SAMPLE: What is the most important part of the body governing the quality of your swimming technique?
You probably all know that this is the head, but if you thought something else, it’s time to reassess!
There is one ‘guru’ currently pushing all sorts of advice, books etc. on the net, who is very much missing the point to the extent that all that s/he is doing is regurgitating the same old stuff across the board. In this instance in front crawl ‘look forward and down’.
This has been out there for ever and I expect it is still being taught on qualification courses? Why is it wrong?
It’s a natural reaction. Everyone naturally wants to look where they are going, so you don’t have tell your pupils.
You don’t need to see where you are going, you can use the markings on the floor of the pool
As soon as a swimmer ‘looks forward, the head position changes from being in the spine line (think kebab skewer) to lifting. Even a small amount will cause the back to become concave and lower the hips. The consequence is that long axis rotation becomes more difficult, causing the body to cork screw.
The right position is to look directly down, and on rotation of the torso keep the head low, in the spine line (eg. ear on extended arm) to allow breathing.
There are a load of practices that can be done to get pupils to understand how the head affects their swimming and how much easier it is when they have it right.
Take regaining the standing position for example, there are load of people telling you that you have to retract your knees, scull form back to front etc. Think about it, you are a nervous learner (adults in particular by the way) who is lying on their back and anxiously needs to get his/her feet on the ground. You have all seen this and all that happens is the natural stimulus of flapping the hands and cycling the feet in panic and getting nowhere, what did you expect, in that state of mind, no one is going to calmly follow a set of moves in a particular order.
What is the most important part of the body governing the quality of your swimming technique?
You probably all know that this is the head, but if you thought something else, it’s time to reassess!
There is one ‘guru’ currently pushing all sorts of advice, books etc. on the net, who is very much missing the point to the extent that all that s/he is doing is regurgitating the same old stuff across the board. In this instance in front crawl ‘look forward and down’.
This has been out there for ever and I expect it is still being taught on qualification courses? Why is it wrong?
It’s a natural reaction. Everyone naturally wants to look where they are going, so you don’t have tell your pupils.
You don’t need to see where you are going, you can use the markings on the floor of the pool
As soon as a swimmer ‘looks forward, the head position changes from being in the spine line (think kebab skewer) to lifting. Even a small amount will cause the back to become concave and lower the hips. The consequence is that long axis rotation becomes more difficult, causing the body to cork screw.
The right position is to look directly down, and on rotation of the torso keep the head low, in the spine line (eg. ear on extended arm) to allow breathing.
There are a load of practices that can be done to get pupils to understand how the head affects their swimming and how much easier it is when they have it right.
Take regaining the standing position for example, there are load of people telling you that you have to retract your knees, scull form back to front etc. Think about it, you are a nervous learner (adults in particular by the way) who is lying on their back and anxiously needs to get his/her feet on the ground. You have all seen this and all that happens is the natural stimulus of flapping the hands and cycling the feet in panic and getting nowhere, what did you expect, in that state of mind, no one is going to calmly follow a set of moves in a particular order.
Accepting that some people will float in a supine position, happily and in a calm and relaxed way without doing anything at all to stay afloat, try getting your pupils just lie on the water (give then a couple of small floats to hold at right angles if they are anxious) and see what happens. Watch the legs/feet of the tall skinny kids with muscle only, just float gently down till their feet touch the pool floor, all they have to do is stand up.
So where is the head position in all this? Simple, in the above exercise ask the pupils to just lift heir head and look at their toes. Even the floaty ones will see their legs/feet sink. No need for fancy movements.
More practices to come that help head movement understanding.
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