How Swimming Works

HOW SWIMMING WORKS: New Ideas in Freestyle and Backstroke. video 1 hr. 7 min.

Several years ago, coach Richard Quick ( Stanford Univ. Head Women's Swim Coach, 1996 U.S. Olympic Women's Swimming Team Head Coach) asked me if I could make a machine that would pull swimmers through the water at very high speeds. The Russian swimming program had developed this idea and it seemed to be a good one.

Not knowing how difficult it would be and being prone to underestimate difficulty anyway, I embarked on this project. After numerous problems and many failures, I came up with a system which worked. I installed two at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, one at Stanford University and a few others.

The goal was to allow the swimmer to move through the water are speeds at or above world record pace, to experience the conditions of water resistance at these speeds, to learn how to move through the water causing less resistance, and to practice swimming movements which were faster than ever before possible. The towing system lived up to to these expectations and more. Most of the swimmers representing the United States in the 1996 Olympics spent time training and learning on the towing systems.

It is the most powerful learning and teaching device I have ever encountered. In the process of working with swimmers, I quickly understood that very few swimmers will ever have the opportunity to be pulled through the water at speeds of 2.5 meters per second (20 seconds for 50 meters), but I wanted swimming to benefit from what I developed and what I learned.

What was learned? Many swimmers and coaches realize that it is beneficial to roll the body from side to side when swimming freestyle or backstroke. Less water is pushed by the swimmer when on the side than when on the front or on the back. The more time a swimmer is able to spend on the side, the less effort it is to swim fast. The pulling movements are more powerful and the streamlining of the swimmers body is better. This applies to world record holders and to beginning swimmers alike.

Most swimmers lose this ability to roll as they fatigue. From towing, I learned that we can use the water, which presses against the legs as we swim through it, to help roll the body. I learned that if we learn to control the quickness of each kick, making some a little more powerful and more sudden than others, then we can make the body roll extremely quickly, even when tired.

Once I learned this, I wanted to be able to teach it to swimmers who did not have access to towing systems. I developed a series of kicking drills which will teach you how to completely control the position of your body in the water and will let you use the flutter-kicking movement to quickly rotate your body to any position you wish, simply by controlling the suddenness of each kick. This is easier to do than it is to explain!

If these accelerating kicking movements are then combined and synchronized with the normal movements of the hands and arms, then the body roll will be more complete even when fatigued.

It is easy for many to roll the body when swimming slowly or when well rested, but the test is whether you can still roll the body at the end of a long workout or at the end of a race when fatigue becomes such a large factor.

What does it take to learn these skills? It is necessary to practice each drill until you have mastered it. Then move on to the next one. The drills begin with simple movements which you probably can do already and move gradually to more and more complex movements. If you go through the series, you will understand much more about swimming and you will swim better and faster.

Underwater Snooper video footage of world record holder Jeff Rouse and many other outstanding swimmers. Most drills performed by Stanford All American swimmer, Ms. Mary Edwards, the drill master!