Static Posture and Balance Drills

Following are a series of skill drills that teach your body correct posture and balance in a variety of positions. You will practice the correct motions that will eventually be part of an efficient freestyle stroke. You will want to spend some time on each of these drills before you begin doing full workouts. I have included some ways to experiment with the drills that will help you learn more about your relationship with the water.

Do all these drills with easy kicking. You are encouraged to wear fins as you practice any drill until you master it, especially if you make very little forward progress with easy kicking. Many swimmers find that, in addition to a pair of full-size fins, having a pair of short fins provides a stepping stone on the way to mastering some of the drills. Ideally, you will eventually master all the drills with bare feet. Some people, however, especially those with a strong running background, have poor enough ankle flexibility that they will likely never get much direct propulsion of the motorboat-pushing-you-forward variety. That’s not a large problem, because our paradigm does not rely on the kick for this sort of propulsion when swimming. But some of the drills do use kicking as the sole or primary source of propulsion. For these drills, if you get little or no propulsion from your kick, you may be best served by always using either short or full-size fins.

Learning to stand up and to be in balance is a prerequisite to learning to walk. Similarly, learning to establish a tight line and to stay balanced while simply kicking is a prerequisite to highly effective swimming. The static posture and balance drills in this chapter will teach your body what it feels like to have good aquatic posture and to be balanced in several static positions where the only motion you’ll make is gentle kicking. Dynamic posture and balance drills will help you learn how to maintain good aquatic posture and balance while performing simple movements other than just kicking.

Vertical Kicking (VK)

Most adult swimmers waste a great deal of energy on kicking. They tend to use the kick for the wrong reasons, which encourages incorrect leg motions, such as bicycle kicking or kicking mainly from the knees. Vertical kicking will help teach you effective kicking motions while it conditions precisely the right muscles. As you are learning this drill, use full-size training fins.

As the name indicates, this is a kicking drill in a vertical position. Go to a deep section of the pool where your feet cannot touch the bottom. Place one hand on top of the other on your chest and start kicking. The goal is to keep your head above the surface, with the water just below your chin and with your nose pointed straight forward (figure 4.5). Check your aquatic posture—tall and tight, just as you practiced while walking on land. Keep your hips directly under your shoulders; do not lean forward or backward.

The standard kick used for freestyle swimming, and for this drill, is called flutter kicking. The word kick refers to the action of driving your leg forward from behind your body plane to an equidistant point in front of your body plane—like kicking a ball. As one leg kicks, the other leg recovers—that is, the recovering leg moves from in front of your body plane to behind your body plane, thus putting it in the correct position to kick. The legs alternate their opposing kick and recovery motions in a continuous rhythm. Each kick should come predominantly from your hips, allowing the knee to yield slightly to the pressure of the water as the leg kicks forward. There should be no knee bend at all on the recovery portion of the kick cycle.

Figure 4.5 Vertical kicking drill.

Kick mainly from the hips and keep your ankles loose. A small, fast kick is better than a larger, slower kick. Kick in this manner for 15 seconds and then rest (hold the lane rope or side of the pool). Start with small doses of this drill, perhaps just a few repetitions of 15 seconds, followed by 15 seconds or more of rest. After you gain confidence, add more and longer repetitions with less rest.

Though it is physically demanding, vertical kicking is an excellent drill to do early in your training. Survival instincts will quickly tell your neuromuscular system which motions are most effective for keeping your blowhole dry.

Once you master VK with full-size fins, particularly the tight-line part, you can try short fins. Eventually, you should work toward doing VK with bare feet. In moving to bare feet, you may find that holding a small, floating object (a pull-buoy works well) against your chest will give you enough extra buoyancy to allow you to avoid tilting your head back to keep your blowhole dry. Be careful not to lean on the float; instead, hang from it.

Feedback Tools

• If your nose is pointed anywhere but straight forward, horizontal to the surface, then you have tilted your head off your tight line.

• If you find yourself bobbing up and down a bit with each kick, then your kicks are too large—keep the kicks compact.

Experiment a Bit

After you have spent some time with the VK drill, using good abdominal and neck tension to keep a tight line, purposely relax into a schlumpy posture for a while and note how this affects your position and efforts. Then draw yourself back into good posture. You will likely find that with schlumpy posture you feel less supported, perhaps having to spend more energy to keep your blowhole dry. You will also likely find that reorganizing your head, torso, and hips back into tall aquatic posture quickly solves those problems. You can increase the difficulty and training value of the drill by holding your hands just above the surface of the water, on top of your head, or in full streamline position (arms extended straight above your head) during the kicking. Each of these positions will require you to kick faster to keep your head above the water.

Front Balance (FB)

Push off from the wall on your belly with both arms at your sides and begin kicking easily. Check to be sure your posture is organized tall—remember the tight-line focus point. The crown of your head should be in line with your spine, nose pointed toward the bottom of the pool. Lightly press your buoy toward the bottom. This will raise your hips toward the surface. Adjust the amount of buoy pressure so that the cheeks of your butt just break the surface. Don’t make the mistake of pushing your face, instead of your buoy, toward the bottom—you may need to consciously tuck your chin a bit and draw your face away from the bottom to maintain your tall posture. When you need to take a breath, lift your head straight up in front and get a breath of air, then put your head down so that the crown is in line with your spine. Press your buoy again and make sure to re-flatten your lower back, making yourself as tall as possible. Each time you lift your head, your hips and legs sink rapidly toward the bottom. As soon as you return to good posture and press your buoy, you regain balance.

Stepping-Stone to FB

Using a training snorkel for this drill eliminates the distraction of lifting your head to take a breath, thus allowing you to focus completely on the basic skills of tight-line posture and balance. If you are new to snorkel use, plan on spending a half hour or so getting used to breathing with your face in the water and learning to purge the snorkel by exhaling forcefully (which you may need to do after pushing off the wall at the beginning of each length).

Feedback Tools

• When your posture is correct and you are in balance, the back quarter of your head and most of your backside (including your shoulder blades and the cheeks of your butt) will be exposed to the air, and your heels will just break the surface as you kick.

• In your nose-down position, you should see the hairballs and Band-Aids that are directly under your face, not the ones you will soon cruise over.

• If water enters the training snorkel as you do the drill, it usually indicates that you have buried your head (which means that you’ve pushed your face toward the bottom of the pool instead of keeping your head in tight-line posture) or that you have buried your whole front end by putting too much pressure on your buoy.

Experiment a Bit

After you have spent some time with the FB drill using good tight-line posture, purposely relax into a schlumpy posture for a half length or so and note how this affects your position and efforts. You will likely find that with schlumpy posture you slow down, feel less supported, have trouble regaining balance after breaths, and spend more energy. Reorganizing your head, torso, and hips back into good, tall, aquatic posture should quickly solve those problems.

Back Balance (BB)

Push off from the wall on your back with both arms at your sides, head aligned with your spine, and nose pointed up and breathing freely. Begin kicking easily. Lightly press your buoy (lean on a spot between your shoulder blades) toward the bottom. Check for the tight line of good aquatic posture. This may feel different when you’re on your back than it did when you were on your belly. You may notice a tendency to tilt your head back and to arch your back—both motions will work against balance. Using abdominal tension to flatten your lower back and extending your neck and bodyline may seem counterintuitive until you have practiced them a few times.

Feedback Tools

• When you are in balance, note that only about one quarter of your head (i.e., just your face) will be exposed above the water’s surface. Your ears should be underwater. The waterline around your head should be at the tip of your chin, at the crest of your forehead, and equally on both sides of your goggles.

• Your pelvis should be at, or within an inch of, the surface.

• Your knees and toes should barely break the surface of the water as you kick.

Experiment a Bit

After you have spent some time with the BB drill using good aquatic posture, experiment as you did with the FB drill—purposely relax into a schlumpy posture and note the effects. Then draw yourself back into a tight line. You will likely experience the same problems with schlumpy posture as you did in the FB drill, as well as the benefits of regaining good, tall posture.

Side-Glide Nose-Down (SGND)

As mentioned before, the water offers less resistance when you cut a narrower path through it. This means that you want to swim freestyle as much on your side as possible and avoid spending time on your belly. The foundation of an efficient freestyle stroke is a series of alternating right and left side-lying glides, connected by snappy rotations of the body from one side position to the other. This drill will get you balanced and comfortable on your sides.

SGND is best done with a training snorkel, which allows you to swim complete lengths of the pool without worrying about turning your head to breathe. Push off from the wall while turned on your side, with your lower arm extended generally toward the far end of the pool, but at a slight downward angle. Begin kicking easily. Press your other arm firmly against your side. Point your nose straight down. Lean on your buoy (the side of your chest or armpit). Maintain a tight line of good aquatic posture. Stay in this side-glide position (figure 4.6) for the length of the pool. Do this drill on both sides of your body.

As with the other balance drills, establishing correct aquatic posture in this drill may require some experimentation, but the fundamental point of drawing yourself into as tall a posture as possible still applies.

Feedback Tools

• When you are balanced on your side, you will be able to feel a strip of flesh exposed to the air all the way down your arm from your shoulder to your wrist. Putting a bit more pressure on your buoy by leaning in on your armpit will help expose more of your arm to the air. That strip of flesh is an indicator of the position of your hips. If your arm is firmly pressed to your side and your wrist is dry, then your hips are right at the surface.

• Your extended arm should feel weightless at all times.

• Note that when your posture is correct and you are balanced, your head should be in almost exactly the same position as in the front-balance drill—nose pointed straight down and just the back of your head exposed to the air.

• If water enters the snorkel as you do the drill, it usually means that you have buried your head (which means that you’ve pushed your face toward the bottom of the pool instead of keeping it in tight-line posture and simply leaning on your buoy) or that you have buried your whole front end (by putting too much pressure on your buoy).

Experiment a Bit

After you have spent some time with the SGND drill with a tight line, experiment as you did with the previous drills—purposely relax into a schlumpy posture for a few yards, then draw yourself back into good posture. As before, note the effects, both positive and negative, of each of these postures. Also experiment with the amount of buoy pressure you need to use in order to feel fully supported by the water. You will likely find that when you relax the posture tension in your core, the sensation of support is elusive or non-existent.

 

Side-Glide Nose-Up (SGNU)

 

Just as important as side-lying nose-down balance is side-lying nose-up balance. This drill builds on the skills you learned in SGND and will get you balanced and comfortable on your sides while your blowhole is exposed. But you should practice SGND until you are balanced and very comfortable with it before trying SGNU.

Eschew the snorkel this time. Push off in SGND position. As soon as you are balanced, turn just your head until your nose points straight up and you can breathe freely (figure 4.7). Nothing else should change when you turn your head. Don’t roll onto your back. Don’t lift your head as you turn it—even the slightest lift will undo your balance. Check for good aquatic posture. Stay in this side-lying nose-up position for the length of the pool. Do this drill on both sides of your body.

If you are losing your balance as soon as you turn your head to breathe, try the following strategy: Starting in SGND position, make sure that your lungs are full of air when you turn your head to take your nose out of the water. Do not exhale immediately; instead, hold your breath in the nose-up position while you mentally check your feedback tools. Once you are satisfied that you are well balanced, exhale slowly and begin breathing normally.

Feedback Tools

 

• Use the same feedback tools you would use for SGND, except that when you are balanced, your head should be in almost exactly the same position as in the back-balance drill—ears under the water, nose pointed straight up, and water line at the tip of the chin and crest of the forehead.

 

Experiment a Bit

 

After you have spent some time with the SGNU drill with a tight line,

experiment as you did with the previous drills—alternate between tight-schlumpy-tight, noting the effects, both positive and negative, of each of these postures. Also experiment with varying the amount of buoy pressure you need to feel fully supported by the water. As before, relaxing your posture tension may erase the sensation of support.

 

FOCUS POINT ➤ Downward Angle Arm Extension

 

In the side-glide drill descriptions, I indicated that the extended arm should be at a slight downward angle. This is a departure from the conventional wisdom of extending the lead arm straight toward the far end of the pool. Most adult swimmers have range of motion issues in their shoulders that affect the choice of the arm extension position. Several considerations strongly favor having the extended arm at a downward angle, both in this drill and throughout most of your freestyle endeavors. They are as follows:

• Avoiding injury. Extending the arm horizontally toward the far end of the pool (or at any upward angle) can pinch the shoulder tendons between the upper-arm bone and the shoulder socket. Doing this thousands of times per day is a cause of chronic pain for a large number of swimmers. But extending the arm at even a small degree of downward angle greatly reduces the risk of an impingement.

• Mechanical advantage. A shoulder joint at or near the end of its ROM has poor mechanical advantage (in other words, you exert lots of muscular force but get very little work done). Extending your arm at a bit of a downward angle keeps the shoulder away from the end of its ROM, increasing mechanical advantage during the first part of the stroke.

• Skiing uphill.As the swimmer glides forward through the water, an arm extended at any degree of upward angle will mean that the onrush of water will hit the bottom surface of the hand and arm, which will tend to raise them. Due to the long lever of the extended arm, this will lift the upper body (and drop the hips)—a bit like skiing uphill. Alternatively, extending the arm at a bit of a downward angle will help your hips hug the surface.

• Energy use.Choosing an extension line near the end of your shoulder ROM (horizontal or upward angle) requires lots of extra internal tension to maintain the position. Choosing a bit of a downward angle greatly decreases the internal tension (and, consequently, the energy) required.

• Fatigue-induced hip drop.While the extra internal tension required by a horizontal or upward angle extension is sustainable for short durations, for longer durations it soon results in fatigue stress. The usual response is to release some core body tension and break out of the balanced streamline position by letting the hips drop. This relieves some of shoulder stress but greatly increases total frontal resistance. If you had to choose between having a spindly little hand a bit out of streamline below the rest of the body or your big ol’ hips dragging deep, which would be your preference?

 

 

It is often hard to judge your arm extension angle yourself. Have a swim partner give you feedback about your extended arm position. Then experiment with various amounts of downward angle in your arm extension line while monitoring how much tension is required in and around your shoulder to support the position. What you are looking for is just enough downward angle to allow you to maintain good aquatic posture and to keep your hips glued to the surface.