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  In the words of Mutley the dog, Medley... Medley... Medley... and he knew a bit about swimming. If you haven't come from a swim club background, you probably have a single favoured stroke. Most people either swim front crawl or breaststroke only. But this summer, to help your fitness, mobility and strength, why not make a conscious effort to try all of the strokes? Aside from all the physical benefits, it also makes things more interesting and adds new challenges, which in turn helps with motivation.  Breaststroke benefits: Breaststroke is a 'strength' stroke. You're pretty much relying upon your...

  Effective swimming can be broken into 2 simple categories: 1. Balance and Streamlining refers to the way in which you change your body position and shape, to more effectively slip through the water. 2. Propulsion refers to how you use your legs and arms to propel yourself through the water. In terms of which is more important, balance and streamlining will always come first. This is clearly evident in age group swimmers, there are lots of physically strong swimmers who travel very slowly due to poor body position. By contrast, swimmers with good body position will glide through the...

  'Stroke timing' refers to the sequence of your arm movement, in simple terms, what is one arm doing in comparison to the other at any given time. There is a whole spectrum of stroke timing but we commonly refer to 2 main types and categorise swimmers as either 'catch up' or 'windmill'. 1. Windmill stroke is when the hands/arms are at opposite ends of the clock face. As one hand enters, the other is leaving the water (9/3 o'clock) or as one hand pulls under the body, the other recovers above the water (6/12 o'clock). It is very easy...

  One of the most common problems which swimmers fail to grasp is how to breathe correctly. If you ask them to swim one length of a pool with their head in the water, without breathing, then everything generally looks good. As soon as they start breathing, things go dramatically wrong and it impacts on the whole stroke!! Here's our quick fix guide: 1. Lifting the head too high is a common issue. In a 'see-saw' manner, if you lift your head too high, your legs will drop and you'll slow down. When you turn your head to breathe, try...

  What is Stroke Count? Stroke count is the number of strokes you take each length of the pool. You count both your left and your right arm strokes and most amateur swimmers generally require somewhere between 16-30 strokes to complete 1 length of a 25m pool. What is stroke rate? Stroke rate is the number of strokes you take in a single minute, in essence, this is the speed of your stroke. It is very much like cycling cadence (the number of times your legs turn round in a minute). Most amateur swimmers generally have a stroke rate of...