Teaching Streamlining

Posted on 07/03/2013 by Coach Gary

rope pullYou will see from the drawings yesterday that one of the pictures said ‘rope pull’.  This is a little trick I use to assist me to teach how correct streamlining feels.  If there is a long rope at the pool I often will use it to pull the swimmer I am working with through the water.  I ask them to hold their head up for half a length and then put it down.  I ask them how it feels different once they put their head down.  Since they are going a lot faster than normal the feeling is much more pronounced.  Faster = more drag.  So the goal is to have the swimmer experience the feeling of the resistance of the water by going much faster by pulling them through the water.  It is a very cheap way of doing the same thing that a very expensive tool called a cable tow does.  A cable tow is over £$10K, so a big step down from that fee.  It is also a great deal of fun and then it is very memorable.  Swimmers want to do it again…always a good thing.

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About Coach Gary

I competed in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul representing Canada and coached in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics for Great Britain. I have a degree in History and a minor degree in Psychology from University of Calgary. I have travelled extensively and have been very lucky to see so much of the world while representing Canada and Great Britain at swimming competitions. I am very proud of the fact that I coached a swimmer to become number one in the world in the fastest swimming race in 2002. I pride myself in my ability to find new and interesting ways to teach swimming. I am an accomplished artist specialising in sculpture, I have another blog called 'swimmingart' where I publish some of my swimming drawings. I have three young children; all boys. I have recently taken up painting and yoga....but not at the same time. All of my writing is AI free. I make my own errors and am happy to do that. I am not perfect because being human is not perfect. You can see my carving work at: https://wwwoodart.wordpress.com/2024/03/18/wood-spirit-walking-stick/ And my paintings and drawings at: https://swimmingart.wordpress.com
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