It's A Girl! And Things To Try When You're Feeling Ragged
Paul Newsome is very proud to announce the birth of his daughter Isla Rose on Wednesday! Paul:
"Thanks to everyone for your well wishes and kind messages over the last few days. Michelle and I are bowled over by our beautiful new baby girl... I'm the proudest and happiest Dad on the planet right now and can't wait to show her off to everyone when we see you in person!"
You can read Paul's full baby blog post with pictures here.
Things To Try In Your Stroke When You're Feeling Ragged
You know what it's like: when you are fresh and start swimming you feel great and complete your laps with a nice flowing stroke. However, as the training session or race progresses things starting to become a little ragged and your stroke feels much less effective.
Here are some very simple things you can think about to help bring your stroke back to you and keep you swimming well. Only focus on one of these at a time, try each during separate training swims and see which works best for you:
- Lightly brush your big toes together as they pass with a regular rhythm: tap tap tap tap.
- Think about keeping the lower goggle in the water when breathing using the split screen visualisation.
- Focus on keeping your lead hand constantly in motion: either extending forwards, lightly catching the water or pressing it backwards - never pausing! (this is a great visualisation for Overgliders in rehab)
- Relax and blow a constant stream of bubbles into the water a bit like you're sighing - brrrrrr!
- Stretch lightly through your core, thinking about moving your chest away from your hips as you swim.
On the face of it these tips might seem overly simple but each is very effective at controlling a particular stroke flaw as it creeps in when you get tired.
Swim Smooth!
"Thanks to everyone for your well wishes and kind messages over the last few days. Michelle and I are bowled over by our beautiful new baby girl... I'm the proudest and happiest Dad on the planet right now and can't wait to show her off to everyone when we see you in person!"
You can read Paul's full baby blog post with pictures here.
Things To Try In Your Stroke When You're Feeling Ragged
You know what it's like: when you are fresh and start swimming you feel great and complete your laps with a nice flowing stroke. However, as the training session or race progresses things starting to become a little ragged and your stroke feels much less effective.
Here are some very simple things you can think about to help bring your stroke back to you and keep you swimming well. Only focus on one of these at a time, try each during separate training swims and see which works best for you:
- Lightly brush your big toes together as they pass with a regular rhythm: tap tap tap tap.
- Think about keeping the lower goggle in the water when breathing using the split screen visualisation.
- Focus on keeping your lead hand constantly in motion: either extending forwards, lightly catching the water or pressing it backwards - never pausing! (this is a great visualisation for Overgliders in rehab)
- Relax and blow a constant stream of bubbles into the water a bit like you're sighing - brrrrrr!
- Stretch lightly through your core, thinking about moving your chest away from your hips as you swim.
On the face of it these tips might seem overly simple but each is very effective at controlling a particular stroke flaw as it creeps in when you get tired.
Swim Smooth!