stroke with confidence and efficiency.

Before beginning, it is preferable to consult your physician and be in good physical condition. It is also a good idea to have some familiarity with the other basic swimming strokes. The best option is to have a qualified swim coach to instruct you, but if this is not possible you can certainly teach yourself the butterfly stroke.

The butterfly is broken down into two components: the kick and the stroke. The kick is done with the legs together in an undulating motion originating from the hips, flowing through the knees and then through the feet. This is known as a dolphin kick. Often it is helpful to practice the dolphin kick separately either with a kick board or while wearing flippers. This helps familiarize swimmers with the power and fluidity of the kick.

The stroke performed consists of three basic parts: the pull, the push, and the recovery. The stroke can be practiced separately while stationary in the water. Start with your arms out in front of you, shoulder width apart. Next, in a continuous motion bring your arms down through the water to waist-level, achieving the pull – pulling yourself through the water. Continue the arm motion with a push through to the hips or mid-thigh, and then bring your arms up out of the water, over the top of your head, and back around to the starting point to perform the recovery. This completes the motion of the stroke.

After mastering these two components, the next step is to put them together. This is best done with an understanding of the two-kick cycle. The two-kick cycle is performed by first pushing off of the wall of the pool with the dolphin kick. When you are ready to breathe, execute a pull and push, lifting your head out of the water and taking a deep breath. As you are pulling and pushing, do a giant kick to lift up out of the water and breathe. As you perform the recovery, kick back down into the water to glide for approximately 1-2 seconds. This completes the butterfly stroke.

Lastly, it is always recommended to learn butterfly stroke only after you are proficient in other basic strokes such as freestyle or breast stroke.

Diving is a fun and exciting sport as it pumps up your adrenaline rush. So if you are an adrenaline junkie, then diving is definitely something you should try out. However, there are certain rules that divers should follow as well as the allowed types of pools where they can do this water activity.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, most of the pool related accidents resulted from diving into private pools. Many areas in the US has banned such activity in private pools as they are small and do not have enough space and depth to accommodate the person when he or she reaches to the bottom. Most of these incidents ended up in paralysis which resulted in the partial or total loss of use of the diver’s torso and limbs. This is caused by any damage caused to the spinal cord or to the brain. For these reasons, diving on private pools is a big no-no.

However, if you’re insistent on diving on your private pool, you should follow some of the basic and important rules that you should know about before you start with your diving sport.

Avoid diving into above ground pools as they are too shallow which can obviously injure any diver no matter how good and experienced he or she is in diving.

Never dive from the side of the diving board as it is dangerous. Jump on from the front so that you will also have a better view of where you are going to plunge.

Sliding head first is a bad idea as what was said earlier regarding the shallowness of private pools. You can always jump feet first and enjoy the thrill of it without risking yourself.

Dive with both of your hands in front of your head to easily maneuver yourself when you reach the water after you jump from the diving board.

In case there are other divers in your private pool, check the water first and see if he or she has come out of the water so that you can jump. You don’t want to hit the other divers by jumping over them as this can result into serious water related accidents.

There should only be one diver on the diving board per dive to ensure the safety of all divers. It is better to follow this than to argue as there are no benefits when there are two people on the diving board.

Put the talking after you dive so that you can focus more on your diving. You’re always prone to accidents when you’re not focusing on what you are doing. So the best way to make sure that everything will be alright is to stay focus. You can always talk with the others later after you made your dive successfully.

You can do all of these safely if you just simply follow them as they can help a lot in ensuring not only your safety but as well as the others.

Since summer is fast approaching and the children would no longer be in school, the parents are looking for ways on how the kids can spend their summer time productively. Swimming is one of the most popular ideas during these times, and why not? Swimming is a very good skill to learn since it is a life-saving skill, and in places like Austin, TX, swimming can be a handy skill because of the abundance of waterways and parks in the area.

There are a lot of organizations that offer swimming lessons in Austin. This is because Austin is a land of waters. It has the Colorado River; it has three man-made lakes and it is home to the most historical pools in the state: The Deep Eddy Pool and the Barton Springs. There are also more the fifty public pools in the city that is open for use. If one does not know how to swim, how can one thoroughly enjoy these amenities?

Of course, things like these start by choosing a swim school. How to select a swim school is one of the most important questions most parents ask. This is vital since they would be entrusting their children to strangers who would be part of their children’s lives forever as the ones who would teach them some of life’s important skills. So the swim school should be carefully selected.

In choosing a swim school, one should check the pools. Is the school using an indoor pool? An outdoor pool? Having an indoor and an outdoor pool is one of the big differences in learning swimming. An outdoor pool depends on the weather and other external factors of its waters. If it is sunny, then you are more likely to get sunburned. If it is windy, then there would be quite a chance that the student could have colds.

Indoor pools, on the other hand, could be controlled. Indoor pools are not dependent on external factors. It can be snowing outside but you can be swimming in an indoor pool with water temperature kept warm for comfort.

Speaking of comfort, comfort is detrimental in determining the success of the swim lessons. If the child is comfortable, then chances are she would learn faster. This is another thing that the parent should check when selecting a good swim school. The child should be comfortable with her surroundings as well as teachers so that she could be who she is and enjoy herself. Having uncomfortable surroundings could demoralize the child, sometimes even traumatize the child.

Also, check for the water quality of the pools that are used for lessons. Sure, sometimes pools are safe of the elements like the sun and cold but what if the pool water is full of bacteria. The competence of the teachers should also be reviewed. Not only they would be with your children, they would teach your children how to stay safe. There are competent swimmers out there who can do 10 laps in 3 minutes, but not all of them are competent teachers.

Swimming is a good skill to learn. It is fun and important and learning to do it is easy. Just sign up in a swim school, and everything would be in order.

Perfecting a breaststroke technique will not only improve your breaststroke but also give new swimmers the confidence and ability to try new strokes such as the Front crawl (Freestyle) or Butterfly. The Breaststroke is typically the most popular swim stroke among leisure swimmers and once perfected allows swimmers to enjoy swimming for a long time without tiring.

How To Swim Breaststroke

Breaststroke Technique can be broken down into four steps these are: The Pull, Breath, Kick and Glide.

Beginning with the Kick motion this has in itself three steps: Bend, Open and Snap. The kick motion is sometimes known as the frog kick since its resemblance to a swimming frog.

Bring your hips to the top of the water and bend legs slightly with the bottom of your feet just below the water surface. Then snap your feet together you’ll feel a great thrust of power when you perform the snap correctly this is where the majority of the power comes from. Perfect your kick by swimming with a float in order to isolate your legs and really refine your breaststroke technique until you can feel your kicks perfection. Or instead of using a float you can simply hold onto the edge of a pool just remember to focus on the bend, open and snap position.

Breaststroke Technique – The Arm Stroke

Once you have the leg kick down, you can begin working on your arms. For the arm stroke you should bring your arms together in front of you and then open your arms while bending your elbows slightly causing an outward sweep (your feel some power here) then as your arms reach out to the sides sweep them into your arm pits and bring them back down the middle.

Bring it all together!

Once you have isolated and refined your breaststroke technique regarding your arm and leg movements you should bring these together to complete your breaststroke.

Breathing

Breathe with every stroke that you take and once you get comfortable with the arm and leg movement push your head up slightly as you open your arms while breathing in, then as you close your arms together and thrust them forward bring your head back underwater and breathe out.

Just remember to take it easy, and start slow.

What to do once you have perfected your breaststroke technique

Once you have got your technique perfected, I recommend moving onto another stroke which you struggle with (common strokes include the backstroke and front crawl).

Visit our links below to get a better understand of how to refine your technique.

For those of you who are lucky enough to be the owners of a spa or hot tub, know there are rules and regulations that pertain to the care, safety and maintenance of a hot tub.

Not all of the spa dos and don’ts pertain to the “do not run around the deck” practices, but are just as practical and have to do with health issues. Have you ever wondered if there is a limit to the number of glasses of wine or other alcoholic beverages you should have while soaking? Is there a time limit on how long you should be in the water? Is it safe for your children? Here are some tips for safety in and around the hot tub.

Talk to your doctor: If you have high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes or any cardiovascular conditions need to talk with their physician before they spend time in a hot tub or spa. If you’re pregnant, you will also need to speak with your doctor before spending time in a spa.

Showering up: Take a shower and use soap and water before you dip into the hot tub. This will help cut back on the likelihood that you will contaminate the spa water. Remember, any bacteria you bring into the hot tub will you will multiply because of the heat.

Be properly ventilated: If your spa is on an outside deck this will not be an issue but if your spa is indoor, make certain you have adequate ventilation. If you don’t your spa users could have eye irritation or sore throats from the heat, humidity and chemical evaporation. You can install an exhaust fan to ventilate the area.

How long to soak: Your soaking time in the hot tub should be no more than 20 minutes. If you reach the limit but still feel you want to go back in and work on relaxing your muscles, take some time to cool off before going back in.

What about alcohol? When you’re soaking in a hot tub, you should not consume alcoholic beverages. The heat, combined with the alcohol can make you drowsy and lead to drowning. Also, if you are taking medication, ask your doctor before you take a dip in a hot tub.

What about long hair: If you have long hair, you need to tie it up or put it in a pony tail so that it doesn’t get caught in the jets or drains.

Basic safety measures: Your or spa should be equipped with handrails to make it safe when you are getting in and out of the water. Enter the pool using the steps. Sitting on the edge and slipping in that way can lead to damage of the sides of the structure.

Disclaimer:

Please only try these techniques supervision at the shallow end so if you fail you can easily stand up, never ever go out of your depth when first trying this technique.

Swimming drills are used to improve a multitude of swimming sins, however they also vastly improve the following:

Distance per stroke

Refining your technique through swimming drills, will likely lead to a clear increase in your total distance traveled per each stroke you make.

Swimming speed

As your technique improves you’ll find it easier to travel distances in shorter times.

Maximum swimming length

While your technique improves you will be putting less and less effort into each stroke, meaning you’ll be able to travel longer distances with the same exertion.

Basic Swimming Drills

The following basic drills are what every swimmer would have tried at some point:

Sculling

Sculling teaches you buoyancy, as well as improving confidence and arm and leg strength. If your unaware of this technique basically its used to keep you floating in the water, without moving forwards or backwards. Effectively you relax your arms and wave them in a figure of eight (both of them with each arm point outwards), with your legs slightly bend them, gently push them outwards (each leg diagonally) and then quickly bring your knees and feet back together.

Legs only

Hear you float both your arms outstretched on top of the water and simply swim only with your legs as if you were swimming breaststroke, you MUST be confident with your breaststroke before doing this. This will massively improve your kicking ability.

Arms only

This is like the technique above, except this time your only swimming with your arms (as if doing breaststroke) relax your legs and slightly bend them. This improves your arm strength.

Further technique to refine swimming technique include:

Slow arm recovery

This involves a hesitation between continuing the arm movement

Quick Catch

Here there’s an emphases in a flex in wrist and elbow as you stroke

High Swingers

The last one is an exaggeration of your arm movement basically you really release your arm high so you almost have a straight arm over the water.

Advanced Swimming Drills

These are more tips and drills, but can really help your swimming. Although they are geared more towards open water swimmers they’ll definitely benefit you in the pool.

These tips are provided by Dave Scott whose a six time iron man world champion, and include tips to improve the following faults:

High head

Common in open water swimmers, your hips and feet will ride much better if you keep your head down.

Overreaching

This causes poor positioning in the water, and can really slow you down.

Overextension

This is basically when you reach too far over the water.

Dropped Elbow

This is the most common flaw, especially when your tired!

I hope you enjoyed reading my article on swimming drills if your serious about improving your swimming head over to my website below.

Sunny days are fast approaching and what could be more productive than learning how to swim. Places everywhere are offering swim lessons, and some even offer promo rates. Swimming is one of the most useful skills that can be used in one’s entire life since it is actually a survival skill.

In places like Austin where waterways, lakes and pools are abundant, swimming is a very handy skill to learn. Not only one could have a useful skill, swimming can let one explore these aquatic places without anxiety, as one knows that he wouldn’t drown because he knows how to swim. In the United States, drowning is one of the major causes of deaths in children.

Swimming can actually be learned by children as young as six months and adults as old as 65 years old. Swimming only depends on one’s willingness to learn. This willingness is also dependent on the comfort of the students that are in the pools. When choosing a swim school, note the pools. Are they indoors or outdoors? Where do they conduct their swim lessons?

Generally, indoor pools are more advised when one has just started to learn. Indoor pools have environments that can be controlled, unlike the outdoor pools that are dependent on the weather for the conditions of the pool. Ideal temperatures are maintained in indoor pools and this promotes comfort in the student who uses the pool.

Comfort is very important when learning swimming. Comfort can actually be detrimental in determining success when learning swimming because if the child is not comfortable with the environment when she is learning how to swim, she would be easily distracted. That is why checking out a swim school personally is important.

There are other benefits of swimming apart from it being a survival skill. First, it is a very useful exercise tool. It works all of the important muscle groups in the body, making the swimmer fit. It also builds one’s strength and endurance as well as lung power. It is actually one of the most prescribed exercises for asthmatics. Swimming also helps in people who have joint problems since this kind of exercise is not weight bearing and therefore, easy on the joints. It also works out the cardiovascular system of the swimmer.

It also helps when one wants to maintain the figure because it can burn as much as 8 calories per minute, depending on the stroke used. This promises a lean physique throughout the body as the whole body is involved when doing the exercise. And like any exercise, swimming clears the skin because the pores breathe easily. This makes the skin devoid of skin blemishes like pimples and acne.

Swimming is also a good way for people to train their own time management skills, training themselves under the pressure of speed. Swimming is also a good way to bond with friends and co-workers, because hanging out in pools can be so much fun.

So how does one learn to swim? Easy; just look for a sign that offers swim lessons and sign up. Then be prepared to earn the lifetime benefits of swimming.

I swear I get the craziest looks sometimes when people come up and ask if they can share the lane with me. I usually respond with, “Of course, would you like to circle swim”?

They look at me kinda funny and say, “how about we just split the lane.”

I cringe a little and reply with a “sure why not,” and off I go to continue on with my workout in my tiny little half a lane (usually with a few laps of butterfly, so they know what they are getting themselves into:)).

Maybe I’m overreacting, but its just an irritating a pet peeve of mine.

Here’s why…

I never really thought there was any other way to swim laps than circle swimming when I was swimming competitively because it just seemed so logical. We had to swim 4, 5, 6+ to a lane, and the only way to accomplish this was to circle swim. After I quit, I was a lifeguard at the local pool and swam there occasionally, and I noticed how passionate some people are about circle swimming, silly as it may seem.

I didn’t get it until one day, all 8 lanes were filled up with 16 people, who of course were splitting lanes. This left any new swimmers to hang out on the deck until someone got out or they could convince their counterparts to share the lane and swim in those god awful circles. I’m getting dizzy just thinking about it!

Anyways, this same situation happened to me just the other day. A younger guy pulled the lane split routine on me (surprising because he looked like he swam competitively at some point), and about 10 min later there were 4-5 people on deck looking agitated because all of the lanes were full.

A pool’s capacity is not 2 x the number of lanes, so please make sure you do your part to keep it that way. Its only fair.

Here’s a few easy to follow lap swimming etiquette tips to help…

Pick An Appropriate Lane

When you arrive at the pool if there are no open lanes, scope out the situation and try to choose a lane that has swimmer(s) that are close to your skill level. Some pools will actually designate one side of the pool for slower swimmers and the opposite side for faster swimmers. Just make sure you choose accordingly so you’re not running people over or vice versa.

Announce Your Intention To Join A Lane

Don’t just hop into any lane. Give the common courtesy to the person(s) who was in the lane first, and ask if they mind if you join them. After you get a yes, kindly ask “Do you mind if we circle swim?” Make sure you clarify this prior to getting in so you avoid the impending head-on collision.

Don’t Hog The Wall

If you stop for rest, or you’re just on the wall in the middle of a set, make sure you don’t hang in the middle. Stay to the far right or left side and allow enough space for your lane mates to do a flip turn. If there’s more than two people in your lane, try to stay to the far right side so that if anyone else stops, they can hold on to the lane line and others can continue swimming. Make sure you pay attention to what the other swimmers are doing, and stay out of the way as best as possible when you’re resting.

Don’t Be A Road Block / Tailgater

Be conscious of the flow of traffic in your lane. If you are the slower swimmer in the lane, try not to push off right in front of a faster swimmer. Same goes if you are a faster swimmer, don’t push off right behind a slower swimmer. Give the other swimmers a reasonable amount of space, and if you need to pass someone make sure you do it quickly and with minimal disruption to your lane mates.

Circle Swim, DUH!

Just do it. And do your best to encourage others to as well. If someone asks to join your lane, say yes, but only if we circle swim. Its really not that hard to learn if you never have before. You just swim in a circle! AND, I heard you actually swim faster when everyone circle swims. Experts say it creates a current in the lane and even a tiny little whirlpool if you look close enough;)