THE 7-DEGREE TILT

Last week, I was whizzing across the Gulf Stream in the 38-foot Fountain Race Club sport fisherman, heading for my favorite diving spot. The three 275 HP Mercury Verado outboards were ripping this 7 ton vessel through the water with an apparent ease that any sprinter would envy. Yet when I glanced down at the speedometer on the console and saw that we were barely breaking 50 mph, I was disappointed. "This boat with these engines should go 60", I thought to myself.

I pushed hard against the three throttles again and sure enough, they were maxed out. Then I remembered the engines were down all the way. I hadn't tilted them up. I pushed the control that tilted the engines simultaneously up to about 7 degrees of tilt and all of a sudden, the boat spurted forward like it just took a second wind. Within seconds, we had topped the 60 mph mark. "Wow," I smiled, "now that is speed".

It seems odd that three little props, pushed by an enormous amount of horsepower could push that big beast over the water so fast. Yet, by making a very slight adjustment of the angle that those propellers create their propulsion, just 7 degrees, while adding no more horsepower, suddenly the speed of the boat increases by 20%! That, I realized later, is the essence of the Race Club camps.

Every single swimmer who has visited the Race Club camps in Islamorada has arrived with their engines tilted down. It's not really their fault. None of them ever had a gauge on the console showing them that they were doing something wrong. Most of them were swimming with what we now commonly refer to as the "survival stroke", a technique that enabled them to survive through those long, difficult sets at home. When the yardage gets piled on day after day, it often becomes a matter of finding a stroke that allows one to survive; to finish the workout. Survival strokes can reinforce bad habits that simply limit one’s ability to swim fast; like swimming with the engines tilted down.

The reasons that the engines are down vary. Some have their head position too high. Others aren't rotating their hips enough or hesitate a split second on their recovery, or a dozen other faults. The effect is the same. Bad habits reduce efficiency and/or create more drag to slow us in the water. The problem is we can't feel when are engines are down. We just know we are working our tails off and we aren't going as fast as we want.

The human body and the boat have a lot in common. Neither has a streamlined shape. Both try to gain speed by getting higher in the water. Both are very sensitive to minute changes to increase speed. Both need sustainable power to get them up and keep them going.

When you dive in the water, you are going about 5 mph, approximately the same speed as Gary Jr when he swims the 50 meter freestyle in the Olympics. Yet, if after the dive, you simply glide from the entry and take no strokes or kicks, within a few short seconds and about 15 yards, you will come to a dead stop. Case closed. You are not streamlined.

Every non-streamlined human body in the water can discover (without even knowing it) a multitude of ways of having its engines tilted down. The truth is, it is not easy to get the perfect stroke or keep it, once you have found it. That is why we all need coaches that are looking at us individually, all the time. Even Olympians need coaching.

So let us be your gauge on the console. Let us show you where in your stroke you are missing that 7-degree tilt. We will even show you how to increase your horsepower. You may not increase your speed by 20%, but if you can swim faster, with the same horses on your body, we know you will have more fun. Come find out for yourself. At the Race Club camp, we can tilt your engines.

-Gary W. Hall, M.D.