Swimming suits for women are generally classified into two types - the one-piece (or tank suit) and the two-piece (or bikini). The two differ in their range of body coverage, with the latter known to have been fashioned in a way that it exposes as much of the body as possible.
Bikinis are the favorites of many women when sun bathing or swimming for recreation. As it is called a two-piece swimsuit, a regular bikini has two parts. The upper part (called bikini top) covers the breasts, while the lower part (called bikini bottom) covers the groin and buttocks.
Bikinis come in various styles. Some of the most popular ones are the microkini, string bikini, tankini, monokini, and sling bikini. The last two, although bikini variants, are technically not two-piece swimsuits.
Microkini:
This bikini style is popular for its extremely scanty design, with only enough fabric used to cover the genitals. The straps in some microkinis are for keeping the swimsuit in place and nothing more. The strapless variant, on the other hand, uses adhesive to keep it attached to the body. Wearers of microkinis are said to be literally only an inch or two away from total nudity.
String bikini:
This is perhaps the most popular of all the many bikini styles. It is skimpier and therefore more revealing when compared with the traditional two-piece swimsuit. The characteristic string design has given this swimsuit its name. The top is kept in place by the attached pieces of string, which are either tied or continuous. The bottom is made up of two pieces of fabric, each in the form of a triangle. These are linked to each other at the groin. A string, which wraps around the waist, connects the two pieces at the sides.
Tankini:
This swimsuit is a combination of the tank top (a one-piece swimsuit with shoulder straps) and the bottom of a regular bikini, hence its name. The top covers much of the body part that is otherwise exposed in a regular two-piece swimsuit. Some women prefer using the tankini for two reasons. The first is that it gives the same degree of modesty provided in a one-piece swimsuit; and the second is that there is no need to take off all of the garments, as one would do with a one-piece suit, when using the toilet.
Monokini:
By its name alone, it's easy to conclude that this is not a two-piece swimsuit. And it really isn't; it consists only of a bikini bottom, and its wearer goes swimming or sun bathing topless. A monokini is also sometimes called a unikini.
Sling bikini:
This may be likened to the lower half portion of a string bikini. However, its side straps, instead of wrapping around the waist, stretch upwards to shield the breasts. The straps then go over the shoulders, link behind the neck, and extend down the back to the buttocks. A picture of a woman wearing a sling bikini will show the entire sides of her torso exposed.
Several other bikini styles have evolved from the styles mentioned above. These include the minimini, teardrop, and thong.
The name should already be a clue as to what kind of swimming pool a vanishing edge swimming pool is. Simply defined, it is a swimming pool that produces a visual effect of water proceeding infinitely into the horizon. It's like an edgeless pool, hence it is also called by other names: disappearing edge, infinity edge, or negative edge swimming pool.
A vanishing edge swimming pool may also be likened to a reflection pool, which is often seen in a memorial. The Taj Mahal in India, the Oklahoma City National Memorial, and the Palacio da Alvorada in Brazil are some of the most famous reflection pools in the world. This is perhaps the reason why exclusive estates and exotic resorts often include a vanishing edge pool, to make their place truly memorable to visitors.
Constructing or creating this kind of pool can be very expensive. On top of an extensive architectural design, sound structural engineering is a must in its construction. The reason for this is that the pool is almost always built in such precarious settings, as a beach front or a cliff. A large portion of the total cost of constructing this kind of pool goes to the foundation systems, as should be understandable because of the nature of the site.
The edgeless characteristic of this pool is based on that specific design, in which the pool's edge actually ends in a sort of a lowhead dam, below which a channel is constructed into which, in turn, water from the pool spills. From here, the water is redirected into the pool by its efficient water circulation systems, of which there are two.
The first system works in much the same way as that of a conventional swimming pool; that is, it filters and heats the water in the main pool. The other system operates by filtering the water in the trough (the channel constructed below the lowhead dam) and sending it back to the main pool. Once this second system comes to a halt, the water level in the main pool continues to spill into the trough, stopping just at the level of the trough's wall.
The trough, therefore, should be of an appropriate size. Here, the designer's skill is put to an extreme test. There are two rather grim scenarios that may happen in case the designer fails in this aspect:
1. If the trough is too small, the swimmers will displace more water than the trough can hold. Such error can result to serious hillside erosion or landslides.
2. If the trough is too big, the edge pump may draw down the level of the trough prior to the water's return to normal quantity for the pump's retention of its prime. An overflow instance similar to that in the first scenario may also take place in such a case.
Although the usual design of a vanishing edge swimming pool makes it appear that the water from it falls into a natural body of water (an ocean or a lake, for example), there are other variations that can create an equally impressive illusion. The scenery behind some edgeless pools, for example, is that of a forest.
Choosing what to give to a friend who's a swimming enthusiast on his/her special occasion should not be hard when one thinks about the wide variety of swimming accessories available in the market. But other than the usual swimsuit, swim cap, or such other swimming needs, one may also consider giving a book on swimming.
Here are 12 books recommended as gift ideas for your swimming friends:
1. "First To The Wall: 100 Years Of Olympic Swimming," by Kelly A. Gonsalves and Susan A. LaMondia - This book is a review of one hundred years of Olympic swimming. Photographs are by Tim Morse.
2. "Get Set! Swim," by Jeannine Atkins - This book is a story about a girl's perseverance in succeeding at competitive swimming. Valuable lessons can be learned by the whole family from this book. Illustrations are by Hector Viveros Lee.
3. "The Springboard in the Pond: An Intimate History of the Swimming Pool," by Thomas A.P. van Leeuwen - This book attempts to study the nature and architectural form of the swimming pool and all things that are related to it. It contains over 200 illustrations, 28 of which are in color.
4. "Open Water Swimming: A Complete Guide for Distance Swimmers and Triathletes," by Penny Lee Dean - Those who participate in triathlon or open water swimming competitions will find great use for this book. It includes training programs and lessons for open water swimming beginners. The book contains more than a hundred photos and illustrations.
5. "Superstars of Men's Swimming and Diving," by Paula Edelson and Howard Keiser - The history of competitive swimming and diving is taken up in this book. It describes the achievements of some of the well-known male divers and swimmers who successfully competed in these sports. The book has 64 pages.
6. "The Complete Book of Swimming," by Phillip Whitten - This book, with 400 pages, is a comprehensive guide to the sport of swimming.
7. "Mastering Swimming," by Jim Montgomery and Mo Chambers - A great book to help polish your stroke (whether backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, or freestyle). It also offers training lessons on open water swimming and triathlon.
8. "Complete Conditioning for Swimming," by Dave Salo and Scott Riewald - This book offers training programs on how to perform any of the swimming strokes more powerfully. It also provides exercises and drills for each of the strokes, plus some guides on split-second turns.
9. "Swimming Anatomy," by Ian McLeod - A great book for those who want to improve on their starts and turns. It includes 74 highly effective training exercises with step-by-step descriptions and full-color illustrations.
10. "The Swim Coaching Bible," by Dick Hannula and Nort Thornton - This is a very good swim coaching resource that imparts knowledge on the proper techniques for every stroke as well as effective training programs for any swim event. The book also offers principles on swim coaching.
11. "The Fit Swimmer: 120 Workouts & Training Tips," by Marianne Brems - This book provides useful lessons on how one can become a faster swimmer with programs designed for this purpose. It challenges a swimmer to work harder at practice and provides him/her the opportunity for change from routine.
12. "Extraordinary Swimming For Every Body," by Terry Laughlin - This is an instructional book on Total Immersion, the method of swimming instruction which the author himself developed. It provides techniques on how one can move more efficiently and naturally in the water.
You may need to consider the specific swimming interests of your friend when choosing any of these books to give him/her.
The heat of summer should not keep children from having fun outside. As a matter of fact, this is the time of the year when children should be enjoying the cool waters of a lake or a swimming pool.
And to make their afternoon swimming more enjoyable, children can play some of the popular swimming pool games. Three are suggested here: Cherry Drop, Fish out of Water, and Marco Polo. How each of these games is played is described below:
Cherry Drop:
This game, which is sometimes called "Chicken Fight" or "Shoulder Wars," can also be played in lakes. Teams each composed of two members battle it out in the water. A team will have one member sitting on the shoulders of the other member. The player on top is called the "assailer", while the one below is called the "vehicle".
The game begins with the teams charging at one another with the objective of knocking the opponents down by breaking their tandem set up. The rule allows only the top players to use their hands, arms, or even feet in trying to achieve this objective. The bottom players, on the other hand, can use only their momentum to attack by charging at each other.
The team that gets separated or is knocked down is eliminated from the game. The game continues until only one team remains standing, which, of course, is declared the winner.
Due to safety concerns, however, many swimming pool operators prohibit children from playing this game.
Fish out of Water:
This game produces no winners as it is played purely for fun. It starts with one player being selected as the "searcher". This player can open his eyes while swimming under the water but not when surfacing. When the searcher sees (while under the water) or feels/thinks (while on the surface) that another player is out of the water, he/she shouts "fish out of water." The player called out becomes the next searcher.
This game is actually similar to one of the variations of the next game described below.
Marco Polo:
Other names for this game are "Mermaid on the Rocks" and "Alligator". It is a form of tag played safest in a swimming pool.
To begin this game, one player is chosen to be the "it". This player tries to tag the other players with his/her eyes closed, using their shouts of "Marco" and "Polo" as his/her clues to their locations. A player whom the "it" first tags becomes the next "it".
As variations to the tag, a player can be made the "it" by one of two ways. If "it" senses that someone is sitting on the side of the pool with legs on the water, "it" can declare "mermaid on the rocks." That player then becomes the next "it". Or if "it" feels one of the players has gotten out of the water, he/she can call out "alligator", and that player takes over as the new "it".
Playing any of these swimming pool games may require the presence of a lifeguard. Cherry Drop, in particular, can get intense and dangerous, especially with older children as participants.
The breaststroke, one of the swimming styles currently supervised by the International Swimming Federation (FINA), is also one of the oldest swimming techniques. It is perhaps the most popular style in recreational swimming primarily because the swimmer is able to keep his head out of the water a great deal of the time.
The swimmer performs this swimming technique on his chest. His torso must not rotate as his arms make a series of sweeping movements - the outsweep, insweep, and recovery motion.
The breaststroke is further classified into three styles, one of which is known as the wave style (the other two being the flat style and the undulating style). This breaststroke style is increasingly becoming popular, especially among Olympic swimmers.
The wave-style breaststroke performer begins to swim in a streamlined position and with his shoulders drawn in or contracted. This is important to reduce resistance to motion in the water. The insweep movement of the arms is given emphasis here, during which the water is pushed backwards.
The insweep goes this way: The hands, which are pointed downwards, push the water; then the hands that were in a horizontal position during the countersweep (outsweep) align in a vertical position. Finally, the palms go back to the position of facing each other near the chest (which is actually the starting position in the outsweep). The pull is done in a circular motion, with the hands increasing speed to maximum.
Throughout all these, the elbows must remain at the surface and in front of the shoulders. This provides the leverage for the abdominal muscles and torso to give support while doing the stroke. Simultaneous with the insweep, the swimmer increases the speed of his hands, hollows out his back, and lifts himself out of the water to take a quick breath.
The simultaneous actions of increasing hand speed and hallowing the back are the keys to lifting the head (which should remain in its natural position - forward and looking down) out of the water. The swimmer uses the moment to breathe in. The contracted position of the shoulders is aided by the swimmer's pulling back of his feet to his buttocks to reduce resistance in the water. At this juncture, the swimmer is at his highest point.
The swimmer then draws in his shoulders and thrusts his arms forward, hurling himself back into the water (note that the swimmer focuses on going forward); as he submerges, he curves his back (as in an arch), and kicks. The kick, done at the precise moment, transfers its force through the curved back. The swimmer soon returns to the streamlined position, and the series of actions begins anew.
The kick used in any of the breaststroke styles is called the "whip kick", so named because the swimmer strokes his legs like whips. Actually, professional swimmers have made tremendous improvements on the breaststroke swimming technique. One example is that they emphasized on the use of the abdominal muscles and hips in powering the whip kick.
Becoming a proficient breaststroke swimmer requires persistence and hard work. After all, this swimming technique is regarded as one of the strokes that are difficult to master.
The 4 x 100 meters medley relay swimming event is a team competition, with each team composed of four swimmers. In a competition, the four team members swim consecutively, with each member swimming one of four strokes. The order goes this way: backstroke first, breaststroke next, butterfly third, and freestyle last.
Since backstroke is started from the water, it is necessary to begin the relay with this stroke. Making it otherwise will have the finishing previous swimmer and the starting backstroke swimmer blocking each other. From the initial backstroke leg, the three succeeding stages are arranged based on the speed, such that breaststroke (considered the slowest) comes next to backstroke, and freestyle (considered the fastest) the last leg.
The last member doing the freestyle actually can perform any style other than any of the first three strokes. Usually the forward crawl is performed in this final phase of the relay. In the Olympics, each team member has to complete two lengths of the swimming pool, since an Olympic size pool measures 50 meters in length.
This swimming event was introduced in the Olympics during the 1960 Summer Games held in Rome, Italy. The men's event was won by Team USA, composed of Frank McKinney, Paul Hait, Lance Larson, and Jeff Farrell. Since then, the 4 x 100 meters medley relay has been a part of every Olympic swimming competition.
Prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, both the World and Olympic records in this swimming event were held by Team USA. That team was composed of Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker, and Jason Lezak. The team achieved the feat (with a combined time of 3 minutes and 30.68 seconds) in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a new World and Olympic record was set, eclipsing the previous best by 1.34 seconds. The record did not change hands though, as it was again the relay team from the USA that established the feat. And except for Michael Phelps (who swam the butterfly leg), that team was composed of the same members that made up the previous Olympic team from the USA.
Here's how Team USA performed in the 4 x 100 meters medley relay in the 2008 Beijing Olympics:
1. Aaron Wells Peirsol swam the backstroke leg in 53.16 seconds.
2. Brendan Joseph Hansen swam the breaststroke leg in 59.27 seconds.
3. Michael Fred Phelps swam the butterfly leg in 50.15 seconds.
4. Jason Edward Lezak swam the freestyle leg in 46.76 seconds.
Individually, both Peirsol and Phelps are world record holders. Peirsol holds the records in both 100- and 200-meter backstroke. Phelps is even more impressive with his 29 individual swimming records (held as of August 2, 2009).
World records in this swimming event are recognized by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) in both long-course and short-course pools. The former refers to pools 50 meters in length (as those used in the Olympics), while the latter measures 25 meters in length. Incidentally, Team USA held the world record in men's 4 x 100 meters medley relay long course the most number of times (26) as well as the world record in short course (5 times).
Swimming is one of the best forms of exercises. It is good for one's health primarily because it involves the coordinated movements of practically all the parts of the body. It enhances muscle and respiratory functions. And what better way is there to spend a hot summer day than to immerse oneself in the cool waters of a swimming pool?
But a dip in a swimming pool can have other health concerns, too. There is, for instance, the presence of germs that a swimmer has to worry about. Also, the kind and amount of chemicals used to keep the pool clean is something that shouldn't be taken too lightly.
To keep swimming pools clean and germ-free, most owners use chlorine. The chemical is known to bind with germs to kill them. Generally, a couple signs about the condition of the water will tell us the chemical is effective: it is clear and has almost no odor. Does it mean then that when a swimming pool emits strong chlorine odor, too much of the chemical has been used in it? Not necessarily.
In fact, a strong chlorine smell may even be an indication that there isn't enough of the chemical used. Often a swimming pool will give off a strong chlorine odor only after the disinfectant has been consumed by the germs. Therefore, a pool that emits strong disinfectant odor is likely lacking in the amount of that chemical.
Chlorine or such other disinfectants will function effectively provided the pH level of the pool has a neutral value of 7 (ideally, it should be 7.4 to 7.6). A higher value indicates strong alkalinity, while a lower value indicates strong acidity. Any of the following may be a sign that the pH balance is off: scales form on the walls of the pool; the water is greenish; or the water causes irritation to the skin or a stinging effect on the eyes.
It is important for pool owners to run the filter for about 10 hours or more, two times each day, in order that the contents of the pool are fully processed. For those with new pools, it may be necessary to test the water every day. The purpose of this is to make you familiar with all that your pool requires.
The following factors should guide you as to how often you should test your pool's water:
• The prevailing temperature (note that chlorine, for example, evaporates quickly in hot weather).
• Your pool's location (foreign materials, such as tree leaves, can upset the pH balance).
• Number of swimmers (more bodies can bring in more foreign substances).
This is the reason why, based on the last factor, all those who want to use the pool should be required to shower first. The efficiency of swimming pool chemicals is greatly lessened if body oils and dirt are introduced into the pool. Children should be required to use the bathroom before plunging into the pool and also at regular intervals.
Some pool owners are even stricter, requiring small children to wear watertight plastic pants. This is to lessen the risk of passing along infectious organisms from fecal matter.
It is likewise important to take a water sample to a pool store for analysis at least once a month.
A good alternative to chlorine is bromide, which is equally effective and is gentler. Others install an ozonator, a device that reduces the need for chemicals.
