My Strength Is Flexibility.

In swimming there are 5 vital fitness components for example; Cardiovascular Fitness, Endurance and Muscular Strength, Flexibility and Body Composition. Flexibility helps a swimmer in two ways, one way is that it helps them to swim faster and the second is that it lengthens your fibres.

My strength is flexibility. I know this because when we did the sit and reach test according to data supplied I achieved an excellent score of 23cm. Another benefit of the strength training aspect of swimming is injury prevention. One of the leading causes of injury is weakness of an improperly conditioned muscle or weak joints, both of which can be improved through strength training.

Flexibility is important in swimming as it helps my fibres to lengthen. A long muscle fibre can create more force when it contracts. Flexibility helps the muscles ability to pull through the water. The more range of movements in the joints helps you extend; this helps you to go a long distance with less pulls. Flexibility is also important as when you have stiff muscles you have to work harder and put more effort in and you would lose energy. It can also prevent injury. In addition when you’re flexible you create less turbulence as you are able to swim straight and not from Side to side. It helps you to swim smoothly and efficiently. Finally it also helps The performer to perform bilateral breathing as the performer won’t be moving from side to side.

An example of flexibility was helpful for me during swimming training was when I had to do 400 meter pull. My flexibility helps me to maximise the amount of water I can pool which increased propulsion I make me have a foster body movement through the water. Flexibility also helps me with my kicking as I don’t have stiff ankles which can cause my toes to be pointed downwards in the flatter kick, which in turn is pulling me backwards, therefore I can’t kick with my ankle pointing upwards which helps me swim quicker and decrease the chance of me having an injury.

A competitive example when flexibility helped me win a race was in a 50 meter freestyle, my flexibility helped me to kick fast without a backward drag also I was able to do less strokes but more efficient this meant that I was able to repeat this action without me being injured or tired. This gave me an advantage and it meant that I could win the race.

In swimming there are 5 vital fitness components for example; Cardiovascular Fitness, Endurance and Muscular Strength, Flexibility and Body Composition. Muscular endurance Is important in swimming as it allows the swimmer to swim for a long period of time.

My weakness is muscular endurance I know this because whilst doing the abdominal curl conditioning test which tested my muscular endurance I had a poor result this may be because my muscular endurance in my abdominals weren’t stronger enough. Muscular endurance is important swimming as it helps my long-distance swimming. Muscular durance is the ability of a group of muscles to continue to maintain the quality of the contracted force for a period of time while working. Went swimming front crawl the same arm and leg action is repeated constantly, therefore A high level of muscular endurance is required to avoid fatigue which will lead to stroke deterioration. It is vital to maintain an efficient streamline stroke to reduce drag and allow me to move quickly through the water. It is important for my arms and legs to be able to generate a high power output for the duration of the swim for my performance to be good. When I get muscle fatigue I find my hip sink in the water and my legs drag behind causing resistance and slowing me down as my muscles don’t work out 100% for longer period of time, I can also generate less power with each stroke as I can’t swim quickly throughout the water and just let my arms slip slowly through the water. This means my speed slows down and also means I need to take more strikes to finish a length, making my technique less energy efficient.

An example when Muscular endurance impacted my swimming was when we had to do 7×400 m after the fourth 400 meter my legs and my arms weren’t as efficient. This made me slow down and I had to breathe more often as I was tired making my stroke messy and effecting my breathing pattern. This impacted my performer because I found it to move rotate my arms at the same pace as I did before. In addition my stroke rate increased as I couldn’t pull as hard in the last 100m.

A competitive example when my weakness slowed my down is when we had a competition and I had to swim 400m freestyle. At the last 200m I found it really hard to maintain my speed, therefore I came 3rd in my race

In my chosen sport, swimming, there are a range of skills that are vital for example; starts, arm and leg action, turns and body position and breathing. Body position and breathing are important as it allows a swimmer to swim in a straight line. I think my strength in skills is my body position and breathing. I know this because I swim always breath every three strokes and my body positioning is always straight and it changes accurately to the stoke that I'm swimming. Body position and breathing involves breathing to one side with one cheek in the water and one out, it also means that you perform bilateral breathing and you swim in a straight line which avoids turbulence. Your body position needs to be straight especially when you do your water-phrase in order to do a good stream line of the wall after your turn. This improves my perform because I glide through the water without water resistance as my arms are in a stream line position. This also improves my performs as the less you breath and the less you move from side to side in the water, moving side to side could give me the disadvantage as the water would splash into my face if I do not use the correct breathing technique . In addition my hips do not sink into the water this is important because it keeps everything streamlined and reduces drag. By letting my hips sink, I would be creating more drag in the water that will slow me down and cause me to have to exert more effort to move through the water. I also do not point my toes this would decrease my speed and I would need to kick more to finish at 25m pool. An example when my body positioning and breathing helped me at training is when we do a kick drill. This help me as my toes are not pointing downwards but they are straight, this means that I need to kick less and less energy which means I am not tired that can and can kick for a longer period of time. A competitive example when my breathing technique helped me was when I had to swim at 25m relay. That I could focus on my stroke and have more energy to finish off the race quickly.

In my and chosen sport, swimming, there are a range of skills