c’mon in, the water’s lovely
Swimming is the new squash! Having only recently dipped a toe in this particular activity I must say I’ve taken to it like the proverbial duck to…er…water. Not in terms of technique and ability but certainly in terms of enthusiasm. It really is a tremendous sport even though you end up smelling of chlorine and develop permanent lines around your eyes from the goggles. Nonetheless, it’s all worthwhile and no doubt you’ll end up open-water swimming at some point in time which at least means you get to avoid chlorine.
As I was pretty much a non-swimmer I signed up for proper lessons (at £50 a pop!), took to reading Terry Laughlin’s ‘Total Immersion’ at every opportunity and watched countless youtube Olympic videos well into the night. To help you avoid such OCD habits here are the short-ish and succinct tips and notes on how to release the swimming God that’s within you:
– Keep streamlined and envisage creating the smallest hole possible in the water and getting your whole body through that hole as easily as possible. Out of all these tips body positioning is THE most important element.
– If possible, try and envisage you’re actually swimming downhill. To do this you will need to keep your legs as high as possible with the heels breaking the surface on the top of the kick.
– Really stretch out with your leading arm and use it to swivel your lower body (shoulders down) into the kick. Longer, more streamlined vessels travel more easily (and hence more efficiently/swiftly) through the water.
– Don’t kick too hard and kick from the hip not the knee. Keep your ankles as flexible and loose as possible as a ‘flutter’ kick is the most efficient and most beneficial. The major point of the kick is to twist and stabilise the body. ‘Over kicking’ will disrupt the flow of the motion, will lead to increased drag and will actually slow you down. Technically, the kick accounts for only 15% of the forward momentum.
– Envisage your body movement as that of a screw as opposed to a nail. Whilst your head remains pretty much static (moving only to the side for breath) your body from below the neck actually twists one way then the other. The ‘stretch’ pulls the body back into line.
– Keep your head tucked in and focussed on the bottom until the slight turn for the breath (for distance breathe every two, for speed breathe every four).
– Try to ‘grip’ the water with your pull and ‘pull’ your shoulders through the stroke (as if you were climbing out of the pool on the side). Avoid ‘slipping’ the water where your arms attempt to take the path of least resistance.
– As soon as your hands enter the water ensure you’re finger tips are pointing downwards as it helps enable a better and stronger pull. The fingers need to slightly apart, not closed tightly together as the actual strength within the pull comes from whole of the arm much more so than merely the hand.
– As the pull comes back it should do so in a figure of eight motion (think Marilyn Monroe!) with the hand perpendicular to the water surface throughout.
– Rotate your arms fully in the shoulder sockets in one smooth continuous motion. Think of the movement as that of a crank that never stops but moves at a steady pace.
– Ideally, only begin to pull when the recovering arm touches the water (front quadrant swimming) and try to avoid ‘cart wheeling’.
– Keep your elbows high when recovering (ie the stroke out of the water) and the fingertips low, almost touching the water. The mental picture is that of the elbows being tied to the ceiling and being pulled upwards with the fingertips pointing down towards the water.
– Keep the whole motion as fluid and continuous as possible and try to make as little disruption in the water as possible.
Easy peasy! Seriously though, to put all of these into effect will takes months and months so take it easy and introduce only a couple at a time. Also, as you become tired your technique will start to fall apart…and it’s exactly at this time that you need to go back to first principles – body positioning, good long stretch, big pull from the shoulders, easy steady recovery, light loose flutter kick…and body positioning!
