5. Balance frees you to be more fluent. Unbalanced swimmers, especially in freestyle, are often trapped in a cycle of frantic movement. They respond to the feeling of sinking by churning the arms more. The more they churn their arms, the shorter their strokes become (see the discussion on SL in Chapter 2). The shorter their strokes become, the more strokes they have to take to maintain speed. Eventually, they're flailing their arms frantically just to keep moving.
As soon as they master balance, they escape the trap. They can move at the same speed with a far more leisurely stroke, and can find a more natural and fluent body rhythm.
How To Achieve Effortless Balance In Every Stroke
Our goal is to be "effortlessly horizontal" in the water. Note the key word effortless. For if we accept the fact that the body constantly wants to get vertical in the water — good for keeping the head where it can breathe, bad for swimming efficiency -- we can set about changing it relatively easily by using the laws of physics, rather than our own sweat. We do this by nothing more mysterious than correct positioning of body pans, and redistribution of body mass.
The process, of course, varies somewhat with the four strokes, though it really comes down to just two types of balance: continuous balance as the body rotates in the long-axis strokes of freestyle and backstroke, and rhythmic re-balancing within every cycle as the body undulates in the short-axis strokes of breaststroke and butterfly.
The way to do it in both cases is fairly simple. First, keep your head in a natural, neutral position — as close as possible to the way you hold it when you're not swimming. And second, shift your body weight forward. "Press your buoy," as I sometimes call the process of pushing down into the water your normally buoyant chest cavity, until you feel as if you're being supported by the water.
So let's examine how to stay balanced in any stroke.
Freestyle Balance: Getting Your Head in the Right Place
"Hide" your head. If you've read earlier Total Immersion books, you know they stress the importance of achieving proper freestyle balance by leaning on your chest or "buoy." That's still an effective way to do it, but now that I've had so many more opportunities to teach and observe swimmers learning balance, I've come to realize that for most of us, correcting head position is actually more essential. In fact, simply getting the head in a neutral position eliminates about 70% of the balance problems for people in our workshops. So our teaching progression now starts with teaching them to "hide" the head, then, once that is accomplished, to show them how to add just enough pressure on the "buoy" to feel like the water is supporting them.
From the deck, it looks like this: The coaches know your head is in the right position when we can see no more than a sliver of the back of your head or cap visible above the surface any time you're looking down. From your point of view, it/eels like this:
• a sense that a thin film of water could flow over the back of your head at any time
• a recognition that you're looking almost directly at the bottom between breaths, using only peripheral vision to see a bit forward
• a sense that you're leading with the top of your head, rather than with your nose
• a feeling that your hips and legs feel much lighter and are riding noticeably higher.
I want to be very clear about one thing: Hiding your head does not mean burying it under water. It also does not mean pressing your nose down. It does mean simply holding your head in a neutral position, the way you hold it when you're not swimming. When I'm coaching, as I look across the pool, I want to see that tiny sliver of the back of your head showing above the surface whenever you're not breathing. Or a thin film of water flowing over it.
Swim "downhill." We may no longer emphasize this as much as previously, but for many people - especially those "balance-challenged" folks who may be quite lean or have long legs (and particularly those with both) -- consciously shifting weight forward, constantly leaning on your chest, while swimming freestyle, remains very helpful. Hiding your head should make your balance much better, but if you still feel as if your hips and legs are sinking, then lean forward, too. How much? Press in until you feel the water pushing you back out. Whatever it takes to make you feel as if your hips are light, as if the water is simply carrying you. When that happens, you're experiencing the sensation we call "swimming downhill." You're not really, but the contrast with your prior battle to swim uphill makes it feel that way. Continue doing it very consciously until it starts to happen naturally. And this could take as much as six months of focused practice.
Reach with a "weightless" arm. The best indicator that you are a truly balanced freestyler is the sensation of having a "weightless" arm. With poor balance, or a too-high head position, you have to use your arms to try to keep from sinking. The weight of your head and body drives them down as you try to reach forward. A balanced swimmer should be able to feel is if the extending arm is weightless, just floating effortlessly forward, until you choose to make your catch and begin stroking.
Use the fistglove" stroke trainer. One of the simplest and quickest ways to learn balance or make it more impeccable and natural is to wear fistglove® stroke trainers for 50 percent or more of your freestyle drilling and swimming. These black latex "mittens" tightly wrap your hand and make it impossible to use your arm as a support lever or to use muscle to swim. They force you to use your torso for balance and support and encourage you to use much more finesse while swimming. You'll soon find that a weightless arm is your only option. You can find more information about fistgloves at www.totalimmersion.net.
Breathing: Why Every Lungful Slows You Down
Breathing in freestyle, and trying to maintain impeccable balance at the same time, is the closest thing in swimming to coach Emmett Hines's earlier example of break-dancing on a horse's back. It is a lot to do all at the same time. The underwater videos of less-experienced swimmers at TI workshops, even swimmers who have some tentative sense of balance, all show the same thing: These swimmers may have some delicate equilibrium while looking down but as soon as they turn their heads to breathe, their balance falls apart. They are often shocked when we freeze the moment while studying the video. Is that really their body, so awkwardly contorted that it would seem impossible to maintain any forward momentum? Well yes, it is
Even when I've shot underwater video of elite swimmers, including one Olympic medalist, I've seen the effects of loss of balance during the breath. True, these effects are momentary and often so subtle that they cannot be seen from the surface. But they can't hide from the underwater video camera with its slow motion and freeze-frame functions. And it always looks the same. For a moment as the head turns, the swimmer shifts from using the arm to extend the bodyline or for propulsion, to using it for support. And in that moment — however brief — propelling efficiency is lost. Or, for a moment, the kick becomes subtly rushed. Or, just for a moment, the armstroke loses its connection with the "engine" of body roll. In every case, more energy is being burned.
Those momentary losses may be so subtle that they aren't even noticed by the swimmer, never mind by an observer up on deck. But they add up. If the swimmer breathes every stroke cycle, there will be 30 to 50 or more such moments of inefficiency in a race as brief as the 100-meter freestyle. And when Olympic gold medals can be lost by margins as slim as .01 second, such barely noticed breakdowns decide races.
How to Breathe with Balance Intact
The two most likely errors in freestyle breathing are (1) turning the head to breathe; and (2) lifting the head to breathe. Let's learn how to correct both.
The most efficient breathing movement comes from keeping your head on the head-spine line and connected to the core body. When you want to breathe, roll the body to where the air is. It might help to imagine that you're breathing with your bellybutton, rather than your mouth. Your head just goes along for the ride.
When you get this right, you should feel these sensations:
• Your weightless arm continues
to glide forward as you breathe.
• Your body continues to slide through the water as you breathe.
• You can easily choose — with the barest minimum kick — to have more catch-up or overlap in your stroke, perhaps to practice Front Quadrant Swimming (see pages 40-43).
Breathing 101
Should I breathe to both sides?
One of the most common questions I get from swimmers is whether they should use alternate-side, or bilateral, breathing. This isn't strictly a balance issue, but as long as we're on the topic of freestyle breathing anyway, we may as well cover it.
The quick answer is yes, you should breathe to both sides. At least in practice. And on some occasions it can be an advantage while racing, too.
The primary reason is that it promotes more symmetry in the stroke: The goal is to make sure that whatever happens on one side of the body, happens the same way on the other side. Too often that's not the case, as I learned in a lesson about habits on my very first day of coaching in September 1972. It seemed that virtually my entire team of 15 college men at the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY, had lopsided freestyle strokes, rolling more to one side or the other and swinging wider on recovery on the same side. So the next day for warmup, I instructed them to swim 800 yards breathing to the "wrong" side. Instantly, every stroke in the pool was more symmetrical and balanced — the "blank slate" effect. Lacking a history of practicing bad habits, each swimmer's less-natural breathing side was actually more efficient.
Virtually all swimmers favor one side in breathing, and breathe to that side all the time because it feels better. Trying to breathe to the other side feels awkward, so you just don't do it. Who needs to feel even more awkward? The problem with breathing to only one side is that it tends, over time, to make your stroke lopsided and asymmetrical. And small wonder; In just an hour of swimming, you'll roll to your breathing side about 1,000 times, meaning all your torso muscles pull more in that direction and less to the other side. Multiply that by hundreds of hours of swimming and you can see how a lopsided stroke can easily become permanent.
Making a conscious decision in practice to breathe nearly as often on one side as the other has two benefits:
1. Using your more efficient, "blank slate" side more frequently will help your stroke overall, including your regular breathing side.
2. You'll have better command of a potential tactical racing advantage: In the pool you'll never have a "blind" side, and in open water you can check for landmarks wherever they may be, or avoid chop, or keep a rough swimmer alongside from splashing water into your face as you breathe.
The best way to get all these benefits is to practice bilateral breathing, which can be done in any number of ways. Awkward? Yes, that's how it feels at first to most everyone. But the awkwardness may be easier to deal with than you realize. Most TI workshop attendees come in as single-side breathers, but are able to comfortably breathe to either side by the time the workshop is over. The reason? They spend the entire weekend doing drills that teach bilateral balance and rolling—and breathing—to both sides. Regular practice of these drills virtually guarantees your awkwardness will soon be a thing of the past.
Once it is, you can be endlessly creative in your bilateral breathing patterns. And you'll want to be. For although breathing every third armstroke is the simplest, it also means you breathe one-third less often than when you're breathing every cycle to one side. On top of that, when you learn to lengthen your stroke, you will be getting still fewer breaths because you'll be taking fewer strokes per lap, so you may well feel unaccustomedly winded. Time to become more imaginative with your bilateral breathing pattern. Here are just a few options (assuming a swimmer who normally breathes to the left):
1. Breathe to your right side on one length and to your left on the next. That way you still get plenty of air, but develop a balanced stroke.
2. Breathe to your right side in warmups, cooldowns, and slower swimming sets, and to your left on main sets.
3. Breathe to your right side during the first few repeats of main sets, then shift gradually to your left side. Example: On a set of 5 x 100, breathe right on the first 100, 75 right/25 left on the second, 50/50 on the third, 25 right/75 left on the fourth, and breathe left on the fifth 100.
4. Experiment with 3L/3R or 4L/4R until you find a comfortable pattern.
Your goal, over the course of any week of swimming, is to breathe about as often to one side as to the other.
What About Breathing in Races?
When it comes time to race, many swimmers feel they must stick with the breathing patterns they've established in practice. This theory is fine for triathletes and open-water swimmers, who don't experience the air-deprivation of flip turns and may benefit from settling into a comfortable pattern of bilateral breathing. Pool racers, and sprinters in particular, however, need to take a more flexible approach. It is a good idea to breathe as little as possible in a 50. But you can't really "sprint" a 100, so it stands to reason that you need your air in order to produce the energy to swim it as fast as possible.
Sprinters have traditionally skipped breaths on the notion that everyone makes you a bit slower. Well, if you can't fit the breath seamlessly into your stroke, it does. But if you can learn to sacrifice little or no speed with each breath, you'll gain a big advantage late in the race over those who do need to skip getting air in order to be fast. By breathing every cycle (except inside the flags) during the first 50, you might lose a tenth or two to someone who is breathing every two or fewer cycles. But as they're suffering aerobic distress on the final 50, you may gain back a full second. That strikes me as a pretty good trade.
Following that theory, sprinters can do two things:
1. Work constantly on developing a breathing form that doesn't interrupt balance, alignment, or rhythm. How? Not by taking fewer breaths, but by breathing often, and nearly the same number of times on both sides. Use the "blank slate" you have on your "non-breathing" side to help correct errors that have developed over the years on your breathing side.
2. Do a lot of sprint work in practice with an every-cycle breathing pattern, so that you learn to breathe without sacrificing speed. Remember: A fishlike swimmer can achieve cardiovascular benefits from breathing more rather than less — frequently in practice.
Here are a couple of challenging breathing patterns that should work well for racers:
1. Swim 8 x 75. On each 75, breathe every 5 strokes on the first 25, every 3 strokes on the 2nd length, and every stroke (right-left-right-left) on the last length. Swim at a moderate pace. Focus on fitting in each breath smoothly and seamlessly. This will be easy on the first two lengths, and more of a challenge on the third. But if you can stay smooth and fluid while breathing every stroke, then breathing every cycle with no interruption in your flow should be easy.
2. Swim 3 (or 4 or 5) x 200. On each 200, use the following breathing pattern.
• First 50: Breathe every 3 strokes.
• Second 50: Breathe twice on the right, 3 strokes, then twice on the left.
• Third 50: Breathe 3 times on the right, 3 strokes, then 3 times on the left.
• Fourth 50: 4 breaths on right, 3 strokes, then 4 on the left.
This set allows you to practice a pure bilateral (same number of breaths on either side) pattern, but gives you more air the further you go into the set. Need more oxygen to maintain your pace and intensity as fatigue grows? You get more.
Backstroke Balance: Getting Hip to Body Roll
Here's my rule of thumb: If there's more than a fraction of an inch of water covering your hip bones in the backstroke, you need to improve your balance. Fortunately, learning balance in backstroke is usually easier than learning it in freestyle. For one thing, there's little risk that breathing will upset your balance. For another, there's a lot less temptation to fight your way back into equilibrium by using your arms because in the backstroke, the arms don't offer much leverage or support anyway. And even
if they did, it's difficult to churn them rapidly the way out-of-balance freestyle swimmers are tempted to do. So, nearly everyone who swims backstroke often has had to learn some degree of balance in the torso. If they haven't, they've probably given up the stroke as just hopelessly awkward.
No need for anyone to give up. Virtually every swimmer can easily learn improved backstroke balance and, when you do, you'll find you expend far less energy on kicking.
"Hide" your head. Poor head position in backstroke is actually very common, and to some degree coaches and teachers are to blame. Tuck your chin into your throat and look slightly toward your feet while swimming, as you're usually advised, and you'll not only be uncomfortable but also set yourself up for neck and back tension, and cause your hips to sink dramatically, too.
Inexperienced swimmers, worried that water might come in the mouth or nose, most often tilt the head too far back, as if craning the neck, trying to keep the mouth as far as possible from the water. This position disconnects the head from the head-spine line, and also causes the hips to sink.
Swimming made easy Page 4