Training Tips from an Olympic Swimmer -Video

Kate Ziegler has a plan. The Washington Post reports that next week, when Ziegler competes in Beijing in the 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle events, she’s going to ramp up her kicking. In addition to her
standard two-beat kick — a kick of each leg for each cycle of the arms
— she is using a six-beat kick after the turn at each end of the pool. Got that?  If that’s too hard, Ziegler has some simpler training tips for amateur swimmers, and the 20-year-old champ has been kind enough to talk about them on video with Post misfits Howard Schneider and Vicky Hallett. Here’s one tip: Pool boys, those oddly shaped floaties that swimmers hold between their two ankles, can help swimmers learn to keep an even keel, literally, and an even keel is essential to good technique. Want more?  Watch the video and write this stuff down so you don’t forget.