Swimming Fitness
Swimming Academies
Section Administrators: Helen Soultanakis, Ph.D., Email: elenisoul@hotmail.com
Dimitris Triantafyllou, M.A., Email: jimtrian@hotmail.com
In most countries there are central non-profit organizations, that usually recognise swimming leves by assigning specific swimming tests and respective certificates to define the level of competency in aquatic skills and water safety. These swimming lessons are designed to develop swimming technique, water safety and confidence in children from birth all the way to adults.
In Scandinavia, there is a school curriculum that designs swimming academies so that all children during primary education should learn how to swim as well as how to handle emergencies near water. In Germany and Austria, school swimming is part of the elementary school curriculum leading to the entry level certificate "Frühschwimmer" for about 90 percent of the children. In Switzerland, most schools offer a swimming course. In France, school swimming is part of the curriculum for physical education in the 2nd and 3rd grade in elementary school, or for children aged between 4 and 6 years of age. In the UK and Scotland, the "Top-ups scheme" calls for school children who cannot swim by the age of 11 to receive intensive daily lessons and generally follow two main award schemes, the STA (Swimming Teachers Association) or ASA (Amateur Swimming Association) award schemes. In Canada, the Canadian Red Cross Swim program is used with over one million Canadians enrolling each year. Similar to the system set out by the American Red Cross, the Swim Kids program for school-aged children consists of ten levels that progress from basic, confidence-building skills to more complicated strokes and techniques. In beginner levels, students can expect to learn skills such as breathing techniques, basic water safety skills, and introductory swimming techniques including how to float and glide in the water at shallow depths. As the program progresses past beginner stages, students will be taught five swim strokes including front crawl, back crawl, breast stroke, elementary back stroke, and sidestroke. In the United States, most swimming schools use the swimming levels "Learn To Swim" as defined by the American Red Cross.
This section will contain news and developments on world wide swimming academy structures and functions. This section will also provide information on teaching methodologies, swimming and aquatic drills and fitness training programs maximizing performance but taking into consideration the health and development of children and teenagers of all ages.
School Swimming Academies
The statistics on the annual drowning of our fellowmen citizens in seas, and pools in our country show that unfortunately we rank at the first place in Europe and in second place worldwide (after Japan)! In Greece the last twenty years, 5,800 people have drowned. We grieve on average 300 victims per year, of which 45% are young people 15-19 years while the average in small children stands at 15-20 drowns per year. So, it is more than important to get the right preventive measures so as not to weep for more victims every year and especially young children (Trikoilis, Siakas & Michalodimitrakis (2000). Prevent drowning!!! What way?.. :1) surveillance, and 2) learn to swim.
Swimming is the perfect sport to bring a child with his first encounter with exercise. It has a few injuries to a minimum, does not burden the skeleton especially in the child's developmental age, and trains ideally the body muscles and the cardio-respiratory system. Experts believe that the perfect age to start a child learning to swim is 3.5 to 4 years, because she starts to learn to control the bladder, to obey and execute commands, but also becomes familiar with the water element more easily. Moreover, swimming is a sport suitable for children in pre- school ages, and it is recommended by doctors and coaches of all sports.
In many countries swimming lessons are provided by the municipality, the municipal authority, and their respective private recreational interest groups or athletic clubs. Many schools Internationally include swimming lessons in their Physical education Curricula, applied either inside the school or in the nearest pool. In Greece, the recent School Physical Education Curriculum refers only a sentence for swimming class in all grades: "Swimming can take place in school only if there is a safe and easy way to implement it"!!
Three years ago we've applied a Pilot Swimming Program to the Public Primary and High schools of our region in Athens. During our first year we've had about 225 kids from 7 schools, and the second year we had approximately 500 children from 15 schools. That number also included 20 mentally disabled children from a public school, 14 to 17 years of age. Our goal was to introduce swimming to School Curricula in Greece!! The results measured after two years of implementing the program were very positive in establishing it inside the school's curricula. Almost 100% of the students of all ages who that took part in the program learned how to swim properly. In addition, following the exact school curricula (APS & DEPPS in Greece), we applied the swimming program in such way that all different aspects of teaching should emerge with one another for the students' benefit. The innovative action we have already established has been a perfect example of this discipline.
Swimming by definition is an activity in which a person promotes himself through the water, using synchronized movements of limbs and /or body and not necessarily limited to the four competitive sports. Swimming is one of the most popular recreational activities that people use around the world and in many countries is an important part of the educational program of the schools.
Swimming can be used as a leisure activity or as a competitive sport. In both cases, however, provides important physical and psychological benefits to swimmers. Some of these are to increase muscle tone and strength, flexibility, and improved cardiorespiratory fitness. Because swimming is exercise that has no low pressure in the body, is suitable for elderly people and pregnant women and for people with mobility problems. Many people use swimming to control their body weight but also for psychological reasons as swimming reduces anxiety, depression and anger (Berger & Owen, 1987, 1992). It also helps the body and mind to relax from the stress of everyday life.
Swimming is also a very good exercise for older people as it provides stimulus to the whole body without stressing the joints and muscles very much, unlike other forms of land exercise. Despite the extensive findings regarding the necessity of exercise, less than 40 % of adults over 65 years, exercise regularly (Brown et al., 2005). Swimming provides multiple benefits to the elderly; it increases bone mineral density (Orwoll et al., 1989), which reduces the chances of fracture after a fall, and energy levels. Swimming also plays an important role in the quality of life and prolongs independence in their daily lives (DiPietro, 2001; Shephard, 1993).
This section deals with swimming as a recreational activity for adults of all ages and it will be updated with the latest news and scientific findings regarding these categories of people. Additionally training regimens that aim in maximizing performance in adults while enhancing and maintaining maximum health benefits will be discussed
Adult Swimming Academy
Open Water Swimming
Open water swimming takes place in natural waters such as oceans, seas, lakes and rivers. Swimming, although associated with swimming pools, is an activity that was developed first in "open water" environments from the dawn of life until this very last century with the invention of swimming pools. At the 1986 revival of the Olympic Games, swimming took place in the open water bay of Zea at Piraeus,Greece.
Over the last decades open water swimming has gradually been gaining the popularity that it deserves and many of its followers train both in the pool and the open waters when environmental conditions are within the recommended safety guidelines. What differentiates open water swimming from classical swimming are basically the differences in distances swam and the adverse environmental conditions swimmers are faced with. These conditions often create great difficulties and risks for open water swimmers that are considered and dealt with during their training and competition. Events are subdivided in three categories: small distances (5 km or less), medium distances (below 25 km), and marathon swimming (above 25 km). Open water events were first introduced in the contemporary years of the Olympic games in 2000, in Sydney with 1500m during triathlon and in 2008 in China with the introduction of the 10K swim.
This section will be updated with the news, the development, the training methods, scientific publications, event announcements and results of national and international, recreational and competitive meetings concerning open water swimming.
Aquatic Games
A sport (or a physical game), is defined as an activity that involves physical exertion and skill in which an individual or a team competes against another or others for entertainment. Sports cannot only be played on land but in the water as well, whether it is in a pool or in the sea. Water sports combine the multiple fitness benefits of exercise in water in addition to the entertainment felt by a land sport or game.
The watersports can be divided into three main categories. These activities can be played at a competitive level or for entertainment purposes that provide a general workout to the athletes:
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Individual: In this category are the sports in which participants compete on their own rather than in groups. They improve their physical fitness, perseverance, determination, and the desire of participants to excel. The most prevalent individual water sports are swimming (pool and open water), finswimming and the triathlon .
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Group: Group water sports improve teamwork, synchronizing movements, balance, and cooperation among team members to reach victory. The most popular team water sports is water polo, and is followed by synchronized swimming (also an individual water sport) and underwater hockey, underwater rugby, underwater football, and SKWIM.
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Improvised water games: These are often played in parties and are a transfer of games played by children on land, being extremely recreational.
In this section we will introduce and deal with water sports and aquatic games that are less known including boat games and games on puddle board and other water equipement with an emphasis on recreational competition rather than elite high level competition. You will be able to keep up with research developments in all aquatic games and all their respective news.
Aquatic Nutrition
Section Administrators:
Sports Nutrition: Stamatis Mourtakos, M.S., Email: stmourt@gmail.com
Nutrition & Dietietics: Iro Bezourgianni, iro.bezourgianni@gmail.com
Nutritional Disorders: Angeliki Douka, Ph.D., geldouka@yahoo.com
The nutritional demands of water sports share a common ground with most other sports. In the aquatic environment nutritional deficiencies cannot only limit performance, but can also compromise the safety of swimmers. When adding the impact of environmental conditions such as those placed by very cold or very hold water immersion, and the impact of the level of exertion, nutritional requirements can greatly change. In this section we will present the best nutritional practices for swimming, open water swimming, aquatic exercise and water therapy and deal with manifested nutritional deficiencies, disorders, indications and contraindications that apply to the aquatic environment.