Swimming Terminology – Hypoxic

Hypoxic – Distance where the swimmer breathes only after a given number of strokes or works on his breath hold. For example a 400 hypoxic freestyle could mean the first 100 the swimmer breathes every 3, the second 100 the swimmer breathes every 5, the third 100 every 7 and the last 100 every 9 strokes.

Swimming Terminology – Descend

Descend – This is a set where each one of the repeats whatever the distance may be gets faster. The term descends comes from the time it takes for the swimmer to complete the distance. The swimmer gets faster each one until the last one is the fastest.

Alex Meyer – USA Open Water Swimming

Alex Meyer - USA SwimmingI had the honor to meet Alex a couple times over the past year while the USA Open Water team spent some time training in the Florida Keys. Alex is the first USA swimmer to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics with his top 10 finish in the 10km at the recent Open Water World Championships. Visit his new website and become a fan on Facebook.

Swimming Terminology – Warm Down

Warm down – This is at the end of practice to cool down the muscles. The warm down could be done as slow as the swimmer would like. They should not race through it because that does not help the body cool down. It is also very important not to skip this part of practice because if the muscles do not cool down properly they may get tight and this is very commonly the reason for injuries.

The Briggs Family

During this summer I have been working with the three Briggs boys – Trey, P.J. and John – down in the Keys. They had a full week of private lessons and we all learned a lot from each other. You can read their testimonial about their experience on the Race Club website.