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Hops, Whirlpools, Shoulder Thangs and Stretches

(or Wacky Warm-ups)

by Coach Emmett Hines

Revised from an article which first appeared in SWIM Magazine.

The goals of our program go well beyond giving yardage workouts. In addition to fitness, we want to teach skill and technique improvement, efficiency, and stress reduction. Finally, we want to keep motivation high with variety and perhaps even a little silliness.

We want our swimmers to think of workout as “play” or “practice” instead of “work.” That is why kids are usually much happier than adults--they spend more time playing. Learning new skills, strength, flexibility, and conditioning can be fun. It doesn't have to be monotonous and boring. Using the pool differently than just swimming from one end to the other and then back again is one way to do this.

Enter Hops, Whirlpools, Shoulder Thangs & Stretches. A great opportunity to improve your skills, coordination, strength, and flexibility in a very short time period — on a daily basis.

H₂Ouston Swims began a variation of these exercises in 1986 and they have evolved over a period of many years. Davis Aquatic Masters started a variation, which they called Wacky Warm-ups, in September 1995. The exercises are much like water aerobic activities, but with an emphasis on techniques, skills, and injury prevention for swimmers.

Shoulder Thangs are essentially the same motions taught by physical therapists to build balanced shoulder stability. Internal and external rotation of the shoulder joint. The water creates a reasonable amount of resistance. Many athletes do similar exercises on land using surgical tubing or rubber bands to help develop shoulder strength and stabilization that allow swimmers to perform without risk of injury. We have three exercises that fall in this category: Small Flashes, Big Flashes and Scoops.

Small Flashes are done while standing on the bottom or treading water with an egg-beater kick, keep the elbows pressed against the side of your body. Keeping the wrist stiff, sweep the hands toward each other passing with the left just above the right until the hands touch your body. Then briskly press with the back of the hands in an outward motion (external rotation), keeping the elbows against the body. Alternate which arm is on top with each flash.

Big Flashes are essentially the same as small flashes but with straight arms. The elbows do not stay pressed against the body. The arms flash out, pressing with the back of the hand as far back as possible and then sweep in until your arms are wrapped around your body like you were giving yourself a hug. Again, alternate which arm is on top with each flash. We like to say as we do it “I love myself,” (inward sweep to body wrap), “this much!” (outward sweep to “Big Fish” story gesture).

Scoops is an exercise intended as a shoulder exercise rather than a bicep exercise. Stand upright on the pool bottom with your arms bent 90 degrees at the elbow, palms facing up. Keeping the 90 degree bend of the elbow throughout the exercise, swing your arms behind you as far as possible and then swing them forward and up out of the water as if to scoop water over your head but stop the motion before your elbows go higher than your shoulders. Swing the arms back down and fully to the rear again.

Hops begin in the same standing position in chest deep (or deeper) water. With your arms held straight down in front of you, palms facing each other, crouch down low in the water and leap off the bottom into the air as high as possible. As you begin to leap up start sweeping your arms upwards to the sides (like you are making a snow angel) through the resistance of the water. Keep your arms straight, palms facing down. As your feet leave the bottom your arms should be getting near to shoulder level. The first 45 degrees of arm motion is the most important and it is not necessary to try to get them above shoulder level. As gravity pulls you back down into the crouch position just drop your arms straight down in front of you and repeat. Hops, like Flashes and Scoops are an important exercise for decreasing muscle imbalances around he shoulder joint, thus decreasing the probability of rotator cuff injuries. Hops are also great for building leg strength in a plyometric exercise that improves push-off power — the place where you are moving fastest in each length of the pool.

Whirlpools are a sculling exercise to enhance feel of the water. Using a side to side sculling action of the forearms for support, raise your feet to the surface so that you are in a sitting ‘V’ position with your toes out of the water and pointed gymnast style. Your legs should be straight, you should be sitting with a 90-degree bend at the hips and your nose should be pointing forward, not up. The idea is to keep both your toes and your chin dry while supporting yourself entirely with side to side sculling motions. Hold your elbows away from your sides, a bit below shoulder level. Sculling motions should be made strictly from the elbow rather than from the shoulder. Avoid the temptation to make up and down motions with your hands and arms — we call these drowning motions. If you are making the proper motions with your arms you will see small whirlpools appear on the surface above each hand. People who are really good at whirlpools will be able to keep both their feet out of the water rather than just their toes.

Streamline Stretch improves the flexibility needed, not only to maintain maximum speed off each push-off, but also in reaching full extension on every stroke, thus improving Distance Per Stroke (DPS). Standing in reasonably shallow water, facing straight forward, reach both arms above your head and place one hand on top of the other, one wrist on top of the other -you are wearing a watch you should be trying to cover that whole hand and the watch with the other hand and wrist. Squeeze the back half of your head firmly with your upper arms. The back of your head should be flush with the backs of your arms; your ears should be pinned against your head. Don’t tip your head forward or back and don’t arch your back. Try to keep your spine-line as straight as possible. Tighten your abdominal muscles and press the small of your back against an imaginary wall. Hold this position for 10 seconds and then lean over to the right while maintaining the streamline. Hold for 10 seconds and then lean over to the left for 10 seconds.

Pectoralis Stretch. The pectoralis muscles are involved heavily in a wide variety of high resistance motions we make in swimming. Pec muscles have a tendency to get tight and short if not subjected to a regular stretching regimen. Stand in armpit deep water with your chest against the lane rope. Raise your left arm so that your upper arm is parallel with and along side of the lane rope, 90-degree bend at the elbow so your fingertips are pointing straight up. Now rotate your body to the right. The lane rope keeps the arm from moving. As your body rotates to the right you should feel a stretch diagonally from the shoulder across your left pec to the sternum (breastbone). If you just feel the stretch in the shoulder area you need to raise your elbow a bit higher till you feel the stretch pull across to the sternum. Otherwise you aren't stretching the pec muscle you are just pulling the shoulder out of place. Hold this stretch to 30 seconds and be sure to stretch both sides evenly.

Short Sprints can be added between each exercise if the water and/or air is chilly. Start from mid-pool, swim to the wall and back to the middle Try to accelerate quickly to carry high speed into the wall and maintain momentum through the turn and into the breakout stroke. Emphasize streamlined push-offs on the turns. This may be done in any stroke. This gives the opportunity for some fast short swimming with significant rest early in the workout.

Here’s how we might do them on a warm day:

30 sec of Hops
30 sec of Whirlpools
30 sec of Shoulder Thangs (one cycle each of Small Waves, Big Waves, Shoulder Scoops)
30 sec of Stretch (One cycle each of Right Pec Stretch, Left Pec Stretch, Streamline Stretch)
Repeat from top. .3 cycles

And how we might do them on a cold day:

30 sec of Hops
25 yd Mid-Pool Sprint swim
30 sec of Whirlpools
25 yd Mid-Pool Sprint swim
30 sec of Shoulder Thangs (one cycle each of Small Waves, Big Waves, Shoulder Scoops)
25 yd Mid-Pool Sprint swim
30 sec of Stretch (One cycle each of Right Pec Stretch, Left Pec Stretch, Streamline Stretch)
25 yd Mid-Pool Sprint swim
Repeat from top. .3 cycles

25 sec for each sprint swim
55 sec per exercise/swim segment.

Slower swimmers move closer to the wall to stay on the interval.
Faster swimmers can move a bit further away.

Maybe you can use a similar regimen to improve skills and help avoid shoulder problems in the future! v

© H₂Ouston Swims, Inc. 2001

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Emmett Hines is Director and Head Coach of H₂Ouston Swims. He has coached competitive Masters swimming in Houston since 1982, was a Senior Coach for Total Immersion Swim Camps for ten years, holds an ASCA Level 5 Certification, was selected as United States Masters Swimming’s Coach of the Year in 1993 and received the MACA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. His book, Fitness Swimming (Human Kinetics, publishers), is in its third English language printing and is also available in French (entitled Natation, published by Vigot), Spanish (entitled Natacion, published by Hispano Europea) and Chinese (entitled Jianshenyouyong). Currently he coaches the H₂O Masters group in Houston in the River Oaks area and works privately with many clients. He can be reached for questions or comments at 713-748-SWIM or via email.

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