Building Blocks of Swimming
Part I: The Art of Perfect Streamlining Ⓒ
“Only those who have the patience to do the simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily.” Friedrich von Schiller
In this series of articles, we will cover:
1. Streamlining and its importance
2. Pressure points and its effect on head/body position and floating
3. Breathing - How, When, Where and Why.
4. Understanding body rotation for Freestyle and Backstroke
1 - STREAMLINING
To swim well, every skill and stroke in swimming aims to minimize bad resistance (drag) as much as possible whilst maximizing good resistance (propulsion). Good technique reflects this.
Streamlining is such an important part of swimming because it is the skinniest shape the human body can make in the water, reflected in the wake lines your body creates – just like a boat. Learning to glide, a component of the streamline, is important because we aim to find moments of glide within each stroke and shape our body for maximum effect. Both Freestyle and Backstroke are referred to as Long Axis strokes and we can adopt more ‘fish like’ body positions in the water, with good technique (think of making your body shape like a pencil or arrow).
To this end, in all strokes except Breaststroke, we aim to swim as horizontally as possible to reduce water resistance, also known as drag. Drag is increased by poor technique. Breaststroke is the most resistant of all strokes because the arms and legs stay underwater and make wider movements. Modern day Breaststroke has undergone significant changes in the last couple of decades to deal with the massive resistance it encounters but the tradeoff is that it also requires greater strength, by coming up higher out of the water (resulting in less frontal resistance), along with using a narrower ‘whip’ kick.
Resistive drag which impedes forward movement is also increased by poor body position in the other strokes. In this illustration of Backstroke, common amongst beginners is a poor head position which results in dropped hips and legs and a corresponding increase in frontal resistance.
We can also see the effect on a swimmer who fails to maintain a straight line through their long axis and ‘snakes’ through the water. This can be caused by a wide arm swing in the recovery; a pull underwater that crosses over the center line; or the head moving out of alignment. “Where your crown leads, your spine will follow.”
When we streamline, we can think of the body shape we make as being similar to an arrow, or a conventional boat shape. With our hands correctly lined up, we can imagine our middle fingers making the shape of a point or arrowhead, or prow of the boat. A good streamline (on the surface) will reveal wake lines like those of a boat. They are symmetrically splitting the water, so it flows smoothly around the curve of the body/boat. A slight lift of the head or anything not quite positioned correctly can be seen by disruptions to the wake lines which become messier or wider indicating more resistance.
To see/feel the effect of drag on your body, try the following streamlining variations. When you do this, concentrate on how the water feels as it flows around your body. Feel which parts of your body are feeling the greatest amounts of pressure or drag. Some will be obvious; others may be more subtle or softer to feel. Experiment by changing the angle or pitch of your hands or other body parts. What happens? Where do you feel most pressure? Least? The more you practice correct streamlining however, the more you tune your body into these subtle variations and the better your ‘feel’ for the water.
Having heightened sensitivity to this ‘feel’ on your hands and fingers is crucial and what separates good swimmers from great swimmers. The best swimmers pull on the pathway that gives them the greatest amount of good resistance (propulsion). Sculling drills also serve to heighten the sensitivity of your hands to these subtle pressure fluctuations. Paddles too can assist but be warned! Overusing paddles has the opposite response and actually decreases your hand sensitivity.
Simply put, swimming fast is about finding the path of greatest resistance on your hands and arms (especially your forearms) while minimizing resistance as much as possible with the rest of your body.
The single most important skill for swimmers to learn then is the art of streamlining off every start (whether it is from a dive or a push) and from every turn, because of the influence it has over each and every skill you learn in the water, irrespective of whether you swim in the pool or open water. Persistence at it will develop better ‘FEEL’.
Also, when diving or pushing off hard, you will be travelling at FASTER speeds than your very fastest swimming speed, so we want to capitalize on this. Additionally, a good streamline will reduce the number of strokes you take each length saving energy, along with improving breath control and lung capacity.
In a 50m race in a 25-meter pool, your streamlines can account for up to 50% of the race. The momentum that you get from your dive can carry you out for 15 meters, and off your turn for 10 meters (15m +10m = 25m), hence we place the utmost importance on it. When races are won or lost by hundredths of a second, every detail counts. If you DON”T streamline perfectly, you are effectively giving away time to your opponents.
However, you will always perform your WORST habits in a race, particularly when you are under stress and fatigue. The only way you will ever do it perfectly in a race is if you practice it perfectly all the time in training until it becomes such an ingrained habit that you don’t need to think about it.
The skills that underpin the streamline will make or break how well you can perform it. Head position dictates body position. If your head is too high, your legs sink and your body is no longer horizontal. (See my next article on how to do this.) Where your eyes look will dictate head position. Eyes should look straight down underneath you, not forward. This is critical.
Lean muscular swimmers with dense bones (usually males) will need to (initially) learn how to maintain a horizontal body position because your natural floating position will be with your legs deeper. This can be learned.by arching your back whilst lifting the backs of your legs (hamstrings, calves and heels) without bending, to maintain the horizontal neutral spinal alignment so important to good swimming.
For perfect streamlining on all dives, turns and push offs, try to make your body as long and thin as possible. In Learn to Swim lessons we call it a torpedo.
Ensure that ...
A useful image is to think of your body as a long thin pencil with the tip sharpened into a point (your middle fingers). When you streamline from the wall in Backstroke you must make the same shape which we call an ‘upside down torpedo’. This is a skill which involves learning how to exhale gently through your nose and watching the surface ripples on the water to work out your depth and the right moment to take your first stroke. You should also clearly see the Backstroke flags, which is a landmark you can use to help you know when to begin to surface and take your first stroke. Everything else is the same as for Freestyle streamline.
Once you have streamlined off the wall in the perfect position, you will be traveling quite fast (assuming you pushed very hard - the harder the better!). Allow your body to glide until you feel it start to slow down. (Good swimmers aim to glide past the Backstroke flags before they take their first stroke). The moment BEFORE you start to feel your body slow, begin to do very fast powerful dolphin kicks (usually between 4 and 6), and then change to very fast flutter kicking if you are doing Freestyle or Backstroke. Butterfly kick is the fastest kick of all if done well and it helps to maintain the speed that you got from your push off.
If you are NOT very proficient at dolphin kick however, it is best to stick to flutter kicking. Keep your head locked between your arms and gently angle up toward the surface as you start your kicks. If you rise too steeply you will increase drag and dramatically slow yourself. When your head is near the surface, you pull with your strongest arm (which will be your bottom hand if you have done it correctly) to make your breakout stroke which, as its name suggests, will pop your body above the water.
A good streamline has a few components to it but can be simplified by a few key action cue words to help you remember the sequence...
Push; Glide; Kick; Swim
Memorize this above word sequence and make sure your actions match the words every time you streamline. An advanced drill is to do the above sequence, not taking the first breath until after the fourth Freestyle stroke has been taken. Top international swimmers hold their breath on every dive and turn for at least this amount of time. The first 15 meters of a race and the 10-15 meters off the wall from turns are considered part of the streamline which is now known in elite circles as ‘The Fifth Stroke’ because of its importance.
Streamlining is equally important in diving. In fact, a good racing dive is simply a perfect streamline, so knowing one will help the other. When you dive, the word sequence is the same.
Contra-indications to streamlining.
The older you get the less flexible we become. For those who lack flexibility in their shoulders, you risk injuring yourself if you force the squeeze and shoulder shrug. Compromises will be necessary. Allow space between your shoulders and ears and find a small amount of bend at your elbows until you can find a point of comfort. As long as you are still making your ‘arrow’ shape, you will still be better than not doing it.
Cramping in your feet or calves? Usually this occurs in people who lack ankle flexibility and are straining to forcibly point their toes OR, are forcibly pointing through their toes as they push off the wall. You will feel a contraction either in the arch of your foot or in your calf. Again, you might have to compromise and not point your feet.
If you are racing and don’t have good breath control, lung capacity, or flexibility, you might be quicker staying underwater for a shorter time and swimming sooner. NEVER ‘hold’ your breath as this can cause stroke or issues caused by blood pressure build up, rather, exhale gradually over the sequence.
Follow these tips and you will soon be streamlining like an Olympian!
Anita Killmier has been both the State and National Coaching Director of Masters Swimming in Australia and has been twice awarded the National Coach of the Year Award. She was also awarded the 2000 Sports Medal Australia for services to sport; is the author of the course text for Masters Coaches in Australia "Mastering Swimming" (now out of print) and is a Life Member of both MH2O Swimming Club and Powerpoints Masters Swimming Club. She continues to teach and coach adults in rural Victoria and online stroke correction using her own unique range of videos, video analysis and zoom meetings for anyone who is unable to access quality coaching. Illustrations with permission by Jennifer Harrison from the book Mastering Swimming by Anita Killmier (now out of print).
In this series of articles, we will cover:
1. Streamlining and its importance
2. Pressure points and its effect on head/body position and floating
3. Breathing - How, When, Where and Why.
4. Understanding body rotation for Freestyle and Backstroke
1 - STREAMLINING
To swim well, every skill and stroke in swimming aims to minimize bad resistance (drag) as much as possible whilst maximizing good resistance (propulsion). Good technique reflects this.
Streamlining is such an important part of swimming because it is the skinniest shape the human body can make in the water, reflected in the wake lines your body creates – just like a boat. Learning to glide, a component of the streamline, is important because we aim to find moments of glide within each stroke and shape our body for maximum effect. Both Freestyle and Backstroke are referred to as Long Axis strokes and we can adopt more ‘fish like’ body positions in the water, with good technique (think of making your body shape like a pencil or arrow).
To this end, in all strokes except Breaststroke, we aim to swim as horizontally as possible to reduce water resistance, also known as drag. Drag is increased by poor technique. Breaststroke is the most resistant of all strokes because the arms and legs stay underwater and make wider movements. Modern day Breaststroke has undergone significant changes in the last couple of decades to deal with the massive resistance it encounters but the tradeoff is that it also requires greater strength, by coming up higher out of the water (resulting in less frontal resistance), along with using a narrower ‘whip’ kick.
Resistive drag which impedes forward movement is also increased by poor body position in the other strokes. In this illustration of Backstroke, common amongst beginners is a poor head position which results in dropped hips and legs and a corresponding increase in frontal resistance.
We can also see the effect on a swimmer who fails to maintain a straight line through their long axis and ‘snakes’ through the water. This can be caused by a wide arm swing in the recovery; a pull underwater that crosses over the center line; or the head moving out of alignment. “Where your crown leads, your spine will follow.”
When we streamline, we can think of the body shape we make as being similar to an arrow, or a conventional boat shape. With our hands correctly lined up, we can imagine our middle fingers making the shape of a point or arrowhead, or prow of the boat. A good streamline (on the surface) will reveal wake lines like those of a boat. They are symmetrically splitting the water, so it flows smoothly around the curve of the body/boat. A slight lift of the head or anything not quite positioned correctly can be seen by disruptions to the wake lines which become messier or wider indicating more resistance.
To see/feel the effect of drag on your body, try the following streamlining variations. When you do this, concentrate on how the water feels as it flows around your body. Feel which parts of your body are feeling the greatest amounts of pressure or drag. Some will be obvious; others may be more subtle or softer to feel. Experiment by changing the angle or pitch of your hands or other body parts. What happens? Where do you feel most pressure? Least? The more you practice correct streamlining however, the more you tune your body into these subtle variations and the better your ‘feel’ for the water.
Having heightened sensitivity to this ‘feel’ on your hands and fingers is crucial and what separates good swimmers from great swimmers. The best swimmers pull on the pathway that gives them the greatest amount of good resistance (propulsion). Sculling drills also serve to heighten the sensitivity of your hands to these subtle pressure fluctuations. Paddles too can assist but be warned! Overusing paddles has the opposite response and actually decreases your hand sensitivity.
Simply put, swimming fast is about finding the path of greatest resistance on your hands and arms (especially your forearms) while minimizing resistance as much as possible with the rest of your body.
The single most important skill for swimmers to learn then is the art of streamlining off every start (whether it is from a dive or a push) and from every turn, because of the influence it has over each and every skill you learn in the water, irrespective of whether you swim in the pool or open water. Persistence at it will develop better ‘FEEL’.
Also, when diving or pushing off hard, you will be travelling at FASTER speeds than your very fastest swimming speed, so we want to capitalize on this. Additionally, a good streamline will reduce the number of strokes you take each length saving energy, along with improving breath control and lung capacity.
In a 50m race in a 25-meter pool, your streamlines can account for up to 50% of the race. The momentum that you get from your dive can carry you out for 15 meters, and off your turn for 10 meters (15m +10m = 25m), hence we place the utmost importance on it. When races are won or lost by hundredths of a second, every detail counts. If you DON”T streamline perfectly, you are effectively giving away time to your opponents.
However, you will always perform your WORST habits in a race, particularly when you are under stress and fatigue. The only way you will ever do it perfectly in a race is if you practice it perfectly all the time in training until it becomes such an ingrained habit that you don’t need to think about it.
The skills that underpin the streamline will make or break how well you can perform it. Head position dictates body position. If your head is too high, your legs sink and your body is no longer horizontal. (See my next article on how to do this.) Where your eyes look will dictate head position. Eyes should look straight down underneath you, not forward. This is critical.
Lean muscular swimmers with dense bones (usually males) will need to (initially) learn how to maintain a horizontal body position because your natural floating position will be with your legs deeper. This can be learned.by arching your back whilst lifting the backs of your legs (hamstrings, calves and heels) without bending, to maintain the horizontal neutral spinal alignment so important to good swimming.
For perfect streamlining on all dives, turns and push offs, try to make your body as long and thin as possible. In Learn to Swim lessons we call it a torpedo.
Ensure that ...
- your body is completely straight and stiff from your fingers through to your toes.
- one hand is placed on top of the other with the weakest hand on top
- the thumb of the top hand should wrap around the outside of the bottom hand so the hands don’t break apart
- the arms are locked at the elbow
- the head is positioned between the arms with the BACK of the ears being squeezed by the biceps. No daylight should show between the arms and the ears.
- ankles are together and toes are pointed.
- shoulders are shrugged upward to touch your ears. This makes you even thinner.
A useful image is to think of your body as a long thin pencil with the tip sharpened into a point (your middle fingers). When you streamline from the wall in Backstroke you must make the same shape which we call an ‘upside down torpedo’. This is a skill which involves learning how to exhale gently through your nose and watching the surface ripples on the water to work out your depth and the right moment to take your first stroke. You should also clearly see the Backstroke flags, which is a landmark you can use to help you know when to begin to surface and take your first stroke. Everything else is the same as for Freestyle streamline.
Once you have streamlined off the wall in the perfect position, you will be traveling quite fast (assuming you pushed very hard - the harder the better!). Allow your body to glide until you feel it start to slow down. (Good swimmers aim to glide past the Backstroke flags before they take their first stroke). The moment BEFORE you start to feel your body slow, begin to do very fast powerful dolphin kicks (usually between 4 and 6), and then change to very fast flutter kicking if you are doing Freestyle or Backstroke. Butterfly kick is the fastest kick of all if done well and it helps to maintain the speed that you got from your push off.
If you are NOT very proficient at dolphin kick however, it is best to stick to flutter kicking. Keep your head locked between your arms and gently angle up toward the surface as you start your kicks. If you rise too steeply you will increase drag and dramatically slow yourself. When your head is near the surface, you pull with your strongest arm (which will be your bottom hand if you have done it correctly) to make your breakout stroke which, as its name suggests, will pop your body above the water.
A good streamline has a few components to it but can be simplified by a few key action cue words to help you remember the sequence...
Push; Glide; Kick; Swim
- The push and the glide set up the head and body position, the kick maintains the momentum off the wall.
- When you start to pull, the strongest or bottom hand should pull first. In a sport that can win/lose races by.01 of a second, this is important. With your strongest hand on top, it has to move sideways first before catching hold of the water. When on the bottom it makes a quicker catch.
- As you take your first few strokes it is imperative you maintain your head position and return to this after every breath. If you are racing, the first 4 – 6 strokes are ballistic, powerful and explosive to set up your race. Now you are ready to resume your normal stroke.
- How you EXIT the streamline can also affect its success.
- The DEPTH you push off at. Olympic pools are a certain depth because they are ‘fast’ pools. This is because the surface waves which travel downwards dissipate in a deeper pool. Swimmers travel below these surface waves on their dives and turns to find faster ‘still’ water. In a shallow pool the surface waves hit the bottom and bounce back to the surface causing constant rough water. If you are in a shallow pool ideally travel at a depth midway between the top and the bottom.
- How you rise to the surface will also affect success or otherwise. Steering up to the surface should be done by arching your back, maintaining your head and arms. Do NOT under any circumstances ‘pop’ your head up or look forward. A shallow angle is best. If you push too deep you are likely to run out of air before getting to the surface or rise too steeply with a subsequent loss of speed.
- Mistiming the first stroke. Too early and you lose your advantage. Too late and your arm gets pinned underwater, and you lose speed.
Memorize this above word sequence and make sure your actions match the words every time you streamline. An advanced drill is to do the above sequence, not taking the first breath until after the fourth Freestyle stroke has been taken. Top international swimmers hold their breath on every dive and turn for at least this amount of time. The first 15 meters of a race and the 10-15 meters off the wall from turns are considered part of the streamline which is now known in elite circles as ‘The Fifth Stroke’ because of its importance.
Streamlining is equally important in diving. In fact, a good racing dive is simply a perfect streamline, so knowing one will help the other. When you dive, the word sequence is the same.
Contra-indications to streamlining.
The older you get the less flexible we become. For those who lack flexibility in their shoulders, you risk injuring yourself if you force the squeeze and shoulder shrug. Compromises will be necessary. Allow space between your shoulders and ears and find a small amount of bend at your elbows until you can find a point of comfort. As long as you are still making your ‘arrow’ shape, you will still be better than not doing it.
Cramping in your feet or calves? Usually this occurs in people who lack ankle flexibility and are straining to forcibly point their toes OR, are forcibly pointing through their toes as they push off the wall. You will feel a contraction either in the arch of your foot or in your calf. Again, you might have to compromise and not point your feet.
If you are racing and don’t have good breath control, lung capacity, or flexibility, you might be quicker staying underwater for a shorter time and swimming sooner. NEVER ‘hold’ your breath as this can cause stroke or issues caused by blood pressure build up, rather, exhale gradually over the sequence.
Follow these tips and you will soon be streamlining like an Olympian!
Anita Killmier has been both the State and National Coaching Director of Masters Swimming in Australia and has been twice awarded the National Coach of the Year Award. She was also awarded the 2000 Sports Medal Australia for services to sport; is the author of the course text for Masters Coaches in Australia "Mastering Swimming" (now out of print) and is a Life Member of both MH2O Swimming Club and Powerpoints Masters Swimming Club. She continues to teach and coach adults in rural Victoria and online stroke correction using her own unique range of videos, video analysis and zoom meetings for anyone who is unable to access quality coaching. Illustrations with permission by Jennifer Harrison from the book Mastering Swimming by Anita Killmier (now out of print).