Among swimming coaches, we often hear that the body should follow the rhythm of the rower and make a coordinated rotation when swimming to reduce water resistance.
However, there are many different opinions on how freestyle performs body rotation.
1. Turn your shoulders? Swivel? Hip turn?
There are many opinions about the way the body turns. Some people think that the body should be actively turned, and some people emphasize the active rotation of the crotch. And for beginners, I prefer the flexible rotation of the shoulders.
Shoulder turns are crucial in freestyle. The flexible rotation of the shoulders not only helps the arms to better extend and stroke, lengthens the stroke route, but also conductively guides the rotation of the trunk and hips to reduce resistance.
Second, the effect of log rolling on speed
If we actively rotate our body and crotch, we will face some challenges. First of all, controlling the rotation of the body in the water is not easy and requires a lot of balance and control.
Secondly, a large rotation of the crotch causes the whole body to turn like a log in the water, and the frequency of rotation slows down.
When the hip rotation is the same angle as the shoulder, we need to wait for the hip rotation to complete before continuing to rotate the shoulder, which will affect the frequency of the stroke. At the same time, the rotation of the log style can easily lead to excessive rotation, causing the body to be unbalanced, and then the wrong "scissor leg" action will occur, increasing the resistance.
3. Turn your shoulders and stabilize your hips
However, if we want to increase our freestyle speed, we need to learn to rotate our body with the rotation of our shoulders and stabilize our hips.
In this way, when swimming quickly, there is no need to wait for the body and hip to rotate slowly at the same amplitude, and it will not affect the speed of the stroke.
In the beginner stage, in order to ensure the correct technical movements, we may use a slower stroke frequency. However, this can also cause the crotch to follow the shoulder rotation for a longer period of time, resulting in crotch instability. Therefore, we need to stabilize the crotch with some exercises.
Fourth, the practice method
If we want to stabilize the crotch, there are two exercises to try:
1.Imagine putting a glass of water on your tail vertebrae, keeping your crotch steady while turning your shoulders and not letting the water spill out.
While it may feel uncomfortable at first, this body torque can help increase paddling power later on.
2.Clip a figure-8 board between your calves and see if you can keep your hips stable while turning your shoulders.
Conclusion
If you're looking for faster freestyle speeds, be careful to avoid excessive body rotation, which increases the risk of tension and imbalance. In a fast swim, the shoulders and hips should not be rotated at the same angle, and the hips should be rotated at half the angle of the shoulders. By reducing the rotation of the hips and allowing the shoulders to rotate while feeling the twist of the body, you can maintain the frequency of the stroke.