Almost all of the triathletes which struggle with swimming have in common several basic faults with their stroke such as poor kicking, inadequate breathing, a negative catch and horrible body position.
Body position is essential in swimming mainly because it directly can affect how much drag you've got on the water. While you are driving down the road next time, stick your hand out the window. Place it flat or parallel to the ground. Next, turn your hand 90 degrees so it's vertical and your thumb is pointing at the sky. Feel the big difference the force of the wind is placing on your hand. The lowest amount of force is on your hand when it has got the smallest amount of surface area subjected to the oncoming wind.
Swimming will be the very same. The bigger your profile or the more surface area you have exposed to the oncoming water, the more resistance you'll have. This is exactly where the concept of streamlined body placement arises from. You would like to make your body move through the littlest hole in the water feasible to be able to reduce drag. This is sometimes a good deal easier said than done.
There are various things that may cause an undesirable body position, however the most widespread and significant has to be your head. Head placement has a direct impact on exactly where your hips will be. Standing with your hands on your waist, move your head down until your chin area is on your chest area. Next move your head back as far as you can. You can experience how your hips will want to shift in the exact opposite way as your head. Thus when your head is all the way up, your hips tend to be down.
In swimming, an effective body placement would have your hips near the surface of the water in order that they follow through the very same opening in the water that was created by your head. When you lift your head up, your hips can submerge and greatly increase the resistance you've got in the water.
Learning how to perfect head placement will not be an instantaneous fix. It will require time and work although the advantages will likely be well worth it. The most effective way to work on this would be to just simply kick in the #11 position. The #11 position is defined as getting your hands over your head like a number #11 or a touchdown sign in football. Laying face down in the water with no kick board, just simply initiate kicking. Avoid using your arms. Let your arms set in place at the top of the water. You head needs to be low enough in the water that your ears will be even with or even slightly beneath your biceps. If you do this you will be able to really feel your hips float up to the surface. When you've got an incredibly inadequate kick, you can do this using fins but merely kick slowly. This is a slow drill about discovering your balanced body position in the water.
It is recommended that you kick around 200 meters or yards in the #11 position each swim session for several months to develop proper habits. Quite often coaches will only kick in training in this way because having a kickboard promotes kicking with your head up and therefore poor body position.
So in order to greatly improve your swimming easily, learn to get your head into the proper position.
Body position is essential in swimming mainly because it directly can affect how much drag you've got on the water. While you are driving down the road next time, stick your hand out the window. Place it flat or parallel to the ground. Next, turn your hand 90 degrees so it's vertical and your thumb is pointing at the sky. Feel the big difference the force of the wind is placing on your hand. The lowest amount of force is on your hand when it has got the smallest amount of surface area subjected to the oncoming wind.
Swimming will be the very same. The bigger your profile or the more surface area you have exposed to the oncoming water, the more resistance you'll have. This is exactly where the concept of streamlined body placement arises from. You would like to make your body move through the littlest hole in the water feasible to be able to reduce drag. This is sometimes a good deal easier said than done.
There are various things that may cause an undesirable body position, however the most widespread and significant has to be your head. Head placement has a direct impact on exactly where your hips will be. Standing with your hands on your waist, move your head down until your chin area is on your chest area. Next move your head back as far as you can. You can experience how your hips will want to shift in the exact opposite way as your head. Thus when your head is all the way up, your hips tend to be down.
In swimming, an effective body placement would have your hips near the surface of the water in order that they follow through the very same opening in the water that was created by your head. When you lift your head up, your hips can submerge and greatly increase the resistance you've got in the water.
Learning how to perfect head placement will not be an instantaneous fix. It will require time and work although the advantages will likely be well worth it. The most effective way to work on this would be to just simply kick in the #11 position. The #11 position is defined as getting your hands over your head like a number #11 or a touchdown sign in football. Laying face down in the water with no kick board, just simply initiate kicking. Avoid using your arms. Let your arms set in place at the top of the water. You head needs to be low enough in the water that your ears will be even with or even slightly beneath your biceps. If you do this you will be able to really feel your hips float up to the surface. When you've got an incredibly inadequate kick, you can do this using fins but merely kick slowly. This is a slow drill about discovering your balanced body position in the water.
It is recommended that you kick around 200 meters or yards in the #11 position each swim session for several months to develop proper habits. Quite often coaches will only kick in training in this way because having a kickboard promotes kicking with your head up and therefore poor body position.
So in order to greatly improve your swimming easily, learn to get your head into the proper position.
About the Author:
triForce Swimming provides free resources for triathletes looking to swim faster and farther with less energy through extensive use of freestyle drills and detailed explanations of what makes you swim better.