Swimmer's Daily

  • The Race Club #swimisodes World champion backstroker, Junya Koga demonstrates a backstroke swim drill also known as 6 Kick Switch, that will help you appreciate the importance of this extreme rotation from one side to the other. Developing a faster backstroke swim begins with learning to use fast, strong body rotation.The energy from this quick body turn couples with the force from the underwater pull, resulting in more distance per stroke. The rotation of the body to the side in backstroke also places the shoulder in a stronger mechanical position to generate a greater force during the pull. See The Race Club

  • In case you missed it, the Aqualillies are having a Moment. Until recently, their synchronized swimming spectacles were largely VIP affairs, reserved for the Hollywood glitterati. (They got their big break as Justin Timberlake’s 30th birthday surprise.)

    Lately, though, the Aqualillies have popped up in TV commercials and the music videos of Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande. On Feb. 5, they make their big-screen debut in the Coen brothers’ new comedy “Hail, Caesar!” helping Scarlett Johansson look that much better in a mermaid tail. On Feb. 19, the results of that eye-popping Woodland Hills rehearsal will air as an Esther Williams-inspired sequence on the CW’s “Jane the Virgin.”

    “There’s always been a desire for this,” said the Aqualillies’ Ramsey, the assistant swim choreographer on “Hail, Caesar!” and herself a former competitive synchronized swimmer. “It went dormant for a while. Aqualillies gave it a vehicle to come back.”

    See Los Angeles Times

  • If you’ve ever been told by a coach that you need to get your elbows higher when you swim then we’d pose to you the question, is your elbow really dropped or in fact is it just that your hand is too high? A change in perspective that could make all the difference to improving your stroke technique.

  • Check out USA Swimming’s newest attraction Surf Omaha that will be featured in the 2016 Aqua Zone at the U.S. Olympic Trials – Swimming this upcoming June! For full details on the attraction and the Aqua Zone visit www.usaswimming.org.

  • Featuring Eamon Sullivan

  • The Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will not be cancelled and the mosquito-borne Zika virus will not affect the Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said.

    Speaking in Los Angeles on Monday, IOC President Thomas Bach expressed confidence that there will be good conditions for athletes and spectators at the Rio Games in August, despite the explosive spread of the Zika virus across the Americas.

    But President Dilma Rousseff’s chief of staff, Jaques Wagner, has urged pregnant women to not travel to Brazil for the Olympics because of the risk posed by the virus.

    “The risk, which I would say is serious, is for pregnant women. It is clearly not advisable for you to travel to the Games because you don’t want to take that risk,” he said.

    The unprecedented warning, issued just over six months before the opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, came after the World Health Organization declared an emergency over the virus, suspected of causing microcephaly, or abnormally small heads, in babies.

    No vaccine or treatment currently exist for the virus.

    See aljazeera, USA Today, CCTV, AFP, africanews, …

    https://youtu.be/C9SulgQ5pZQ

  • Four-time Olympic Medalist, Cullen Jones, discusses what it means being a role model and an Olympic champion in the African-American community despite the misconceptions and stereotypes that swimmers of color face. He shares his thoughts on swimming becoming a more inclusive sport and how he one day will pass on the torch to the younger generation.

  • In the second of our ‘Moments in Time’ series we focus on the extraordinary story of Eric Moussambani at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

    We talk to Eric about his unique preparations to represent Equatorial Guinea for the Games, his training facilities and schedule as well as his experience with swimming. The Men’s 100m Freestyle race he was to be involved in became one of the most memorable moments in Olympic history.