Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Swimming Looks Easy


Watching a good swimmer swim makes swimming look effortless.   Their swim strokes look simultaneously strong and graceful.  They appear to move through the water with undemanding ease. They glide far and long with every stroke. 
And then… there is everyone else.
People often ask me, “Why does swimming require so much energy?” The simple answer is, water is nearly a thousand times denser then air.  It takes considerably more energy to move through the dense environment of water then to move in the light backdrop of air.  The more complicated answer however is that our human shape is not that of the fish.  We are land based mammals and applying our land based instincts to the water world of the fish, seldom works easily.  To become an effective swimmer, you must change the way you think about movement in the water.
Swimming faster and more efficiently can be accomplished by decreasing drag in the water and increasing propulsion.  Sounds easy, right?  Wrong.  It is not easy because we approach the water from our land based perspectives.  For instance, if we want to run faster we simply increase our cadence.  But in swimming, if we circle our arms faster because we want to increase our pace, the water just pushes back against us creating drag and slowing us down.  Drag while swimming is the hindering force created by the water movement around the body.   The solution instead is to streamline the body on the surface of the water, increase stroke length by slowing our arm circles down, and pulling with greater force under the water.
Swimmers who swim closest to the water’s surface and swim with the longest strokes produce the greatest results.  Reducing stroke count as apposed to increasing it (like we would do while running) is the surest way to improve our swim times. 
Becoming the swimmer who makes swimming look effortless takes practice.   The age old adage, practice makes perfect, is true in this case.  When it comes to improving swim times, getting in the pool just once a week is not enough.  Three swim sessions spaced evenly throughout the week are probably a minimum, and more is better. 
We do a lot of swim lessons at the Palm Desert Aquatic Center.  Lessons for all ages are available year around.  If you are one of those swimmers who wants more out your swim stroke, call us!  We would love to help.

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