Guest Article: Why focus on technique when we want to achieve distance swims?
"You need to just get them swimming lengths for 30 minutes instead of wasting time on short activities" is a phrase we sometimes hear from our Swim Academy parents. Indeed, a number of other swim schools will focus on swimming endless lengths rather than ensuring the correct technique has been developed.
Here our Head of Teaching and HQ Accreditor, Verity, explains why our focus is different to many other swim schools.
In the words of Cate Campbell: Olympic swimmer and world record holder.
“We’ve seen, time and again, when people focus on the outcome rather than what needs to be done to achieve a desirable result, then the wheels fall off.”
Firstly, we need to understand the properties of water. Water is denser than air, if you fire a bullet into water, it will slow down to a rate that will not harm at around 2 metres, in terms of swimming that means you are already in minus points before you start due to drag created by the density of the water. It is crucial to have great technique to reduce drag.
Using building blocks, we will help your child achieve excellent technique to reduce drag, build endurance and speed.
Our building blocks start with body alignment, you may hear your child’s teacher saying, head down, eyes down to the floor, this is to ensure that the body is streamlined through the water and maintains the least amount of resistance from the water. A slight movement of the head can result in the body causing more drag than necessary during the swim. We aim to create muscle memory through practices such as push and glides, floating all while the swimmers learn about their balance and buoyancy in the water.
Push and Glides are a key part of Olympic swimmers training!
The next building blocks will focus on the legs and arms. We will coach our swimmers to use the water to propel them through the water, rather than creating drag. Leg kicks are the driving force behind swimming and the right technique will help with speed and efficiency. Arm movements are important to assist that driving force of the legs, the correct entry will be sleek, fingertip first entry into the water, flat hands equal splashes and resistance in the water, correct entry will help with the catch and pull under the water.
The final building blocks of great technique include breathing and timing, now we have been teaching our swimmers since their very first class (whether that is BPS or SA) to blow bubbles into the water so whether is it the side roll of front crawl or the head lift of breaststroke the swimmer will only need to inhale as they are exhaling in the water. Timing will bring all the components together.
Each time your child swims, they are building muscle memory, we want that muscle memory to be correct and once our swimmers achieve great technique, they will be efficient, able to maintain the stroke for longer distances and increase speed. They use only the energy required for the stroke, they can reduce drag, it will be effortless and graceful – which of course is our end goal.
