Swim Technique – Body Position & Posture

During a recent swim technique session (Mondays, 7.30-8pm), we did some swim video work, allowing us to take a look at our underwater technique.

I had seven swimmers in my group and there was loads of great swimming on display. We filmed from various angles so we could get a good look at the stroke. Each swimmer has received their own swim video and will be receiving some key things to work on over the coming days.

Given we’ve been looking at posture and body position over the past three or four weeks (the beginning of our Swim Squad technique phase) I thought I’d share an image from one of our swimmers, highlighting everything we’ve been trying to achieve. This post might help us understand what good body position looks like and then how we might improve our own position in the water.

What exactly are we looking at?

Three Touch Points

Firstly, when I’m looking at swimmers – and when I do my own swimming – I always want to see the top of the head, hips and feet be touching the surface of the water. Doing this will mean we are high in the water and reduce our drag, making swimming that little bit easier.

Many swimmers sink at the hips. Even more have their legs dragging low in the water. Not in this picture. A perfect straight line, all at the surface. Head low, hips high, feet high.

Head Position

Look at the head position. Most of the swim cap is in the water – lovely. Apart from instagram pictures, I don’t want to see much of the logo from our swim caps when our athletes are swimming. In this picture, we can see most of the logo underneath the water.

Many of us swim with our head high, either looking forwards or just with our head sitting high in the water. The higher the head position, the lower the legs tend to be. Kate has most of her head in the water – but has not ‘buried her head’ to achieve that. A nice balance.

Pointed Toes

Look at the flex in that ankle! The toes are nicely pointed – so the feet are in line with the leg and do not cause any unnecessary drag in the water. A straight line from hips to toes. Perfect.

Leg Structure

Speaking of legs, look how extended Kate’s legs are. Really straight, no bend at the knee. A little bit of tension & structure through the legs – not floppy and just following behind – so they extend straight backwards and stay really high in the water.

Hand Entry & Extension

In this picture we can see a really long front end of the stroke. Kate’s hand has entered and extended directly forwards, staying high in the water, giving her a nice long body line from fingertips to toes.

The Catch

Not to do with body position, but on the first picture you can see the right arm entering into the catch position. Kate keeps her elbow high, creating a big surface area of hand and forearm to push water backwards.
(More on that in another post, no doubt!)

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How do you compare with this? Is your posture as strong, your body line as straight and long? Anything from what you’ve seen or read above that you think you might need to work on?

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If you want to improve your technique, we run short, focused technique sessions each Monday evening. The results swimmers have achieved following these sessions are really impressive. If you want to get involved, get in touch!