Keeping Legs Up on Free

You might try raising your head too (while still looking at the bottom of the pool). I think the key with your head is that it should straighten your spine out. For me, someone who slouches quite a bit, I have to actually raise the back of my head slightly towards the ceiling to make my body balance right in the water. Float in the middle of the pool on your face with your hands stretched out in front of you. From there, you can adjust your body to see what seems to get you floating right. Try putting your head in various positions.

My coach would have us work on a surface kick "swim/drill" where we consciously caused the feet to break the surface on the up stroke which caused a slightly exagerrated kerplunk as the foot kicked down. This is done with a 2 beat kick and after just a 25 or two I could settle into a good rhythm. We usually do this on a slightly longer swim - like 200s or 400s at a modest pace. I like it with a snorkel which mimizes the impact of breathing on the drill. I think it helps keep the feet just active enough not to sink.

Try head lower or head higher. Extend hands before they enter do not put the hands in close to the head ala TI. Relax the ankles and the calf muscles when kicking. Finish a little lower on the thigh actually touch your thigh with your thumb. Any of the above could help.

My coach would have us work on a surface kick "swim/drill" where we consciously caused the feet to break the surface on the up stroke which caused a slightly exagerrated kerplunk as the foot kicked down. I suppose for people with dropping legs, that's a good drill. For me, on the other hand, that's a stroke flaw. You can see me doing it in my avatar: My left foot is up out of the water, and I am just about to smack the top of my foot back down on the surface. Several people have noted the relationship between head/chest position and leg position, but I would also advise paying attention to the angle of the pelvis. If, while you are on your front, you tilt the pelvis "north" (as they say in Pilates) so that the curve in your low back flattens out, your legs will sink. If you tilt the pelvis "south" so that you increase the curve in your low back, your legs will rise. I find that I need to tilt "north" a bit more while on my front and "south" while on my back so that my legs in either position are in the best place for a strong kick. People whose legs tend to drop while on the front, though, may need to try tilting "south" more.

The head up or down issue is kinda interesting. Most people advocate looking straight down, but Ian Thorpe seemed to do pretty well with a head looking forward approach. Different things work best for different people. I think in terms of balance, perhaps the chest position is more important than head position, i.e. leaning the chest downward.

surprisingly low leg position can be the result of a poor pull, the better your arm strokes, the higher your body position is in the water it helps to have an efficient kick, if you're doing long swimming kick is to maintain body position and balance when you move faster through the water and your legs come up you could also try wearing a jammer or leg skin Blue seventy is about to launch a legskin, it should bring your hips and legs higher I have always had a problem keeping my legs up on my Crawl stroke. I'm 66 a new swimmer ( 3 years ). My masters coach has gotten my arm stroke straighten out, no pun intended, so I do catch the water and keep my elbow up. But he continues to tell me I drop my hips with many suggestions like drop my head, swim down hill, suck up my butt, push my chest down. But I still have a problem. In fact I really don't care if I have a good kick, I just don't want my legs to sink and slow me down. Are their any dry land drills that will help me, I am devoting Jan & Feb to improving my technique and the hell with any endurance training, so I still have 36 days left to get my legs up. Thanks, Bob

Your legs and hips dropping might be a technique problem, a strength problem or both. STRENGTH: Try this dryland drill to strengthen your core and abs: 1. lay flat on your back on a firm surface 2. raise you straight legs about 10-12 inches off the ground 3. kick your legs like in freestyle, small, rapid kicks with pointed toes 4. 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off. Repeat. Build up your repetitions. TECHNIQUE: lose your pull buoy if you have one. 1. Cut a kickboard in half. 2. Place the half-kickboard across your thighs midway between the hips and knees. 3. Push off from the wall like you are superman, arms, legs, and toes extended, horizontal in the water. Or get someone to push you from the toes in a straight line. 4. Float. When you slow down swim a few strokes in perfect balance. 5. When you get good at this cut the half-kickboard in half. Repeat #3 and #4. When you get good at #5, try the superman float and swim without the kickboard. With your new core strengthened abs and float technique you should be able to swim with hips and legs near the surface with very little kick and in balance. See H2ouston Swims web site for videos of this exercise. --mjm

One thing I remember from the TI stuff I've seen is the notion you should "swim downhill". I suspect it's George Park's motto as well given that's the name of his website. In fact, if you Google for "swim downhill" you'll see it pops up all over the place.

Thanks for all the replies. I swum friday and tried to remember: downhill, head low, press on arm pits amd keep back arched !! I did have moments where I feel much flatter. What really gets my gall, I was swimming next to women who had a excellent fast flat kick with a kick board and her head was completely out of the water talking to her buddy who was doing the same thing. I still have all feb to work on it.:applaud::applaud: Thanks, Bib

Hey Bob we are now into March how goes the battle?