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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