For all the backstrokers out there, how many of you swim with the thought of keeping your face at or even slightly below the surface of the water?
For me, I was reminded today that I need to focus on keeping my face just below the surface of the water. The body rotation allows the water to break on every stroke for a breath.
When I try to keep my face at the water surface, I find that I do a chicken neck move. This causes me to raise my head higher and higher out of the water, dropping my hips and legs.
The only remedy that seems to work in my case is keeping my face slightly below the water surface.
Has anyone else done this or swim this way all the time?
OK, so I played with this in practice today. My first observation was that it is actually quite difficult to get my face down to the waterline. When I did, of course I had to come up for air now and again and getting a good timing for that was, at best, not intuitive. My nasal cavity also got many a thorough flushing, although perhaps that was a good thing since this is my first day back in the pool since last Friday, owing to a head cold.
For me, I think the best head position is just far enough back to keep my hips from dropping, but no further.
OK, so I played with this in practice today. My first observation was that it is actually quite difficult to get my face down to the waterline. When I did, of course I had to come up for air now and again and getting a good timing for that was, at best, not intuitive. My nasal cavity also got many a thorough flushing, although perhaps that was a good thing since this is my first day back in the pool since last Friday, owing to a head cold.
For me, I think the best head position is just far enough back to keep my hips from dropping, but no further.
