Swim Science Series Step 1/5 Streamline your body position

Today we've launched our Swim Science series, sharing the latest science in swimming speed and efficiency to help you improve your swimming over the autumn and winter.

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The same swimmer before and after improving his body position

Here you can see the swimmer previously had low lying sinky legs in the water. This results in high surface area moving forwards, causing high drag, slow swimming speed and hard work!

Improving his body position leads to higher legs and therefore reduced surface area travelling forwards in the water and reduced drag, making swimming at a given speed much less effort. I like to get swimmers to visualise swimming 'through a tube'.

It’s so easy to think ‘I must change my positioning’, but how do you actually improve your drag I hear!?

Drill 1: Push and Glide

Some athletes incorrectly believe that getting a good push off the wall in the pool is cheating, by reducing the overall swimming volume. Yes, one of the advantages of a good push off the wall is that it can carry you through the water about 5m, or 20% off a standard 25m pool, but that's actually an advantage in pool based triathlons with the accompanying reduced energy expenditure with less distance actually swum!

A great swimming technique with minimal drag is founded with getting a good stretch through the core and particularly the layer of fascia passing over the muscles. When activated, this fibrous body of webbing keeps all your body tissues, organs and muscles much more connected. These myofascial lines of connection transmit strain and rebound, which facilitate movement while providing stability. Essentially getting a good stretch gives you free energy in the water for a lot less effort, similarly to the way it does in running and cycling.

Another advantage of getting a good push off the wall is setting up the correct body and leg position. A bad push and glide (and tight hip flexors) can contribute to sinky leg syndrome. It’s very hard to recover from this if you don’t have a very effective leg kick (not typical for triathletes!). So getting your body streamlined reduces drag and makes it a lot less effort to get to the end of the pool.

Drill 2: Sink Down

Many swimmers hold their breath in the water. This leads to your lungs inflating like a balloon, raising your top end sinking your legs, resulting in very high drag. If you feel like you fight the water, this is most likely the reason why!

Breath holding also leads to storage of carbon dioxide, sending a panic bell off in your brain. Often you’ll interpret this as lack of Oxygen. But if you think about it you’ve just had a breath in about one or two seconds ago and we’re not at the top of Everest; the Oxygen content of your air was perfectly good! Storing CO2 elevates your blood lactate level leading to you reach your lactate threshold very quickly. Ever get to 50-75m and wonder why you’ve got to stop to ‘catch your breath’ or had to resort to breastoke in your triathlons? Get your exhalation right and say good-bye to the 'hundred hump'.

How do I breathe out properly to sink down?

If you need to first, try standing face down in the deep end just simply blowing bubbles out your nose and mouth. Ensure you let go of the air with a relaxed face; let your facial muscles relax. Move to the deep end, tread water first then exhale, let your whole body relax and let your body sink down. See if you can squeeze your diaphragm and let the air go right down to your belly.

Most of your oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange happens in the lower part of your lungs, which are very underused! So breathing out more, will allow you to breathe in more 'fresh' air, swim more relaxed, without stopping AND reduce your drag - win win!!

If you'd like to improve your swimming technique and speed we run the following expertly coached sessions, click the link to find out more:

Expert Video Analysis and complete Stroke Technique Correction

Private 1:1 Swimming Coaching and lessons to refine your technique

Weekly Swimming Squad Session to tune up technique and fitness over winter

Breathing Masterclass Sunday 19th October

Beginner Freestyle Course starts Sunday 9th November

Improver Freestyle Course starts Sunday 9th November

Don’t forget to look out for Step 2 of my Swim Science Series next week!

Happy swimming!!

Annie