Monday, January 7, 2008

Perth, Australia!!!

Okay, so we're back in the water again after a couple months of rest and I find Perth nearly upon us.

The 2008 World Masters Championship is scheduled for Perth this coming April. And boy do I want to go! The finances have been pretty shaky since the fire, but I've got to find a way to make it over there.

Two of my teammates have finally decided to go and of course want to do our Santa Baby Trio. They keep saying that they'll only go if I go. Talk about no pressure! Then there's the whole coach's daughter thing who heard we were thinking of going and got so excited that she scheduled us for extra practice with her!!! Considering she was one duet partner away from the Olympics this is definitely big news.

So in the course of one weekend, my Perth plans snowballed from a tenative "want to go" to "have to go or the world Will ENd AS WE KNOW IT" kind of thing.

Okay, so here's my fundraising plan.

I'm publishing articles on Helium. You can access my Articles page through this link:
http://www.helium.com/user/show_articles/324833

Enjoy the articles and help me get to Perth so the world doesn't end.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

No Detergent Please!!

Have you ever wondered why there are always signs posted about wearing proper swim attire when you go to the pool? They even go as far as mentioning that no underwear is allowed beneath your proper swim attire. What gives?

I always assumed that the underwear portion at least was because all undies may not be as clean as desired in a public pool. The rest of it just puzzled me. Until last week!

It’s not a cleanliness issue at all. It’s a pool maintenance issue. Apparently, when you wear regular clothes in a pool, the chemicals react badly with the particles of laundry detergent that are still attached to the fabric. When these chemicals get together, they form another compound that algae love to feed on. When you feed the algae, it naturally grows. Before you know it, algae will take over the pool. Who wants to swim in a pool of algae? Ick!

So don’t wash anything you swim in with laundry detergent. In fact, the detergent is too harsh for most swim wear anyway. I used to hand wash my suits with shampoo as soon as I took them off. Now I’ve gotten lazy and shampoo them in my washing machine then hang them to dry. It works quite well!

Happy swimming!!!

Basics: Head First Scull

Sculls are the foundation of all the figures. Without learning to properly do the sculls that each figure calls for, you’ll find that the figure will be less than successful. So let’s learn some sculls! We’ll start with the Head First Scull.

Start in your back layout.



Make sure that your head and hips are all in line on the surface of the water and your toes are pointed. Your chin should be back and your shoulders relaxed. Your elbows are bent slightly and your hands are at your hips.

To scull, flex your wrists so that your palms point towards your feet. Keeping your shoulders relaxed, move your arms gently in and out with your elbows. Finally, as you move your elbows slightly turn your hands so you lead with your wrists as your arms go in and out. You’ll note that your hands will make gentle figure eights as you move.

It’ll take some getting used to and some flexibility in your wrists, but you’ll note that you’re moving Head First!

Keep working to make the scull as fast as possible. You can do that by doing laps. Keeping a proper body alignment will help the speed with which you'll cross the pool as well as tighten your much needed core muscles. Still, keep working. You need to build the muscles in your arms for when you’re ready to try the ballet leg, flamingo and double ballet leg figures. Without strength built from this scull, you won’t have a chance of holding a leg in the air.

Trust me. I know.

Happy Swimming!!!