Be Happy - Swim

I've noticed when I'm getting to the pool in the morning - about 6:30am - there is a bunch of people leaving who are happier than any other group I meet all day. It's the Masters swim group. They get there at the crack of dawn. Why are they happy? I've had my theories - including it's because their work-out is over. But even the stray person I see when I'm done with my workout - we late risers don't finish as a group - are also pretty content. I came across this article today which talks about the psychological benefits of exercise. Nice read. Enjoy.

Wasted Motion Means Wasted Energy

When I watch a novice adult swimmer, I am often amazed at all the effort that is being used -with no positive effect. Often the splash is huge, the waves large and the forward momentum near zero. What's wrong? Well I've already mentioned the torpedo profile at least a dozen times in this blog. Maintaining that profile is half the battle. It allows you to cut through the water and let it slide past with ease. So what's up with the thrashing arms and legs you see so many people using? It's total waste of motion and energy. The motion is not being applied appropriately. Swimming in a nutshell is a case of levers and fulcrums along with thrusts, pulls and pushes - each applied properly. The problem isn't just with novice swimmers. Even good swimmers could use a little "skinny swimming" - this is a term I picked up from a woman who was happy to share a lane with me one day when all the other lanes were full. She said she would practice her "skinny swimming." In essense, skinny swimming is deliberate swimming whereby you keep your arms straight ahead and along side your body while your legs stretch out behind. You do this, maintaining a profile as close to an arrow as possible. No wasted motion. Don't swing your arms out (like an eagle), or even straight up (like a windmill). What's the point? You aren't pulling anything but air if your arms are far out of the water. It may look cool, but you are only fooling yourself. Arms that stretch out of the water more than an inch or two are just using energy to fight gravity - that's all. Use that effort and apply it once you've reached the topmost point of your stretch, then apply it to a stronger, longer pull through the water.

Proper Breathing - Crank It Up

Keeping with the theme of streamlining your body position during freestyle stroke, it is imperitive that you don't destroy all your hard work when you go to breathe. Too many people - even people who believe themselves to swim well - lift themselves up to breathe, impeding the flow of water past their bodies. Their chests form a wall - creating virtual dams - against the water trying to flow past. Breathing when done properly is part of the stroke - not a separate step. It involves turning the body to the side. Vertically profiled fish are this shape naturally. You must do it deliberately. I have developed a routine which works for me. I'll share it with you here. Imagine two lever-armed cranks that go round and round on a single axel. Your arms are the two cranks - the axel is your collar bone. As you turn the crank, you can turn your body to the side on which you wish to breathe. I usually start turning my body to the side when my arm is near my hip. As I begin the recovery - bringing it forward, I slowly "crank" body to the fish-profile mode. It is here that I am in a natural - not forced - position to grab a mouthful of air. As my arm progresses past the top of the motion, I crank my head and body back to the normal flat - horizontal - position. Notice, I the breathing motion is part of the stroke. I'm finding that doing anything else is self-defeating and very tiring - no wonder people who swim poorly get worn out swimming just half-way across the pool!

Another Way to Visualize a Straight Pull

I promised in my last post that I'd provide another helpful analogy for the freestyle pull. In past posts I talked about keeping a straight line - for streamlining purposes. Swimming pools have lanes painted along the bottom of each lane. When I'm doing my laps, I follow that line and often imagine it is a vertical ladder, along which I am suspended, parallel. To get from one end of the pool to the other, I imagine I must reach out and grab a rung of the ladder. To propel myself up the ladder, I imagine I must fight gravity, so I must pull the rung as hard as possible. When I get to my waist, I then must push the rung away, back behind me. When I've reach the maximum stretch behind me, I reach out and grab another rung with my other hand and repeat. This works to keep me straight and forces me to apply equal effort to both sides of my body. Perhaps you have an analogy that works for you - ideas are welcome!

Freestyle - My Secret to the Pull

I've drawn several analogies in my tips. Today and next time I'm going to include two more to give you an idea of how I approach the free-style pull. On dry-ground with your left hand touching your hip, stand on your tip toes and reach with your right hand as high as you possibly can. Imagine you are reaching for an apple hanging from a high tree branch. You can reach the bottom of the apple, but just barely. The way you get to your hand around the apple is to thrust your body up expanding your reach by the length of your lunge. The is where you start your freestyle pull. You've snagged the apple. You pull in down. Bring it to your waist and at that point, throw it back as far as you possibly can. Now repeat this with the other hand. Sounds silly right? Well, that's literally what you must do in the water. You must lunge as far forward as you possibly can, maintaing the torpedo profile. Cup your hand to hold as much water as possible. Maintaining that water in your hand pull it through to your waist (open your hand and you drop the apple - i.e. lose the water - where you throw it away behind you as hard as you possibly can. Your hand should end up touching your hip. Try it. You should get two distinct propulsion results out of this arc. First is the pull between picking the apple and your waist. Second is the push, where you throw the apple away. If you already know how to swim, you may find you can increase your speed proportionally to how much you increase the force of either (the pull and push) parts of the arc. Next post I'll tell you about the next analogy - climbing the ladder.

Picking a Pair of Swim Goggles

Off topic, but relevant, today we discuss goggles. Read bottom of post for my choice - you won't believe it it's so cool! First off, don't worry about what they look like. All goggles make the most attractive person look like an alien. Go for utility and lifespan. Obviously, you want them to fit snuggly so they don't leak. Avoid anything cheap - almost by definition, they'll leak. I prefer the single piece molded variety and avoid the three piece units (those with the snap on nose piece). Larger varieties are catching on - Navy Seals use these. But take note, Olympic swimmers seem to prefer the smallest types. I also look for a strap that I can adjust easily. Some are nearly impossible to adjust, while others have a poor rubber quality that breaks soon after purchase. Choose a name brand you are familiar with. You pay a little more, but you usually are ensured some level of quality. OK, here's an awesome pair of goggles. I want a pair - NOW! Attention vendors - I'll volunteer to be the first customer and guarantee you a mention in this blog.

Exaggerated Follow Through

Exaggerated Follow-Through.  If you are an experienced swimmer or tried yesterday’s suggestion about brushing your ear as you pull your arm back in your follow-through you know I was exaggerating when I told you to tap your ear with your finger.  Tried it this AM myself - doesn’t work.   Here’s what does … As you pull up, you really do want to try to keep your arm and hand as close to your body as possible.  Instead of your ear, try tapping just under your arm pit as you pull your arm up from your hip. After you reach your arm pit, shoot your hand forward.  End with your fingers pointing forward and your arm parallel to the side of your head - touching your head if possible.  Remember the main goal - you want to force yourself to maintain a consistent torpedo shape for slip-streaming purposes.

A Clarification about Follow-Through

If you are an experienced swimmer or tried my suggestion about brushing your ear as you pull your arm back in your follow-through you know I was exaggerating when I told you to tap your ear with your finger tips to your ear as you follow-through.  I do exaggerate from time to time to make my point - please excuse me.  You really do want to try to keep your arm and hand close to your body as possible as you pull up.  Try tapping just under your arm pit as you pull your arm up. End with your fingers pointing forward and your arm parallel to the side of your head.  Touching if possible.  Remember the goal is a consistent torpedo shape for slip-streaming purposes.

About Prior Described Follow-Through

Follow Through Post was Exaggerated - If you are an experienced swimmer or tried my suggestion about brushing your ear as you pull your arm back in your follow-through you know I was exaggerating when I told you to tap your ear with your finger tips to your ear as you follow-through.  I do exaggerate from time to time to make my point - please excuse me.  You really do want to try to keep your arm and hand close to your body as possible as you pull up.  Try tapping just under your arm pit as you pull your arm up. End with your fingers pointing forward and your arm parallel to the side of your head.  Touching if possible.  Remember the goal is a consistent torpedo shape for slip-streaming purposes.

Rubbing Ears Proper Freestyle Follow Through

Rubbing Ears - Proper Freestyle Follow Through

OK, so we’ve covered the minimum on freestyle pull.  Now you want to get your arm back to the point of the torpedo.  Again, we want to keep the streamline shape so we can keep the body flowing through the water.  To do that, your recovery must be streamlined too.  Lot’s of people screw this part up.  They just swing their arms out, slowing themselves down and sometimes even whacking the poor people sharing the same lane.  Both are pitiful.  Here’s what’s wrong.  Like the pull, you want your arms to come along side your body.  Only you must bend your elbow.  Do this - again, in front of your mirror.  With left hand extended and right hand by your hip, draw your right hand up to your ear -then straight up and adjacent to the hand pointing up.  Try to keep your elbows as close to your body as possible.  Yes, it’s awkward.  Now try it reversing the hand positions.  When I taught my daughter this technique, I told her to bump her ears with each stroke.  She became the fastest swimmer on the team from the get-go.  

Skip the Dog

Confident kids generally learn dog paddle before they learn free-style. We're going to skip all that and go right into stroke technique. We're back home in front of the mirror for this lesson. Face the mirror with about three feet between you and any incumbrances - e.g., a sink, perhaps. Now raise your hands and put them above your head in the torpedo pose - straight arms, locked elbows, thumbnails together, fingers flush together and gently palms cupped (as if holding water). Keeping it straight, swing your right arm down, parallel to your body, until it touches your leg. Keep the other arm up - don't move it. You've done half a proper stroke and if you were in a pool you would now be gliding. Now try this with the left arm, keeping your right arm extended over your head (don't worry about swinging it back yet - that's a whole topic to itself). Now let's look at what you've done. You've swung your arms parallel to your body and kept your non-stroking arms straight over your head. Why? You want to maintain the torpedo profile for the water to slipstream past you. Next, you've kept your pulling arms straight. Why? You want to maximize the pulling lever. A long arm, provides a more powerful stroke than a bent arm. As easy as it is here in front of the mirror, this is tricky in the water and where nearly everyone does it wrong in the pool. Practice this motion and repeat it until you understand what is described above fully. Recovery next time.

How to Float

I got ahead of myself. I suppose I should have covered floating sooner. You need to master the basics of floating if you wish to swim proficiently. Notice, I didn't say you had to actually float. Some folks think they just can't. Others can actually float vertically - don't laugh, I've seen it. What I will demonstrate here is what is involved in floating. Why this topic? Any marginal ability to float may make you a better swimmer. People with an average to high level of body fat generally can usually float well with little problem. Where does that leave the rest? The secret is lung capacity. If you aren't the athletic type, you'll need to work on building that lung capacity. You want to figuratively create a stable balloon of air inside your chest. On dry land - how about that pool side chaise lounge or your favorite easy chair? Take the largest breath you can and hold it for about ten seconds. Then keep your chest inflated by letting only a little air out, replacing that marginal amount with fresh. By doing this, you make your center into a large air tank. The laws of physics say you will become more boyant. I learned this to a point I never thought possible. When I was a teen, I couldn't float at all. Then I learned this and practiced it. You can too. Do it until you are comfortable with this new form of breathing. Now get in the pool. Try lying back in the water with your back arched as far as you can. This forces your new air tank (your chest) to the top of the water. Let a little air out and as you feel yourself starting to sink, take in a quick sip of air to replace that which you've lost. Practice, practice, practice. Oh, by the way, the people on the pool deck think you're just sunning yourself. You look cool!

Best Swim Kicking Technique

Before you get excited, I'll cut to the chase and provide the answer to this question. For the most part, proper kicking is based on your personal comfort/fatigue level, but one technique surpasses the other in distance. Here's what I've found (all measurements are based on the number of times my left foot strikes the water). To travel 25 meters, with minimal wall-push-off, I can cover the pool in 40 whip kicks. Fast flutter takes 74 kicks, while slow flutter takes 65 kicks. I found this disparity surprising. The slow flutter is the easiest, and great for a novice. Kicking faster makes you work harder and more! If you are just learning to swim, don't think you'll do better if you flutter real fast. You'll just tire yourself out. Use the slow flutter until you've mastered basic free-style then try the whip kick. The whip kick is just as easy as the slow flutter - if you know how to do it - and you'll go much faster and farther. Here's the way I think of it. It follows the same motion as the flutter kick only it has a longer sweep. Imagine a buggy whip. You pull it back, then send it forward long and gently, but before you get to the end of the forward throw, you give it a quick snap. That's how a proper whip kick works too. That added snap. Try it. See if you can lessen the number of kicks you need to cover an equal distance. Let me know what you find.