Tag Archives: swimming

The Mommy Stroke

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I haven’t been a “swimmer” for years; I’ve been more of a dunker and wader ~ I swam just to cool off and play with Mathew. On my last visit to Florida, I made a concerted effort to swim daily. Since I was spending so much time assisting and taking care of my folks, I decided I needed to take care of myself too and relieve some stress. In the past, I would walk everyday, but with 95° F and 100% humidity this time, swimming seemed like a better way to go.

When I was a kid, I was a rather good swimmer. At camp, I excelled during competitions and received a Red Cross Junior Life Savings certificate.  By the time I got to junior high, I found more interesting ways to spend my time and lost my passion for swimming.

Over the past 5 years Mike has started swimming again and is very good. His strokes seem effortless and he does wonderful flip-turns against the wall. We always applaud the turns. I never had a reason to learn to flip-turn since I always competed in lakes ~ there were no walls to turn on.

I started my laps with the crawl but my strokes did not feel effortless, and I had a hard time going straight. I was swimming diagonally across the pool. Interesting tangent: The crawl is now known as freestyle ~ they changed the name because it is the most common stroke used during a freestyle competition. Therefore, as a result the name of the stroke is used metonymically (a thing or concept that is not called by its own name but rather by the name of something it is associated with). So then, I tried the breaststroke, it felt much better but was not fun. I discovered that I love the backstroke and sidestroke. Perhaps, it was because I could see the world as I swam by and the strokes made me feel strong and glide through the water.

I always thought of the sidestroke as the “Mommy Stroke,” since you can swim and watch your kids at the same time. Or, perhaps it was the only stroke I ever recall my Mom using. I decided to Google it and found out that I must be the only one that calls it the Mommy Stroke. However, it is no doubt known as an efficient and low energy stroke compared to other strokes. It allows the swimmer to perform for longer periods of time without tiring. The Navy SEALs use an adapted sidestroke known as the Combat Sidestroke, but it is more involved than the Mommy Stroke.

I am happy to say that I was able to swim 280 yards a day alternating between the backstroke and the Mommy Stroke. It is a far cry from Mike’s 1000 yards a day but he is a “real swimmer” and I am just a Mommy 😉

Have you ever heard of the Mommy Stroke or did I just make it up? If so, please share.

 

 

Swimming with Barley

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A few years ago, we moved into a beautiful old farmhouse that had a swimming pond in the backyard. I prefer to swim in rivers, not so much lakes let alone ponds. Therefore, the idea of swimming in a pond did not appeal to me, too much muck to walk through.  Nevertheless, the thought of having this beautiful swimming hole right in my backyard pulled at me, especially as the temperatures hovered in the 80’s so early in the year.  Then, I heard of a nontoxic way to inhibit algae growth. For our small pond, it would only cost $10 and a couple of hours effort, so it was definitely worth a try.

The secret is BARLEY STRAW. It is not completely understood how this works, apparently, the barley releases a chemical that inhibits the growth of algae in the presence of oxygen and when exposed to sunlight, but does not kill it once it is there.

Therefore, I needed to rake out all the algae before I started.

After the algae were removed, I started to break down a bail of barley straw and stuff it into empty onion sacks.

I wanted to position two sacks tied together at 3 points in the pond. I weighted the sacks with a stone to keep them stationary and tied them to a buoy, so I could find them in the fall for removal.

At first, the barley sacks float and then once they become waterlogged, they will sink, the buoy will keep the sacks in the mid-level of the pond.

I purchased the barley bail at Agway. They also gave me free onion sacks for stuffing the barley. What a fabulous investment. It worked like a charm and gave us so much pleasure. This year, I need to figure out how to create a ramp or walk way to get into the pond easily. I tried laying rocks but they did not work out too well as they were so uneven. Do you have any easy low impact suggestions?

Two months after the barley straw was floated in the pond – look no algae!

Enjoying the pond