Enter now for the Steers Marina Mile
December 12, 2011SA extreme swimmers to cross Bering Straight
December 10, 2011Ram Barkai, Kieron Palframan, Ryan Stramrood and Andrew Chin are South African open water swimmers who became the first men to swim around the tip of South America.
Ram Barkai is a cold water swimmer from Cape Town.
Together with Toks Viviers, they did three swims in rough water, against strong currents and in water between 3.9°C and 8°C.
The three swims were: 4.5 K across the Strait of Magellan, 3.2 K double crossing of the Beagle Channel and 2.5 K around Cape Horn.
The South African cold water specialists will be joined by the following swimmers in their next cold water expedition:
Rafal Ziobro (Poland), Zdenek Talmicka and Petr Tomasek (Czech Republic), Jack Bright (United Kingdom), Nuala Moore and Anne Marie Ward (Ireland), Alexander Brylin (Russia), Paolo Chiarino (Italy) and Anna-Carin Nordin (Sweden) have all committed to the 86 K (53 mile) relay crossing of the entire width of the Bering Strait.
The Bering Straight separates Russia from the America’s and the water will be below 4 degrees Celsius for the swim.
The crossing is planned for 18 July – 10 August 2012. The swimming relay starts on the Cape Dezhnev (Russia) and finishes on the Cape Prince of Wales (USA)
How cold is cold?
December 1, 2011There are two main frontiers in the world of open water swimming. One of those frontiers is how far can be swam and the other is how cold can the water be.
In South Africa, the cold debate was largely irrelevant outside of Cape Town but with more and more swimmers attempting swims like Robben Island, the question of how cold is cold has become increasingly topical.
Since open water swimming starting in Jeffreys Bay in the mid 1990′s, perceptions about how cold is cold have changed quite dramatically.
For many years open water swimming stopped towards the end of March when the canal water temperature dropped below 20 degrees C and only started again in October, once the 20 degree mark was breached.
That all changed in 2011 as Jeffreys Bay swimmers began training for Robben Island swims and suddenly water of 12 – 13 degrees C was sought after, with swimmers coming through from Port Elizabeth to swim in the chilly canals.
13 degree water at Marina Martinique in winter.
Daily News of Open Water Swimming reported on a poll conducted among open water swimmers about how cold is cold. The results were:
Under 5ºC (41ºF) – 0%
Under 10ºC (50ºF) – 7%
Under 12.5°C (54.5°F) – 14%
Under 15°C (59°F) – 20%
Under 17.5°C (63.5°F) – 24%
Under 20°C(68°F) – 15%
Under 22.5°C (72.5°F) – 17%
Learn to swim should be fun
October 31, 2011Joining a swim school and entering a pool with a swim teacher could well be the first class room environment a young child may encounter.
Photo: Paul Van Jaarsveld
Helping the little swimmer to overcome the associated fears and uncertainty’s is the first step in the Learn to Swim journey.
Building a trust relationship will be a good swim teacher’s first goal.
Up to the age of 3, many children will only trust their parents or other family members and learning to trust a stranger in a swimming pool can be very stressful.
It does help if the little swimmer knows some other children who are learning to swim with the same teacher. They will then compare notes amongst each other and can help make the whole journey more enjoyable.
There may be tears when a little swimmer enters the water for the first time. A patient, calm swim teacher will help the child through this traumatic stage and this will be the start of the trust relationship.
Brenton’s Swim School offers lessons at the Training Edge Gym in a heated covered swimming pool. For more information, email kougaswim@vodamail.co.za
Marina Martinique hosts SA Open Water Champs
May 16, 2011After hosting events in Marina Martinique since 2002, it was great for the Club to see the Marina receive recognition from Swim South Africa when the 2011 SA Open Water Swim Champs was held in J’Bay.
Olympic swimmers Natalie Du Toit, Chad Ho and Thoyden Prinsloo were joined by over a hundred swimmers from all over South Africa for the Champs.
Natalie won both the 10 K and the 5 K in the event which also doubled up as a World Champs qualifier.
She also took time out to visit the swimmers at training and signed autographs for everybody!
Open water swimmers do well in PE
March 19, 2011Four of the Kouga Swim Club’s open water swimmers took part in the Ocean Racing Series in Port Elizabeth recently. They all did really well with three 3rd places and a first time ever ocean swim for Sally Waterworth who recently started training with the Club.
For more on this story click on www.jbaynews.com
Phelps on the come back trial
March 4, 2011The greatest swimmer in the world, Michael Phelps has signaled his intentions with some powerful performances at the Indianapolis Grand Prix gala currently taking place in America.
He won the 200 m Freestyle in 1:46.27 and the 100m Butterfly in 51.75. Both these times are the fastest in the world in 2011 for these events.
Michael Phelps swum a 51.75 for the 100 m Fly
Phelps took a break from swimming following the 2008 Olympic Games and got back into serious training last year in a build up to the London Olympics next year. From the form shown a year out from the Games, Phelps will undoubtedly be a medal contender come business time in 2012.
“I said to myself if I was under 1:47 in the 200 free, I’d be really happy, and when I saw 46.2, it kind of surprised me a little bit,” Phelps said. “It was the best time in the world, so I’ll take it. I’m definitely happy.
“My freestyle has been connecting a little bit better than it has in the past, so that’s one thing I’m really happy with. The only thing I’m kind of upset with in my fly was my finish. I try not to have finishes like that, because I know how important they are.
“I know there are some things I can still change, but for the most part, I know I’m heading in the right direction. I’m pretty confident.”
Follow this gala at USA Swimming
Michael Phelps freestyle
March 3, 2011Michael Phelps is the best swimmer of this generation, if not of all time. His achievements at the 2008 Olympic Games are well documented and will be difficult to match ever again.
Yet, from a pure swimming perspective, Phelps has been part of a revolution regarding the way freestyle is being swum. This was clearly demonstrated in the 200 m Freestyle at the Beijing Olympics where Phelps used a hybrid stroke that incorporated hip driven and shoulder driven freestyle.
The old way of 3 strokes and breathe has also been done away with and the top swimmers in the world mostly favour a 2 stroke and breathe technique.
Chad Ho wins Redhouse River Mile
March 1, 2011South Africa’s world 10 K swim champ Chad Ho made it three wins out of three at the 2011 Redhouse River Mile. Chad is a genuine medal contender for South Africa at the next Olympic Games.
Chad Ho won the Midmar and the Redhouse River Miles in 2011
For full results of the 2011 Spar Redhouse River Mile, click here
Some great training tips
February 28, 2011Doing sets with the other swimming strokes has lots of advantages. Check out some of them thanks to Open Water Source
Incorporating other strokes in your workouts has the following benefits:
Butterfly helps build strength, is good for your abdominal muscles and is aerobically challenging.
Andre Saunders is developing a pretty good butterfly stroke
Butterfly and breaststroke require bilateral symmetry – because your left side does the same as your right. As a result, these strokes help establish more muscular symmetry.
Because backstroke is essentially the inversion of freestyle, working your arm and leg muscles in the opposite directions is helpful to building overall strength. Additionally, your hip rotation in the backstroke can help you improve your hip rotation in freestyle.
If you have a relatively weak freestyle kick, working on these other strokes, especially backstroke, will help you build your leg strength. Most swimmers kick more in backstroke than they do on freestyle.
Learning and working on swim strokes other than freestyle helps you become more kinetically aware of your body’s movements in the water which can help improve your freestyle.
Individual medley (butterfly + backstroke + breaststroke + freestyle) sets are aerobically challenging.
You can add significant variety to your pool workouts and become less dependent on hand paddles, pull buoys and kickboards.
Visit Open Water Source for more information about the world of Open Water Swimming
