Swimming Tips

by George Tolkachev
[in Tri-Rudy newsletter, June 23, 2008]

Before triathlon swim... some are getting a little warm up, others are strategizing, the rest are just plain scared.

Do you want to exit the water with the top triathletes in your region?

I’m going to explain how you can swim faster than you ever could before. Before we even attempt to swim from A to B in a pool or outdoors, it’s important to analyse what we’re trying to achieve. Did you know that when you swim, you’re swimming through WATER? Water’s a fluid, and for you to cut through water efficiently, it’s crucial to be aquadynamic. Hoisting in this point is the KEY to swimming fast.
The way to be aquadynamic is to have the best possible technique. So technique is the single most important factor to getting from A to B in the shortest possible time.

Even if you think you’ve heard it all before, and know it all, read on, because you might pick up some important tips.

Hands
The hands, believe it or not, direct the body through the water. If you think this is blindingly obvious, then I’d point to the many (most?) swimmers that have their hands pointing in all directions as they splash them into the water on each stroke. Stand in the water at the end of the pool and show me where you are wanting to get to. Straight ahead, right? Your arm should be straight ahead aligned with the sides of the pool, and your hand should be flat parallel with the water. Good, now we stand a chance of swimming in a straight line.

Elbows
Quite simply, the elbow position must give rise to the least amount of splash, so, in the water, point your elbow towards the ceiling. Now move your hand like a pendulum in the direction that you intend to go. Freeze the pendulum motion when the hand and arm are in front of you. This is the position you need when the hand is entering the water to cause the least amount of splash. Keep remembering the tip about the hands.

Reaching
Swimming is as much about reaching as it is pulling through the water; each motion running undisturbed as one cycle. So your hand is about to enter the water with the elbow high and your hand guiding the direction of travel. Now dive the hand into the water and then stretch so that you can feel the muscles down your side (latisimus dorsi) hurt a little. Repeat this while just standing at the shallow end of the pool . Now you know why swimmers need to stretch before swimming.
When reaching is done correctly you will be propelled by the nose dive of your hand and you will feel the extra propulsion when you then reach in the water. When you reach for something in the top cupboard in the kitchen, don’t you turn to the side ? Try it. In swimming when you reach or stretch in the water the body automatically rolls towards that side. The body remains aquadynamic.

Here is an example: get a piece of paper and get to the hair dryer at the pool...hold the piece of paper so that the edge is perpendicular to the flow. Now holding the paper tight rotate the paper keeping one edge perpendicular to the flow at all times. What 'feel' did you notice? It should have felt constant...the resistance was the same which ever way you rotate the paper. So, when you’re in the water, your body generates the same drag no matter what angel it rotates to around the line running from your head to your toes.

Propulsion
Now for the seemingly hard part. WHY, OH WHY do swimmers do that funny ‘s’ shape under the water? Again it’s back to basics. Get in the water in the deep end. For 30 seconds I want you to stay in a vertical position without moving a limb. What happened? You sank until the top of your head was at roughly surface level. Now you want to get your head above the water? But I tell you to stay vertical. What do you do? Look at your hands, they are constantly moving in and out from the body to keep you upright. right? Note that you are angling the hands to generate an upward thrust. This is the force which is keeping your head above the water.
Now I want you to try to rocket yourself vertically out of the pool . . . try it, paying close attention to your arm movement. Try various techniques. Did you find that if you thrust with your arms simply pushing vertically downwards with no outward movement you didn’t get as high out the water as you did using your natural method - based on what you were doing to keep your head above the water? Look at what you’re doing more closely. Your hands are moving in an ‘s’ shape, aren’t they?

Now let’s tip this example on its side. You do the same motion as you did in the vertical example. The ‘s’ thrust is used to push your body more efficiently through the water at a faster speed.
The arm is outstretched, the next movement is to ‘catch’ the moving water as it flows past. Now the secret here is that catching the flow of the water at its speed is the essence of being propelled faster through the water.

Many people believe that they should push their hand as quickly as possible through the water . . . NO! This disturbs the water, or if you can imagine, it smudges the water. Instead it should be like walking up a ladder with the hands staying with the same rung as you move up the ladder. But how on Earth do you know how fast the water is travelling past? You don’t, it goes on FEEL.

There is an incredibly simple exercise to introduce you to the feel of the water. I want you to swim four lengths with you fists tightly held. Take no notice of what your mates are thinking. Swim front crawl . You will look funny because you are not moving very fast.
After the four lengths, I want you to go, go, go with front crawl, palms open, PUSHING off the palm of your hand. The feel factor on your hand will have felt incredible; did you feel the body pushing off the hand? This is a fantastic exercise to teach you that it’s not the speed the forearm moves through the water but the push off the hand that gives you speed.

Recovery
The last and final stage is recovery. Remember the pendulum exercise? The elbow should come out the water first, followed by the hand which must have the little finger pointing upwards because this makes the hand ‘slice’ through the water just before it comes out of the water. Remember the piece of paper in the hair dryer? It produced the least resistance when it was edge on to the air flow. You hand must produce the least drag now that it’s not thrusting.

The Head
Keep your head down if you swim without wetsuit. If you swim in wetsuit balance your head in the water along the hairline so that you can see ahead of you for a couple of metres, it also helps to keep your legs down as it is very difficult to kick in wetsuit.

Breathing
Some people find that when they swim they get water up their noses! There is a simple way to overcome this. Go to the shallow end of the pool , put your face into the water and pretend you are blowing your nose...go on!!! You should see the bubbles going out around your face and hear the gushing air rushing out of your nose....let it all out!!!!.

Once you’ve grasped this, the test to see that you can blow air out of your nose is to now dip your head backwards. Yes everybody is upside down but that doesn’t mean you can’t breathe outwards through your nose . . . BLOW! Keep blowing all the time your head is submerged and until it is out of the water. Did water go up your nose? No it didn’t! Good. Practice this with every stroke you do no matter when or where you are in the water. It’s important to grasp this early on.

Legs and Feet
The legs when swimming crawl over longer distances are used to balance the body and keep it upright in the water. It’s therefore important the legs stay out of the water flow as much as possible. You only need to follow very closely behind even quite a good front crawl swimmer to see the drag. What did you observe? As the swimmer rolled over to breathe, the feet drifted apart then came back together. I call this ‘skidadle feet’ ! The best way to practice non-skidadle feeting, is to just concentrate on the legs using a float held in front, then go back to your full stroke, concentrating only on keeping your feet together.

Another very common problem that I see very often even with the most competitive swimmers is the overindulgence in splashing....the more splash I kick up the faster I will go! NO!! Unfortunately, the more splash that gets thrown up, the harder it becomes to propel yourself through the water so the harder you have to work; at the end of the pool you’re done! Go to the pool side and watch all the swimmers when they are doing float drills...just watch.

The solution again is very simple: when you kick, make sure your feet are UNDER the water but only just breaking the surface. There is an excellent exercise which demonstrates why the feet should at all times be below the water. Take some flippers. If you kick on the surface of the water what happens to your speed? What happens to your range of movement and speed when your legs are under the surface? In the latter you will become more efficient because the water surface is disturbed less and you have a full range of movement.

The kick comes from the hips and NOT the knees. This is crucial in your front crawl stroke because bent knees cause resistance to the flowing water. The whole kick action should be one. To try this, grab a float and lie on your back. Try to kick for 4 or 5 lengths WATCHING that your knees do not break the surface. You will of course need to give a little with the knees. The toes are important as well. They should turn inwards, with the big toes moving past each other at all times (never more than a few inches). The reason for this being that again you do not want to have feet that disturb the water flow.

The Whole
The whole stroke put together must be smooth, taking all the above points into account. The fastest person through the water is the one who is AGGRESSIVELY-SMOOTH. Fish don’t fight the water, so why should we? Have you ever watched a ballet dancer? Every movement flows into the next, feeling the music. It should be the same when we swim, feeling the water. Link it all together smoothly.

George Tolkachev
gtolk@aol.com

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