I Want To Swim Better

Balance is an elusive and vital element in our daily lives. We struggle for balance at work and home, with our diets, our social calendars, and many other things. Much of the time, we are striving for control over things that we have no control over. For adults swimmers, many folks understand this concept well in their personal lives. But what about in the pool? I’m not talking about balancing sprint vs distance training here. Rather, I mean literal balance and stability in the water.

Balance emanates from a mindful awareness of body position, breathing rhythm, and stroke technique. Is it ever perfect? No, not really. But it IS something that we can work on! And similar to hitting that sweet spot in your personal life, improving your body balance in the pool can have big positive effects. Balance = stability = efficiency = +speed and +capacity for work (i.e. swimming longer distances). My perspective is it’s most helpful to focus on the long-term goals. If you want to enjoy swimming long-term as part of your fitness goals, the beginning of your journey is best spent increasing your overall longevity and skills. Balance is at the heart of this concept. Find balance first, it will make it easier to add technique, speed, power, and distance later.

Here are six benefits of swimming balance (and how to get there):

1. Improved Body Position: Developing balance in the water helps maintain a streamlined body position and reduce your largest drag force, your body. It allows swimmers to align their head, spine, and hips.
2. Enhanced Propulsion: F1 vs School Bus. Achieving balance facilitates a more effective use of propulsion. When the body is balanced, swimmers can generate greater power from their strokes, resulting in improved speed and distance per stroke.
3. Efficient Breathing: It requires less energy to breath when your body is stable. It allows for smoother, rhythmic breathing.
4. Better Stroke Timing: Helps swimmers achieve fluid transitions between arm movements, leg kicks, and body rotation.
5. Increased Stability: It minimizes excessive roll or sway, allowing swimmers to maintain stability during directional changes, turns, and starts, leading to improved overall maneuverability.
6. Injury Prevention: Shoulder injuries are too common! Balance training in the swimming pool helps reduce the risk of injuries. By developing core stability and body control, swimmers can maintain proper alignment and reduce the strain on joints and muscles, thus minimizing the chances of overuse injuries.

Here are three drills to improve your swimming balance.

1. Streamline and glide. In a shallow or deep pool, push off the wall stomach down in a streamline position or with arms overhead like railroad tracks. Glide until you stop moving. Keep your core engaged, feet together, and toes pointed. Eyes are down, lightly pressing your chest (lungs) into the water, with hips up. Find the balance. Swim to the wall when done or, if in shallow water, jump off the bottom into another glide. See how many it takes you to get across the pool and work on reducing that number.
2. Superman kick. Same as above, only add a steady, tight freestyle kick. Keep arms and head relaxed and still. Focus on on you feel. Experiment with changing head position slightly, pressing chest/lungs down.
3. Kicking on your side. Best with fins and kickboard. Start in a streamlined position on your side, with one arm extended forward and the other resting at your side. Hold kickboard at the bottom with your extended arm, let your head hang, eyes down, pressing the chest. Find balance. How can you get moving faster without kicking harder?