We’re not all natural swimmers, but the love of swimming supersedes any natural talent.  The feeling of streaking through the water is something every swimmer strives to reach.  It’s what swimming is all about…it’s the feeling of it all!

You don’t have to be fast, or competitive to enjoy our sport.  Swimming is a simple pleasure, it require only a suit…and, if you really want to see what’s going on, a pair of goggles or a cap.  However, there are other pieces of equipment out there that can be used to enhance our ‘feel’ for the water, and keep us going at a pretty good pace while we do it.  Many coaches call these ‘bandaids’ for poor mechanics.  But, they can also be called saviors for swimmers who need an extra boost to their swimming.

Finis has a ton of swimming products designed to support every swimmer’s needs. One of these products is a small fin that I like to call a mini fin.  Wearing a pair of these mini fins is a great way to get that ‘streakin’ thru the water’ feeling.   It might even help you discover what you have been missing all these years…yeah, a kick!

Oftentimes, swimmers plod along through the water, moving at one speed all of the time.  It virtually takes years to learn proper mechanics and really get moving with some speed through the water.   But we don’t always have that kind of time.  So this is where the mini fins come into use.   Unlike the larger blade fins, the patented design of the mini fin enables any swimmer the opportunity to swim like a fish and still maintain the connection between the arms and the legs.

Larger fins let the kick to the swimming for us, but HEY…we want the whole body feel of swimming when we’re in the water, right?  Put these little babies on and away you go.  They don’t propel you like the big fins, and you can engage your kick when you’re ready, but right away you realize that this is what you were missing when you were swimming before…the feel of really moving forwards when you are swimming.  Ahhhh, this is what it’s all about!

Stay competitive in your workouts with your peers and yourself.  Pull on a pair of mini’s, just for the thrill and speed of it!   It’s easy to see where the gaps in your training have been before.  Remember hating those dreaded kicking sets?  Well, now they become a real challenge…not just to finish the set, but to actually kick faster as you get into the ’meat’ of the set.   You’ll probably never want to take them off, but like any other piece of equipment, you just want to use them to get the dust out of your legs when you kick.  Keeping them on all the time wouldn’t actually work…like life, everything in moderation is valuable.

We all know that the best piece of equipment you have is right between your ears.  Use it to encourage your swimming with better mechanics.  Speed isn’t everything.  In fact, with too much speed in your swimming, you can’t always feel how you are moving through the water.  Yes it feels like you’re really going fast, but at what cost?  So, in every workout, toss all your equipment away for awhile and listen to what your body has to say about your swimming (but don’t toss it too far away).

I like to wear my mini’s for a part of every workout and I wouldn’t be without them!  It’s a great tool to help teach a 6-beat kick to a) an over-kicking or b)an under-kicking swimmer.  Pull them on at the end of a workout to get a little more speed out of you swimming when you’re tired.  Use them during your warm up, to engage your legs with your stroke.  Try swimming a little breaststroke with them.  They will actually help you feel the outward rotation of your feet.  Feel them GRAB the water like hands, and push it back as you go through the motion of the whip kick.

Vertical kicking is another great way to use the ZOOMERS.  If you’re a little crazy, try holding a couple of kickboards over your head while you maintain your vertical kicking.  Challenge yourself all the time during your workouts.  Flutter, dolphin, whip…you can do them all with your ZOOMERS.

Okay, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m talking about ZOOMERS.  They have been around for a ton of years, and they’re not going away anytime soon.  I’ve had many pair through the years, mostly because I can’t seem to hold onto them for more than a year or so without losing them, but I digress.  They are the one fin I have returned to time after time.  ZOOMERS are my fin of choice to recommend to all my swimmers.  Whether they are having trouble finding their kick, or don’t have one to find, these babies are the icing on the cake.  Finis has a great website for all of their products (http://www.finisinc.com).  Click on and see what they have for you and your swimming.  My bet is you’ll come away with a couple of very valuable products that will take you swimming to new heights.   Swim till you can’t swim anymore…then, come up and take a breath and swim some more.  Yeh, can you tell I’m all about swimming?  Swim on!

2010 Colorado Parent Magazine Family Favorites

SwimLabs is again participating in voting for Colorado Parent Magazine’s Family Favorites of 2010. You can vote for all  of your favorite Kid Friendly Venues and Activities, from Family Photographers to Ski Areas and After School Programs (You can also vote for your FAVORITE Swim Center/Water Park, Sports Camp/Program, and Swim Lessons too)

Check it out!

Using the power of MindBody Online SwimLabs is proud to now offer our clients the ability to search for and register for Private and Semi Private classes online. The Process couldn’t be simpler- anywhere our website states “Register Online”, simply click the link, select the type of class you are looking for, and you will be presented with a number of options featuring different instructors and times. When you select one, our staff will contact you to confirm the appointment.

Swimmers Snorkels are one of the most useful tools that swimmers of any ability level, from novice to advanced can include in their “swimming tool bag”.  At SwimLabs, we use Swimmers Snorkels for Freestyle, Breaststroke, and Butterfly to practice a variety of swimming techniques, from Balanced Swimming to Powerful Kicking Movements.

This video shows a Hinge and Anchor Drill first without, and then with a swimmers snorkel. By using the snorkel, the swimmer is able to easily keep their body properly balanced and aligned in the water, making it easier to accomplish a forward balanced position, which makes performing this drill easier.

During Lactate Tests, you will swim in an Endless Pool at Swimlabs. You will undergo a set of four or five swims at incrementally increasing speeds until you reach a maximum effort.
At the end of your test, a very small blood sample will be taken to measure your lactate.
Once your Training session is complete, we will go over your results, and help design a training plan for you.

For a Blood Profiling, you will come to the CU Sports Medicine Clinic in Denver, where we will do an analysis on your blood to help your coach personalize your training regimine.

Both of these programs are aimed to help you train better. For more information, call 303.798.7946!

Of these positions, arguably the most important for you to learn takes place underwater, and is known as the Catch. The Catch is a transitional position that takes place between the entry and extension of your arm into the water, and the pulling or power portion of the stroke. It is basically composed of two steps- the Hinge and the Anchor. Combined, these two steps allow for a strong foundation for the pulling phase of the stroke.

The Hinge occurs immediately after your hand enters and extends forward into the water. As your arm reaches its full extension, rotate, or hinge your arm at the elbow, until your forearm and hand are pointed straight down towards the bottom of the pool. As this occurs, it is very important to keep the elbow as far in front of your body as possible. Once your arm has completely hinged, it should “anchor” into position in front of your body. As this happens, the job of moving the arm backwards through the water will be transferred from your Pectoral muscle of your chest to the Lats and the Deltoids of your back, which will provide for much more power as you begin to push the water backwards. Another reason for anchoring your arm and hand this way has to do with the upcoming power phase of the stroke, in which it is better to imagine pulling your body past your hand and arm, than it is to pull your hand past your body. A simple change, but one that makes all the difference as you start to push the water backwards.
By arming yourself with a catching drill progression, you can easily master this technique of “Catching the Water”. To begin, start with a Double Hinge drill. Float face down in the water, and kick just hard enough to maintain your body position. Extend both arms in front of your body, and practice the Hinge simultaneously with both. Once the Hinge is completed, return your arms to a fully extended position in front of your body, and repeat. While this drill is being preformed, do not allow your elbows to slip backwards or downwards.Once you feel comfortable with the Double Hinge Drill, you can move on to the Single Hinge drill. It is preformed exactly as the Double Hinge drill, however, instead of moving both arms simultaneously, alternate each arm. As before, do not allow your elbow position to change during the drill.

Once you feel that you have mastered both the Double and Single Hinge drill, you can begin to incorporate this move into your Freestyle. Be aware, this will significantly change the timing and the balance of your previous stroke, resulting in an awkward feel to the move. Keep practicing, and don’t be afraid to go back into the drills if you feel like you aren‘t swimming correctly. Eventually, your timing and balance will adjust to this new move, and you will be swimming faster and better than you ever have before.

Hello-
I wanted to say thank you for all that you did to get my two daughters “pool ready”. We just returned from our vacation in Arizona and they both became fish…;-). They love the water and we’re all more comfortable thanks to the personalized instruction they received.

Tracy Inman

We don’t want you to just take our word that you will swim fast…faster or that your children will learn faster and better than with traditional methods, we want to show you how we do it. Visit our website, or our facebook and twitter pages for more information, including videos, about what we do.

Our facility at SwimLabs is specially set up to practice fundamentals. With our endless pools, video analysis system, video library of expert swimmers, and expert coaches, we have created an environment that allows for swimmers to not only practice the fundamentals of the sport, but also make improvements to their technique as well. Typically, this results in drastic improvements to stroke technique, and therefore large drops in speed.

The following is a client testimonial. After only a few hours of coaching sessions, they were able to vastly improve their strokes and their times.

Hi Mike & Giff,

Wendy McCurdy

Here’s the link: www.surveyconsole.com/console/TakeSurvey?id=531730

We’d love to have you vote for SwimLabs while you are there, but please take the opportunity to tell them about everything that your family loves to do!