SWIM I
SWIM TECHNIQUE FROM HEAD TO TOE
Breathing, Head Position
This is a link to a write-up I’ve done about freestyle
breathing.
This is a great video by Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps’ coach.
He discusses proper breathing technique. Amazing that what applies to the pros,
applies to us!
One issue some swimmers have is that they look up, either
before or right after they breathe. This keeps their heads up high for a
portion of the stroke, with their necks in awkward positions. To change this,
try the following, based on the side-lying drill from the post above:
1 – Imagine there is a vertical
plane that is perpendicular to your body, running right through your eyes, like
the brim of a huge hat! This is the plane your eyes should follow if you are
rotating properly to breathe. Your eyes are either looking to the side,
traveling to the bottom of the pool, or fixed on the bottom.
2 – Start in the side-lying drill
position. Get set up, looking up to the corner of the ceiling with your head
very low.
3 – Turn your head down, having
your gaze trace the line of the plane you’re imagining. Your head will end up
low in the water, facing down.
4 – Take three strokes with your
head in the low position.
5 – With the third stroke, rotate up
into the side-lying position on the other side. Your eyes roll up with your
body, following the plane.
6 – Do 150-200yds of this practice
before moving on.
You’ll never see ahead of you, so you’ll look for the ‘T’ on
the bottom of the pool to know when the length is ending. Give space to any
swimmers in front of you so you don’t run into them with your hand. You’re not
looking up at any point, remember!
Breath Timing
There are many places in the arm cycle where you can take a
breath, but only a small range where it works to keep your stroke consistent
and powerful. The idea is to put the breath in a place where it makes it easy
to get a consistent shoulder motion. You never end up stalled on your side,
needing to move your arms in asynchronous ways in order to continue swimming.
Basically, you don’t want to be waiting until you’ve already rotated onto your
side before you start your breathing/head turn motion – you shouldn’t be watching
your arm come overhead and back in the water while you breathe. This is too
late. Early in the arm cycle, starting to breathe while your breathing-side arm
is pulling, is best.
Michael Phelps – an example of turning the head early to
start breathing motion; note that his body position does not change as a result
of doing this, he's simply getting a small “head” start. His opposite arm has
not yet entered the water.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWEx3UqVvXU (the
above image is from the first 20sec)
Here he is moments later after his breath. He has turned his
head back down and can see his arm out front making the next catch. This is
crucial positioning to ensure an even and powerful stroke. See the description
below.
This is the Natalie Coughlin from the above video at ~45sec.
As a result her mouth comes up early and she breathes as early as possible. Her
opposite arm has just entered the water. She actually began her head turn before
it touched. (just below the video, click the link "watch this video at the original site")
Here’s a video of Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps’ coach, talking
about breathing. He discusses many of the things we go over in class. It’s good
to know the pros are at work on the same techniques. We can duplicate many of
the things they do, we just won’t move as fast. J
Key points:
·
The head moves in line with the body – no
lifting of the head or raising of the chin.
·
Coach Bowman discusses the bow wave created by
keeping your head in a steady position, just breaking the surface, and that a
good check is to get a goggle in the water. Keep it in mind during your
warm-ups.
·
Even in the first underwater frames where
Michael is breathing, you can see that 1) he moves his head early toward his
breathing side and his mouth comes up first, and 2) that he gets his head back
in the water early, able to see his extended arm making his next catch. This is exactly what we work on in class.
Practice Set:
Warm-up (400yd) – Focus on keeping your head aligned with
the body, perhaps doing some drills to emphasize that skill.
Early Breath:
·
How to do it: Just before your opposite hand
touches the water, while it is passing your head during the recovery, start to
turn your head for your breath. Your body won’t have rotated all the way around
of course, but this will get you started early and provide some power at the
front end of your breathing side pull. You may feel as if you’ve been lifted
out of the water a bit, but this is okay.
·
Make sure your breathing side arm is out front
while your other arm is recovering. This way you will have it to use to assist
in rotating your body to breathe. You’ll end up in what’s sometimes called the
“archer’s” position, with the recovering hand beside your head and the other
arm outstretched.
·
It’s easy to start to move your arms too quickly
when you begin to move your head a bit early. Take your time moving to this
position. As your recovering arm comes over the top, slow it down for a moment
and make sure your other arm is extended and ready to go. Then pull and
breathe.
·
The final challenge is to get your head back
down and see the other arm out front after you breathe. Your breathing-side arm
is out before you breathe, and now you want to see the non-breathing-side arm
right after. This ensures that your shoulders have made it around and that
you’re in a position to pull with power. You won’t touch hands out front, no
“catch-up” stroke here, but both arms will still be in front of your head after
your breath (as you can see with Phelps’ photo above).
Main Set (600-900yd):
100yd – Practice slow early breath timing as described above
Rest 10-30sec
100yd – Make sure you rotate equally into the non-breathing
side after each breath (your breathing-side shoulder will rotate down as your
arm extends out front)
Rest 10-30sec
100yd – See the non-breathing side arm out front after each
breath. If you can’t see it, and can’t seem to hold it out front, try a
Catch-Up stroke, touching both hands out front every single stroke – this is a
good intermediate step to help get control of the extended arm position.
Repeat 2-3 times
Cool Down (200):
200 easy swimming
Recovery Motion
This is a link to my website where I discuss the recovery
motion and how it impacts the catch.
Practice:
1 – Lay arm out and place goggle in the water – then swim
and attempt to do the same
2 – Side Kick Drill – then swim and attempt to roll into a
similar position when breathing
3 – Single Arm Drill – pull on one side, rotating your hips,
and breathing with your head low in the water
4 – Switching – perform several single arm strokes on one
side, then move to the other, starting with three strokes and then progressing
to one on each side
5 – Fingertip Drag – breathe every four strokes, relax your
shoulders and shrug your arms over the top, leading with the elbows
Here’s a video by Richard Quick (Olympic coach whose
flat-body posture work we did on the pool deck), where he discusses the
difference between a recovery that’s too narrow vs. one that is open and easy
on the shoulder. Some of you have asked what the “normal” alternative is to
Fingertip Drag, and this is one option. Shelly (the swimmer) lifts from the
shoulder to initiate and lead the recovery and elbow forward. Her hand is
relaxed through the motion but is not dragging the surface or leading the
motion. She’s not driving the recovery with her arms; she’s doing it with her
shoulders. Look at the range of motion of her shoulders from back to front.
Posture
Here’s a write-up of the Posture work we did and how to
practice.
Note: This deck work was developed by Olympic coach Richard
Quick. I highly recommend his video, “Posture, Line, and Balance”. It’s one of
the best.
Check out the video of Natalie Coughlin. Key points:
-
Throughout, notice how still she keeps her head. Even
when rotating to breathe it stays in line. This limits movement through the
back of the body, since the body follows the head.
-
Also notice how narrow her kick stays. It is within the
“shadow” of her body.
-
Very little splash as her hands enter the water. This
is means her hands enter softly and the rest of her arm enters through the same
“hole” her hand started with. It means she carries almost no air with her
hands, giving her a perfect propulsive surface to pull against.
-
For the Rotational Kick drill, she is kicking hard. A
strong, narrow kick is very beneficial for all kick-powered drills.
-
Even when she picks up the pace, and the splash
increases, her head stays still, and as she extends out front she waits until
all the bubbles are gone from her hands.
-
Her easy and fast freestyle motions are virtually
identical. She practices at low intensity the exact motion she will use when
racing.
-
At around 2:30, watch where her hands enter the water. They
never cross into the black line, and she pulls back along its edges, so her
pulls are all relatively straight. This means her energy is propelling her
forward vs. pushing out to the sides.
In class we may do work similar to this:
1)
Pushing off and kicking in a flat position, arms by
your sides, eyes on the bottom, narrow kick.
2)
Adding Rotation to that drill, moving the shoulders
about 45deg to each side, with a very steady head.
3)
Full stroke swimming with a focus and breathing less
(about every six strokes) so you can feel even rotation and a steady head. Rest
as needed at each end.
Side-Lying Position
Check out this post on my website for video and still photo
examples. Get in and practice as often as you can.
Here are some additional notes on the video links posted
there:
Lindsay Benko
-
Watch the stretches she does in the beginning for her
ankles and feet. Do 4-8min of these, five or six times weekly and you can
really improve the propulsive power of your kick. The catch is that it takes
doing this over months to see the change.
But is does happen and really worth it for most people.
-
Mentions yoga as a key to strengthen core muscles and
create flexibility
-
If you’ve plateaued, make a change
Kicking Form
Here is the kick broken down as one of the best swimmers
ever, China’s Sun Yang, sets a world record in the 1500m.
Here is a series of videos on my website that demonstrates
the drill progression for learning proper kicking form.
To practice, do 50-100yd of each drill with 30sec of rest
between each. Just don’t allow yourself to skip any steps. Each one strengthens
your body in the correct motion and sets the neural pathways needed.
Another drill that is great for activating the hip muscles
and all muscles that produce good kicking form is Swimming With One Foot Out,
but without the Single-Arm stroke. Here’s how it works:
1)
Swim down the pool, breathing to the right, while
holding your left foot out of the water. Keep the leg straight at all times, as
this will force the hip to lift.
a.
Try to maintain a normal arm stroke and breathing
pattern.
b.
Keep your head position low and breathe low. A high
head and foot will not happen together easily for most people.
2)
Then swim back, breathing to the left, while holding
your right foot out of the water.
3)
Third, take three breaths on one side, lifting the
opposite leg when you do. Then switch to the other side, and alternate down the
length of the pool and back.
4)
Finally, swim a 50 with a continuous kick, lifting both
legs straight and high behind you. Normal arm stroke all the way, breathing on
the right going down and the left coming back.
By the end, you should feel your kick in a very different
(higher) position, much more streamlined.
Catch Form
Here is China’s Sun Yang, 1500m world record holder, with
his catch broken down so you can see how it happens.
Here’s a brief write-up of some of the things we discussed
in class. The emphasis is on having a perfect Side-Lying Position so that it’s
very easy to move into a proper catch.
And finally, a discussion of various teaching methods. This
will make more sense after you’ve done a LOT of work on your catch and
practiced a number of different variations.
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