When doing backstroke how can i stop my hips from bouncing side to side?  It slows me down alot!?
462716
You need to rotate your body. When you start your recovery (hand starting from your hips moving to start your stroke above your head), initiate the movement with your shoulders. Rotate your shoulder out of the water, to under your chin. Then start your hand moving up above your face, turning your hands and placing your pinky into the water.  This movement will help to rotate your body. Don't "shrug" your shoulders to your ears. Visualize your legs following the rotation of your body, and visualize your flutter kick rotating from one side, up and over to the other side. This rotation will make your body more hydrodynamic and prevent your legs/hips from wagging side to side. \n\nA drill you can practice is the one arm back stroke. Do a lap stroking with only one arm. The arm that you are not swimming with rests at the side of your body. When you start your pull (in the water) you should be on the side with your almost all the way in the water. You should feel like you are doing a side stroke. Your kick will be a side flutter kick. When you do your recovery, kick on your back. Once your hand recover back to above your head, glide and maintain your balance. Start your pull again when you feel balanced and stable.
424723
You might look into Aquajogging, running in place floating in the pool with a foam belt for bouyancy.  Lance Armstrong does it to improve his power.  Lots of track athletes do it as well.  No impact and it is low speed, so it should be easy on the knee.  Or just trying kicking with a kickboard, either with arms extended or kickboard hugged to your chest, and do flutter kick, your knees will stay pretty much straight.  \n\nYou could do lots of sit-ups and core work as well?   You might just have to learn to deal with some pain in anything you do, as hard as that is.  Is a little pain worth more years on the life?  Sounds like a frustrating situation, hope you can find something that works for you.
959553
Yes, keeping your legs straight will make you go faster.  You need to think of yourself as a needle or torpedo in the water.  You want the least resistance as possible so staying straight will make you go faster.  You want to kick from your hips and point your toes.  I used to have a large sissors kick and it only slowed me down.  Other swimmers kept pointing this out to me and I concetrated on keeping my legs together.  You can feel your thighs rub together and let your big toes touch each other each time you kick.  Now that I don't have a big sissors kick and I'm more streamlined I can swim 20 seconds faster for 250 yards.
490793
Your head position is going to help or hurt the most.  If you are on your front you want to make sure you are looking at or towards the bottom and you may even need to push your chin down toward the bottom a little.  At the same time you want to try to push your hips up just a little  (your head should be just a little lower then your hips).  If you are on your back you will need to make sure you are looking up and behind you and try to lift your hips up as high in the water as possible.\n\nThis will feel strange at first until you practice and get use to it.  After a while you will not even have to think about it anymore.\n\nGood luck
774565
That happens to many people, it happened to me, but once I got over my fears and just went with it, it stopped and I knew what I was doing, finally. I had a weird landing too,  and my round off was crooked, it took me longer to get this trick then it did for back tucks and layouts!\n\nIt's the back handspring that's the problem. Here are some tips to help with that, once you have your back handspring, and a straight good round off, you are going to have a great round-off back handspring.\n\nPractice on an incline mat. When you feel you are falling, its time to jump and jump hard! Keep your arms straight and strong and push off. Keep arms by your head at all times! \nArch a Little, but if you over arch it is a BIG mess.\nBend your knees slightly, arch a little bit, and push you shoulders open as much as you can. Then using your stomach, back, and arm muscles, snap your body back to a hollow position, pushing off your hands, and land on your feet on the floor in front of the board/mat. \nPut it all together you should be able to do a back handspring.\n\nTo get strong arms (a must for back handsprings) then lift a 2 to 3 lb weight a few times a week you will see improvement. \n\nGOOD LUCK and have fun in cheerleading!
473013
Try moving the ball back in your stance just a fraction.  It sounds like your swing path is consistent, and this might cure your problem rather easily.
176345
Restrict your caloric intake and do aquatic exercise. You can swim, or check with your local YMCA and health clubs to see if they offer aquatic exercise classes. You can move so much easier in the water than on dry land because of the bouyancy of the water. In waist deep water you're only carrying 50% of your weight, at chest deep it's 25% and neck deep is 10%, that will decrease the pain in your hips from the OA, allowing you to do more. Good luck!
55588
I don't quite understand your question, do you mean that you are scared that your elbow is going to hit your hips? But I'll give an answer anyways, it may help or not, but Try keeping your elbow straight, you should never bend your elbow when you are in your swing.
193149
OK I jsut tried 5 on each side and I already could feel it. I'll try it in my next workout. Thanks!
959051
do light reps and strengthen your upper body so that you can take the contact. also work on a floater in the lane to get it over the big men. another thing do not give up your dribble unless you have a shot that will keep your options open. remember drive, draw, and dish.
718629
you need to work on your ankle flexibility, look up some exercises online.. swimmers have a tendency to develop ankle pains because they force their ankles to a position that is not natural.. \n\nso with some strength excersises and flexibility ones you should stop hurting
768060
Stretch!  Be careful not to 'bounce' in your stretches, just hold them.  This helped me immensely.
1073494
butterfly is swam entirely from the chest and hips. if you dont got rythm you probably cant swim the stroke to your full potential. make sure to press the "T" [line across youre shoulders and down your chest] and kick from your hips. dont breath on the first stroke coming off the wall but DONT hold your breath the whole time either. your muscles need oxygen to function so dont try to hold your breath.  try breathin every 2 or 3 strokes. keep your arms straight on the recovery and make sure your timing is right so that youre breathing during the pull of the strok and not the recovery. dont kick from your knees either cuz you actually dont get much power from that.  dont be too nervous either. its ok to be a little nervous.. mostly excited because thats when you are at your peak performance. try to have fun with it.  sing a fast song while youre swimming to keep your rythm up. and dont let up on the last 10 yards. no matter how tired you get its almost over.  \nduring training do lots of im sets because you get to work on fly as well as every stroke, and youre not stuck doing 10x100s fly over and over again. also do a 500 fly kick on your back to work on abs. push ups help too, as well as sit ups and lunges.\nmy coaches are constantly on me to work on my fly because its my weakest stroke. i swim im so they all have to be good. all this crap they tell me well i hope it helps you. just dont get psyched out. good luck!
1129988
dont kick it, push it up. move your foot up quickly then pull it back down and around, you'll get the hang of it. my biggest problem while learning it was catching soft enough on the way down, make sure you go pretty straight upwards.
569511
the backstroke turn can look many different ways depending on the event. For just a general backstroke turn you would be doing the following...\nSwimming down the pool backstroke, count the amount of strokes  it takes you from the flags to the wall. Then subtract between 1 or 2 strokes. Next swim down the pool counting your strokes under the flags, when you hit that number roll following your left hand onto your stomach and do a regular flip turn. you can take on pull with ur right arm while turning.  DO NOT TAKE ANYMORE STROKES ONCE U TURN OVER on ur stomach. When you push off the wall make sure it is on your back! Then continue. Hope this describes it for ya.
1106652
The reason is you have  your body too far forward on the board.First of all,forget the hook on the front of the board.Put your elbows on the very front of the pads and your arms flat on the board.As the boat increases in speed, push down with your elbows,at the same time,slide your knees up under your chest,hold the rope in one hand with your arm out straight.Take your other hand and place it on the board right in front of the pad.Push the front of the board down as far as you can,without dipping the board into the water.while in this position,slide your knees to the very front of the pad.at this point,you should be able to hold the rope with one hand and pull the strap up over your thighs and sinch the strap..at this point the boat should be traveling no faster than 22 mph.at any time the board starts bouncing the driver should slow down and the rider should get farther toward the front of the board.another way is start out from a sandy beach,already up on your knees...when doing this the driver has to take off really slow..the quality of the rider  depends on the quality of the driver.hope this helps.........
1087956
I did something similar to that. make sure you stretch those muscles before your next practice like mad, and once you play more you'll be less prone to hurting it. Also, you may want to modify your serving technique. If you're bending too much to one side or the other, it can really hurt you. Ask your coach about it.