Last week, I had to clean up and drain the pools for two “poopy” accidents. Because of the time and class disruption that came with this cleanup, I wanted to answer a common question from parents of non-potty trained infants and toddlers: “Why does my child need to wear two…
I was checking out my company’s Facebook page this morning and saw that my office manager had posted an article entitled “3 Reasons You Should Be Doing More Kick.” To preempt any comments such as “I’m a triathlete. I thought that I wasn’t supposed to kick.”, I thought I would put…
My coaching staff and I recently had Cindy Freedman from Swim Angelfish train us in her company’s “Swim Whisperer” method. The name SWIM WHISPERER is an acronym for the 14 road blocks to learning to swim common in children who are autistic or have sensory or physical difficulties. To get more…
I was going through my stack of swimming rags yesterday, and I came across an interesting analysis of the straight-arm recovery in freestyle in Swimming World’s December, 2014 issue (“Freestyle Straight-Arm Recovery” by Rod Havriluk). The article’s main intent is to put to the test the conventional wisdom that a…
It might seem premature to talk about swimming in December, but winter breaks and summer are right around the corner. With the lake and a pool in every neighborhood, it’s important for every child to learn swimming and water safety. Swim lessons teach essential safety skills. Swimming is an activity…
We periodically get questions about whether we teach “survival swimming” to infants and toddlers. The interest is usually driven from watching that viral video of the unattended infant falling into a pool with clothes on rolling to the back, swimming to the wall, and hanging on crying. We don’t teach…
I read an article on the American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA) website a while back. It’s written by John Leonard, the head of ASCA, and it’s a response to an email that he got from a coach about practicing with good swimming technique. His response highlighted the importance to coaches…
When I was teaching Week 4 of my Monday night triathlon swimming class for the Chicago Triathlon Club, I had a swimmer ask me why she felt slower after we had started to rework her timing, balance, and vessel shape. I’ve introduced the Total Immersion Perpetual Motion Freestyle stroke drills…
My office manager forwarded on an article from “Chicago Parent” on the use of swim noodles in swim classes. I was about to write a blog post that swim tools don’t teach, teachers do. I was going to take a triathlete angle and pick on my favorite enemies, the hand paddle…
Our students and parents always ask us where they can swim and practice outside of classes. While joining a health club is always an option, Chicago is a super cool city because the Chicago Park District has indoor and outdoor pools in nearly every neighborhood that have family, open, and…
