First we talked about Posture. Then we put power in our Pull. For part three of our four part series on Efficient Swimming Basics: Drive
Rotate! This is quite possibly the most common feedback that I have for comfortable swimmers who are looking to improve. Perhaps swimmers *think* that they are rotating because they turn their head to breathe. Or because they rotate their arms around and around. But when I say “rotate” what I want to you think about is: forcefully driving your hip forward.
So, instead of rotation, we’re going to call it: Drive
Driving your hip forward, drives YOU forward through the water.
Try this: Stand in front of a mirror. Raise your right arm over your head. Now drive your right hip 45 degrees. Let your body roll with this motion. What does your hand do? It wants to reach! The more you drive and rotate your hips, the more length you can get with each stroke!
We accomplish several things when we employ adequate rotation in freestyle:
First, turn your boat from a barge into a yacht! While we practice good posture to be flat on top of the water to reduce drag, we also want to slice through the water with each stroke. Reduce the surface area that you’re pulling through the water by rotating your hips as you reach.
Second, gain distance per stroke by reach, reach, reaching… Lean into that hip. How much higher you can reach? This is what we want!
And finally, leverage. Imagine trying to pull down on a weighted pulley with your arm stretched out straight. Now rotate so that the pulley is closer to your body. See how much easier that is? We gain leverage on the water by rotating our body.
Sometimes I realize during a warm up, or even well into a workout that I haven’t been thinking about driving my hips, I’m merely rotating on an axis like a rotisserie chicken. There’s a difference. Think about driving for distance! Sometimes the Cake lyrics pop in my head:
“He’s going the distance
He’s going for speed…”
If you’re looking for speed, reach and drive!
