Laws of Streamline as per Coach Haywood

Classified Job Posting - "Popcorn Venders Not Wanted"

I will explain the Job posting shortly.

Have you ever truely watched a swim meet and not just your own son or daughter?  Have you ever watched as a swimmer moves through the water that behind that swimmer is a wake that follows them up and down the pool?  In the world of swimming in the Mid-West (Ohio - yes I know that Ohio is not that far but for some strange reason, Ohio is considered a Midwest State) we refer to that wake as the "Wall of Water" or W.O.W for short.  Though not that big of a Wall, the W.O.W can still cause many problems for swimmers and is also the cause for many "ship wrecks" in the world of swimming.  Those ship wrecks are better know as slower swimming times. 

The way a swimmer can combat and win the battle with the Wall of Water is very simple - STREAMLINE.  The most important, yet over-looked aspect of swimming is the simple streamline.  So here at X-Cel - Level 3 has adopted the Laws of Streamline - so if you ever hear during a practice Coach Haywood yell out loud that "The Laws of Streamline are in effect" - you will now understand what he is means.

Laws of StreamLine:

1.  When pushing of the wall during practice - a swimmer must maintain proper streamline position:

• Body is in straight alignment
• Right hand over left hand or left hand over right hand (whatever your son or daughter prefers) - lock top thumb over the bottom hand to ensure proper hand position
• biceps should squeeze the ears - not be above the ears or below the ears - the biceps should squeeze the ears
• push off wall and hold tight body position - using legs to kick.
• Get Hips to flags before coming up to swim  (if your son or daughter can make that their goal - they will be in perfect streamline position and actually go under the Wall of Water without hitting it or getting slowed down by the W.O.W.
• Take one full stroke before taking a breath 
• If the swimmer breathes off the wall without taking a full arm stroke - they loose all momentum gained from pushing off the wall and at that point they might as well stop in the water, float for a second, and then do a spin drill to try to regain the momentum they lost off the walls.

The simple  goal is to get out past the wall of water so that you do not slow down.  By taking one full arm stroke before taking a breath, a swimmer keeps the moment from the start/turn/wall.  The way to make sure that you are past the Wall Of Water is to aim at getting your hips to the flags before breaking streamline and beginning to swim.

Now for our Job posting - "POPCORN VENDER NOT WANTED"

As with all laws, if you break them and get caught, there is a punishment.  If you speed and get caught, you get a speeding ticket.  During Level 3 practice (it is up to the other level coaches if they wish to institute a punishment or not) Coach Haywood has a simple punishment for all who are caught breaking the Laws of Streamline - if caught, the swimmer will be removed from practice and given a big bag of Popcorn and several smaller brown paper bags - the swimmer/law breaker must take the large bag of Popcorn around to all parents sitting in the stands during practice and say to them "Hello, I am a level 3 swimmer that broke the rules of streamline - would you like to buy a bag of popcorn from me."  I figured this is a little more creative then the usual push-ups or sit-ups.  Also please keep in mind that the above is really a joke and just meant as fun, I really will not do such a thing - I just use it to make a point of the importance of streamlining and how I want them to concentrate on streamlining in practice so that it become instinctive and natural in a meet.