Myth #2: Aside from shaving, wearing a cap and a high tech suit or wetsuit, the only way to reduce drag is by streamlining off the start and turns.
Of the 3 fundamental laws that govern swimming technique, drag, motion and inertia, drag is by far the most important. Drag is the number one enemy of the swimmer...something we learned 250 world records after changing suit fabric from lycra to polyurethane. What most swimmers fail to realize is that there are three common mistakes made by far too many swimmers that add significant drag to their swim (more than the suits reduced) and they make them through every stroke cycle...over and over again. The first is head position. Most swimmers hold their head position way too high, looking forward. I call it defensive swimming, because after getting smacked in the head by someone veering over into your side of the lane, you will start to swim like Tarzan. Problem is lifting the head causes the hips to sink and the surface (wave) drag on your head to increase. Swimming through the water like a hammock, or if you have no legs, at an angle of 5 to 10 degrees from head to toe, creates a huge increase in drag.
If you have your head in alignment with your body, you should be looking down and you haven't a clue where you are going. So if you are swimming in open water, don't swim for 200 strokes out in the lake or ocean without looking up (briefly) and charting your course...or you may be swimming faster, but out to sea. Otherwise, lead the lane, go ten seconds behind, stay way to the right and pray a lot….but keep your head down.
Second is the underwater arm position. Keep your elbows high (also called early vertical forearm) as this position of the arm as you pull through the water reduces the frontal drag significantly over pulling with the arm deep with a dropped elbow. Holding this high elbow position, particularly during a breath or with good body rotation, is challenging and requires good extension (negative angle) of the shoulder. Finally, if you insist on kicking hard, do so with tight narrow kicks. The act of bending the knee too much to get that big forceful kick increases the drag way more than the benefit of the extra power.
Gary Sr.
I would add that keeping the head inline with the body is just as important (maybe more important) during the streamline. The tendency when on your front is to lift the head up, just like in swimming. One reason is that it is hard to know when to break out otherwise; it takes practice.
But I see many people also have their arms way behind their heads, so that during the streamline your head is just sticking out there acting as a brake. (I wonder if this is a legacy of teaching streamlining to small kids -- with their comparatively big heads and short arms.)
Your head should be between your arms, your shoulders should be at, or very slightly behind, your ears in the streamline.
Try using big fins while doing long streamlines and adjust your head position. If you are kicking fast enough, you can really feel the effects of slight changes in head position.
I would add that keeping the head inline with the body is just as important (maybe more important) during the streamline. The tendency when on your front is to lift the head up, just like in swimming. One reason is that it is hard to know when to break out otherwise; it takes practice.
But I see many people also have their arms way behind their heads, so that during the streamline your head is just sticking out there acting as a brake. (I wonder if this is a legacy of teaching streamlining to small kids -- with their comparatively big heads and short arms.)
Your head should be between your arms, your shoulders should be at, or very slightly behind, your ears in the streamline.
Try using big fins while doing long streamlines and adjust your head position. If you are kicking fast enough, you can really feel the effects of slight changes in head position.
