Swim nomenclature
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The community of swimmers brings its own lingo to the pool. Here's your guide to swimming nomenclature along with a bit of etiquette throw in, no charge.
Safe in the Water
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If cardiac arrest is the proximate cause of our sport's drownings, what triggers cardiac arrest precisely when our athletes are in the swim leg of a triathlon? Are these behaviors over which you ...
Exit the Swim Alive
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Part 1 of a 4-part series on how to reduce sudden cardiac death on triathlon, in particular during the swim leg. How effective is cardiac testing at predicting cardiac arrest? What can you ...
What do I do with my hands while swimming?
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It seems like a simple question. Yet, I am surprised by how many people don’t quite know what to do with their hands either underwater on the pull or above water on the recovery. For both parts of ...
How To Pull Underwater
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There are huge differences in how you can pull underwater with your arm; differences in power and differences in frontal drag. But, like so many aspects of swimming technique, the underwater pull ...
Kicking is not only for propulsion
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Most swimmers think of the legs as only providing some propulsion. The kick actually serves four different functions in the swimming stroke; propulsion, lift, stabilizing force, and sustain speed (in ...
Cam Dye swim paddle tips
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2010 St. Anthony's Triathlon Champion Cameron Dye swam for the University of Iowa and shared a few thoughts about hand paddles. They are a great tool for swimming indeed, but are apparently often ...
Your Best Freestyle Technique
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Gary Hall, Sr., demonstrates, and explains, hip- versus shoulder-driven freestyle. Which technique is best for you? One, the other, or something in between?
Trouble in the open water
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The sport of triathlon has lost eight of its competitors during races in the United States so far in 2008. The good news: so far our roads have been safe. The bad news: so far the water has been ...
Top masters swim coaches tell it
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Slowtwitch asked four top national-caliber swim coaches to answer this question: What are the four common problems adult swimmers face, and what are the remedies? First up: Tim Sheeper.
Kicking
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All swimming coaches have their own opinions on how one should kick; the significance of kicking as part of a workout; and what kicking means to the swim stroke overall.
Propulsion in the water
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You’ve probably heard the phrases "feel for the water" or "catch," and if you’ve watched the top swimmers you’ve probably noticed that their bodies seem to glide over the water. Well, they are ...
Sheila Taormina's Swim Tips
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Of the three, swimming is the most dangerous to lose focus in another sense—technique is everything!
Open water miscellany
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I got a letter yesterday from Clifton May, a Slowtwitch reader. He listed three problems, all of which seem to be common to new triathletes.
Open water tactics
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While most of the articles featured in Swim Center are penned by extremely accomplished swimmers, it's almost counterproductive to have a swimmer like that write about tactics. How would they know? ...
Masters: the best way to get faster
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If I had to choose, I'd say becoming a member of a masters swim team is even more important than being part of a tri club.
The Basics of Ocean Swimming
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New triathletes—or triathletes new to the ocean—are quite often scared to death of negotiating waves during an open-ocean swim. Wouldn’t you like to be able to go through the waves without ...
Care and Feeding of your wetsuit
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The issue of proper wetsuit care -- notwithstanding the fluidic medium in which a wetsuit is used-- is rather concrete, and not subject to the changing tides of theory.
Getting the darn thing on and off
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How on earth do you put this wetsuit on and take it off?!
Has swimming got you over a barrel?
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One of the most misunderstood elements in swimming is the "high elbow."
The case for swimming
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The primary reason triathletes ought to pay a lot more attention to the swim is that it's free speed.
Open water etiquette
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Triathletes both allow and suffer some fairly egregious behavior in their races, especially that part of the race taking place in the water.
Picklehead
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Ipso facto, if you want to become a champion swimmer (or sinner, for that matter), practice, practice, practice.
Open water as art
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The science of swimming will make you fast in the pool. It’s the art of swimming that makes you fast in the open water.
The muscles used in freestyle
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In running you cannot think about the muscles like you can in swimming—in fact it is just the opposite.