Swimming made easy
Page 14
Follow this sequence:
1. Start exactly as in Under Switch, but after you look down and pause...
2. ... drag the trailing hand and forearm through the water (with elbow held high) until the hand comes alongside your ear...
3. ... then slice the arm forward to full extension as you switch and roll to your Sweet Spot on the other side. The recovery action should be initiated as in Shark Fin. Lead with the elbow and drag your hand along your side (but under water) as if pulling a zipper up your side. Your body remains at 90 degrees the entire time you "pull up the zipper."
4. Feel the drag and confinement of the water against your hand and wrist. Use that feeling to keep the recovery compact. Don't fight the drag. Minimize it by keeping your hand relaxed.
5. When you sense that your hand is next to your ear, slice it down and forward as if putting your arm into the sleeve of a jacket. This action triggers your "switch" or roll to your Sweet Spot on the other side.
6. Relax and glide there for as long as you want (I suggest using 3 cleansing breaths as a regulator of your pacing), then repeat in the other direction.
Continue to practice this drill until: A compact, efficient recovery begins to feel natural and you know exactly the right moment to switch and link your armstroke to the action of the kinetic chain. As these drills become progressively more dynamic - tapping more of the momentum created by having all of your body mass roll as a unit - you should feel more acceleration with no more effort. One camper described this sensation as feeling yourself "squirt forward."
Drill #4.3: Over Switch (Formerly Called Stop-Stop Switch)
Why do this drill: It helps you swim tall and with effortless power by connecting your balanced, rotating core body with your propelling armstroke while teaching FQS stroke timing. After using a visual cue to imprint timing in Under Switch and using exaggeration to imprint a compact recovery in Zipper Switch, we will now begin using the more natural recovery of swimming. We will retain one element of exaggeration here — having the hand enter right next to the goggles to correct a tendency common among most swimmers to over-reach on the entry.
Follow this sequence:
1. Stan exactly as in the previous two drills, but after you look down and pause...
2. ... bring your "dry" arm forward with normal-but-compact recovery.
3. Swipe your thumb along the side of your head, right next to your goggles.
4. Slice your hand into the water right next to your goggles, then extend it forward with the same arm-into-sleeve sensation emphasized in Zipper Switch.
5. That swipe-and-slice action also triggers the switch-and-roll that takes you to your Sweet Spot on the other side. Once there, relax and glide (3 cleansing breaths) before repeating in the other direction.
Continue to practice this drill until: All the habits cultivated on the previous two drills feel completely natural on this one: Roll like a log; lead with your core; slip your hand and arm through a "sleeve" in the water. In fact, add another image here: Your rotating body should follow your arm down the sleeve. Take all the time you need to feel "in your bones" the right moment in your recovery to make the switch and trigger the kinetic chain. Once you do, you can leave out the thumb-swipe.
Drill #4.4: Triple Switch
Why do this drill: This drill gives you a seamless transition from freestyle drilling to freestyle swimming. You'll actually be swimming during most of this drill, but will still have time for evaluation and adjustment when you go back to Sweet Spot. This drill is also ideal for refining your timing and rhythm and learning to use core-based weight shifts as the new rhythm-source for swimming.
Follow this sequence:
1. Balance in your Hand-Lead Sweet Spot, then swivel to 90 degrees and look directly down (same as in the three previous drills), and pause there for one count before you...
2. ... do three consecutive "switches" without breathing and without interruption, before rolling to your Sweet Spot on the other side.
3. Once there, relax, glide, and rebalance (3 cleansing breaths) before repeating in the other direction.
4. During the three switches, keep looking directly at the bottom and keep your head "hidden" and absolutely still.
5. Practice triple versions of all three types of "Switch" drills (Under, Zipper, and Over). Triple Under may be your most valuable drill for learning easy balance and leisurely, rhythmic, core-based swimming.
Continue to practice this drill until: Your recovery, hand entry, and the timing of your switches become consistent, unhurried, and rhythmic. During the three switches you have the opportunity to practice several skills that are critical to carry over into swimming. These include:
• Keep your head hidden and stable. Some swimmers have a tendency to wag or turn the head during the three switches. At workshops I instruct swimmers to keep watching the tiles on the dark line on the pool bottom slide past them as they do the switches.
• Keep your switches unhurried. Another common tendency is to slip back into old habits of just churning the arms because this drill feels a lot like swimming. Keep your rhythm slow and patient. Wait for the recovery arm to pass your ear before making the switch.
• Develop your sense that it's body-rhythm that governs your stroke. Initially, you'll focus on how the arms time your switches, but you should gradually shift to feeling your switches as rhythmic weight shifts. As that sense emerges, tune into it and let it take over most of your consciousness. This is how you will learn to swim with your body.
• Once you feel body rhythms emerging, adjust your degree of body roll to allow for the most fluid and rhythmic movement.
Drill #4.5: Single-Ann Freestyle: The Total Immersion Way
This drill is not an integral part of our learning sequence, but mastering it as a supplement to the essential drills will make you a much better freestyler. Moreover, Single-Arm (or "right arm, left arm") is probably the most popular of all freestyle drills. Yet as most people do it, it's a poorly designed drill: You start in a flat, prone position, both arms extended and streamlined, pull one arm, rolling to breathe as you do, then return to the flat-with-arms-extended position. The main point of the drill is to examine and work on each pan of the armstroke - catch, insweep, outsweep, thumb brushing hip, etc. In other words, it's a classic "Human Swimming" drill mostly focused on "how you push water toward your feet." Our version puts the focus on your core body.
The first change is that you start and finish this drill in your Sweet Spot, rather than flat on your stomach. Second: with each arm cycle you roll completely to both sides, as you do in swimming, rather than a half-roll to the side you're stroking on. Third: you propel by anchoring your hand and using body rotation to move your body past it, rather than by pushing water toward your feet. And, finally, since you are "challenged" in your balance by having the non-stroking arm at your side and breathing toward the "unsupported" side, you are forced to "find your center" — or balance — in your body's core.
Once you've learned the basics and gotten comfortable with this drill, raise your learning curve again by practicing it with fistgloves to improve your hand-anchoring skills.
What to focus on:
Start in your Sweet Spot. On your right side, bottom arm extended. Is your head hidden? Are you "showing" your left arm, as it lies on your side?
Look down. Swivel your head and look directly at the bottom, head in line with your spine. Pause for one count to make sure you're still hiding your head and showing your right arm. You should still be effortlessly balanced.
"Anchor" your hand. Think of your right hand and forearm as one big paddle. Use them to hold on to your place in the water, as if there was a handle you could grab to pull yourself past it. Rotate your elbow slightly above your hand to link it with the powerful muscles of your upper back.
Propel with body roll. As you hold on to the water, simply roll your left hip down to move your body past your hand's anchoring point. Keep looking down as you do.
See your hand again. Keep looking down until you see your right hand re-enter the water. Cut a "hole" in the water with your fingertips and slide your arm into that hole (as if putting your arm in a sleeve). Do this without making a splash or disturbing the water.
Lengthen your body. As your right shoulder enters the water it pushes your fingertips forward to make your "vessel" long and sleek. Your arm should be weightless with no downward pressure on it.
Roll back to your Sweet Spot. Finish exactly where you started. Stay there, kicking gently in effortless balance, until your breathing normalizes, then start the next cycle as above. Switch sides on the next length.
Practice Tips for Lesson Four
The drills in this lesson will, over the long term, become your most-used freestyle drills so it's essential that you give yourself plenty of time to become thoroughly acquainted with and completely masterful at them. While practicing the first three Switch drills, put your greatest focus on switching as a unit, leading from the core, sliding your arm down the sleeve, and slipping your body through that sleeve as well. The focus point that seems to pull every element neatly together is doing these drills as silently as possible.
Lesson Five: Backstroke Drills
Before You Begin
When we begin teaching balance on the back, which will later translate into balanced backstroke swimming, we start by teaching how to hide your head. When on your back this means we want to see just the face, and nothing more, visible above the surface. And the face should be exactly parallel to the surface.
Two of the most common errors are to have the chin jutting toward the ceiling or to have it tucked into the throat. It's truly striking how you will become instantly better balanced as soon as you get your head and neck aligned (just get into the position you'd be in if standing erect) and hide your head (press in enough at the back of your head and top of your spine so that just your face shows above the surface). Among all elite swimmers today, Lenny Krayzelburg is the best example of the head position that allows you to balance and swim with far more ease. The idea with balance is not to work at it; it's to make it effortless, and the starting point is to get head position right.
One more note about backstroke drills. Because backstroke is so completely a finesse-and-feel stroke (not much power is available when you're on your back), we've found that fistgloves have even more magical effect in these drills than in others.
Drill # 5.1: Active Balance: Nose Up (Review)
Why do this drill: We introduced this drill in Lesson Two. It is the perfect intro to backstroke skills so you should review it now, before continuing through the backstroke lesson. It will help imprint the stable-head/rollingbody movement that is at the heart of all the drills that follow and is critical to fluent backstroke.
Reminders:
1. Kick gently in your Sweet Spot. Stay there for 3 deep, slow breaths, until you feel like an effortlessly balanced arrow. Then...
2. ... keeping your head steady (imagine carrying a champagne glass on your forehead), roll smoothly to your other Sweet Spot.
3. Continue practicing economical rotation from one side to the other, until you feel stability and stillness even as you roll.
4. As you roll, lean steadily on your upper back, until your hips feel light. You should also feel a dry patch of thigh on each rotation.
5. Also focus on rolling from side to side without using your hands to help.
Drill # 5.2: Easy-Anchors Backstroke
Why do this drill: Learn how to link a propelling armstroke to the active balance you practiced in the previous drill. It will reinforce your sense of maintaining perfect equilibrium and stability while employing full body roll.
Follow this sequence:
1. Start by balancing in your Sweet Spot. Stay there for 3 deep, slow breaths, kicking gently, until you feel balance and alignment. Then...
2 ... sneak your bottom (underwater) arm over your head and anchor your hand. Pause a moment. Then...
3. Hold onto the water as you roll smoothly to your other Sweet Spot. Stay there for 3 deep, slow breaths, perfectly balanced and stable, before sneaking your other arm overhead to begin the next cycle.
Drill #5.3: Slide-and-Glide Backstroke
Why do this drill: Links the recovery arm to the propelling arm in the backstroke body roll taught by the two previous drills.
Follow this sequence:
1. Start by balancing for 3 deep, slow breaths in your Sweet-Spot needle shape with one arm extended. Then...
2. Stroke with your leading arm while recovering your trailing arm, and roll directly to your Sweet Spot on the other side. Stay there for 3 deep, slow breaths in perfect balance, then roll back again.
3. Keep your head hidden and fixed at all times. Imagine you're carrying a champagne glass on your forehead and avoid spilling a drop as you roll from needle shape to needle shape. (Or actually practice this while balancing a half-filled water bottle on your forehead, until you can do a full length without dropping the bottle.)
4. Continue practicing until you can roll from side to side, hitting your SweetSpot needle shape immediately as you complete each rotation.
Drill # 5.4: Triple-Switch Backstroke (Not illustrated on DVD, but simple to learn.)
Why do this drill: Provides a seamless transition from drilling to swimming while helping you retain great balance, alignment, and core-body rotation. Follow this sequence:
1. Start by balancing for 3 deep, slow breaths in your Sweet-Spot needle shape with one arm extended.
2. Take three normal strokes (hand hits) of backstroke. As you finish the third stroke, roll to your Sweet Spot (dry arm and wrist, head hidden, needle shape) on the other side and stay long enough to be sure you are in perfect balance.
3. As you practice, particularly during the three strokes, focus on:
4. Keeping your head hidden and fixed - as if carrying a champagne glass.
5. Smooth, relaxed, rhythmic and needle-like core-body rotation.
6. Making your stroke feel as much like the drills as possible.
Drill #5.5: Single-Arm Backstroke
Why do this drill: This continues to reinforce your balanced, aligned, needle shape, and links it to your propelling armstroke, while putting a bit more emphasis on rolling fully to both sides on every stroke.
Follow this sequence:
1. Start by balancing for 3 deep, slow breaths in your Sweet-Spot needle shape with one arm extended.
2. Stroke with the leading arm only, rolling so that the shoulder of the leading (stroking) arm rolls dear of the water.
3. Reach for the sky on the recovery.
4. As the recovering hand enters the water, roll the shoulder of the trailing arm clear of the water. Pause for a moment in Hand-Lead Sweet Spot before starting the next cycle. Switch arms each length.
Drill #5.6: Alternating Single-Arm Backstroke
Why do this drill: It imprints continuous and fluid arm action and body roll. It also provides an additional seamless transition from drilling to wholestroke backstroke.
Follow this sequence:
1. Start by balancing for 3 deep, slow breaths in your Sweet-Spot needle shape with one arm extended.
2. Take 2 strokes of backstroke with your leading arm, then 2 strokes with the other arm, continuing to emphasize rolling each shoulder clear of the water on every cycle.
3. Keep the arm action continuous and fluid.
4. The arm-exchange cycle, in which you take the second stroke with one arm, followed by the first with the other, will introduce how whole-stroke swimming should feel. Refer to the video for a strong visual aid.
Apply the Lessons: Swim Backstroke
It is an excellent learning aid to swim a little bit (five to ten minutes) of whole-stroke backstroke after each drill, before progressing to the next drill. This will work best if you alter
nate a length of the drill you have just practiced with a length of swimming. In each, simply try to let your whole-stroke backstroke feel as much like the drill as possible, perhaps sensing that sameness become a bit stronger with each repeat. When swimming, keep it simple. Focus mainly on:
• Keeping your head hidden and fixed (as if carrying a water bottle on your forehead)
• Leaning on your upper back (shifting the pressure from one side to another as you roll)
• Feeling that your hips are light, and showing a dry patch of thigh on each stroke.
• Developing your rhythm from the core, not from your arms.
Lesson Six: Long-Axis Combination Drills
Long-Axis Combination (LA Combo) drills combine free and back, both drilling and swimming, to make each stroke even more fishlike than usually occurs when practicing the drills for either stroke, alone. In both strokes, these drills build a stronger instinct for slipping a long, sleek, vessel through a tiny "hole" in the water. And the rotation from free-to-back and back-to-free teaches you to slip through the water like an arrow through the air, using your core-body rotation more and more effectively to minimize drag and maximize effortless propulsion. The freestyle elements help your backstroke, while the backstroke elements help your freestyle.