Improve Your Triathlon Swim By Fixing Your Head

By Scott Alexander


The vast majority of triathletes which battle with swimming share many common defects in their stroke which includes poor kicking, very poor breathing, a negative catch and above all horrible body position.

Body position is critical to swimming given that it directly impacts how much drag you have on the water. When you are traveling down the street next time, place your hand out the window. Lay it flat or parallel to the ground. Next, turn your hand 90 degrees so it's vertical and your thumb is directed at the sky. Experience the difference the pressure from the wind is placing on your hand. The least force will be on your hand when it has got the least amount of surface area subjected to the oncoming wind.

Swimming will be the very same. The greater your profile or the more surface area you have subjected to the oncoming water, the greater resistance you will have. This is exactly where the thinking behind streamlined body position comes from. You want to make your entire body go through the smallest hole in the water feasible to lower resistance. This could be a good deal easier in theory.

There are different things that can cause a poor body position, however the most popular and severe has to be your head. Head placement has a immediate effect on exactly where your hips will be. Standing with your hands on your hips, move your head down until your chin is on your chest area. Next move your head back as much as you are able to. You can really feel just how your hips will want to move in the exact opposite direction as your head. Thus when the head is moving upward, your hips tend to be down.

In swimming, a good body position is going to have your hips near the top of the water so that they follow through the same opening in the water which was created by your head. When you lift your head upwards, your hips will sink and substantially increase the drag you've got in the water.

Learning correct head placement will not be an instantaneous fix. It will require time and work but the benefits will likely be well worth the while. The best way to work on this should be to simply kick in the #11 position. The #11 position is essentially having your hands over your head like a number #11 or maybe a touchdown signal in football. Laying with their face down in the water with no kick board, just simply initiate kicking. Do not use your arms. Let your arms set in place at the surface of the water. You head must be low enough in water that your ears are even with or perhaps a little bit under your biceps. When you do this you should be able to feel your hips move up to the surface. Should you have an incredibly weak kick, you can do this with fins but merely kick slow. This is a slow drill about discovering your well balanced body position in the water.

Our recommendation is that you kick about 200 meters or yards in the #11 position each swim session for quite a few months to develop correct habits. In many cases coaches will only kick in practice this way due to the fact utilizing a kickboard promotes kicking with your head up therefore poor body position.

So in order to drastically enhance your swimming rapidly, learn how to get your head into the correct position.




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