One of the terms that you hear a lot of in swimming freestyle is rotation--the idea that your body should rotate along an invisible axis that runs through your head to the bottom of your feet. I thought I'd post a video I found online that shows this perfectly--it's Alexander Popov. Now this is roation: By the time he's going into the stroke, the chest and hips are pointed exactly 90 degrees horizontal. Meanwhile, notice his head position--almost always looking straight down. Notable, too is the elbow that points straight up while going into the stroke. It's a truly amazing stroke. Try doing this drill during your next warm-up--doing it this well is a lot harder than it looks, and doing it while going fast is even harder.

Team Notes: Elgin is the next meet up on this season's meet schedule, and from the looks of it, we should have a decent showing. If anyone is interested in car-pooling, please use the comments here to find a ride or offer one.

Just a reminder, there is NO Practice on Monday night in observance of the Presidents Day holiday.

Finally: I just updated the team records to include a few more records set in the women's 50-54 age group, where at least four team records have already been shattered this season. (Great job, Marilyn.) I think that to make things easier, if you have set a team record at any meet, please send me the event, meet and your time in an email. I will make the updates as soon as I receive them.