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"Tautness" in Swimming

author : alicefoeller

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What does it mean to hold your body ideally for swimming?

There are several basic factors to improve triathletes' swimming, but they should be taken in a certain order to achieve the best results.

Once we are in the water and we are nearly weightless, which is unfamiliar. Just as astronauts practice in a weightless environment, we need to learn to work with our very lightweight bodies. Because we don't weigh much in the water, it's hard to feel what is happening with our bodies.

According to Coach Gerry Rodrigues, in the podcast, if you look at faster swimmers in the pool, their bodies are straight and firm, and the slower swimmers are more floppy and soft. This half hour podcast by Tower 26 is available through a partnership between BeginnerTriathlete.com and Tower 26.

Putting power onto a floppy structure is a waste. It's important to establish good swimming posture first. The steps to do that are:

Knowing that tautness is important and must be developed

Practice kicking with a kickboard, not for propulsion, but for tautness, with hands on the bottom of the board, arms stretched out, and face in the water (preferably with a snorkel.)

Have someone observing and letting you know when you are "wobbling" your upper body with your kick.

Keep the awareness of what your body is doing at the forefront of your mind.

Do quick, short sets of swimming very fast. If you think about how you hold your body for a sprint versus a long run, this translates to swimming. If you go fast, you get a better feel for how your body feels when it is taut and firm.