Why would we want to improve propulsion?
- To go a greater distance in the same or less time
- To make our strokes work better and reduce the risk of injury through overworking muscles and joints
- To improve our workout through increased resistance in the water.
It is not critical to develop a perfect stroke to have effective propulsion. Obviously the closer our stroke is to an Olympian the more
effective and faster that we will be. But for many of us outright speed isn’t the point.
On the other hand there are some simple tips to improve propulsion, whatever your stroke, and which will make your swimming:
- Close your fingers. If your fingers are open then they are letting water through, like a colander but more so. Only the palm of your
- hand is pushing water. Closing your fingers almost doubles the area of water being pushed, thereby increasing resistance for more effective exercise and increases propulsion. The result will be greater speed or fewer but more effective strokes.
- Blow bubbles. On all strokes except backstroke a more effective stroke is gained when the swimmer is willing to breathe out face down, underwater. Breastroke and butterfly both work best when the swimmer gets into an up and down rhythm, where the propulsion pushes the body up and the head and face are out of the water, with the inevitable return to the water for the propulsion phase. By breathing in on every ‘upward’ stroke, and then breathing out during the propulsion phase the stroke is more effective, and the neck and back are not under strain through keeping the head upright and out of the water throughout the stroke. Furthermore the lungs are getting a good supply of oxygen because the swimmer is not having to breathe out and in during the upward stroke, which is at best a gasp. When swimming front crawl it is equally efficient to breathe out underwater, leaving the time that the face is out of the water (sideways) for breathing in.
- Watch your splash! It is difficult while swimming to see the splash that we are making, but the reaction to swimmers around us can give a clue. Others in the pool, or maybe pool staff can give you feedback (but not lifeguards as they need to be constantly monitoring the entire pool). Creating a lot of splash is a sure sign that we are wasting energy on disturbing the surface of the pool instead of moving us through the water.
In all cases we are here to help, should you want it, through our organised classes or personal tuition.