3. Continue practicing economical rotation from one side to the other. As you practice, your goals are to improve your stability and stillness this way:
4. Keep your head hidden and fixed at all times. To reinforce this, imagine you're carrying a cup of water on your head and avoid spilling a drop as you roll from side to side. (We sometimes have swimmers practice this while balancing a half-filled water bottle on the forehead, until they can easily do a full length without losing it.)
5. While in your Sweet Spot, imagine you're carrying a cup of water on your "dry" shoulder without spilling a drop. Hold this image until you have a sense of stillness in your practice.
Continue practicing this drill until: You feel stable and supported at all times and consistently hit your Sweet Spot in good balance, with a dry arm and hand at the moment you finish rolling. You can roll from Sweet Spot to Sweet Spot with the least possible turbulence and wake. You can roll from side to side, purely using weight shifts without using your hands to help.
Drill #2.3: Active Balance: Looking Down
Why do this drill: This drill provides a sterner test of your balance skills and coordination. It also introduces and develops two new skills that will be critical to all of the freestyle drills that follow: Rolling your body like a log and leading rotation from the core, not from your head.
Follow this sequence:
1. Start by balancing in your Sweet Spot. Stay there, kicking gently, until you are sure of your balance and alignment.
2. Swivel your head to the nose-down position. Pause to check that you are well balanced at exactly 90 degrees.
3. Roll your body—like a log — to your Sweet Spot on the other side. This means move everything — head, shoulders, torso, hips — as a unit and stay balanced and horizontal as you do.
4. Take three deep, slow, cleansing breaths and be sure you are rebalanced in your Sweet Spot before repeating the sequence back to where you started.
5. Do each rotation as if you were trying to take your bellybutton to the air. This will form a habit of rolling from the core, not leading rotation with your head, and make it more likely that you'll roll all the way to your Sweet Spot. Your objective is to have your bodyroll take your mouth to where the air is. Your head simply "goes along for the ride" as your body rolls.
Continue practicing this drill until: You roll your body as a coordinated, integrated unit and consistently finish each rotation right in your Sweet Spot. It takes only a moment to rebalance and regain your equilibrium after each rotation.
Drill #2.4: Active Balance: Full Circle
Why do this drill: This drill is the most advanced test of active long-axis balance. It combines the two previous drills to heighten your sense of alignment, control, and coordination by moving through a full 360-degree rotation. This is also the first drill to link the common skills of backstroke and freestyle in a single drill, improving your "fluency foundation" for each stroke more than is possible with single-stroke drills.
Follow this sequence:
1. Stan by balancing in your Sweet Spot as in each of the previous three drills.
2. Swivel your head and look directly down. Pause to check your 90-degree balance (head hidden, arm showing).
3. Roll your body like a log to your Sweet Spot on the other side. Pause and rebalance. Keep your head steady - looking up - and, as in Drill #2.2 above, rotate back to your original Sweet Spot. Pause and rebalance, then repeat. Practice rolling in both directions, staying balanced at all times.
Continue practicing this drill until: You can roll smoothly like a log while doing the freestyle-oriented (looking down while rolling) part of this drill and can keep your head hidden and fixed while doing the backstrokeoriented (looking up while rolling) part of this drill. Maintaining your alignment becomes much more challenging while moving through the full circle in this drill. To help, imagine you have a laser beam connecting the top of your head and one point on the far wall ahead of you at every moment.
Practice Tips for Lesson Two
This completes Lesson Two - Active Balance. As with Lesson One practice, once you have learned the basic mechanics for each drill, you should work patiently and persistently at Lesson Two skills until all struggle, unease, and discomfort are a thing of the past. While Lesson Two drills are more challenging than those in Lesson One, the movements are still much simpler than whole-stroke swimming. Such drills are your best opportunity to replace habits of inefficiency and struggle with flow, ease, comfort, and control. You can make that transformation more enduring if you continue practicing with the least possible effort and mainly in repeats of 25 yards or less.
Once you've learned the basic coordination and sequencing, turn your focus to the qualities of fluent drilling. Your goal is to consistently do all these drills with virtually no turbulence or wake, with the lightest possible kick, to feel as if you're slipping your body through a very small hole in the water. And to consistently trigger each rotation with weight shifts in your core and a feeling that your head just goes along for the ride. Also continue to minimize the importance of how many or how fast. The pace clock can't tell you anything of value during this phase of stroke development.
Lesson Three: Learn Slippery Long-Axis Body Positions
We'll switch from head-lead drills to hand-lead drills in this lesson. If you have faithfully followed the prescriptions in the two previous lessons, you should now be able to creatively use the water to carry you by proper head positioning and weight distribution. The hand-lead drills in this lesson will provide two important insights: how you will experience balance while swimming (because your weight distribution is different with an arm extended than with both arms at your sides) and how to make yourself maximally slippery in the long-axis strokes. In this lesson, we also begin to "set up" the freestylespecific drills of Lesson 4.
Drill #3.1: Hand-Lead Sweet Spot Lengthen Your "Vessel"
Why do this drill: Mastering this position will let you move smoothly to all freestyle and backstroke drills. It teaches you how balance will feel with an arm extended, and imprints your most slippery drilling position. It also establishes the exact position in which you'll start and finish every subsequent longaxis drill. In Lesson One, Drill #1.3, you've already found your best side-balance position — your Sweet Spot. When you extend your arm, nothing changes; your Hand-Lead Sweet Spot will be exactly the same as your HeadLead Sweet Spot.
Follow this sequence:
1. Balance in your Sweet Spot, with both arms at your sides. Are you hiding your head? Are you showing your arm? If so, then...
2. ... "sneak" your lower arm to full extension. When fully outstretched, your hand should be a couple of inches below the surface. Your palm can be up, down, or sideways.
3. Check the gap between the back of your head and your "wet" shoulder. Narrow that gap to the extent possible, but avoid strain or discomfort.
4. Next, check to make sure you're still "hiding" your head and "showing" your other arm.
Continue practicing this drill until: You feel as if you could glide blissfully in this position on either side all day long. (When we teach this drill at workshops, we emphasize the importance of ease and comfort by telling our students that we'll keep teaching "until we see BLISS on your faces.") Be sensitive also for evidence of tension or strain, such as craning the neck, arching the back, or sculling the lower hand. You should also feel like a long, balanced needle, slipping through the smallest possible hole in the water. When you feel this, it should take remarkably little kicking effort to cross the pool. Keep practicing until this describes you.
Drill #3.2: Kick in the Skating Position
Why do this drill: We follow precisely the same skill progression as we did in the head-lead drill sequence. First learn Sweet Spot, then make it active. That's what we do here, but now in a hand-lead position. This movement sequence - moving smoothly from nose up in Sweet Spot to nose down at 90 degrees — will start all subsequent freestyle drills. This is also the sec
ond of the two best positions for freestyle kicking sets. (Hand-Lead Sweet Spot was the first.)
Follow this sequence:
1. Start in your Sweet Spot exactly as in Drill #3.1, with arm extended. Kick there gently, until you feel balanced and aligned...
2, ... then swivel your head to look at the bottom, rolling to 90 degrees as you do. While looking down, check to see if your body is at 90 degrees with your "dry" hip and shoulder pointing straight up. Check to see if your head is hidden and your arm is exposed from shoulder to wrist. Your extended hand should be several inches below the surface and palm-down.
3. In this position, you should feel a heightened sense of support and of going downhill.
4. After a comfortable interval (don't test how long you can hold your breath), return to your Sweet Spot by looking up again as you roll back to where you started. Turn your hand palm up again, if that's more comfortable.
5. Take at least three "cleansing breaths" before you swivel/roll to the nosedown/90-degree position again.
6. Practice on both sides until you can move smoothly back and forth between the two positions. Continue to focus on slipping a long, clean bodyline through the smallest possible hole in the water, in both positions.
Continue practicing this drill until: You maintain perfect balance and ease as your body rotates effortlessly between Sweet Spot and 90 degrees. The critical skill you should be committing to muscle memory in this drill is to get all the way back to your Sweet Spot when you look up again. If you take the time necessary to make this movement feel natural in this drill when you don't have much else to think about - you'll be much better prepared to continue doing it when you progress to the freestyle "Switch" drills.
Drill #3.3: Shark Fin
Why do this drill: I think of this drill as something of a sidebar. It doesn't fit quite as seamlessly into the movement sequence but it is quite useful, at this point, as a balance test. If you can do this drill easily, you should be able to breeze through all the other freestyle drills with impeccable balance. If not, you'll need to keep a primary focus on balance, going downhill, keeping your weight shifted forward, etc.
Shark Fin also begins to establish the pattern for a more compact and efficient recovery. It greatly exaggerates the recovery style we wish to end up with, but in doing so makes it easier to examine and modify what you're doing now.
Follow this sequence:
1. Balance in your Hand-Lead Sweet Spot, then swivel your head and look directly down, just as in the previous drill. Pause to check that you are right at 90 degrees and that you feel well supported by the water.
2. Slide your hand up your side. Do this with your elbow leading and your hand trailing, thumb dragging along your ribs, as if you were pulling up a zipper from waist to armpit.
3. How does this affect your balance? Can you glide along serenely with your elbow pointing skyward above your shoulder and little change in your body position? If so, great. Stay there for a while. You'll learn more about how weight distribution affects balance. After a while, slide it back down, look up again, and rebalance in your Sweet Spot. Then repeat the sequence. Keep every movement separate and distinct. Don't rush.
4. If you feel yourself start to sink as soon as you begin to slide your hand upward, then just bring it to your shoulder and immediately slide it back down. In either case, continue to reinforce the habit of returning to Sweet Spot and relaxing there until you feel in control before doing another cycle of the drill.
Continue practicing this drill until: You can sense how stable and supported you are as your arm slides to the Shark Fin position. Practice on both sides. Stay relaxed; eliminate all tension from your recovering arm. Take at least 3 cleansing breaths after returning to Sweet Spot, before you swivel/ roll to look down again.
Drill #3.4: Easy-Anchors Freestyle (Not on Long-Axis Video)
Why do this drill: In workshops, I'm only half joking when I say, "We give you this drill to make the next one feel easy." This does require patience and persistence to reach the point of feeling you do it well. But once you've mastered it, you'll have learned a LOT about how to maintain control and equilibrium while rolling from one side to the other. It's also extremely valuable because it introduces you to the critical skill of anchoring your hand to hold on to your place in the water as your body moves by.
Follow this sequence:
1. Start in Head-Lead Sweet Spot (back to head-lead for this drill).
2. Once balanced, sneak your hand to full extension.
3. When you feel stable and comfortable, roll/swivel to the nose-down/90degree position. Pause to check that you're looking directly at the bottom, that you're balanced, and that you feel as if you're "going downhill."
4. Anchor your hand. Do this by flexing your wrist to point your fingertips toward the bottom and rotating your elbow up or forward slightly until your entire arm feels like a "big paddle."
5. After anchoring your hand, just hold on to the water with that hand as you roll to your Sweet Spot on the other side. Your trailing arm doesn't move; it stays right on your side.
6. After rolling, you'll be back in Head-Lead Sweet Spot on the other side. Take 3 cleansing breaths and all the time you need to feel balanced and relaxed, before sneaking your arm up, swiveling to nose-down/90 degrees, and repeating the drill in the other direction.
Keep practicing this drill until: You have a sense of being connected and controlled as you roll from one side to the other. Here are the points that will get you there. (These will all be critical skills to every freestyle Switch drill in Lesson Four. If you can master them here, they'll be much easier to execute in the Switch drills.)
1. After you look down, roll as if you are going to breathe with your bellybutton. This will help you initiate the movement from your core, rather than leading with your head. It will also make it more likely that you'll finish your rotation in good balance and in your Sweet Spot.
2. Maintain a focus on moving your head, arm, and torso as a unit. Avoid having a sense of pulling your hand back. Strive to maintain a feeling of keeping your hand and arm connected to your torso and holding on to a spot in the water as you roll.
Lesson Four: Freestyle "Switch" Drills
This lesson brings together all of the skills and movements mastered thus far and, in a quick and simple sequence, teaches the movements of a fluent freestyle stroke. Your dynamic balance, coordinated and integrated core-centered rotation, slippery body positions, and understanding of how to link the propelling armstroke to core-body rotation have all prepared you to swim a Fishlike Freestyle. This 4-step sequence will make it happen. It also introduces you to the effortless propulsion that can result when you connect your propelling armstroke to the full power of the kinetic chain.
Drill #4.1: Under Switch (Not on Long-Axis Video)
Why do this drill: This is the first drill in which we tap the full potential of the kinetic chain. This fantastic and nearly effortless source of propulsive power is wasted unless you link your armstroke to core-body rotation. We introduce that linkage in a simple way in this drill by giving you a visual cue for when to make the switch. Follow this sequence:
1. Start in Hand-Lead Sweet Spot. After you feel balanced and stable, look down and pause. Be sure you are balanced at 90 degrees.
2. Sneak your "dry" arm forward under the water, with your hand sliding across your chest and under your jaw.
3. When you can see your hand in front of your face, switch and roll to your Sweet Spot on the other side, extending that arm forward as you do.
4. Take three deep, cleansing breaths as you check your position and balance to make sure you're in your Hand-Lead Sweet Spot again. Whenever you feel ready, repeat in the other direction.
Continue to practice this drill until: Each move is smooth and controlled, and, when you roll, you move everything as a unit. We put extra emphasis on leading with your bellybutton and rolling like a log in previous drills because we want those motions to come naturally
in this drill series. It is also just as important as previously to maintain your focus on moving your body through the smallest possible "hole" in the water and on doing the drill as silently as possible. Last, but not least, always wait until you see your recovering hand right under your nose before switching. This is the only time you'll have a visual cue for that and it's an invaluable opportunity to teach yourself "switch timing."
Drill #4.2: "Zipper" Switch
Before doing this drill for the first time, review Drill #3.3, Shark Fin, for five minutes; it will be valuable preparation for the main skill taught here.
Why do this drill: It teaches and imprints a compact, economical, and highly efficient recovery. On the Under Switch, you recover your arm under water, leading with your fingertips. In actual swimming, your elbow leads. We'll begin practicing that here, but with a partially submerged recovery; the confinement and drag you experience on hand and forearm help to make you more aware of how you recover and where you re-enter the water. This drill will have you do both in an exaggerated way. Once we reduce focus on those points in the next drill, that exaggeration should help you continue to do things right. Because you will lose the visual cue for when to make the switch, you'll have to use kinesthetic awareness for timing your switch.
Swimming made easy Page 13