Clockwise Swimming

I trained in England while I was on study abroad and yes, they do swim clockwise there. My theory is, by country, you swim on the same side of the lane as you drive on side of the road. So right side in US, left side in UK.

I haven't really considered the impact of this, but is something that I will try. I think (my thoughts prior to doing this) that it would be more of a mental change than anything else (sort of taking the brain process out of the norm and taking a habitual behavior and completely altering it). With regard to the turns, all of my swimmers have learned to adapt to the lanes and make their way to center-lane prior to turning...

I trained in England while I was on study abroad and yes, they do swim clockwise there. My theory is, by country, you swim on the same side of the lane as you drive on side of the road. So right side in US, left side in UK. That truly is interesting....though sort of logical!

The left side is the right side in England, they think you are driving on the wrong side in the US. I trained in England while I was on study abroad and yes, they do swim clockwise there. My theory is, by country, you swim on the same side of the lane as you drive on side of the road. So right side in US, left side in UK.

I coach in the UK. In a six lane pool, lanes 1, 3 and 5 swim clockwise and lanes 2, 4 and 6 anti clockwise. This way, as Geochuck says, all swimmers swim next to the lane rope in the same direction so there's no clash of hands. The freestylers who breathe on their left always swim clockwise and those who breathe on the right choose to go in the anti-clockwise lanes. This avoids bashing the lane rope with the elbow on the non-breathing side. Sound like common sense to me.

Question for swimmers and coaches out there - Can Clockwise swimming help improve your stroke? Quick background: My coach has implemented clockwise swimming (swimming on the left side of the pool) for warm-up and has received a lot resistance from longtime swimmers. My coach explained that a lot of the swimmers are shortening up the right arm to make a turn during normal counter clockwise swimming. We also swim in a extra wide lanes in a 25 meter pool (the pool has individual lanes and we move the lane lines over to allow for circle swimming); which the coach thinks for the reason of shortening and crossing over the right arm. For myself, I find that I have learned to flip turn on the opposite side but I find that I get so confused during warm-up and worried about the swimmer behind me running into me because they moved over too far (we have had some close calls in the water). Anyone had any experience with swim practice that changes directions (swimming clockwise then counter clockwise)? Any advantages/disadvantages? Thanks, John My first thought was... I wonder if they swim clockwise in the UK? :cool: I have never really thought about the impact of clockwise vs counter clockwise in practice. But I am sure there is something to it. As someone who has swam on and off her whole life, I would be a bit concerned the first few times swimming clockwise as I would wonder if someone might forget and we would have a head on collision. So I can see where there might be some resistance. Next time I am swimming solo, I will give it a try and see how it impacts my turns and stroke count.

I have been at pools where one lane is clockwise the other is counter clockwise. This means you are swimming next to someone that is swimming in the same direction and do not get injured by someone going in the opposite direction - no broken fingers.

during weight training I've noticed my right arm is stronger in some exercises, weaker in others (I'm left-handed). I suspected it was due to swimming habits, the side I breathe on (mostly left but I am changing that), etc.

Everyone switched just to accomodate one swimmer? Yup :) and then we got used to it so we continued it. She was there for 2 years so we did clockwise for a long time. See, we can be nice in Oregon.

As a coach of age groupers, I always have them reverse circle early in our "relationship". It's one way to get them to understand that there are good habits and bad habits, using their own predisposition to turn left as an example. (Circle-swimming a race adds length and time to your event!) Then we practice on swimming straight into and out of the wall, keeping the body centered over the bottom lane marker. As Geochuck says, it is also very helpful in extremely crowded pools, as it reduces arm collisions over/under the lane lines when swimmers are next to each other. The down side is it increases the "slipstreaming" effect as a "current" starts to develop along the common direction lane line.