swimming technique

im sorry to drag you all away from all those exciting fancy hockey move videos
but
ive been thinking recently on how many of us actualy use swim stroke techniques in our training schedules.
well i remember getting(or crawling) out of the pool in the euro 2004 champ on the last game, i couldnt move my back muscles and my triceps were sore to touch.
maybe if i had done more swimming technique along with special high rep/low weight gym work i could have been stronger on my stroke in the water.

i have been browsing this website
http://swimming.about.com/od/aboutss...imworkout1.htm

it has loads of swim training sesions and it seems no a no bullshiht web site.

Q would it be good to do some of these sessions twice a week along with high rep gym sessions to strenghten the stroke.
well it is nice to change your schedule,i find it hard to do the same stuff everyweek building up to a big comp.

or is it best to keep to the original hockey training ?

oh,amc32 this q was primarely aimed at you cause i just know you have a little doctors bag of torturous antitodes over there in nz hidden under your bed.

but anyone else please contribute..

after all,what makes all those fast skillfull guys in the hockey vids win those pucks.
they dont just take a magic tablet to make em go fast

or do they..

so i really feel an importance for this post and that some of the experienced guys out there share their knowlege on this
i spent almost 3 years training in hockey not knowing what was the right format to train until we had the luck to come accross such information and i´m sure
right now, theres people out there training radom exercises not knowing exactly what to do in a training session.

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top of de mornin to yeh

Swimming should form a large component of any training program.

Most top countries all have swim programs that they would work to. Personally when training for worlds i would do at least 4 hard swims a week plus 2 recovery swims in addition to other stuff.

You will find differing views on whats the best kind of swim training for hockey.

Generally a good swim session is around 3 - 4km (less if you are working on speed) and involves a mix of strokes, drills and distances.

When making up a program focus each session on a different aspect, speed, technique, endurance or strength (mostly upper body), but include a small element of each in every session.

If you don't mix it up its a recipe for injury as well as bordem. Each stroke works particular muscles, mixing the strokes means that your body remains in balance. Backstroke is particulalry important to strengthen the back muscles (something uwh players often neglect).

If you want to make it more hockey specific try mixing in breathholds, i.e minimum breaths over 50m, breathing every 10 strokes etc.

If you want some more specific programs Meaghan in Barcelona may be able to help you. I think she is a former swimmer.

I agree with Hamish - you should be incorporating as much swimming as possible.

I think that anyone that is serious about hockey should go to a swim coach and do some sessions with them. They can fix your technique in ways you would never be able too. If you have good technique then you have the ability to build on your speed etc.

Hey Steve,
i used to give out swim programmes to nz guys, but they got sick of seeing the same swimming programmes every year. now i send the guys off to professionals.

guys get together a couple of times per week, hire a lane at the local pool and get proper tuition with a professional swim instructor.
like zoee says - poor swimmers learn to swim properly, good swimmers get technique improvement.

professional instructors have far more practice at making sessions interesting and at building swimming fitness/speed to peak for competitions than i do.

it helps spread costs if there are 1/2 doz guys living in same town who can all train together at same time.
great to see other guys in the team putting in donkey work at training too. it's tough to slack off in group swimming sessions when pro trainer is whipping your butt along and the rest of the team are slogging out the k's.

still have to go to pool on your own as well and pound out lengths with fins on and practice stick skills too.

one good reason for getting pro help is so when your local pool gets bolshie and tells you you cannot get in with fins on, you have the ability to successfully swim train without fins. [some of us are lousy swimmers without fins]

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http://snorkelbattlesafari.blogspot.com/

i´ll pop down to some pools in barcelona and have a sniff around for a coach.
if ireland go to south africa,i´ll be thinking of doing really long swim sessions and as
we get closer to the comp i´ll shorten them down and make them more intence but im sure a coach will sort something out for us.

yeah hamish that breath hold is really good as you swim,i do it with jogging up steep hills,i get about 10 - 12 paces and then i explode,im sure it builds up great strenght.
balance is a good thing,true but for some strange reason i love the leg work,its our biggest chunk of muscle and our bodies work horse.
great guys thanks for th eadvise.

any of you out there have more interesting thoughts let us know.

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top of de mornin to yeh

The swim portion of training is important so that you know how to use your arms while on the surface either to help with speed and/or control to get into position or for recovery by swimming back after a score using your arms so that you rest your legs. And I'm sure there are lots of other reasons that don't need to be detailed here.

But while working with an instructor on technique be sure to get kick help. You can use several different kicks not only within a game but within one drop or one run with the puck to make you more effective. This becomes even more critical when you are using stiff fins as any flaw in your rythym or techinique may cause you to expend more energy for less result. And the last thing you want to do is expend energy to get you going only to have your bad technique counter what you just started. You may need to get going with one kick and then ease into a different kick before cranking that up to full speed. And really the best way to figure this out is experience so do a bunch of underwater lengths experimenting with different kicks.

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Just in case you weren't sure, it's official -- CMAS sucks.
Oh yeah, and now they're broke.

Surely swim training WITHOUT FINS is only good for fitness and some upper-body strength? I mean, having good swim technique is good, nice, whatever, but realisticly speaking, how much difference would it make to your game?

Wouldn't your time be better investing in swimming WITH FINS??

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Off Half-Backs Rule

I've found that doing sessions without fins helps you get your kicking technique back on track and also builds up some strength your legs. Mainly because you have to make the extra effort to gain distance.

And also it helps to get your overall technique flowing smoothly so you can benefit from it (ie, your arms and legs are working together - you're not moving just because your arms are pulling you through the water, you're moving because both your arms and legs are gripping the water and pulling you through).

This is a question for amc32. I am wondering if he would be willing to post instructions for the beep test. The postings about it from stevebrry have made me curious...

Andrew posted in the "fitness Test" thread a link to the beep test in an Excel sheet format. Here is a link to that.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.ph...Uzc1R00wTVE9PQ

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An aquifer is a water bearing layer of rock or soil. Aquifers are separated by impermeable layers of rock or clay called an aquitard. Aquitard, however may sound a bit offensive to some, and therefore we will be changing the name to Aquachallenge.