We Have Lift Off!

Tuesday night was our first session of the Swim Squad and we started laying the foundations for some improvements to technique.

The first eight weeks or so of the Squad will be concentrating on some technique work. The focus on Tuesday was body position. Specifically, it was swimming tall in the water.

When we’re were looking at body position, we’re looking for three touch points on the surface of the water when we swim:

✅ Back of the head
✅ Top of trunks / costume (top of bottom).
✅ Toes / heels should touch the surface when you kick

Before we started, we did a quick experiment on body position and buoyancy. (I think the swimmers thought I was nuts!) You might want to try this for yourself?

Try to lie face down in the water, with your legs together and try to stay afloat. If your body shape is a bit loose and floppy in the water, your legs will drop to the bottom quickly. If you are really stretched out and your body has taughtness and rigidity to it, you will stay afloat for much longer. (I did the experiment and I managed 8 seconds before my legs hit the bottom. I repeated it in a stretched, streamlined position and lasted for 28 seconds). This tells us that we are more buoyant whilst having a rigidity or taughtness in the body, which for me means we should look to achieve that whilst swimming. Swimming tall.

The work we did last night was all designed to achieve that position.

✅ Kicking with your head in the water and arms outstretched, body straight and long, everybody swam on top of the water.

✅ Strong push offs from the wall into a good streamlined position gave us a great starting point on each length and, for those first 4 or 5 strokes, showed us what swimming on top of the water feels like. Faster and smoother.

✅ Fast 25’s are a great way of improving body position, and again, everybody looked better swimming fast.

It’s all a work in progress but Tuesday night was the starting point. If we can swim with a good, long body then we reduce the drag in the water. Reducing drag in the water improves speed and improves efficiency. You should be able swim at the same speed (or faster) for much less effort.

Have a go. Keep that body long. Let me know if you can feel a difference?

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, now or in the future, get in touch and register your interest.