Recipe for "Ear Beer"

Perhaps the most common medical issue afflicting swimmers is Swimmer's Ear, an outer ear infection. It is caused by excessive moisture in the outer ear, and can lead to a more serious inner ear infection and time away from practice if not treated.

The good news is that "Swimmer's Ear" can be prevented by using a simple solution I call "Ear Beer." Here is the recipe:


In a small dropper bottle like the one at left, mix equal parts rubbing alcohol and white vinegar. Shake. After each swim practice, place 2-3 drops in your ear, let sit for 10 seconds, and pour out on a paper towel. Then use a hair dryer or locker room hand dryer to dry out your ear. Repeat for the opposite ear.

Ear Beer is nearly 100% guaranteed. Be sure to make some, stick it in your swim bag, and use it after every practice! Don't forget to take it to meets - you are at a higher risk for Swimmer's Ear when you swim in a different pool!

The Big Small Things: Choosing the Right Water Bottle

This post is the first in a series highlighting so-called "small things" that you can do to make a difference in your swimming performance.

Today's small thing is the type of water bottle you choose to bring to practice. We all have heard how important staying hydrated is. Consider this:

• If you begin a workout dehydrated, your performance will suffer. Your muscles and other systems need water to function optimally. Without water, you can't perform at your best!
  
• If you become dehydrated during a workout, your body will have difficulty adapting to the training you have done. You get physically stronger only when your body recovers after training. This means that all of the hard work you do won't be as effective at helping you improve if you get dehydrated during practice!
• If you are dehydrated after practice your recovery is affected and could impact your performance in the next workout. This begins a cycle of training and lack of recovery which is detrimental to your physiology.

So you can see the importance of being and staying hydrated. Now what you might not have considered is the impact that a small thing like the type of water bottle you use has on how much you drink.

This Gatorade bottle is commonly used at practice, yet it is less than ideal. It only contains 20 ounces of fluid, which is not nearly enough for practices that range from 90 minutes to 3 hours in duration. This means that for a swimmer to be optimally hydrated, he has to refill the bottle during practice. There may not be time for this in the workout, or a swimmer may not want to make the effort to refill it. Not only that, but it has a screw on lid, meaning a swimmer needs at least 30 seconds to take it off, take a sip, and screw it back on. In a distance set with many repeats on a tight interval, there may not be time to do this!

This green Gatorade bottle is much better for your typical swim practice for two reasons. First, it holds 32 ounces, which is a good rule-of-thumb minimum for swim practice. Second, it is a squeezable, allowing the swimmer to take in 3-4 ounces in a matter of seconds. Both of these qualities mean a busy, hard-training swimmer is much more likely to hydrate appropriately.


It seems like a small thing, but the water bottle you choose can have a significant impact on how well-hydrated you are. The amount of fluid you have available and the ease of getting it can make a huge difference. Do this "small thing" right to make your training pay off to the max!

Featured Drill: Advanced Trampoline Drill for Turns

Today's featured drill is designed to improve a swimmer's turns and underwater dolphin kicking, and is particularly effective for freestyle flip turns. It is an extension on a drill I first learned from Paul Yetter, coach of Katie Hoff. It is complicated, so let me outline the steps for you:

1. The swimmer kicks toward the wall, face down in a streamlined position.
2. The swimmer pikes and dives toward the bottom (works best in a 6-10 foot-deep pool).
3. When approaching the bottom, the swimmer tucks, flips, and pushes off the bottom vertically toward the surface.
4. Facing the wall as he surfaces, the swimmer throws his upper body into a fast flip turn off the wall.
5. Dolphin kicking fast off the wall, the swimmer takes two strokes into a phantom turn just in front of a pvc pipe (this will be a topic for a future blog) stretched across the lane.
6. The swimmer immediately starts kicking back toward the wall, and then breaks into a sprint for a few cycles before throwing himself into another fast turn (the swimmer in the video actually peforms an open turn here).
7. Dolphin kicking hard off the wall, the swimmer streamlines out past the pvc pipe and sprints to the opposite end.

Watch one of our swimmers perform the drill in video below:

Moving Up: The Parent Transition

"Moving up" is an important experience in the life of a swimmer. When a swimmer is old enough, has shown a sufficient level of commitment, and has improved his skills to a new level, he will be invited to "move up" into the next training group. The invitation is an honor, a sign that the coaching staff believes the swimmer is ready to take his performance to new heights.

Moving up often means increases in commitment, training time, the difficulty of practices, and a new group of teammates to train with. Each of these aspects of the move-up can present challenges. Thus, the swimmer will need the support of his parents. This brings us to our topic: The Parent Transition.

When your swimmer moves from one group to the next, you as a parent must also make a transition. These changes include:

• Increasing your own level of commitment. Your swimmer will likely be expected to practice MORE OFTEN. At NCAC, our groups are set up so that each group practices for a longer duration more frequently than the group below it. At the senior level, this means that your swimmer may now be expected to attend morning practices. This of course means that you may have to drive!
• Adjusting your expectations for your swimmer's performance. Generally speaking, as swimmers get older they swim best times by smaller margins with less frequency. For instance, 10-year-old Johnny drops 6 seconds in the 100 free every meet all season long. When Johnny is 16, his goal may be to drop 3 seconds in the entire season. This may not happen immediately when a swimmer moves up, but with increased levels of training, he may be more fatigued and have a more difficult time swimming fast during the season. Rest assured, if he is working hard, the coaches are preparing him to swim faster than ever.
• Being willing to travel more often and for longer distances. For younger swimmers, we often don't have to travel outside of the Triangle area to find competition to challenge our swimmers. As swimmers get older and reach more elite levels in our sport (particularly the Sectional level and beyond), it will become necessary to travel further for meets. Regional and National meets are usually held in locations outside of North Carolina, and we want to find new competition and faster competition to continue to challenge our swimmers. Think of the story of the Japanese koi fish. When kept in small ponds, they don't grow particularly large. When set free to larger bodies of water, they grow to much greater lengths. In order for our swimmers to become "big fish" we must expose them to the "ocean" of competition that exists outside of our North Carolina pond.
• Taking a step back and encouraging your swimmer to take ownership. Often, young 10 & under swimmers are motivated to swim fast in order to make their parents proud. As swimmers progress into the early teens, this motivation dries up and a swimmer must be motivated from within by his own desire to succeed. He also must learn to take responsibility for all aspects of his swimming. For instance, a 12-year-old should be packing his own swim bag, and a teenager should be waking himself up for morning practice. With increased responsibility comes increased ownership and a stronger internal drive to succeed.

Making The Parent Transition is a vital part of a swimmer's growth and development from novice to age grouper, from age grouper to senior swimmer, and from senior swimmer to elite champion.

What does it mean to be "on time?"

Much to my chagrin, I frequently observe swimmers walking into the pool area just a minute shy of the start time. Strolling in, they chat with friends and take their time walking in. No wonder that they are surprised when I tell them they are late.

In my opinion, being "on-time" is not:

• Entering the pool area before practice starts
• Being behind the blocks before people get in the water
• Asking the coach the instructions once other swimmers are in the water
• Getting wet before any other swimmer finishes warm-up
• Being the last person in the water
  

Being "on-time" is:

• Arriving at the pool at least 10 minutes before the scheduled start of practice
• Using the restroom and having all training equipment ready to go
  
• Getting changed and to your practice area 5 minutes before practice starts
• Having your cap and goggles on when the instructions for the warm-up set are given
• Hitting the water 1 minute before the scheduled start of practice!

The Top Ten Worst Excuses I have heard for being late to practice:
1. I thought practice started at ___(two hours ago)__.
2. I got pulled over for speeding and my car got searched.
3. I had to park too far away.
4. I had to stop at Starbucks.
5. My alarm didn't go off. (a.k.a "I forgot to set it")
6. I had to take the dog for a walk.
7. I had to help an old lady cross the street.
8. My mom forgot to pack my ______. (Said by a 17-year-old)
9. I couldn't decide whether or not to come to practice.
10. What time is it?

What Muscles Do We Use to Swim?

Here is a fun and interesting video I found on YouTube. It is a computer model of a person swimming each of the four strokes. The muscles light up purple whenever they are activated or used. This was developed by a Dr. Nakashima at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. I am not sure how this was created or what methods were used to determine when certain muscles are activated, but it is interesting to look at nonetheless. One thing to notice - look at how often the abs light up in each stroke - see, dryland really is important!

Another Reason Why Swimming Rules

I just finished watching the women's uneven bar finals from Beijing, and the now perfunctory commentary from Bela Karolyi about the unfair and ridiculous scoring procedures. This week there have been countless occasions where the scoring system seems to be unequally applied to some gymnasts, and NBC has been quick to bring up situations where an American athlete has been shortchanged.

To me the essence of sport is that the winners and losers are determined solely by the actions of the participants. It seems that in gymnastics this is many times not the case. Instead, the outcome is determined by the supposedly objective but truly subjective opinion.

Thank goodness that we will never have this problem in our sport. We have the clock, which never lies. Though it can be a cruel taskmaster, the clock is the most honest tool we can have to evaluate our performance. The time you swim is the time you earn. Nobody else can change it or affect it. No one can take it away. That is the beauty of swimming.