A Guy Takes His iPhone to the Pool and ...

Watch it to the end - that's where things happen. Ooops!

Pencil This In - How to Make Swimming Easier

I've mentioned the pencil technique in past posts, but it's been a while, so I decided to revisit the concept after overhearing a lifeguard give a struggling (e.g., splashing) middle-age swimmer some advice about stroke motion, that while correct, neglected the rest of his body and surely left the poor man wanting.

Using the pencil technique in a nutshell is akin to swimming like a pencil - nose-to-toes straight like an arrow (point forward), minimal friction (minimal water resistance) on all sides, and side-to-side rolling (as one would turn the pencil from the eraser end keeping the point in the same spot).

The pencil technique is only the start, but if all aspects of the swim stroke include maintaining this one dynamic, I promise you or your swimmer-trainee will find swimming easier than without it.

You too can use Echolocation

Wired Magazine is reporting a new way to tap into your inner dolphin. Scientists have confirmed that humans can learn echolocation or the ability to make sounds to detect objects in their immediate surroundings. Check out the article for more details.

No word if this would work underwater, so don't start thinking you are going to win all those Marco Polo games now.

Lifeguard!

Check out the lifeguard station in the bottom right corner. Click link for a huge blowup of the picture (no pun intended ... pretty good pun though, huh?).

Yard Art

This is just too cool for me to describe in words. Check it out.

Even shows good form!

Heavy Breathing Required

Here's a video of William Trubridge doing a freedive that will absolutely make you feel like a whimp, I guarantee. Awesome. BTW, I may have mistitled this post. He doesn't even look like he's out of breath at the end. Watch how cool he is in his ascent (where I would ... if I could ... be freak'n out to get up).

Craziest Swimming Pool Trick Ever - I Promise

I am guessing this guy understood the ramification of failure had he done this wrong. Scroll down to the fourth picture.

DO NOT TRY THIS!

How to Clean your Goggles

I get goggle glop, do you? Goggle glop is my term for the cake-like buildup that forms on the outside of goggles around the frame. If you take your fingernail, you can dig it off. If the goggles are wet, you can scrub it off with a firm finger (note, neither is my solution ... keep reading).

I imagine the glop is a buildup of sweat and other body crud (any other theories?). It's very odd, since I don't wear the goggles outside of the pool, aside from a quick trot to the showers. One would think any body excretions would simply wash away in the pool. But no, it cakes up.

My solution is to place the gloppy goggles in a bowl, filled with dishwashing detergent in water (lots of suds), and place the bowl outside in the sun (or a warm, sunny window). The glop, rinses off given a few hours in the solution. Sometimes you must rub it just a little. The sun is to keep the solution warm so there is more energy to break down the glop bonds. A warm lamp near the solution, might do as well (I do not suggest boiling your goggles or anything of that sort).

This works for me, what works for you?

Note: I still haven't figured out how to deal with discoloration (nice clear rubber turning into greenish/yellowish rubber over time - perhaps I need to keep the goggles outside in the light, rather than inside my bag all day).

Why the Phelps Phenomenon is Not for Me

If you were a kid watching the Olympics late last summer, I'm guessing you probably got at least a small itch to try swimming as your chosen sport. And it may have even stuck with you through the spring-time. How do I know this? Well the number of kids who have joined the premier swim team (the ones who build the Olympic athletes out of the XBox generation) in my city has grown by 25 percent this summer.

Good for them you say? OK, I'll agree, good for them ... but not for me.

I happen to work out at the same time the team practices - dawn - and the coach, flush with cash from his new arrivals, has bought the rights to an additional lap lane in the pool. Until this year, they had always used half the pool. Cool, right? We get half, they get half. Not any more.

Thanks to the Michael phenomenon, they're taking over our space. This forces us early risers (of which there always have been quite a few), we of all varieties of skill and speed, to move over, smile and pretend we loyal members still count for anything.

Thanks for your time and chance to rant.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Cause Linked to Lakes ... please, no!

Last year I posted a topic concerning a parasite that lived in southern waters that you probably want to avoid at all costs (very nasty). Now it's the northern lakes' turn.

It seems that there have been some clusters of ALS(Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), more commonly called Lou Gehrig's Disease, identified around a lake in New Hampshire. Scientists believe it is linked to Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) blooms. This article goes into pretty good depth using terms a layperson can understand.

BTW, this makes me very sad.

Gulf of Mexico Swim Goal Complete

Yesterday I finished my 900th mile since I set a series of goals (about two and a half years ago) to keep myself inspired. Coincidentally that 900 miles is the same distance as it is across the Gulf of Mexico from St. Petersburg, FL (next to Tampa - see map) to Corpus Christi, TX. Google Maps shows the auto route - lots of turns. You can visualize my route on the map below by looking at the two cities (click on the "-" button in the top left corner of the map to see both FL and TX coasts). I went straight.


View Larger Map

Gives a Whole New Meaning to Kicking

I don't know if this is sad or really cool.

Any thoughts?

Check out the flutter kick!

How I Feel About Summer at the Pool

Summer is here. The 50 meter pool is open. This is how I feel.

Long Course Lap Swimming - First Thing, it's not Short

I'm starting my long course season on Monday when my outdoor 50 meter pool - also known to my faithful readers as "heaven" - opens for the season. If all goes well, I'll be out there until September 30th. This brief rest between Friday (yesterday), and Monday gives me pause to consider what changes I can expect. Making this switch from 25 meter indoor pool to 50 meter outdoor pool is not without its challenges.

One of the first things I always notice on day one in the 50 pool is that I feel every meter of it. There is a lot to be said for having a wall in front of you (when you are sprinting), that is always less than 25 meters away. I'm wondering how long it will take to adapt, or if I really will? No matter the pool length, I really look forward to those micro-rests that I get during the flip turns. In the 50, there will only be half as many now, and then they will be longer between them. Oh!

On the positive side, long course swimming is great for muscle building. You've got a longer time to be working a stroke before you have to pause.

A lot of people don't like 50 meter pools for the exact reason of the name - "50 meters". 50 is a long way for some people and they just plain, avoid them. I say, give it a chance. Take it a little easy and work your way into it. I think I'm a better swimmer because of 50 meter pools. I think you can be too.

A Serious Lap Swimmer Tries Being Waterboarded - Find out what happens

Here's a story about a guy who was a former lifeguard, free diver, and all around fitness nut (he does those 100 mile run things), who decided to find out for himself if waterboarding was all that bad. I know I for one have wondered the same thing during many a flip turn where I got water up my nose. The author, after ruling out trying it first on the wife and kids (what a family man!), went a bit further than me and tried them for real, exposing himself to increasingly dangerous methods.

I won't ruin the ending, but let me drop a hint ... this guy is one bad-ass, nut job.

Don't try this at home kiddies. Oh, and BTW, I don't endorse any of this.

Sound in Water - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

No this isn't about waterproof mp3 players (I'll save that for another day), it's about how sound can influence the body in water.

The pool I swim at is part of a YMCA that recently underwent a massive renovation - except for the pool (never the pool). Seems like the construction guys were drilling or pounding most every day for about a year since they extended the footprint of the building by two, thus having to dig into the limestone rock to create a place to start the foundation.

What's all this have to do with swimming? Well, when they were pounding and drilling, you could hear it through the water. And on the pounding days, I could literally feel it rumbling my rib cage (the bad). I joked with friends that it was like lithotriptsy - which is how calcified kidney stones are destroyed by sending shock waves through a tub of water (the good).

Since the way shock waves travel through water is common knowledge, I'm confused why there is such surprise by the media when dolphins and other sea creatures spaz out where there are ocean shocks (the ugly) - think volcanic explosions, sonar testing (suspected), and other.

Dog Swims Six Miles - Ha Ha Jaws!

Other titles I considered ... "Why Lassie Should Have been a Cattle Dog", or better yet, "Aussie Dog Ready to Star on TV's Survivor".

In this true story, a dog fell overboard and swam about six miles through shark infested waters off the Great Barrier Reef to an island where it dined in rustic luxury waiting for someone to notice.

Very cool story. BTW, Sophie, you've been added to this blog's hero list!

Honey, I'll be doing laps out in the ...

... garage. Yes, a man in Baltimore has built a pool in his garage. Link has full story and pics. I personally understand the man's compulsion. I'd just think he should have used a four-car garage.

Crocodile Training

I'm not sure if I believe this CNN story about a coach in Australia who throws a crocodile into the pool to make his team swim faster, but it sure makes the imagination run wild. Eh, mate?

Possible New Material for Swim Suits?

I've hypothesized that one could make a swim suit even better than those used in the Olympics to break all those world records. Now someone has invented a product that is touted as "super hydrophobic". Using nano technology to create an invisible bubble, it creates super-floating, drag-reducing qualities.

Here's an article in Gizmodo, an online tech web site.

Wearing this, do you think maybe a mortal could beat Michael Phelps record? Remember me when you see this on the rack in your neighborhood sporting good stores. Are you listening Speedo?