Amanda Clarke - Swim Teacher - SEN trained

Says every parent on a Monday am!!

So Thursday was great taking the school I work in swimming at LED Exmouth Leisure Centre. I can’t wait to help these lovely children learn to swim and to be confident in the water, it will be fun too!! Children learn better when they’re having fun. So if you see your teacher having fun with your children, rather than teaching techniques the whole lesson…there’s a reason and a very important one at that!

I get children who wouldn’t normally put their face in the water doing that very thing! I give them a fishing net and they have to go butterfly hunting, those pesky butterflies sink to the bottom though!!😉

I also love spotting talent. I certain did whilst teaching at David Lloyd Clubs-Exeter Saturday morning! I get so excited when a child listens to correction and you can see the improvements and they can feel it…gold dust moments!

Just keep swimming!
Dory

Amanda x

Swimming is so important both mentally and physically. Spring is fast approaching, if it’s something you always wanted to do, but have put off, please don’t. You are missing out on so much!

I plan to do a few Splash Dance sessions in the summer, good way of getting you in the water and experiencing the healing properties of the sea (we don’t submerge…unless you loose your balance 😂).

I’m based at David Lloyd and the team there are fantastic, only on a Saturday am for me (I work at a school during the week). But without doubt this will be my future when I retire from education, as I feel so passionate about it.

LED have loads of sessions for beginners, take advantage of these and get swimming!

Long post but hopefully useful to
Improve your front crawl arms!

There is a science to perfecting your swimming strokes.
With the right positioning and pull you can produce enough kinetic energy to swim effortlessly and efficiently.

When the kinetic energy is not produced correctly, you end up feeling like it’s a hard slog never actually feeling comfortable within your stroke.
Muscle memory can be your friend and your enemy, so I teach my swimmers to remember how it feels. To visualise the feeling and intensity used within that stroke (a form of hypnotherapy). Getting someone to record your stroke is also extremely powerful and something I rely on when coaching, especially club swimmers.

So here is a coaching tip:
work on your arms separately to your legs. Your head shouldn’t strain to breathe in the forward facing kinetic strokes.

Get a pool buoy or a float (a woggle will do) place between your knees and 3/4 of the way up your thighs (if a woggle, between your thighs), let your legs trail behind whilst still allowing the hips to slightly move (I see so many swimmers roll their hips which then creates a scissor kick and the arm pulls back too low and side on).

Make sure your arm pulls back, with your hands tightly squeezed like a paddle, bring the arm back around until the arm is upright close to your ear, angle your arm to an almost 90 degree angle. As the arm comes past the ear ready to enter the water, it should be fully extended with your hand diving in like a dolphin (it’s a visual concept), you then pull back again and repeat.

Before trying the above; stand in the water and just practice this stroke enabling you to feel the natural propulsion in your body, your body cannot help but want to go forward.

Breathing and timing of your arms can be tricky, your head will angle as you pull your arm back, DO NOT lift the head (ever had a bad neck after swimming!). The angle of the head should be as if on a pillow, ear still submerged allowing the nose and mouth enough of an exit to breathe. Your timing is your timing, I would suggest left arm, right arm, left arm pulls back and breathe. (Vice versa) When I was competing (many, many moons ago!) I used to breathe on my 6th stroke.

Bio mechanics + kinetic energy = speed and efficiency

I’ll give you tips on the kick in my next post. I would work on just your arms for a training session, if you feel comfortable without a kick then you know this is working efficiently for you as the drag of the legs makes it increasingly harder. Once you feel comfortable creating enough of the kinetic energy you need (little or no splashing please!), visualise the feeling of the mechanics - the arm pulling, leaving and entering again. The arm MUST come close the ear.

Hope this is helpful!
Amanda

Master classes…

I think these are vital to hone in on certain skills. If you are or you know of someone who is struggling with a particular stroke, ask your swim teacher if they do master classes. I’m hoping to run one very soon on Butterfly (stage 4+) and front crawl (for early stages). Adults also, if you can’t quite grasp it, or if you are getting frustrated by how hard it feels…a master class is what you need, a totally focused and broken down approach on biome mechanics.

For all of you getting results today. Fall forward, don’t fall back!
Away for a bit, can’t wait to get back and start Aquabatixing and teaching again…ideas are
flowing as to getting people swimming and enjoying being in the water. It’s incredibly therapeutic and invigorating, it’s solved many an issue for me…that’s why I try to fall forward learning from life experiences and mistakes, doing thinking time in the water.

See you tonight Spalsh Dancers, 6:30 by Bumble and sea! Such Fun!

NB: this is a free event and participants are there at their own risk. No liability for injury will be directed at Amanda Clarke.
Warm ups and cool downs will be part of the session and no expectation of participation is needed. Join in as you feel.

Sport in this country is buzzing at the moment!! Inspirational stuff happening! Let’s get our future sports people excited!