Swimmer's Daily

  • The Navy SEALs and USA Swimming have joined efforts to bring a new program to USA Swimming clubs and LSCs: the SEAL Fitness Challenge. It will take place in the spring and fall in various LSCs around the country. USA Swimming members can participate individually or with their club, but must be 13 year of age or older.

    Each SEAL Fitness Challenge participant will complete the following:

    • 500-yard swim (10 minutes rest)
    • Maximum number of push-ups in 2 minutes (2 minutes rest)
    • Maximum number of curl-ups in 2 minutes (2 minutes rest)
    • Maximum number of pull-ups in 2 minutes (10 minutes rest)
    • 1.5 mile run

    All athletes’ scores will be calculated against Navy SEAL standards and posted to usaswimming.org to compare with age group swimmers nationwide.

    Results as of 4/28/2011.

  • A study of 1500 British children aged six to 15 reveals a generation turning its back on sport. One in six cannot swim, one in ten had not learned to ride a bicycle, and almost a quarter had never run 400 metros. British children are more than twice as likely to spend their free time watching television (79%) than playing sport (34%), and also to choose internet or video games over sports. 33% did not own a bike, compared with 77% who owned a games console. And what is really sad, is that 15% had never played sport with their parents. Read more here on dailymail.co.uk.

  • Fourteen-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Michael Phelps is gearing up for the World Championships in Shanghai this summer, obviously an important meet and also a critical gauge of his form on the way to what would be his fourth Olympic Summer Games next year. He plans to race in four individual events and three relays in China. Read more here on sports.espn.go.com.

  • “Aquaria Palaoa” is the brainchild of Claudia Herr, a champion swimmer in her youth before turning to singing. Playing the lead role, she dives into the Stadtbad Neukölln pool in her green evening dress, oxygen tanks strapped to her back, to sing underwater with the whale-like sounds she produces transmitted onto speakers situated around the swimming pool using special microphones. Other singers will join her, but the orchestra stays dry, seated around the pool, which I guess is just good for the Stradivariuses. See unterwasseroper.de via thelocal.de.

  • This is not a real pool, but an art installation created by the Argentine sculptor Leandro Erlich. He constructed a full-size pool, complete with all its trappings, including a deck and a ladder, where a large, continuous piece of acrylic suspending water on top creates the illusion of a real swimming pool full of water. See for instance ps1.org and kanazawa21.jp. Via webecoist.com.

  • World championship medalist Sabir Muhammad announces today the availability of his first book, Born to Swim, illustrated by Toni Scott Daniel. It is an autobiographical account of his fear-turned-fascination with water that led him to become a notable swimmer, which Muhammad hopes will educate parents about the importance and availability of swimming instructions, and inspire kids from all backgrounds to learn to swim. See press release here on prweb.com.

  • Michael Phelps was recently beaten in his signature race 200 meter butterfly, when he at the 2011 Eric Namesnik Michigan Grand Prix swam 1:57.79, behind China’s Wu Peng in 1:56.62, Poland’s Marcin CieÅ›lak in 1:57.13 and USA’s Tyler Clary in 1:57.56. Maybe therefore he now tries sleeping in an altitude tent, to see if it gives the same positive effect as altitude camps. Via SwimNews.com, The Michigan Daily and The Detroit News.

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  • Right, following that Morning Swim Show interview, I had to go straight out and find that “spearfishing cross training” that they were talking about, and that George Bovell III even thinks gives him great adaptation, enjoying a weekend of diving 90 feet deep in strong current while breath-holding. Via georgebovellswimming.com.

    spearfishing cross training from George Bovell on Vimeo.

    I by the way found another video while searching, showing George Bovell III, Salim Iles, Duje Draganja and others spearfishing off Grenada.

  • Olympic bronze medal winner George Bovell III has relocated his training base to his home of Trinidad and Tobago, working with his former coach, looking “to coach my own coach to coach me”. And then he spear-fishes as cross-training :-)

    “At this stage in my career, after swimming 20 years, I think I’ve pretty much got it figured out and I understand the coaching and I’ve taken ownership of my swimming, but I need someone there to just give me one-on-one feedback”

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