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    Timing is Everything

    posted Aug 12, 2011 6:53 AM by Robert Burgholzer   [ updated Aug 12, 2011 10:16 AM ]
    The question of technique often revolves around schools of thought, whereby the belief in a specific technique as being superior leads to a "one size fits all" approach to stroke development.  When one observes elite swimmers, however, astounding variation in some fundamental areas can be seen, and necessarily contradictions of the tenets of one or another school of thought.   So much focus in the Adult Onset Swimming community centers around stroke length - but the fact of the matter is that there are a wide variety of stroke lengths AMONG ELITE swimmers.  Elite men and women swimmers vary from as few as 12 strokes per length to as many as 24 strokes per length (in a 25 meter pool) - a factor of 2!!  What varies very little among the elites however is TIMING.

    In Finding Freestyle, we center largely on helping people to develop the timing of their kick and arm strokes -- and we think

    Float & Paddle

    that is a great place to start, and it is also something that is very apparent in elite swimmers once you know to look for it.  But there is a lot more to the timing issue, there are a whole host of other body parts, all of which need to be in synchronization in order for a person to find their most efficient Australian crawl stroke.  One of our staple drills is called "Float & Paddle", a type of pulling drills, where the athlete focuses on using the torso motion to drive the stroke (see video "Float & Paddle").  When introducing this drill, we tend to talk in terms of "body driven propulsion", whereby the swimmer visualizes the rotation of the body powering the arms through their cycle.  This conforms to the current swimming meme about "body driven propulsion" and "driving with the hips", but really, there is much more to it.  Almost as important is the aspect of timing that this drill teaches us.  Two areas where this drill can teach us timing are in the "finish phase" of the stroke (image of finish), and in the timing of the breath with the arm stroke and body roll.  

     
    		 The Finish
    The final, and for some, most powerfule portion of the stroke.  If you are doing the Float & Paddle drill properly, the hands will "flick" out of the water as the body rotates.


    We can see from the video that the arms "push phase" or "finish" is exactly synchronized with the rotation of the hips, this is another timing that elite swimmers all seem to possess.  Are the hips really "driving" the propulsion?  That is a notion that is up for debate among swimming scientists, but it is certainly a case of "swimming WITH the hips" as opposed to "swimming AGAINST" them -- it's good timing.  

    As for the breath, it is a little more complex, but one thing that we find in beginner swimmers who struggle to breathe is that they turn their head at awkward times, often irrespective of the arms stroke.  With the Float & Paddle, you can practice turning your head to the side as your body rotates -- a very simple way to make sure that, you get air, and stay out of the way of the stroking arm.  When the body turns to the side, so too does the head.  

    So if you've never tried F&P, give it a go, and if you have already practiced it, give it a try with the idea of using it as a timing drill.  It is a simple drill to give you some of the basic timing to get you comfortable, and get you moving faster.

    Finding Freestyle is a 12-week course of instruction that presents an alternative approach to developing the fundamentals of fast swimming.