Swim Straight With A Smooth Fast Entry

Swim Straight

To swim straight can be a little bit of an issue – especially in open water! One of the biggest factors in this is what direction your hands are travelling when they enter the water and extend. Just like in the real world, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. When swimming freestyle, we need to focus on making sure we’re driving our hands forward during extension, and not across our body.

Why Do It:

Driving the hands forward not only directs us to our goal, but also streamlines, rotates, and stretches the body into the next catch. By making sure that your hand goes in to the water in line with your shoulder and hip – and driving forward – there is less chance of sending you off target.

How to Do It:

1. Start by kicking on your side, eyes looking at the bottom, one hand forward and the other back.
2. Sneak the trailing hand up your side.
3. When the hand gets to your face, start the catch with the leading hand and…
4. DRIVE the recovering hand to full extension.

How to Do It Really Well (the Fine Points):

Stay rotated for as long as you can until the catch and drive occurs. Think about snapping the body around to help drive the hand forward as far as you can. Watch for any “bobbing” up and down of the head, as any movement UP, isn’t movement forward, and should be avoided.

Take your time with learning this – as with any skill. The point is that drills are there to make you smoother, stronger, more efficient. Make sure you hit all those target points!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to get in touch; either by email, facebook or leave a comment on here!

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