Bay synchronised swimmers use technology to stay fit
With no swimming pools at their disposal to refine their skills due to Covid-19, South African artistic swimmers have taken to technology in a bid to keep their fitness levels up in the event of a return to action.
Artistic swimmers from across the country have linked online with some renowned coaches to keep themselves active through the lockdown, Bay coach and SA convenor of the artistic swimming technical committee Moira Norden said.
Norden was appointed as the assistant manager to accompany a team of swimmers to a Fina Artistic World Series event in Egypt at the end of March.
She said the event had been cancelled only two days before the start by the world governing body.
“Luckily, Fina cancelled the competition two days before we were due to fly or we may have still been there.
“The team was very disappointed as you can imagine because only a few weeks later, our SA nationals, usually held in April, was also cancelled,” she said.
With the subsequent closure of all swimming pools due to the outbreak, Norden said it was tough trying to keep all the swimmers fit and ready for action in the event of a return to competition.
“As the sport also depends on a strong core and flexibility over and above extreme swimming fitness, PE swimmers have joined other clubs from around the world to work on these skills. So far, the local girls have trained weekly online via Zoom with clubs from New York, Malta and London.
Norden said through her network of contacts she had managed to arrange for joint online training sessions with other coaches both in SA and abroad.
She said her daughter Kerry, who works in London but still judges at international level, helped to set up the first few meets along with national swimmer Courtney Musson.
“Spanish Olympic medallist Andrea Fuentes set up a WorldWide Workout with over 400 national athletes from 29 countries participating.
“East Cape national swimmers Musson and Nina Smith joined live via Zoom.
“Others watched and participated via YouTube with about 6,500 logged in,” Norden said.
She said local competitors also joined four other SA clubs and an Egyptian club for an online session last week.
“Courtney will lead the training drills for shoulder flexibility while a Cape Town national swimmer will do core and the Egyptian club coach will train leg exercises.
“The athletes must sign in to Zoom so coaches can watch and check their progress,” she said.
Norden said it was special for SA swimmers to have the opportunity to exercise together with international artistic swimmers including Svetlana Romashina, Andrea Fuentes, Virginie Dedieu and Ona Carbonell.