Lesson Two: Becoming Weightless and Slippery

After using head-lead drills in Lesson One to become effortlessly horizontal—and to free your arms from helping with balance—we can now extend a “weightless arm” to make your “vessel” more slippery. As I explained in chapter 3, when your body line becomes longer, drag is reduced, allowing you to swim faster without working harder. This lesson will give you a balanced vessel that is longer and more slippery.

THREE SIMPLE SECRETS TO SUCCESS

1. As you extend your body line from your outstretched hand to your toes, it’s important to keep that line as long, straight, and sleek as possible, but don’t overstretch to the point of tension.Lengthen from the back of your body, not from the front, to stay aligned.

2. Any time you feel uncomfortable or unbalanced—or feel the need to use your arm for support (not uncommon when doing Lesson Two for the first time)—return your extended arm to your side and rebalance in Head-Lead Sweet Spot.

3. Just as we encourage students to master Lesson One without fins, we also encourage them to feel free to use fins to increase their ease in Lesson Two. If you are balanced but still have to kick too hard, fins can help reduce fatigue and save energy for refinement. Developing a stronger kick is unimportant; a more economical movement style is all-important.

DRILL 3: HAND-LEAD SWEET SPOT—LENGTHEN YOUR “VESSEL”

Why We Do It: To experience how balance feels with an arm extended and to imprint your most slippery body position. Hand-Lead Sweet Spot is also the position in which you’ll start and finish every drill. Finally, it’s one of the two best positions for practicing flutter kick. (Skating Position—Drill 4—is the other.)

Follow This Sequence

1. Start as in Drill 1, balanced on your back, kicking gently. Is the water at the corners of your goggles? Do you feel effortlessly supported? (Take all the time you need to feel this.) Then roll just enough to show one arm. Do you still feel comfortable? Do you have a long, clean head-spine line? Is your top arm dry from shoulder to knuckles? If not, return to your back and start over. If yes, then …

2. “Sneak” your lower arm to full extension. Your hand should be an inch or two below the surface. Your palm can be up, down, or sideways. Your arm should feel as if it’s just floating forward.

3. Next, make yourself needlelike. Once your arm is extended and weightless, check the gap between the back of your head and your shoulder. Narrow the gap if possible, but avoid strain or discomfort. Finally, make sure your head is aligned with your spine, that water is at the corners of both goggles, and that your top arm lies easily on your side with a dry strip of skin from shoulder to knuckles.

4. Practice until you could glide blissfully in this position on either side indefinitely. Take the time to make your “vanilla” side feel as good as your “chocolate” side; patience here will pay big dividends later.

How To Practice: Once you feel “bliss” on either side, practice 1-length repeats (resting for three or more yoga breaths between) for seven to ten minutes, alternating sides. Choose one of these focal points for each length:

1. Create a long, clean line from your extended fingertips to your toes. As you extend your arm, focus on lengthening from the back of your body, not the front.

2. Slip through the smallest possible hole in the water. Make sure your head slips through the same “hole” that your body is traveling through.

3. Glide silently and effortlessly. Kick gently, keeping your legs long, supple, and within the “shadow” of your body. (Use fins if this is impossible.)

4. If at any time you lose balance or comfort, put your arm back to your side and start over. 

DRILL 4: BALANCE IN THE SKATING POSITION 

Why We Do It: This is your first opportunity to experience balance as it should feel when

you begin swimming. This is also the first movement in all the Switch drills that follow. Last,

but not least, this is the first drill in which you practice the proper technique for breathing,

developing good habits now that you can maintain right through to whole-stroke. Here you’ll

learn to breathe by rolling your body to where the air is—rather than lifting or turning your

head. The act of rolling your body to breathe imprints the critical habit (when drilling) of

finishing every rolling movement in Sweet Spot.

Follow This Sequence

1. Start as in Drill 3, kicking gently. Balance on your back and hide your head, then roll gently to show one arm, and finally extend the other arm. Allow each position to feel great before you move to the next.

2. After “sneaking” your arm up, pause to check: Is the water still at the corners of both goggles? Do you feel like a long, balanced needle slipping through a small hole? Then . . .

3. Swivel your head and look directly at the bottom, rolling to your side as you do. After you look down, pause and check: Are you looking directly down? Are you balanced on your side with your shoulder pointing directly up? Is your extended hand below your head? (Put it deeper than you think you should!) Do you feel great balance—even a downhill gliding sensation?

4. Stay for a comfortable interval, then roll all the way back to where you started. When teaching, we always instruct our students to roll past their Sweet Spot in order to breathe comfortably. If you feel unbalanced or uncomfortable after you roll up to breathe, you haven’t rolled far enough.

5. Regroup in Sweet Spot for at least three yoga breaths before rolling nose-down again; avoid feeling breathless or rushed.

Lesson Two Practice Plan

Let’s review what you’ve learned so far: Balance and head-spine alignment. How to make yourself more slippery. How balance should feel when you begin swimming. How to breathe while rolling your needle shape to where the air is. These insights will all be of extraordinary value in making you a more Fishlike swimmer, so you should make extensive use of Lesson Two drills in refining your stroke, even after it has become quite efficient. Take time now to patiently polish all the fine points.

As with Lesson One, there’s a simple 100-yard sequence for practicing Lesson Two skills: 50 yards in the nose-up position (25 on your right side, 25 on your left) plus 50 yards in the Skating Position (25 right, 25 left). Rest for three or more “yoga” breaths after each length and practice for seven to ten minutes. Choose a focal point for each length. For the nose-up position, choose from among those mentioned for Drill 3. For the Skating Position, choose from among the following:

1. Head Position. Aligned with your spine at all times. Water at the corners of your goggles while looking up. Nose pointed directly at the bottom while looking down with your head positioned so water can easily flow over the back. Head tucked against the extended arm as you roll from one position to the other.

2. Balance. Particularly when nose-down, focus on feeling completely supported by the water, almost as if you’re sliding downhill. To get this, make sure your head is hidden, that your hand is below your head, and that you lean on your lungs.

3. Really balanced. You’ll know you’ve reached this state when you can glide effortlessly—almost lazily—watching pool tiles slide by underneath you.

4. Slippery. We call this the Skating Position because the sensation should be of using the extended side of your body—from fingertips to toes—as if it were a skate blade. Being able to balance right on your side—shoulder pointed straight up—is the most slippery position you can achieve in the water. Enhance this by slipping your body through the smallest possible space in the water, to minimize form drag on body surfaces.

5. Breathing. Maintain your needle shape as you swivel and roll nose-down to the Skating Position—and particularly as you roll “too far” when you swivel back to Sweet Spot to breathe.