I. Course Introduction

Finding Freestyle with Passive Technique - A 12 week course to develop the skills, aquatic body awareness, rhythm and relaxation needed to achieve optimal freestyle swimming propulsion.

Finding Your Stroke
This is not a course that attempts to teach you a single, correct, style of swimming. This course is intended to stimulate athletes to find their own optimal stroke technique. It is also intended to stimulate them to find their correct balance of effort and relaxation, stroke and breathing rhythm, and their ability to adjust speeds and effort levels during a race as needed. It includes activities that are intended to develop particular skills that I believe are common to all effective styles of swimming. In this way, the athlete may learn new skills and drills that are effective by themselves, but that will also assist them in integrating that which they have learned from other programs of swimming instruction.

Passive Technique(TM): Process-Based Coaching and Development of Physical Vocabulary
My general approach to coaching swimming technique improvements is more of a process-based approach than a corrective instruction approach. I have the belief that most athletes find it exceedingly difficult to internalize verbal corrections, or "active technique" instruction - and often those who do have this ability are so gifted as to need very little of it. Neither do I attempt to teach a “correct” style – there are as many variations of the basic Australian crawl as there are body types and performance goals. That does not mean that there are not commonalities – techniques that optimize propulsion and minimize effort – there most certainly are, but rather than focusing on a single end-goal of precise form, I strive to develop the core competencies and develop the athletes ability to integrate multiple competencies into a stroke that works for them.

Technical improvements, therefore, must come from a systematic and integrated set of activities that builds the core competencies of a fast swimmer in a component fashion. Once these component skills are mastered, integration of these skills into the actual swimming stroke may occur spontaneously (in contrast to verbal corrections, mastered component skills are integrated quite readily, and often unconsciously, by a majority of athletes), as a result of specific targeted activities that work to integrate various component skills with one another (i.e., a multi-component set), or by activities that serve to stimulate the athlete to integrate skills directly into the swimming stroke. The arrangement of these activities in a carefully orchestrated, but process-based manner is what we call "passive technique". The components of the passive technique system fall into the following categories:

1. Physical Vocabulary - Swimming motions and body positions are, for the most part, alien to the human neuromuscular/musculoskeletal system. By developing a library of these motions and positions in component fashion, swimmers in essence increase their "physical vocabulary". This then provides the foundation of fast swimming – the basic movements – that are then integrated to provide successful propulsion. Nearly all drills and drill progressions contain an element of physical vocabulary development.

2. Rhythmic Development - Successful integration of swimming movements is dependent upon proper timing. For a basic example, an athlete might kick and pull with tremendous force, but if those motions are not synchronized properly, their body position, leverage and forward motion will be hampered significantly. A variety of drills can be used to develop rhythm (much in the way one might learn in a music class), and simultaneously serve to enhance workout diversity.

3. Body and Movement Awareness - Most drilling activities, at their core, serve to augment ones awareness of their physical movements and the spatial relationship between body parts – but there also exists a range of activities that specifically target awareness. Two basic examples are the “head touch” or “finger tip drag”drills. It is essential, however, to utilize a wide range of drills(including awareness-specific ones) to continue to provide new stimulus to the system. I believe that repetition of a small, static set of activities becomes ineffective for awareness development after only a short period of time (maybe even 3-4 weeks).

4. Relaxation and Ease of Movement - Maintaining a supple body form (rather than rigid OR flaccid) is key to executing swimming skills in an efficient manner. Overly rigid body parts, or jerky motions tend to slice through the water, failing at the
goal of propulsion. Overly flaccid body parts or motions tend to result in greater amounts of drag, and a loss of proper body position. The ideal are relaxed, yet firm (supple) motions and body parts, which can excel at gripping the water for propulsive forces, and serving as an ideal "hull" for riding the water.

Other Coaches, Other Styles
Athletes who have followed other swimming programs, or been coached by other coaches, will likely see some overlap in the drills that are included in this course, in addition to some novel ones. Some of the novel drill progressions and basic competencies might seem to be at odds with the specific styles or teachings of other programs and coaches.

For example, those programs which focus on a “catch-up” based stroke technique may seem at odds with the body driven, “opposition” style developed by the “float and paddle” based progressions in this course. However, the float and paddle competencies are in fact complementary to those developed in a catch-up based program. The core muscle activation and timing of the hip and shoulder drive developed in the float and paddle series is essential to providing optimal propulsion, even in the most pronounced catch-up type stroke.

Conversely, the “Statue of Liberty” progressions, common to the catch-up based programs (but also used in this program), are used to develop balance, a sense of proper timing between kick and body roll as the athlete transitions from the “riding phase” (on their side) to the next propulsive phase, and to illustrate the relationship between head movement and body position. In a similar manner, all of the drills and skills that have been included in this program are identified for their ability to enhance competent swimming motions, rather than being an end in and of themselves...

Experience Finding Freestyle - Summer 2010 Group Classes in Richmond, VA

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Subpages (5): Building Awareness Expectations & Best Practices Float and Paddle Statue of Liberty Continuum Foundations of Passive Technique Similarities, Differences and the 1-Beat Kick

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I. Course Introduction

Experience Finding Freestyle - Summer 2010 Group Classes in Richmond, VA

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