I was wondering about the term, "engage your core" the other day. How do I know (when swimming, let's say front crawl) when I've done it correctly (or at all)? Is it sufficient to "suck my navel to my spine"?
In order to correctly answer this question, it is worth taking time wondering what role does the core/trunk plays in swimming.
The simple answer to this would be that its main purpose is to ensure an optimal body position and action whilst swimming (at all time). That's quite a big task. So I'd say that of the body position/action flaws can sometimes be explained by an improper involvement of the trunk (or core, whatever).
Now my personal opinion would be that the difficulty with swimming as for core engagement or involvement, is that core must be smart, ie it must engage very smartly in a rather complex chain of events to support the stroke, or to act as a foundation for the stroke. And for that, I don't think strength is the main limitation for most people.
In order to achieve a nice symmetrical well calibrate streamlined body rotation (freestyle), muscles must learn to engage/release in sequence, with just enough effort put to it, but not too much effort which would create unnecessary tensions etc.
Think about the fly! Same thing. One needs a certain level of strength, but the main difficulty is to learn to coordinate into what hopefully becomes a smooth undulation action, around with other elements of the stroke are added. Etc...
Good and simple drill to better understand the explanations above is to swim the Free with a pull buoy at ankles level, possibly a band to hold this tight. In order to avoid the fishtailing, core will need to engage little more than normal as usually the legs (when not tied at the ankle level) help correcting the fishtailing effect. In fact this simple drill, along with the variation without the pull but whilst keeping the band around the ankles are, in my opinion, much more valuable than any Pilates session. Fly kicking in prone, side and back position, SDK prone and back position, all that is also very valuable.
I was wondering about the term, "engage your core" the other day. How do I know (when swimming, let's say front crawl) when I've done it correctly (or at all)? Is it sufficient to "suck my navel to my spine"?
In order to correctly answer this question, it is worth taking time wondering what role does the core/trunk plays in swimming.
The simple answer to this would be that its main purpose is to ensure an optimal body position and action whilst swimming (at all time). That's quite a big task. So I'd say that of the body position/action flaws can sometimes be explained by an improper involvement of the trunk (or core, whatever).
Now my personal opinion would be that the difficulty with swimming as for core engagement or involvement, is that core must be smart, ie it must engage very smartly in a rather complex chain of events to support the stroke, or to act as a foundation for the stroke. And for that, I don't think strength is the main limitation for most people.
In order to achieve a nice symmetrical well calibrate streamlined body rotation (freestyle), muscles must learn to engage/release in sequence, with just enough effort put to it, but not too much effort which would create unnecessary tensions etc.
Think about the fly! Same thing. One needs a certain level of strength, but the main difficulty is to learn to coordinate into what hopefully becomes a smooth undulation action, around with other elements of the stroke are added. Etc...
Good and simple drill to better understand the explanations above is to swim the Free with a pull buoy at ankles level, possibly a band to hold this tight. In order to avoid the fishtailing, core will need to engage little more than normal as usually the legs (when not tied at the ankle level) help correcting the fishtailing effect. In fact this simple drill, along with the variation without the pull but whilst keeping the band around the ankles are, in my opinion, much more valuable than any Pilates session. Fly kicking in prone, side and back position, SDK prone and back position, all that is also very valuable.
