Nearly every swimmer, good or not-so-good, who has visited The Race Club camp in the past several years has shared one common problem; the head position is wrong. After watching countless heads bobbing up and down, waves crashing against the forehead as the swimmer plows through the water, I have come to an almost undeniable conclusion. The human head must be made out of cork.

Or there may be another explanation. Perhaps swimmers really like to see where they are going. The fact is, if you swim in a pool like most, with 4, 5 or 6 swimmers per lane, circling around the black stripe on the bottom, hoping to avoid a fatal collision, you will swim defensively, just like everybody else, with eyes looking forward.

The problems with that head position are two. One is that by looking forward, you create a nice surface (your forehead) for the bow wave to strike you as you move forward through the water. At the speed you swim, how significant can that be? Significant. Surface drag (or wave drag) has been shown to be an important component of the three drag forces that slow us down. The other two drag forces, pressure drag and friction, also play important roles. Surface drag is important enough us humans that a really good kicker (ie Lochte, Phelps, Coughlin) can go faster underwater (for a fairly short distance) with just legs in a streamlined position than they can on the surface using arms and legs (in a less streamlined position). Surface drag has much to do with that fact. When you swim with your head down and in the correct position, that bow wave goes right over the top of your head and all that slowing energy passes you by. When you body surf, going out through waves, it is best to dive deep under the wave. Same thing applies when you swim.

The second problem that lifting the head creates is that is takes the entire body out of alignment. In order to swim at our fastest capability, the human body needs to remain as straight as possible. Please do not confuse this with swimming flat. We want the body to rotate along the axis of our motion. We just don't want the body to be curved along that axis. By lifting the head, our hips automatically sink down. For the swimmer who uses a steady kick, the lifted head creates the 'hammock' position of your body with feet and head at the surface, but hips below. The position is even worse for the swimmer who has no kick, as the body takes on a slight incline from head to toe, perhaps 7 to 10 degrees, as the swimmer labors through the water.

We have all tried pulling a kickboard sideways through the water and know how much drag force that creates compared to keeping the kickboard flat. Trying to pull a 5 to 6 foot body at even a 10 degree incline will add a tremendous amount of frontal drag to our effort.

This week we have the USA National Team for Open Water training with us in Islamorada, preparing for the upcoming World Championship and Olympic Trials in June. Of the four swimmers here, it is interesting to observe that they use three different styles of freestyle technique. Alex Meyer (World Champion in the 25k swim last year) uses a hip-driven technique, pushing his hands out in front with a slower stroke rate than the others. Of the three girls, two of them (Christine Jennings and Emily Brunemann) use a symmetrical, fairly fast shoulder-driven technique, while the youngest (Eva Fabian) uses a fast hybrid technique, holding in front a bit with her right hand on the breathing side. The opposite hand (left) makes a quicker catch and a slower recovery as she takes her breath to the right. She is using Michael Phelps' freestyle technique in fast motion (with respect to her stroke rate). I bring this to your attention merely to remind you that in swimming, there is not one technique that is right for everyone. When talking to Alex later, he claims he really uses three different techniques in any open water race, starting or making a move on the field with more of a shoulder-driven and finishing the race with a hybrid technique. However, the two things that all four swimmers do have in common are that their head position was correct, looking down, not forward. Second, they all swim with extremely high elbows underwater (early vertical forearm). Check out part two of the video series featuring these athletes and spotting drills for open water.

In open water, when the visibility may be measured in inches, what is the point of swimming with your eyes looking forward? At the start of the race, it may be to keep from getting mauled. In the middle of the race to avoid jellyfish, big globs of seaweed or swimming up someone's back. Some may justify it thinking that it is easier to spot from the head up position than from the head down position. Whatever your reasoning might be, I am here to tell you it is not worth it. I will take the jellyfish sting any day over having to plow through a mile or two in open water with a higher drag coefficient. For spotting, lifting your head from the correct position (down) as opposed to the wrong position (looking forward) is not much harder.

As for the pool, for those who wonder how they are going to manage to navigate through a workout with their heads down without getting smacked, I tell my swimmers the following. Lead your lane… Or if you are not fast enough to do that, leave 10 seconds (or more) behind the swimmer in front of you. Stay as far to the right as you can in the lane. Pray a lot. But keep your head down… Even on the turns. It is faster and easier.

Yours in swimming,

Gary Sr.

The post How to Position your Head while Swimming first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Doc Counsilman, one of the greatest swim coaches of all time at Indiana University, used to say that the difference between a great swimmer and a not-so-great swimmer was the sensitivity one had in the fingers. Great swimmers could feel the water and pressure better than the others, he reasoned. He was right. The sensitivity in the fingers is one of the key elements of becoming an efficient swimmer. It is what enables a swimmer to maximize the power one can generate in the underwater arm pull.

Too many swimmers try too hard with their hands. Or perhaps they were taught wrong. I see many swimmers cup their hands like they are holding a scoop of ice cream during the pull, keeping the fingers and thumb tightly pressed together. The most effective way to pull through the water is with the fingers and thumb separated slightly. What we are trying to do is maximize the effective surface area of our hand.

By separating the fingers slightly, the flow of water that passes through this area between the fingers is turbulent and slow. In other words, the hand acts as if it were as large as the entire area of the hand and the small spaces between the fingers. Spread the fingers too much and the flow becomes laminar and fast and the hand then acts like it has holes in it. Cup the hands with the fingers together and you will reduce the effective surface area of your hand to the actual surface area of your hand and fingers.

Want proof? Just try sculling in deep water hard, moving your hands back and forth briskly, trying to lift yourself high in the water. First do this drill with your hands cupped, fingers together. Then try it with the fingers spread slightly apart. Then, finally, try the same drill with the fingers spread far apart. You will feel rather significant differences in the forces you can generate doing this sculling motion with the three different hand positions. The winner is with the fingers spread slightly.

Eddie Reese, famous coach from the University of Texas, likens the underwater pull to pulling with a bear’s paw. When he sees a swimmer pulling underwater with the bear paw, he knows he’s looking at a talented swimmer. I also like to think of bending the distal part of the ring and pinkie fingers slightly during the underwater pull, as if I am pushing the ends of those two fingers into a soft stick of butter. Whether it is a bear paw or butter, do what makes you feel the water better.

What about the recovery? My former Master’s coach in Phoenix, Olympic gold medalist Troy Dalbey, used to always tell me to recover with soft hands. What he meant by that was to fully relax the hands on the recovery. Whether one swims with a straight-arm or bent-arm recovery, either way, the hands and wrist should be completely loose and relaxed. One of my favorite drills for this is to stop the arm midway in the freestyle recovery, when it is sticking more or less straight up, then shake the wrist several times until it is completely loose, then complete the recovery arm stroke. The arm should then be fully extended or very close to it, before the hand enters the water for the next pull.

Forget about the old way of sliding the hand into the water in front of the head and then extending it forward. Keep your arm in air as long as you can. The drag coefficient in air is miniscule compared to water, with a density some 800 times greater than air.

The other old-school habit that bothers me is what I call the modern-toilet-seat-syndrome. Most of us have seen these new toilet seats that have a spring that slows them down and keeps them from slamming against the toilet when dropped. Many swimmers I teach enter their hands into the water just like these new toilet seats. They slow down the arm just before the hand enters the water, hoping to avoid all of those terrible air bubbles they’ve heard about. The problem is that by slowing their arm recovery and the hand entry, their stroke rate slows and they seem to get just as many air bubbles as when they let their arms rip and throw their hands forward aggressively. The ability to get rid of those nasty air bubbles has more to do with what one does with the hand after it gets into the water and the sensitivity in the finger tips than it does with the speed of the hand as it enters the water.

So forget about being delicate. Let your arms rip through the recovery with relaxed wrist and hands. Enter the water with full extension…or close to it. Then get ready for another good underwater pull with a high elbow, feeling the water as well as you can.

Want to see some of the great swimmers’ hands underwater? Check out our videos on our website at www.theraceclub.com.

Yours in swimming,

Gary Sr.

The post What do I do with my hands while swimming? first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Many freestyle swimmers might not think they have a choice of how they pull underwater.

"Don't you just stick your hand in the water and pull back?" one might reason. "You mean we have options?"

The reality is that there are huge differences in how you pull underwater with your arm; differences in power and differences in frontal drag. The problem is that as you go from one extreme position to the other extreme arm position under water, you either gain power and drag, or lose power and drag. So, like so many aspects of swimming technique, the underwater pull involves compromise. The question is, which way is best?

First, what are the options? Assuming one does not pull like a grandmother, with the elbow leading the way as the arm moves through the underwater part of the cycle, then one can either pull with the hand/elbow deep (more straight down) which inevitably results in the underwater pull with the hand somewhere underneath the body. In this case, the elbow will bend, but not until the arm has reached a 30 to 40 degree angle with the line of motion and by necessity at this point, the hand goes under the body, while the upper arm points more or less straight down. Because this pulling motion is the most powerful motion one can achieve (positive shoulder angle), it is also the path most often taken (over 90% of swimmers pull this way). After all, if it feels good, do it.

Now, contrast that motion with the motion that most world-class swimmers use to pull underwater. In this case, which represents the other extreme arm position, the pull is initiated not by pulling the arm down, but rather by maintaining the elbow very close to the surface, beginning the pull by dropping the hand/forearm below the elbow (early vertical forearm position). Then, once the hand is nearly directly below the elbow, a quick sweeping motion of the upper arm is made to the side, maintaining the elbow as close to the surface as possible, as the hand finishes the pull and releases. Using this high elbow motion reduces the power one can generate with the pull because it puts the shoulder (at the beginning of the pull) into a negative angle, when coupled with the necessary body rotation. So if this motion reduces power, why does it appear to be preferable to the deep elbow drop? This motion also reduces frontal drag, and in the world of swimming, drag trumps power.

In order to understand how this motion reduces frontal drag, consider the following. First, the magnitude of the drag force is amplified greatly in water over air. Second, the shape and velocity of the object in motion (as well as the medium (water)) largely determine the drag forces. Surface material properties also play a role (shaving, wetsuits and body suits) but aren't quite as important for arm motion. The human swimmer is one of the few objects that drastically change its shape as it moves through the water, mostly as a result of the arm pull. To understand drag, one must first understand what is happening with the motion of the entire arm through the underwater pull cycle.

Today, a world-class woman sprinter will swim 50 meters in 25 seconds, averaging 2 meters per second. How fast is her hand travelling during the underwater pull? Most people think faster. The truth is that her hand enters and leaves the water in nearly the exact same place. In other words, the net velocity of her hand through the entire underwater pull is zero. (It is more complicated than that, but for now let's assume the hand doesn't move). If the hand is not moving forward then it makes no contribution to frontal drag. What about the rest of the arm, how fast is it moving? Well, the upper arm is attached to the body, so that part must also be moving forward at 2 meters per second. As we move down the arm, the average forward speed of the arm gets slower and slower. In other words, the upper arm, which is the largest part of our arm, moves forward (average speed) faster than the lower arm. Both of these features of the upper arm cause it to contribute more to increased frontal drag. The upper arm is the 'bad cop', producing most of the drag. The lower arm is the 'good cop', producing most of the propulsion.

When considering the drag forces that result from different ways of pulling with the arm underwater, one must really concentrate on what is happening with the upper arm, more than the lower arm. It turns out that when one decides to pull deep with the pull, the upper arm gets off axis immediately and the drag coefficient of the swimmer skyrockets. Pulling with the early vertical forearm position keeps the upper arm more in the line of motion of the swimmer at the beginning of the pull. When the swimmer is finally forced to sweep the upper arm to the side for the recovery, the upper arm remains in the unfavorable drag position for a shorter period of time. Remember, tenths of seconds in unfavorable drag positions are enough to nearly stop us in the water.

The truth is that neither way of pulling is ideal, since both cause significant increases in drag. Humans were not engineered well for swimming, so we do the best we can, given our tools. By pulling deep one will increase the frontal drag more, causing the body speed to slow by as much as 50% in going from hand entry to the underwater hand position just in front of the shoulder (slowest point in the stroke cycle). By pulling with the high elbow (early vertical forearm) the speed will still drop during this phase, but perhaps by only 30%.

Pulling with a high elbow not only reduces frontal drag but also helps us obey the law of inertia by not varying our speed as much through the stroke cycle. Whether you feel less strong in the high-elbow position is not as important as the net result – faster swimming and less fatigue. If one practices swimming with an early vertical forearm, one will eventually get stronger in that position, more comfortable with it and improve even more.

To help you get more acquainted with the high elbow underwater pull, we have created a video with some of our favorite drills for learning this technique link http://www.theraceclub.net/videos/secret-tip-how-to-pull-underwater-drills/.

The post How To Pull Underwater first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

A good swim, unlike the bike or run, is much more dependent on upper body strength to generate propulsive power. Nonetheless, the kick is extremely important for fast swimming. At the Race Club camps, I usually find that most swimmers do not condition their legs as well as they should, nor do they often appreciate the importance of their kick in the overall swimming speed. Part of the reason for that is that most swimmers think of the legs as only providing some propulsion…and not much at that. The reality is that the kick actually serves four different functions in the swimming stroke; propulsion, lift, stabilizing force, and sustain speed (inertia). All four are important.

Let’s start with propulsion. One of the great enigmas for the non-swimmer triathlete is how the good swimmer kicks so fast. After all, it is not as if the runner/cyclist does not have strong legs. To flutter kick fast requires more than strong legs and core. Great ankle flexibility is also required and hyperextension of the knees is important. A bigger foot size helps, but it’s not as important as one might think and less so than the previous two factors. Finally, conditioning of the legs to maintain a continuous fast, tight kick in both up and down directions is critical to fast kicking (explanatory video here).

Second is lift. Lift is important in order to reduce frontal drag, and frontal drag is the number one enemy of the swimmer. We certainly know from our wetsuit experience that getting just a few millimeters higher in the water can reduce drag significantly and increase our overall speed. One doesn’t necessarily have to get a lot of propulsion from the legs in order to get significant lift. Even a two-beat kick can provide important lift for the swimmer (video here).

Third is the stabilizing force. Whether using a two-beat or a six-beat kick, the strongest (or only) kick comes at the completion of the arm pull on the same side. Since the body should be rotating in order to maximize efficiency, that big kick actually occurs somewhat to the side rather than straight down. That big kick also completes a counter-rotation of the entire body that is initiated with the hip/core/shoulders at the same time that the underwater arm pull begins (the "catch"). This initial motion, which generates a force against which we can pull our hand/arm more efficiently, is called the connection between our arm and core. This same stabilizing force that began with our arm in the front quadrant and the hip changing directions, ends with a strong kick to the side. By this time, the hand/forearm have reached the very end of the propulsive phase, so the kick helps keep the stabilizing force in effect longer, enabling us to milk every bit of propulsion possible from our underwater pull. The faster and longer the hip-turn and the harder that big kick is, the greater the stabilizing force becomes and the more distance per stroke we can generate (video here).

Finally, consider inertia. A two-beat kick doesn’t help here. But a six-beat kick that generates six propulsive movements for every arm stroke (3 up kicks and 3 down kicks) may not produce as much propulsion from each kick, but it produces a lot more of them and much more often. The result is that a good six-beat kick can help sustain your speed closer to constant. Just like driving your car in stop-and-go traffic, swimming by slowing down and speeding up with every arm stroke is a much less efficient way to move through the water. While it’s debatable whether cycling requires pulling up as well as pushing down on the pedal, sustaining constant speed in swimming does require kicking with some force in both directions (video here).

Does knowing all this about your kick help you figure out how to be a better swimmer? Perhaps. A better triathlete? Perhaps not. If you were merely trying to be a faster swimmer, I would encourage you all to work your legs more and unless you could learn to turn over with a stroke rate over 90 to 100, I would likely convert all of you to a six-beat kick, but, to put in a good swim and not have the strength in your legs to stand up, let alone jump on your bike or run, does not make much sense.

Here then is my advice for you as a triathlete: If your big race is in salt water and wetsuit legal, your buoyancy is sufficient not to need to worry much about your legs. Use a two-beat or very soft six-beat kick and work mostly on your pull and high stroke rate, keeping the head down and elbows high to reduce drag. If your big race is in fresh water and without a wetsuit, then work more on your legs and consider using more of a hip-driven technique, especially if you can kick fast. Our videos will give you some of the unique strength and flexibility exercises we use at The Race Club to improve the kick. It also offers important pool drills and sets that will help you kick faster.

Finally, remember that just because you can’t kick fast doesn’t mean you don’t need to work your legs. Improving all four of the leg functions will help you swim faster. As it may be difficult to visualize everything that we have described above, in order to help you understand better and enable you to kick faster, view the videos referenced above at The Race Club. Enjoy.

The post Kicking is not only for propulsion first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Mike Bottom, Head men’s swim coach at University of Michigan and former Head coach at The Race Club, was the first to describe three unique styles of freestyle; shoulder-driven, hip-driven and body-driven (DVD available at www.theraceclub.com). In body-driven freestyle, Mike associates this style with a straight-arm recovery, rotating the hips and shoulders more in unison. Seldom do we see endurance swimmers using a straight-arm recovery, so rather than split that into it’s own category, let’s focus on the other two.

First, let’s ignore the fact that there are two different ways of kicking, 6 beat (using 3 kicks per arm stroke) or 2 beat (one kick per arm stroke). Some swimmers combine these and use a 6 beat on one cycle, followed by a 2 beat on the next cycle. Although either kick can be used with either shoulder-driven or hip-driven technique, there are good reasons to use one or the other that I will explain.

Hip-driven freestyle, utilized by Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett, Eric Vendt, Larsen Jensen, Kaitlin Sandeno, Libby Trickett (Lenton), is a slower-stroke-rate freestyle (typically 60 to 70 strokes per minute). The hand holds in front after the entry, before initiating the propulsive motion backward. The biggest advantage of the hip-driven technique is that the slower time of the arm pull cycle enables the swimmer to get a bigger hip turn, thereby generating a greater counter force to pull against. The result is a longer distance per stroke. Even though this technique can generate greater power per arm stroke, in order to be fast, one must couple it with a six beat kick….and hopefully a strong six beat kick.

Shoulder-driven freestyle, utilized by Peter Van den Hoogenband, Federica Pellegrini, Janet Evans, Nathan Adrian, Ryan Cochrane, Dave Davies is a faster-stroke-rate freestyle (typically 80 to 110 strokes per minute). It is characterized by a quicker catch of the entry hand and a quicker release, creating more arm strokes but with less time to rotate the hips. Therefore, not as much power is generated from each arm pull, but since there are so many more of them, the frequency can make up the difference. Usually the shoulder rotates more than the hips with this technique, thus the name. One can use either a six-beat or two-beat kick with endurance shoulder-driven freestyle. In sprinting, which is virtually all done with shoulder-driven technique, only a six-beat kick should be utilized.

There are increasing numbers of swimmers, particularly for middle distance swims (100, 200 and 400 meters) who draw on the advantages of both techniques and opt for a hybrid freestyle, using one arm with shoulder-driven technique and the other with hip- driven technique (Lochte, Phelps, Lezak, Biedermann, for example). Some refer to this technique as the gallop for the asymmetrical appearance from above. It also depends on good strong legs and requires breathing every cycle to the same side. But it can be used in open water if the legs are strong enough.

So which technique is right for you? Chances are, unless you grew up in a swimming pool and in spite of how strong your legs might be, you are not a good kicker. If that is the case, then using a hip-driven technique might feel very relaxing and smooth to you, but it is nothing more than a Sunday stroll in the pool. You really have three choices. You can continue to swim slow using this technique. You can develop a strong kick, which may take years of work and improved ankle flexibility. Or you can develop a shoulder-driven freestyle technique. The third choice may not be the easiest, but if you want to get faster, it may be the best.

Turning your arms over at 80 to 100 or more strokes per minute requires a different level of fitness, but it can be done. In fact, most of the world’s fastest endurance women swimmers use this technique and probably half of the men do, as well. You simply need to start training at a higher stroke rate to reach this level of fitness. One of the best tools out there for this is the Tempo trainer by Finis, which is a little metronome that fits under your cap. When training, you will need to set the frequency of the beep according to how long your sets are, but slowly and steadily you will build up to where you can sustain the same high stroke rate for a mile or longer in practice.

For most triathletes, I recommend this higher-stroke rate technique, with either a 2-beat kick or a soft 6-beat kick. You may be losing some speed and propulsion from saving your legs like this, but the high stroke rate should get you out of the water the same or faster than the hip-driven technique. Either way, you should more than make up for it with a better bike and run. Does this mean you shouldn’t worry about training your legs in the pool? Not at all. Don’t forget you still need lift and counter-force from your legs to help you swim faster. We will talk about the four functions of the legs next time.

Publisher's note: Gary Hall, Sr., is the Slowtwitch.com swim editor. He swam for the U.S. on three Olympic teams, earning three Olympic medals. The Halls (Gary Sr. & Jr.) became the first father/son team to each make three Olympic appearances. Gary Sr. operates The Race Club in the Florida Keys, where swimmers of all ages and abilities go for coaching, camps, video and individual instruction.

For more instructional videos, you can visit the Race Club website – TheRaceClub.net

The post Your Best Freestyle Technique first appeared on Slowtwitch News.