Swimming With Your Body

By Gary Hall Sr.


When Tiger Woods drives a golf ball well over 300 yards, he does so not simply by using or swinging his arms. He uses the power, weight and force of his entire body. It would be easier for him just to use his arms, but by unleashing the transferred power of his hips, core and shoulders moving through swing, the ball travels much further.

It is also easier for us to swim just with our arms and legs, as if they were attached to a surfboard. But our bodies are not surfboards. They behave more like bricks and require a tremendous amount of force to move rapidly through the water. We can generate some force purely from our arms and legs. In fact, one can usually generate enough force this way to get through 10 x 400 meters with short rest and still live to swim another day. This type of flat, paddling, mostly arm-and-leg-driven stroke is what we call the 'survival stroke'. It enables one to survive the long, punishing workouts, but not to swim fast...or at least as fast as one is capable.

To swim really fast, one must use more than the arms and legs. One must transfer the energy of the core of the body, including the shoulders, abdominals and hips into every arm stroke to maximize the power for speed. This does not happen naturally or easily. That's right. It takes more work and more effort to swim fast than slow. I am not talking about just pulling harder or kicking harder. I mean getting the entire body into the act.

So how do we do that? Mostly, swimming freestyle or backstroke with our bodies means rotating our shoulders from a near vertical position above the water on the recovery to a near vertical position below on the under water pull, while keeping the hips relatively flat. However, this rotation is not done slowly or casually. It must be done with force and speed. It must be done with conviction.

I often tell the campers who are learning the shoulder rotation for the first time, that one doesn't rotate the shoulders as if they are a rotisserie chicken on the grill. Rather, one must snap the shoulders from side to side, much like Tiger snaps his shoulders through the swing, following his hips. It is not just the degree of movement of the shoulders, but the speed of the movement of the shoulders that transfers more energy into propulsion. A bullet or torpedo moves down the barrel in a spinning motion and so we too must move down the pool by not turning, but snapping our shoulders from side to side.

Of the three fundamentals of fast swimming, the shoulder rotation is, for many, the most difficult to grasp for two reasons. First, most have been swimming flat like a paddleboard for so long that it seems very odd to be rotating the body. Second, it takes real work and a conscientious effort to swim with the body. Yet, to maximize your power for speed, shoulder rotation is essential.

Here is my favorite drill for freestyle or backstroke to learn how to properly rotate the shoulders. Have one arm outstretched over the head using a sculling motion with the hand. Kick flutter on your side with the other arm at your side but with the shoulder pointing straight up toward the sky or ceiling. Hold this position for at least 6 flutter kicks and with the head tucked down, but think mostly about having the shoulder of the trailing arm pointing straight up. Now take three consecutive freestyle (or backstroke) strokes with each stroke rotating the shoulder back to the vertical position. Now you end up with the opposite arm above your head and can think about getting the trailing shoulder vertical for another 6 kicks. This drill enables you to take the time to think about your shoulder position and to take 3 strokes trying to get the shoulder back into the same position. Once you feel you have this down, swim 2 lengths; the first drilling in this manner and the second swimming with the shoulder rotation, snapping from side to side. Obviously, the faster you swim the less time you have to get your shoulders turned, so the speed of the turn becomes more important. Also remember that the speed transfers more energy.

Another drill is to swim with one arm only, keeping one arm outstretched over the head sculling with the hand, while the other pulls with the shoulder rotating to the vertical on the recovery. One of the reasons I like the straight-arm recovery is that in order to recover with a straight arm, one has to rotate the shoulders to the vertical position. Biomechanically, the arm will not recover with the elbow locked unless the shoulder is rotated vertically. It just won’t work. Yet, once the shoulder is rotated vertically, it is actually easier to recover and creates less stress on the shoulder joint with a straight arm than with a bent elbow. Try it and you will see.

In the gym, put on a pair of boxing gloves and in front of the bag, hold your elbows at shoulder height and with the elbows bent about 45 degrees, hit the bag for one minute by rotating your shoulders from side to side, but not by bending the elbow. Hit it hard, like you are swimming the 50 meters, and rotate the shoulders as far as you can. This drill/exercise teaches speed and will also help strengthen the core muscles to achieve the shoulder rotation.

So now you have learned the 3 fundamentals of fast swimming.

1) Thick as a brick...which means use every trick in the book to help you streamline your not-so-streamlined body...especially keep your head down in freestyle. Way down!
2) Swim on the freeway...which means keep your hand out in front in the power position as long as you can and get them back there pronto! No stop-and-go swimming for you.
3) Swim with your body...which mostly means your shoulders and core, snapping from side to side to help drive you down the pool like Tiger drives his golf ball.

I have also suggested some drills that will help teach you these not-so-obvious fundamentals of fast swimming and will help remind you how to get them back if you should lose them. Do not underestimate the value of these drills to help you. Our World Team swimmers use them every day in practice. So should you.

Of course, the best advice I can give you is come down to Islamorada in the Florida Keys and spend some time with us. It will much easier for you to learn these fundamentals here than at home...and a whole lot more fun! See you soon.