Make a splash - go swimming
Feel like making a splash and getting into the swim of things? Cool! Swimming's a great sport to get involved in. Not only will you get really fit but you'll also meet lots of people.
There four strokes - freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly. In competitions there is an event, the individual medley, which is swum with all four strokes.
You might like to keep a record of times you've achieved. This lets you compare your times to see how much you've are improving. By keeping track of your times you'll also see when you've done a 'personal best' (a PB), which means you've swum a particular event faster than you've ever swum it before. Wow!
Most competitive swimmers train for at least two hours three times a week in the winter and between five and nine times a week for the rest of the year. Whew! High performance athletes (those who want to get into Olympic or Commonwealth teams) train even more than this. Serious swimmers have to have some early nights. Because most swimmers have to train around school hours training often starts at 6 am (sometimes earlier) and sometimes in the evening as well.
Swimming makes you really hungry because you're using heaps of energy, so it's important to make sure you eat lots of good food and drink plenty of water.
If you're keen on swimming and want to know more check out the Swimming NZ website at www.swiminfo.co.nz.
Look under the heading 'Clubs and Centres' for a list of areas and people to contact.
Because swimming is a 'low impact' sport it is especially suitable for people with an injury or disability preventing them from taking part in other sporting activities. It's great exercise and a really good life-saving skill - and, after all, New Zealand is surrounded by water!
So, what are you waiting for? Grab some togs and goggles and go swimming!
