One may ask, what happens in an hour and forty-five minute swim practice? Well here at Linfield, a lot happens in a swim practice. Morning practices are actually shorter practices and involve only swimming and some light core exercises. These practices are designed to help us work on technique as well as endurance and speed in the water. I'm taking a physiological basis of exercise, training and conditioning class, and I have begun to think a lot more about what happens to my body and my teammates’ bodies when we practice as well as compete.

One thing we covered in class was body composition. A swimmer’s body composition is unique compared to other athletes. A swimmer’s body can be low in body fat percentage or on the higher end of a healthy percentage. Depending on the stroke, many swimmers believe they may do better having a higher body fat percentage. A swimmer who specializes in backstroke may benefit from having a little extra fat to help them float on the top of the water to be in the best possible alignment. This is not the case though according to a study by Geladas in 2005. It found that body composition and weight showed no significance in affecting performance. I found this quite interesting since I have been one to believe that body composition had a huge effect on performance.

Swimming also utilizes a mix of all of the different muscle types. Depending on whether you’re a sprinter, middle distance, or distance swimmer is what will determine which muscle type is most dominant. To make it through practice though, even if you are a sprinter, you have to have some slow twitch or Type I muscle fibers for the endurance aspect of how long practice is. In many practices, our coach will hit both the anaerobic and aerobic pathways in the body. This practice in particular involves our fast twitch or Type IIa and Type IIx muscle fibers more. Our coach will separate team members during certain practices to help the distance swimmers utilize their aerobic pathway more as well.

The core exercises that we perform at the end of practice helps us with our fine motor movements like balance within the water, as well as strengthening our core for muscle tone and injury prevention while doing dives or flip turns. These also help sometimes with overall athleticism because swimmers can be really great in the water and awful at any kind of dryland sport.

It has been very interesting looking at the different things affecting my performance in swimming, and I am excited to apply more concepts to swimming as I learn more throughout the rest of my schooling.

For those that would like to know what pool exercises were used for this reflection, here it is. Have fun!

Practice:

1x 400swim

1x 400easy kick

3x 4x75 @ 1:15

- Back, Breast, Free

- Kick, Breakout, swim

- Scull, breakout, swim

1x 200 easy swim

4x 25 breakout

2x 25 all out off the block

- 75 easy between each

1x 150 easy

1x 75 all out off the block

1x 150 easy swim

6x 50 @ 50

- 25 kick, 25 swim

1x 100 IM all out off the block

1x 12 minute ab set (60seconds on, 30seconds off)

- Bicycle crunches

- Rollup V-ups

- Right Side V-ups

- Left Side V-ups

- Plank with knee tuck to either side

- Elbows with knee tuck to either side

- Full body crunches

- Dynamic Superman