Swimmers stretch their abilities by using elastic cords

WASHINGTON _ Swimmers tethered to elastic cords learn to stretch their abilities.

A swimmer attached to a cord can get everything from resistance exercise to a thrill ride, coaches say. Cords are being used by everyone from Olympic-level swimmers to members of high school teams.

"They love it," said swim coach Tony St. Onge of Moses Lake, Wash., High School. "We call it bungee swimming."

One technique practiced by St. Onge and other coaches is to attach one end of the cord at one end of the pool and have the swimmer walk to the other end, stretching the cord. After the swimmer enters the water, the combination of the cord tension and the swimmer's own strokes and kicks lets the athlete literally zoom down the pool.

"The bigger boys try tying on two or three bungees, and they can fly down the pool," St. Onge said. "Our 25-yard record is about 6 seconds."

What the swimmers get, besides entertainment, is an easy way to see how it feels to hit race speed without actually putting out race effort. Swimming at race speed in repeated practices wears out a swimmer _ and, as the athlete gets fatigued, form gets more erratic.

"You don't have the opportunity to experience what it's like to sprint at high velocity except when you get ready to do that," said Jonty Skinner, national team coach for swimming at the Olympic training complex in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Getting partly hauled down the pool lets the swimmer work on any problems that may surface at race speed, he said.

Skinner's swimmers can be towed at constant speeds on a cable, which he considers is an improvement over stretch cords that lose tension as the swimmer comes down the pool. Coaches try to compensate by hauling in slack by hand, but they concede this only approximates the tension needed for an even speed.

Swimming toward the end of the cord is not the only way in which swimmers can benefit from the bounce. They also can swim away from the cord. In this case, the tension fixes them in place in the pool. For all their effort, they go nowhere _ but fast.

That's one of Skinner's prime uses.

"The idea is that the mild resistance will allow them to feel the patterns of their techniques, maybe accentuate the (swimming) motions, and spot weaknesses or problems," Skinner said. And because the swimmer is in one place, the coach doesn't have to chase the athlete up and down the pool to keep an eye on the swimmer's form, he said.

Tying up the swimmers also conserves pool space, which is an important consideration to St. Onge. "It's just a small pool," he said. "But you can gang up 10 to 12 kids on the side of the pool and they only have to swim 10 feet and hold their stationary position."

Some coaches use the cords out of the water as well, as resistance trainers. At Stanford University, the middle of the cord is anchored so the swimmers can grasp an end in each hand. By pulling on the cord, the exercisers work their upper bodies, said assistant swim coach Ted Knapp.

The major benefit of the cords, however, seems to be for nerves more than muscles. Using the elastic lets swimmers set the patterns of muscle control that they'll need for the race, said David Marsh, head men's and women's swimming coach at Auburn University.

On the other hand, some swimmers don't benefit.

Distance swimmers can practice speed simply by breaking their distances into shorter segments and going all-out in the segments, said Skip Kenney, Stanford's head swimming coach. "With the longer events, you can swim faster than race pace without assistance," he said.