|
You’re sold on swimming’s great attributes—how it strengthens heart and lungs,
provides a low-impact workout, burns calories and lowers body fat, burnishes
muscles—and you’re ready to take the plunge. You’ve found a pool—at your
local YMCA, community college, health club or rec center—so it’s just a
matter of swimming as much as possible, right? Wrong.
People think of swimming in much the same way as running and cycling—get
in and do whatever you do longer, harder, and faster and you’ll become
a better swimmer. To some degree this is true. However, swimming is the most
complex set of repetitive, rhythmic motions that exists in sport. Also,
because swimming motions and positions are not natural, just doing it isn’t
enough to improve technique.
Water is roughly 1,000 times denser than air so you use most of your swimming
energy overcoming resistance. World-class swimmers are, at best, 9% efficient;
less-accomplished swimmers, perhaps as little as 2%. It makes sense to employ
much of your practice time learning how to combat (or, more accurately, avoid)
these unrelenting forces of nature.
Become Aware
Perhaps the single biggest tip to minimizing resistance is, first, to be aware
of it, then to act on that awareness. Listen for splashing or kerplunking
sounds and try to eliminate them. Feel for smooth, flowing movements of all
parts of your body instead of bulldozing movements. Look for large or numerous
bubbles in the water around you—a sure sign of turbulence-causing actions.
The goal is to make adjustments to reduce or eliminate these resistance
indicators and the motions and positions that cause them. The less resistance
you work against, the more efficient you will be in the water. You will have
greater control over your workout, look more proficient as a swimmer, have
more fun, and feel better about doing it all again.
Achieve Balance
Teach your body what it feels like to be balanced in the water. A balanced
position for freestyle is one in which the head, torso, hips and legs are all
in one line, parallel to the surface of the water.
Many swimmers understand the need to have their whole body parallel to the
surface but do it the wrong way. They use a strong kick to lift the hips
and legs to the surface. Kicking uses a tremendous amount of energy. Great
swimmers use a different approach that requires little or no energy
expenditure to achieve this balanced position. Here are some basic techniques
to help achieve and maintain balance while swimming:
Keep your head in line:
The position of your head, which weighs
12 to 16 pounds, greatly influences the balance of your body in the water.
The crown of your head needs to be in line with your spine. When you are
balanced, whether on your stomach, side, or back, only about one-quarter to
one-third of your head will be exposed above the surface. The rest will be
underwater.
Press your buoy:
Your lungs are literally a buoy that causes the upper
portion of your body to float. By contrast, your center of mass, near your
belly button, causes your hips and legs to sink. Imagine a kickboard placed
on the water's surface. If you press on one end of the kickboard, the other
end rises. Pressing your buoy toward the bottom or leaning on it raises
the hips in much the same way that pressing on one end of the kickboard
raises the other end. The overall feeling you should get as you press
your buoy is one of tilting slightly downhill.
|
