Ever Dream of Swimming with Dolphins? That's so Old! Try This!

I came across this article tonight, while trolling the news. When I was a kid, I used to swim with my Labrador retriever. She would unintentionally claw me whenever she got near. I can only imagine what this might be like.

Freddy Kreuger Does Polar Bear Plunge? No it's stranger than that!

Freestyle - It's NOT supposed to be like Butterfly

During my kicking set, I was watching a swimmer in a lane near me do some freestyle. Her technique needed work, but she wasn't a bad swimmer. But her errors were so common, they screamed blog post!

Today, I'll focus on the one that really stuck out to me. Poor energy conservation. Conservation of energy is key to swimming any distance at all without tiring. This is especially true for occasional swimmers who haven't built up any distance in their routines.

In the case of the swimmer I was watching, she was retrieving her arm from its pull, by pulling it out of the water from the back, near her thigh (good so far) and sweeping it forward via a long arc, as one might do with butterfly (think how both arms sweep out in butterfly ... this swimmer was doing this same thing, just one arm at a time). This is where I contend she was wasting energy.

It's natural to do the sweep thing, but not the best way to use one's energy. I contend that for freestyle, it's best to bring the back of one's arm as close to the head as possible, and drag the finger tips across the water. Doing so eliminates the additional weight of holding one's arm out.

You can try this on dry land to see what I'm talking about. Simply hold your arm out for fifteen seconds (feel the weight of your arm?). Now (warning: this is awkward) try holding the back of your arm next to your ear with your hand pointing forward for the same length of time (see, I told you this was awkward! ... it's not so in the pool, really). Feel the weight of your arm now.

Which did you find heavier? If you found the head/ear position lighter, try out that stroke in the pool. You may find that you use less energy over time and can thus go further with less fatigue. Hope this helps. Good luck!

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Finally, I must apologize for focusing this blog's content of late on the silly and odd. I've not kept to the promised theme of swimming dynamics. Reason, quite frankly, is that it's just easier some times. Writing about swimming dynamics sort of gets old after a while, hence the silly posts. If you've stuck with me through the long haul, thank you!

More on the Mermaid - Nadya's Tail

Here's an article that ran in a UK paper (Telegraph.co.uk). More detail and a picture of Nadya swimming is included plus a link to the video embedded below.

I love these quotes from the Mermaid, herself, "A prosthetic is a prosthetic, and your body has to be comfortable with it and you have to mentally make it part of yourself." She goes on to say, "I thought rather than just having it as a plaything, I would take it further." What does she mean by that? Triathlon baby!

By her beauty and upbeat manner, one can tell that Nadya has not let being a double amputee ruin her life. She's made the most of it and now can give hope to others. Cheers!



This second video, where she's swimming in the open water, really makes you see Nadya as a real mermaid, what with the surprise peeks of her tail.

Mermaids are now real

My regular readers may recall that I pontificated on the idea of swimming prostheses for double amputees in a prior post after seeing an article about a dolphin that had a new tail made for it.

Well dear reader, my science fiction has come to pass. Check this out! I present the new mermaid.

Just call me Jules Verne or Gene Roddenberry. You choose.

Know Anyone Who Can Do This?

A Jet Pack for the Swimmer

Just when you thought you were too old for water toys, this little thing comes along.

So cool! I know what I want for Christmas, Santa.

What Hasen't Been Said about Michael Phelps and the Pot Thing

You've heard about it all week ad nauseum. Michael Phelps "allegedly" smoked pot. There's a picture of someone that looks like the Eight Gold Wonderkid doing a bong hit, splashed all over the internets. My opinion - Probably is. He's caught crap from the conservative media and some of his sponsors. He's also lost three month's of eligibility in US swim competitions. And as if that isn't enough, now the friends of marijuana legalization are making him their poster boy, saying "If MP can do it, everyone does it. So make pot legal! Now!" Today, the Diggs, Reddits and all the other online opinion aggregators are pushing the envelope in that direction, calling on their minions to boycott sponsor(s) who are pulling their support of MP (think big cereal company).

Here's what's not been said ... Michael, you were stupid. Pot is, if nothing else, smoke. Put it in your body and it goes into your lungs, where some of it stays there. Your lungs are what got you to the finish line first, more times than I'll ever count. Your lungs are as important (if not more important) as your big feet, long arms, and long torso.

Keep up the partying and you can wave goodbye to all that glory, for the sport will pass you, fast. You can count on it.

My final words ... Grow up buddy, and start thinking. By the way, I hope your coach kicks your butt.

NYC to Bermuda Swim Goal Completed

I completed another of my mini-goals today, which I started at the beginning of 2007. This one was the distance from New York City to Bermuda. Sure I did it over 517 swim days, but there it is - 775 miles.

I've set up these goals to keep me going. Seems to be working so far.

Onward to London!

Picture of Michael Phelps Spitting Water

Kidding ... still, does anyone know of anyone who was swimming when one of these water spouts came along? Amazing picture. Oh, are those two spots open-water swimmers?

Feesh Mawn wins one for Hollywood !

The documentary called "Big River Man", which featured Martin Strel's (also known as the "Feesh Mawn" by his fans) amazing swim down the Amazon River has won an award for cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival. Here's the entire list of winners. Scroll down to see "Big River Man".

Congratulations guys!

Two Swimmers who Challenge the Arctic

Hate cold pool water. Read these and you'll never complain again.

Here are two articles about swimmers who are challenging what it means to swim and thrive in cold water. What's cold? Try the South Pole and the North Pole.

This first one (about Wim Hof) appeared in The Telegraph UK last December. I had planned to post it in honor of Jan 1st's polar bear jumpers, but was out of town.

This second one (about Lewis Gordon Pugh) is in this month's (Jan '09) issue of Readers Digest. The only thing I didn't like about this story, is that Lewis is a lawyer. He already had ice in his veins.

Both are perfectly fascinating.

Martin Strel Goes Hollywood

I haven't posted much on Martin Strel in a while. If you are out of touch on my fascination with Martin ... he's the guy who among other minor achievements, swam the Amazon from the Andes to the Atlantic two summers ago. Anyhow, they made a movie about it and it is to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival later this month - I'm guessing documentary?

If you have missed any of the posts I've put up about Martin here's a great article that tells you all about him and fills in a lot of detail I may have missed. You can see my posts by searching my site with "Martin Strel".

How to Find a Pool When Away from Home

I found this, ugly, yet awesome Swimmers Guide website this past November and have intended to create a post for it for some time. Better late than never. After you read this, you may be p.o.'d at me for not having posted this amazing resource before the holidays.

The site says "Swimmers Guide contains the only international, descriptive directory of publicly-accessible, full-size, year-round swimming pools available. There is no resource available in any format with as many pool listings or as much information about each pool as you'll find on this Web site ... This 143rd monthly update of the database since May, 1996, lists 18,507 facilities with 19,742 full-size, year-round swimming pools in 10,521 cities and towns in 165 countries."

If this database is even half of what it says it is, it is still amazing.

Lifeguard failure? No, a hero!

It's pretty much accepted practice that our heroes are only given the grand title when they are successful, or when they die trying. Today, I read an article I found on nj.com, which ended in neither. Yet I come away astounded by the heroics the individual exhibited.

Austin Hearn, a lifeguard at a YMCA in New Jersey, happened to be riding his bike near a pond, when he witnessed a woman fall through the ice. He first fought to break the ice to create a path to the woman. When that proved impossible, he attempted to step out onto the ice to commence a reach rescue and fell in himself in waters over his head. Fortunately, there weren't two deaths that day, and Austin saved himself.

I'm guessing, Austin is kicking himself for not succeeding. Similarly, I imagine others may not give Austin the credit he deserves for trying. That's another tragedy, since to anyone who knows cold water, understands that Austin went over and above the call of duty. Oh, yeah, Austin wasn't on duty! He did it out of the goodness of his heart!

From a former lifeguard ... All the best Austin! May you have peace of mind.

How Many World Records this Year?

Just in case you were wondering if the new Speedo suits were making a difference in the number of record setting performances, you might check some prior years to this figure I've posted here. It blew me away. So far, in 2008, according to Swimming World Magazine, there were ... drumroll please ... 108 world records! OMG!

Swimming in Winter - Fail

Tis the season to start contemplating the annual polar bear jump.

At first, I thought this was just another video of someone jumping into a cold pond.

Wrong.

Enjoy!

Evil Water - How Water Can Work Against You

Have you ever had a swim day where the water just seemed to work against you? Did you put it off to some issue with your own physical ability for that day? Or something in your mind? I just read an absolutely fascinating article in New Scientist about how water can actually work against your stroke. Scientists were wondering why apparently strong swimmers were reporting trouble with the water - some even drowned.

Investigators discovered that different temperature gradients in water (i.e. warm on top, cooler down below) can create a wave between them which can work against the swim stroke propulsion by as much as 40 percent!

I'm filing a patent today for a big pool-water blender to keep the water temperature consistent throughout (kidding!).

Dolphins, Dolphins and More Dolphins

I've always thought it would be cool to swim with dolphins - not in some amusement park pool, but in the wild. That said, I'm partial to videos about them. Yesterday, this video started making the rounds on the internet. It's by far the coolest dolphin video I have ever seen. It gets better as it progresses. Be sure to stick through to the end - hint, the link I found to this video was entitled, Dolphin Stampede. They weren't exageratingg.

Would this make swim suits even faster?

Some weeks ago, I posited that golf ball dimple technology might make for the next generation of swim suit design (think beyond those suits they wore in Beijing). I've now found an excellent video that shows in detail exactly what I mean. It's an excellent example of how the dimple reduces friction through the medium the ball must travel. I see parallels with swim suits and water dynamics. Fluid dynamic folks ... am I on track here?