Physics In Swimming | Mediterra Swim & Run

Be Powerful and Be Smooth About It

by Coach Mat | 24 Oct, 2020

I have a saying: “Power is important, but (in water) shape is more important than power.” I use it to persuade a student to be patient with our process of developing the frame of the body and the streamline shape before we focus directly on the propulsive...

Your Body Composition And Strength Matter For Speed

by Coach Mat | 7 Mar, 2020

Over the years I have worked with the widest range of bodies I can image – young and old, tall and short, large and small, very buoyant and very not, muscular and frail – all sorts. When one is working with a body at any of the extremes several...

Add A Little Gallop In Your Stroke?

by Coach Mat | 26 Oct, 2019

You’ll see from time to time in elite swimming, especially in the shorter/faster events, that a swimmer may have a ‘gallop’ or ‘lope’ which is a slight up/down motion of their head and upper body during the stroke cycle. This gallop is...

One Stroke Technique For Everyone? Part 3

by Coach Mat | 28 Oct, 2018

This continues from Part 2 of One Stroke Technique For Everyone? In the previous part I discussed how we might allow a swimmer to make compromises away from the ideal because she has limitations in her body that are unimproveable or there are other reasons that stack...

One Stroke Technique For Everyone? Part 2

by Coach Mat | 20 Oct, 2018

This continues from Part 1 of One Stroke Technique For Everyone? Improve What Is Improvable Let’s consider some of the features that could be improved if an athlete were motivated to do so: soft-tissue and joint immobility low flexibility low strength poor...

One Stroke Technique For Everyone? Part 1

by Coach Mat | 6 Oct, 2018

Let me give you a short answer to the question in the title of this post: Yes, there is a technical ideal we are aiming for, for every standard-equipped human swimmer. And, yet we recognize that there is so much variety in bodies that some compromise is often...