I need help- When I push off after I flip and my body is in streamline position when I begin to stroke it seems that I slow down too much. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I do admit I often sneak a breath but even when I don't it seems I slow down too much. Any suggestions?
A good flutter kick or dolphin kick off the wall helps to keep up the speed off the wall.
If you typically breath to the right as I do, you might also try beginning your first stroke with your left arm just before a split second before you surface.
Happy Turning!:D
And a couple of other things..
1) Make sure you are streamlined before you finish pushing off the wall. Many people waste a lot of Mo pushing off and then streamlining.
2) Following up on Bob McAdams’ second point, I’ve seen a lot of people lifting their head out of the streamline to breath. If you need to breath out of the turn, keep the head low, swimming downhill.
First, make sure that you're not breaking out of your streamline too early. The reason people streamline off the wall instead of immediately resuming their stroke is because streamlining is faster. So ride your streamline until your speed starts to drop below the speed at which you can swim. And, as Donna says, try to prolong this time a bit by adding a dolphin or flutter kick.
Next, make sure that when you break out of your streamline, you're not doing anything that would increase your drag. If your body is horizontal, your shoulders and hips should surface at the same moment. Also, when you take your first stroke, make sure that the rest of your body stays in a streamline.
Keep your hands over your head with your biceps touching your ears on the push off. Don't relax your arms and push off in a
flying Superman position as it creates too much drag.
Point your toes a bit too on the push off. Always begin pulling with the side of your body that is lowest in the wate to gain a better catch.
Stay relatively deep on your push off.... feet planted 18 inches or so below the water line. Don't start to surface until your head has passed the flags.
Ahhh yes....... the flip turn........ the saving grace....... the oasis........ a chance to start over !
John Smith:)
John,
You forgot to mention to keep the head down in a neutral position on the first breath instead of doing a mid -1980's heads up hot dog breakout. Why is that?
everyones given you you some great tips
you might be gliding too long, or waiting too long to take your break out stroke, or going too deep
you might need to push off the wall harder or in better position,
you want to have a smooth transition from your streamline to your first stroke, you shouldn't slow down much.
Never breathe on your first stroke off the wall
breathe on the second stroke.
ande
Originally posted by Flipper61
I need help- When I push off after I flip and my body is in streamline position when I begin to stroke it seems that I slow down too much. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I do admit I often sneak a breath but even when I don't it seems I slow down too much. Any suggestions?
I see frequent mention of the streamlined position off the wall "with biceps pressed firmly against the ears".
And yet this does not appear to be what the top swimmers do. Invariably, the top swimmers are also some of the most flexible, granted, but for optimal streamlining, they do seem to have their biceps pressed against their heads .. some way BEHIND their ears.
I found a great picture of Phelps in this position and have copied the link here ...
www.abc.net.au/reslib/ 200407/r25067_61988.jpg
If the link doesn't work, go to Google and search for 'Michael Phelps' under 'images'. The picture is on about the 4th page at the bottom.
Any coaches out there care to comment on this?
Alex
The important principle is to keep your arms as narrow as possible. Pressing your arms against your ears is better than what many swimmers do, but it's also true that you can keep your arms even narrower if they are slightly behind your ears.
