Ultimately, we all want to go through the water like a fish. A little fast fish too. To achieve maximum efficiency with as little energy as possible, as efficiently as possible with lifeguard class near me.
In the past year I have had a lot of front crawl technique training. I have been working on my front crawl technique for months with a personal swimming trainer. I learned a lot about swimming during all those lessons and my own training sessions. And especially how not to do it. I like to share the most common mistakes I’ve learned (and most of which I made myself) over the past year.
1. Don’t keep a streamline
Streamline is the basis in swimming. Body position is so decisive. The better your body position, the less resistance and the more efficiently you go through the water. However, things often go wrong in the basics. And many swimmers don’t hold a streamline.
What is the purpose?
The intention is that you go completely streamlined through the water and that starts with the take-off. You try to take this tension with you in swimming. Especially the trunk tension. At every turn and after a turning point you come back to this streamline for a while before you start swimming again.
Why is it wrong?
Streamlining is not difficult in itself. It just takes some discipline to include it well in your routine. So with every push-off from the wall you make a good streamline and you tighten your entire core and fully extend your arms.
2. Do not insert straight
Put your hand in is put your hand in, right? Nope, in swimming nothing is ‘normal’. How you put your hand in the water determines everything. Many swimmers make the mistake of not putting in straight. But diagonally, not at shoulder width but rather on the line of the center of your head. Or even beyond that. You are crossing, as it were.
How is that bad then?
If you insert diagonally, you will lose your balance. You see that a swimmer often does not swim in a straight line and ‘swabs’ slightly from left to right. You are constantly correcting. You are also not in the right line for deploying an efficient catch. You start too much under your body.
What is the purpose?
You are supposed to put your hand straight in front of your shoulder. Either your arm/hand is a straight line relative to your shoulder. With this you do not disturb your balance and you move forward as straight as possible. It is also the best starting position for the catch bet.
3. Insufficient rotation
While swimming, your aim is to rotate light from left to right. If you don’t, you’re swimming flat, as it were. And your shoulders in particular don’t like that. By rotating, you take pressure off your shoulders, among other things. But it is also important that you rotate your arm stroke, especially for pushing out. You can then push past your hip. If you don’t rotate you hit yourself and you can’t push that far.
You also breathe easier if you rotate a bit from your left to your right side.
Keep your torso tense while rotating.
But ‘too’ is never good and so is rotation. You can also over-rotate again. You often notice that automatically ;), you go out of balance if you rotate too far.
4. Sinking with your legs
Are you swimming so nice at the front? At the back, drag your legs deep into the water. Like a tugboat. All the energy you put in at the front is held back at the back.
What is the purpose?
The intention is that you lie as flat / horizontal as possible in the water. That way you have as little resistance as possible and that makes swimming a lot easier.
Why is it wrong?
Sinking legs can have many different causes. Such as lack of torso tension, or your head that is too far up (then you are out of balance and your legs sink). It can also be due to your leg position, stiff ankles (your toes point too much down) or you make the leg stroke too much from your knees, making your legs go deeper than necessary. Or you swim so slowly that your legs sink.
