Streamline

So, I have been tasked with coaching streamlining. This naturally has led me to putting some thought into what streamlining is and how to convey the concepts. Now, I am not talking about the act of pushing off walls. I hope everyone already understands how to do that and why it is important. What I want to talk about is the streamline in the act of swimming.

As I was swimming today I was focusing on the streamlining. And I came to the conclusion that swimming begins and ends with the streamline. If you think about all the strokes they each have their own streamline. For free and back it is arm extended and rotated to the side. For fly and breast it is both arms extended out in front. These positions are critical for setting up the next stroke and for holding speed. The ability to reduce drag through streamlining may be the single most important factor to increase speed and endurance.

This then led to me next observation. Earlier in the week I was swimming a recovery practice behind a fellow who was working very hard. After 2/3rds of the set he started dying. At which point I was able to swim breaststroke behind hise backstroke and watching him swim. The more tried he got the more he struggled to hold pace. The more he struggled the worse his stroke got. The worse his stroke got the more he had to work to maintain the same speed. It was really very painful to watch. I tried to encourage him to work harder on maintaining his stroke efficiency and focus less on trying to power his way through the set. I failed. And I'll never understand why people will try to fight the water rather than try to work with it. If you fight water you will lose every time.