What You Need To Know Before Taking Your First Stroke!!!

First and foremost! Safety! Watch this video to learn about Shallow Water Blackout. 

Proper Pushoff

Every lap that you swim... can be used to either make you a better swimmer or a slower swimmer! When we leave the wall, we can use this opportunity to practice a part of the Open Turn and take full advantage of the underwater streamline. The Proper Pushoff is what we will be doing in practice almost every time we leave the wall to become better swimmers.

Streamline

From a Great Streamline, comes a Great Start! So the first skill we will be mastering is how to hold a proper streamlined position. Go ahead and take a look at this Simple Streamline. Take a look at this Streamline video as well. Also, if you like a video, then go ahead and click the like button, or leave a positive comment, to let the person know that they did a good job creating their video. Now, did you notice that when holding the streamline position, the swimmer had their arms squeezing their head, their hands were right on top of each other, the head was looking at the floor of the pool, and that their fingers and toes were pointed? But, why even bother holding the streamline position?

The first rule of the water, in general, is that the longer the body, the faster it moves through the water! Go ahead and take a look at Figures 1, 2, & 3 and try to figure out what they all have in common.

 

Figure 1: “Sunday AM 2014-5129” by RedRacen is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Figure 2: “Sailfish” by Robin Hughes is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 / Mirror image modification.

Figure 3: “1210 Swim & Dive Sr Night-55” by Devon Christopher Adams is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

If you said that they are all long, then you’re right.  In competitive swimming, we streamline our bodies so that they resemble the shape of the fastest things in the water. Here’s an interesting fact, the fastest swimmers in the world swim at about 5 mph, whereas the Sailfish (Figure 2) can swim up to 68 mph, which is about as fast as your parents drive when on the freeway. Now, when you don’t squeeze your head with your arms, or stretch your body as long as possible, your body makes a shape like the boat underneath.

Figure 2: “SMIT SEINE , CSCL MERCURY & SMIT ELBE.” by kees torn is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Want to streamline like Michael Phelps? Then see this Advanced Streamline video. Disregard the statement that states to "tuck the chin to the chest." As you can see in Michael Phelps' Streamline, both swimmers keep their head in a relatively neutral position. A neutral head position is when your chin isn't fully tucked into your chest nor is the chin fully pointed towards the sky. The reason we don't want to fully tuck the chin in is because you might feel as if being chocked, like in this wrestling move (which you should NEVER DO!!!) And the reason we do not want to look up at the wall, is because the front of our faces would create drag and we would pretty much be racing like this car (with its hood up all the time).


Body Dolphin

Dolphins do not have knees! So you should NOT be bending your knees on purpose when doing the Streamlined Body Dolphin or when swimming Butterfly. Take a look at this video and watch the swimmer using a knee driven kick. What does the knee driven swimmer and this shuttle have in common? They are both experiencing DRAG. FYI the caterpillar drill appears to be another name for the hand lead body dolphin drill. My best guess as to why it's called the caterpillar drill is because you want to move with the upper part of your body pointed straight to where you want to go, but the belly and legs moving like a wave, kind of like how this caterpillar moves on a leaf. Now take a look at the following two videos and let me know if the arms are moving like a wave or if they are pointing straight to where the swimmers want to go? Is there very little up and down movement of the upper body?

Underwater Kick - with Michael Phelps & Lenny Krayzelburg

Michael Phelps' Underwater Streamline Dolphin Kick

Did you see how relaxed their ankles are when they SNAP their kick. Ever try taking your shoes off without using your hands? Doesn't it look like they are flicking their shoes off with the tips of their feet when they SNAP their feet on the kick?

Cool, now tell me if the following swimming champions have a continuous Streamline Body Dolphin or if they body dolphin, then stop, then glide... then body dolphin again, stop, and glide.

Ryan Lochte 50m underwater in 25 seconds!

Michael Phelps' Streamline

The Breakout

Take a look at Michael Phelps' replay and see which hand takes the first underwater pull after he body dolphins. Was it the hand on top or the hand on the bottom that takes the first pull? Also, at 5:22, is his opposite shoulder popping out of the water after his first underwater pull?

Lastly, if you swim a lap while focusing on good technique (like doing a nice tight and long streamline when leaving the wall) then you will get better. However, if you practice sloppy, especially when you get tired during training, then when you go to your competition, that is exactly how you will swim…sloppy. So, every time you leave the wall, go ahead and practice holding a good streamlined body and you will soon find yourself looking, and starting your race, like these Professional Competitive Swimmers!