Swimming, it's the only sensible outdoor workout in summer. Andy van Smeerdijk takes the plunge.
In 1993 Russian swimming coach Gennadi Touretsky moved base to the Australian Institute of Sport to train Alexander Popov, Michael Klim and other Olympians. At the time, his views were regarded as unorthodox.
Touretsky believed that for swimmers to get quicker, they needed to model their movements on fish. In essence, the idea was to reduce drag and resistance.
Today this is common knowledge among elite swimmers and sportswear manufacturers but at the time some thought it a bit fishy. Nowadays streamlining your swimming technique is equally important for learners and everyday swimmers.
"Learning the right technique improves your speed and makes swimming easier," says Ajith Surendre Samaraweera (right), swimming instructor at the Aviation Club.
The Sri Lankan lifeguard conducts sessions for beginners, intermediate and advanced swimmers at the Aviation Club 25-metre pool, with students ranging from five to 48 years old.
"When you're first learning the most important thing is to lose your fear of going underwater. After this, the next most important thing is to learn how to breathe and relax in the water," says Ajith.
If you can already swim, honing your technique can help you improve your lap times or energy efficiency. It also enables you to swim smoothly and in a more relaxed manner.
The best way of achieving this is to get another swimmer to 'spot' you or employ a swimming coach.
Following are hints for each stroke then swimming workouts based on Ajith's lessons. But first are a few stretches.
After doing these, it's a good idea to do a few slow laps to warm up and get into the rhythm. (After a session, don't forget to do a few gentle recovery laps and stretch too.) Concentrate on your breathing and at all times 'make like a fish'.
Stretches
1. Tricep stretch: Keep your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart. Extend one hand behind your neck and down along the spine as far as is comfortable. Hold this pose for 10-15 seconds by placing your other hand on the elbow. 4 reps either side.
2. Shoulder stretch: Place one hand behind your back and then reach up between your shoulder blades and hold for five seconds. For an advanced version of this stretch (as seen in the photo), extend your other arm around to grip the hand and hold for 10 seconds. 4 reps
3. Side bends: Stand straight, keep your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, hands resting on the hips. Bend slowly to one side, come back to the vertical position and then bend to the other side. Do not lean forwards or backwards. 4 reps
Muscles you work out while swimming
Every session, you should do at least two different strokes so that you exercise different muscle groups (at least freestyle and backstroke).
If you have back problems, avoid breaststroke.
The major muscles used for each stroke are:
- Freestyle: Deltoids and legs muscles
- Breaststroke: Thighs, biceps, and gluteral muscles
- Butterfly: Abdominals, deltoids and leg muscles
- Backstroke: Triceps and leg muscles
Freestyle
Keep your fingers together at all times. The side of your hand (index finger and thumb) should be the first part to enter the water; it should effectively 'slice' into it.
Don't slap your open hand into the water - this wastes energy. Your hand must enter the water in front of your head then sweep past your abdomen to your side, pushing water aside.
1. Your elbow should be the first part of the arm to break the surface. Keep you arm slightly bent and try to brush your ear as you make your next stroke.
2. Rotate your head to the side to breathe , do not rotate your body or shoulders to breathe; keep the torso straight. Between breaths keep your head below the water and blow bubbles. Beginners should take a breath every two stokes. Advanced swimmers can take a breath every three strokes.
Kicking: This is important for propulsion and maintaining buoyancy. Kicks should be constant, not create too much splash and not go too deep.
Breastroke
To do this correctly, you must lift the shoulders high out of the water then drop deep into it. Keeping the body on the surface, as many people do, is okay for beginners but not serious swimmers.
1. To do the stroke, push your arms in front of you (keep fingers together), take a breath and duck your head underwater. At the same time, bring your legs towards your body, preparing to frog-kick.
2. While doing a frog-kick, push both arms back in a circular motion towards the hips, raising the head out of the water. The arms then pass under the body and move forward for the next stroke. As your hands come from under the body and thrust forward again, plunge your head underwater again.
Kicking: Keep your legs as close to the water's surface as possible; you should try to keep the body straight and streamlined.
Buoyancy: For greater lift, raise your chest and shoulders as your arms pull across - this keeps the shoulders clear of the water.
Backstroke
Alignment is the key to backstroke; it's essential to keep your head in line with your spine. Backstroke requires the shoulders and hips to be in sync. The shoulders must rotate around the axis of spine in the same plane as the hips do.
1. When doing backstroke, your arms must always be at a 180-degree angle from each other, as seen in this image. Your arm stokes and kicks must be at the same speed as each other.
2. Keep the shoulder high for your raised arm; keep the other shoulder low for the pulling (underwater) arm. The raised arm should be more or less straight from wrist to shoulder.
3. When your hand enters the water, the 'pinky' finger should hit it first. The arm should be extended and aligned just outside the shoulder (not straight). The body should slightly rotate to allowing entry hand to reach deep.
When the arm enters the water, it should be straight and point towards the bottom and side of the pool. As it pulls through, it should rotate towards the side/surface of the pool, finishing pointing towards the feet before pulling up past the hips.
Alignment: Your eyes must look straight up or a slightly inclined towards your feet, any sideward glances will affect your alignment.
Kicking: Steady kicks with follow through; if your arm speed quickens your legs must increase the tempo too.
Breathing: Inhale on one pull, exhale on the next pull.
Butterfly
A very difficult stroke to master - it's essential to get coaching. Timing of the kick and arm cycle make or break this stroke. Poor technique wastes a lot of energy because of the double arm movement and the double leg kick.
1. With hands cupped, your fingers should hit the water first. Both hands must catch the water simultaneously then sweep out and back - followed by a big downkick. Both arms break the water simultaneously (hands and forearms first). They swing outwards then around, entering the water forward of the head (thumb and index finger first).
2. The arms then push laterally, elbows flexed, as the small upkick starts. As the arms continue to flex, the hands turn towards the body and the upkick finishes. As the hands come close to the body, the arms fully extend in preparation for the quick 'flick' out of the water - and the big kick starts again.
Hands: Fingers must be closed for maximum power.
Kicking: The butterfly kick is highly complicated but basically consists of an upkick - the hips leading the legs upward and the knees bending - and a downkick, led by the bent knees and powered by your abs and legs. This shouldn't go too low as the body must remain streamlined.
Ajith's 45-minute workouts
Note that you should always include stretches, warm up and recovery laps. If you want to develop more speed, you should also do similar distances at full-speed, but in 100m or 50m sprints, each followed by short breaks.
Advanced
Stretches and warm-up laps
- 200m freestyle
- 200m backstroke
- (5 min break)
- 200m freestyle
- 200m backstroke
- 2-3 laps kickboard
- 2-3 laps sidestroke
- 100m freestyle
- (1 min recovery)
- 100m freestyle
- (1 min recovery)
- 100m freestyle
Beginners/intermediate
Stretches and warm-up swimming
- 10 min kickboard (breathing by bobbing head up and down)
- 15 min kickboard (one arm holding board, the other doing freestyle stroke)
- 10 min freestyle of kickboard (holding board with alternate arms doing freestyle strokes)
- 20 min free swimming (freestyle, breaststroke)
