This week at swimgym BODY ROTATION

Rotation is key in freestyle because it turns you into a sleek, torpedo-like swimmer who slices through the water instead of fighting it. It also lets you grab more water and go forward with less effort. Plus, good rotation wakes up your core muscles, so you swim faster and look like you’ve been secretly doing Pilates.

Swimming is the only sport in which the face is in the water, meaning technique is needed to position yourself to breathe. The moments you can breathe are therefore limited. This complicates swimming especially when you are new to it. Breathing interrupts your bod...

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Skills & drills Alternating Sidekick (snorkel)

This drill teaches you how to rotate your body and to stay streamlined at the same time. Alternate 3 seconds of side kick followed by three freestyle strokes. Use a snorkel to fully focus on the drill. And use fins if needed.

How to do it 


  • Start in a sidekick and look towards the bottom of the pool 

  • Make three strokes and fall back into the sidekick again, now on the other side 

  • Kick for three seconds, followed by three strokes 

  • Alternate, but don’t go too fast

Focus points 


  • Maintain a strong kick, especially when falling back into a sidekick to prevent sinking

  • Stretch out during the sidekick, engage your core and rotate your body during the three strokes

Coach tip

Once you can balance your body, hold your horizontal body line and streamline during swimming, you will reduce your resistance in the water and therefore swim more efficiently.

Equipment:

fins, snorkel

COACH TIP

Let's do some breath restricting swimming. Taking more strokes between breaths is a really handy way of improving technique. It is the breathing stroke where we observe most flaws in technique so by reducing the number breathing strokes in training we can develop a better ‘feel’ for correct technique.

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