South Africas Top swimming coach, Graham Hill, says teenager Chad Le Clos is the best talent he has worked with, and has tipped the teenager for a medal at next year’s Olympic Games in London.
“I’ve seen many swimmers in my time, but he’s certainly the best I’ve come across”
“He’s got all the tools – speed, endurance and everything else one needs. He is a complete swimmer.”
And then he’s also “My brother, my player, the Phelps slayer” :-)
Read Sport24
SeaWorld trainer who Ken Peters escaped being drowned by a killer whale during a public performance in California in 2006, testified on Tuesday that he still works with the whales and considers the risk “acceptable”. “I could get killed in a car accident today, but I still get in a car,” he said during the federal hearing following the 2010 drowning of trainer Dawn Brancheau, by a different killer whale at Sea World Orlando. Problem seems to be “error in judgment” of whether or not the whales are agitated, before entering the water with them. Read more on Reuters.com
A call to arms here on GoSwim.tv:
There is an epidemic in swimming right now, and Maryland is latest in a long line of schools dropping swimming from their programs.
This is also a notice to all college coaches, your programs are NOT safe. In my humble opinion, you’re not just a coach anymore, it’s time to rally your alumni prior to this being done to you. While the efforts and outcries and the momentum building to save the program are great, view this as a precursor for your own programs and start your outreach program before this hits you.
In the meantime… remember, this is about the swimmers, the athletes, the kids.
Visit SaveUMDSwimming.org for more information. Help can be for instance to sign the petition, and to show up in force as spectators at their meets. See also Facebook
Fun fact in this video, Mark Spitz’s swimming career started with him doing well in a swim across a pool, mostly because he was called last because of his name starting with an “S”, and therefore was cold. Big Splash via the BBC
It will be a world away from the chaos created by Ian Thorpe’s return to the competitive pool in Singapore earlier this month, but another former champion, Michael Klim, will make his comeback from retirement in a low-key swim meeting at Nunawading. Read The Age.
Picture courtesy of Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games, cc by-nc 2.0
A must-read here on DC Rainmaker: A triathlete testing both the FINIS Swimsense and the Swimovate Pool-Mate Pro for 3 months, on occasions wearing both at once. He finds both to be very accurate, ending up identical in terms of distance/laps even after 3,000 yards. But he cannot test stroke identification, due to his triathlete-like lack of form stroke skills. Now, this is where a guy like me could help out, hint hint, nudge nudge.
A) If you want a very slim watch that records the basics and you don’t have to worry about charging, then the Swimovate Pool-Mate Pro is best for you. It has a very clean/slim design that ultimately allows you to get your core swim data (distance/time/pace).
B) If you want a device that has more analytics capability, and can give you more data and functionality then the FINIS Swimsense watch is really the one for you. The watch offers more for the data driven person, with more compatibility and expansion options.
South Africa’s 2011 FINA World Cup winner Chad Le Clos arrived this afternoon at the King Shaka International Airport in Durban, to a hero’s welcome. All together he won over 30 medals in the seven series event to clinch his first overall World Cup title in Tokyo on Sunday, earning some US$145,500 in prize money. Via EastCoastRadio
A free educational water safety book is now available on www.Swimtastic.com; designed specifically for parents to use to educate their children at home. The book incorporates water safety rules through fun and engagement; downloadable for free on the Swimtastic Swim School website, if only you register. “Smart Fish Swim in Schools!” :-)
Via PRWeb
Interval Inference Mode (iiM) is a free update for the FINIS Swimsense® performance monitor, freeing you from having to manually press the “pause” button after each repeat. Simply press START at the beginning of your workout and STOP at the end, and the Swimsense® will automatically register all intervals and rest period, along with other metrics like distance, stroke type, splits, stroke count, DPS, stroke rate and SWOLF. It doesn’t like sloppy finishes and poor streamlines though, which is an interesting ‘nagging coach’ addition to the rest of its features:
We have outlined these rules to get the most accurate readings of iiM:
Rule 1: Push Off Strong – Try to push off and streamline for at least 2 seconds on each wall
Rule 2: Finish Strong – Even if you aren’t finishing your interval with your Swimsense arm, it is still important to have a good finish into the wall so that the time can be accurate. Just like a coach, the Swimsense is now timing your intervals, so you better not finish short!
Rule 3: Be Still Between Intervals – After a few seconds of non-swimming, the screen will automatically pause and invert when you are resting. However, you should try and stay as still as possible so that excess motion isn’t confused for swimming. A suggestion would be to put your Swimsense hand or wrist on the wall to hold it still.
Rule 4: Have At Least 3-5 Seconds Rest Between Intervals – The Swimsense needs this time of stillness between intervals to know that you have stopped swimming. Otherwise it will think you are just doing a very slow turn.
Via finisinc.com
