by Coach Emmett Hines, Ph.D.

This article is a continuation of the "How to Spend the Off- Season" article in the November issue of Runner Triathlete News. For complete details on the improving your swimming, please pick up a copy of the November 2001 edition of Runner Triathlete News.

These two drills are designed to help you learn excellent balance and then to get used to maintaining that balance as you take strokes.

Streamlined Side-Gliding Balance (or, simply, Side Glide) Drill
Push off from the wall on your side with the lower arm extended straight toward the end of the pool, your other arm pressed lightly along your side and your nose pointed up, breathing freely. Begin kicking easily. The back of your head should be in contact, or nearly in contact, with your extended arm. Feel for a strip of flesh exposed to the air all the way down your side arm from shoulder to wrist. Putting a bit more pressure on your buoy by leaning in on your armpit will help this. Your extended arm should feel "weightless." When you are balanced, both ears will be under water, nose pointed straight up and your mouth, nose and eyes will just barely be exposed to the air. Stay in this side-lying, nose up position long enough to take several breaths.

Turn your head so that your nose is pointed toward the bottom of the pool with just the back quarter (or less) of your head exposed to the air. Exhale some, but not all, of your air underwater. As you finish exhaling, turn your head back to the nose-up position. Take several breaths in this position before turning your head to do another underwater exhalation. The body should stay in the same balanced side-lying position throughout the drill. The whole idea is to rotate your head as if it is on a skewer (through your crown and along your spine) without bending the skewer. Feel for that dry strip of flesh all the way down your side arm from shoulder to wrist at all times.

If you lift the head at all or allow the extended arm to fall toward the bottom as the head turns for the breath the hips will drop and you'll feel the water line creep up your side arm toward your shoulder, indicating you have lost balance. The cure is to be aware of keeping the extended arm "weightless" and stretched straight toward the far wall. Try to have contact, or very little daylight, between the back of your head and the extended arm. You can even think of lifting the extended arm slightly, perhaps one inch, toward the surface as you rotate the head to breathe. This drill should be done on both sides.

3 & Glide Drill
This drill calls for you to take three strokes in a normal swimming rhythm and then pause in the Side Glide position for a while. Start by pushing off the wall and kicking in a balanced Side Glide position on your right side, nose down. Recover the trailing (left) arm over the water, roll and stroke onto your left side keeping your head in the nose-down position. As soon as you reach your left side begin immediately to recover the trailing (right) arm and then roll and take the second stroke back onto your right side. As soon as you get back to your right side, recover the trailing (left) arm, and take your third stroke as you roll onto the left side. Allow your head to turn with your body on that third roll so that your face is in the nose-up position. As you get fully onto your left side, stop all action except kicking. Spend several seconds breathing in the Side Glide position as you fully assess balance and make any corrections necessary. Note that you are now gliding on the opposite side from which you started. Turn your face back to the nose-down position and assess/correct balance. As soon as you are aware of relaxed balance, go through another set of three strokes to get back to your right side, gliding nose up. Kick along on that side for a few seconds while you check/correct balance, then turn your head back to nose-down. You have now returned to the starting position for this drill. Repeat the entire process until you reach the other end of the pool.

Each time you finish a roll and stroke you should be aware of your belly button pointing directly toward the sidewall just as it is when in Side Glide position. As you finish the third stroke of each set and hold the Side Glide position you want to immediately feel the dry strip of flesh down your trailing arm. If not, this tells you that you either lifted your head up or let pressure off of your buoy or both. Make any correction necessary and spend enough time in the Side Glide position to think through any change you need to make on the next set of three strokes.

Emmett Hines is Head Coach of H2Ouston Swims. He has coached competitive Masters swimming in Houston since 1982 and is a Senior Coach for Total Immersion Swim Camps. His book, Fitness Swimming (Human Kinetics, publishers), is in its second English language printing and has been released in Spanish, French and Chinese. Currently he coaches the H2O Masters group in the River Oaks area, works privately with many clients and offers video stroke analysis by mail (Project VDO). You can find more of his articles at www.H2OustonSwims.org and he can be reached for questions or comments at (713) 748-SWIM or [email protected].