Mirror, Mirror on the Wall; Who has the best stroke of them all?

In the last few weeks alone, I have talked through the front crawl stroke to three or four people who have been struggling getting to grips with this stroke. They all have the idea already in the back of their heads that they would like to try a triathlon this summer. Every one of them are being held back by the conviction that they cannot do Front crawl.

There are some positive steps that they can take, and practicing the action they presently have; is not the best course. Half the problem with converting from Breast stroke to Front crawl is that they think they will try to get the hang of it on their own before joining a group, where they think they may run the risk of a better swimming mocking them. That may have been the case in the playground when we were kids but all the triathletes I know would be only too pleased to help a newbie out. The other half of the problem they make for themselves is that they stand at the shallow end of the pool and look around at how other people are performing Front crawl and further to that they nearly always pick to wrong people to watch.

I am endlessly pointing out that when they do that, they are only looking at what those people are doing for the recovery phase whereas the more important part to learn is what must happen under the water, not over to the top; The recovery does not propel the swimmer forward. The catch, the pull and the push do that.

In the past I have taken a number of swimmers out of the water and walked them to the nearest long mirror. Once in place I lean over at the waist and show them what should happen under the water as well a showing how on the recovery you must swim your hand forward from a nice high elbow and glide toward your own hand, to your own fingers in the mirror. That part alone prevents the first mistake of aiming in toward the centre line instead of reaching forward and rolling your body, swimming on two lines, those directly in front of your shoulders.

Then I introduce them to the imaginary endless ladder that is there underneath them, below their body in the water for the swimmer to catch hold of. Pull yourself along on and Push away on toward the back end of the stroke. This also drip feeds into the new Front-crawler that they do not gently turn their arm over in soft circles like a child’s windmill toy. Pointing out that the power of the stroke is not just mentally grasping the underwater stages are called The CATCH, The PULL and The PUSH but that they have those names because that is what you have to aim to do. Catch the water as if it were a ball or a small barrel, Pull yourself through the water with approaching the same effort that you would do ‘Chinnies’ in the gym and then Push the water all the way back to about mid thigh with the arm power you use to push yourself up out of the pool on both hands. And recover, with that nice high elbow again, ready to begin the next stroke.

They will argue (as one of our swimmers did only this morning) that it feels different out of the water. Of course it does, you are out of the water, yet what you do looking into that mirror IS what you are doing in the water and if it is not the same as my image standing next to you then at least standing by the mirror you can stop a second or two and adjust the position.

 

All of the here above photos are either Michael Phelps or Rebecca Adlington. 

Everything I have talked about so far is presuming that the former Breast stroker was breathing out, into the water, on each stroke and not doing Breast stroke trying not to get her hair wet or maybe even with spectacles on!

Getting the breathing right is a slower job. The first job in this case it to explain the simple scientific fact that you cannot breathe a full pair of lungs capacity of air in; if you have not fully exhaled all the used air out before hand. I have two ideas that I put forward if the breathing is something of a problem. The first one is to take the person into deeper water but where they can hold on to the side or a lane rope, and just practice without any of the pressure of doing the stroke at the same time; just dropping toes down in a standing position, into the water face to face with your swimmer/teacher and exhale, pop up to the surface and breathe in and sink down again at a normal walking along the street breathing pace. Do that three times and stop and talk about it, then gradually build up to dropping in and popping up five times and then ten times and stop and talk about it at the end of each set.

Once they get the idea that nothing more difficult than breathing is being asked for they will relax. Five minutes of bobbing and stopping face to face will usually get you there. Then I tell them to try that at home in the bath where there will be no others to watch while they work on that. Just relax and find your own perfect breathing pace. Blow into the water and turn the head to the side to inhale and repeat.

One to one, is always better, if you can find somebody like me who just loves teaching beginners. I converted from breast stroker to swimming front crawl for 1500 metres non stop in about two and a half months to the stage where I was perfectly happy with breathing and confident with the stroke. That was swimming three sessions’ times per week not trying for any speed. Slow but sure, slowly, slowly breathe and enjoy.