Swimple

On my Spanish blog I have gotten a series of comments of people telling me that bending the knees during the flutter kick is wrong.  This is the reason why people don’t learn how to swim; there instructors don’t know what they are doing.

The flutter kick is probably the most under rated skill in swimming.  People spend to much time trying to fix their strokes, when in many cases they should be working on their kick.  The flutter kick in swimming serves various purposes.  First of all, it helps keep our body in a more hydrodynamic position which helps us reduce drag; secondly it helps us glide better in our stroke, which in turn helps us save energy and swim more effectively.  To put it in simple terms a good kick just makes you swim better.

When learning the flutter kick many people may tell you to kick as if you where riding a bike.  If an instructor ever tells you this, get out of the pool and ask for your money back.  The movement during the flutter kick is nothing like the movement during pedaling, it is actually more like walking.  There is a small bend at the hips and at the knees.

The reason why an instructor may tell you to keep your legs straight might be because you are doing the following movement:

Many people have the tendency to bend their hips when asked to bend their knees.  Bending too much at the hips causes you to pedal instead of walk, this is why many instructors tell their students to keep their legs straight.

In the following images you will see that the knees bend slightly as well as the hips (my scanner sucks by the way).

As you can see the knees do bend.  Without that small bend it would be impossible to generate power.  I’ll leave you with this video which will teach you a couple tips to improve your flutter kick.

Hydrophobia or being afraid of water is a learned behavior. It could have been taught by your parents, by a traumatic experience that you had as a child or as an adult, or by witnessing an event. We all lived our first nine months in our mother’s womb that is fill with amniotic liquid and we had the ability to thrive in this environment. Unfortunately, this ability is replaced, within the first few months of being born, by clumsiness and fear of water.
Hydrophobia is characterized by an anxiety that has the following components:
1. Physical
2. Mental
3. Behaviour
that are manifested in the presence of aquatic environments.
Physical Manifestations

In the presence of an aquatic environment a hydrophobe may feel,
1. An accelerated pulse
2. Ball in the throat
3. Blurry vision
4. Need to go to the bathroom
5. Knot in the stomache
There can be other feelings or sensations like the need to cough when water comes near the mouth or nose. A beginner becomes alienated from his body when he is in the water. He feels lighter, off balance, and all of these creates a feeling of discomfort with the water and himself.
Mental Manifestations

A hydrophobe is hypervigiliant and thus sees danger everywhere. His imagination fills his head with negative (failure and impotence) and irrational thoughts, and images of catastrophe related with drowning and sinking. This person always thinks the worst is about to happen. All his thoughts create a false reality around aquatic environments that feed his anxiety. It is important to identify these thoughts and try to change them.

Behavior

The most common behavior that a hydrophobe presents is to avoid aquatic scenarios. This seems as a rational solution to the problem. For most people going to a pool or the sea is an easily avoidable situation. The problem really starts when their fear gets to a point where they can’t get in the shower or drink water (they drink sodas or juices). When confronting the water becomes inevitable, the behavior becomes rough and uncontrollable. This panic attack can sometimes be more dangerous than the water itself. The muscle tension provoked by the panic attack prevents the person from coordinating movements that can help floatability. Breathing can also become anarchic opening the chance for water to get in the respiratory tract and complicate breathing. For this reason the adaptation towards an aquatic environment must be progressive and taken step by step.
The Solution

The good thing about fear is it can be solved. In my country we have a saying that says,” the only way to eat a whale is piece by piece” and this is how we are going to attack this problem.
The first piece we are going to eat is establishing comfort in a completely safe aquatic environment: your bathroom. From here we will continue to place little bricks that will help us build confidence, and thus we can progress.
The second piece we are going to eat is becoming familiar with an aquatic environment. Our body has to get used to moving in a different environment. That is why we have to learn how to breath, hear, and feel all over again.
The third piece will be floating. This topic is probably the one that has the most taboos in beginners. Here you will learn that everybody floats, and that some people float more than others.
The fourth piece is moving. We will learn the theory and practice behind the flutter kick. I love teaching this part because it is the first time you will actually move in the water. This is the first sign that you are starting to gain confidence and adapting to the water.
In the fifth step we will learn our first stroke which will be backstroke. We will avoid the deep end for now, but this stroke will help us get there with more confidence when it is time.
The sixth and final piece will be dominating the abyss. When you reach this step you will have built an arsenal of tools that will help you conquer your fear of water.
This is all you have to swallow in order conquer the water. At the end of this program you will be able to:
1. Develop a good cardio resistance
2. Relief tensión and stress.
3. Keep blood pressure stable.
4. Avoid injuries
5. Increased self esteem.
6. Improve levels of anxiety
7. Look better physically.

After breathing the next essential step in learning how to swim, is learning to float.  Many people believe that they can’t float, that there bodies simply can’t stay at the surface of the water.  If you happen to be one of these, I’m here to tell you that you are… DEAD WRONG!!!!!  Any person can float, the difference lies in that some people float more than others.  There are various factors that determine a persons buoyancy or ability to float.  Some of them are:

1. Sex:  Women tend to float more than men because they have a higher body fat percentage.
2. Body fat:  As you learned from what I said above, people with higher fat content tend to float better.  This doesn’t mean you have to gain fat to be able to swim.  If you have ever seen a picture of Michael Phelps you know he ain’t very chubby.
3. Race: Apparently African descendents have a harder time staying afloat. Why? Don’t know, but I guess it has to do with body fat.
4. Bone Density:  Some people have heavier bones than others, which eventually makes them heavier, thus they sink.
5. Tension:  Being tense increases you inner density, which in turn makes you drop like a stone.  This is one of the main reasons why beginners have a tough time staying afloat.

A few days ago, one of my readers from my spanish site (http://www.nadafacil.com) was taking her second lesson and was worried about fatiguing to fast and being scared of the water when the instructor left her side.  I decided to take her question and making a post out of, because her case represents about 80% of the people that are learning to swim.

Fatiguing 5m into your flutter kick is completely normal for beginners, and my tip will help you solve this problem. Beginners always believe that the secret to the flutter kick is stamina and strength, thus they kick with all their might until they empty the pool or run out of gas.  Unless you are a competitive swimmer none of these attributes should worry you.  In order to learn how to swim you must first acquire certain skills.  You must learn how to breath, kick, float, and just feel comfortable in the water.

Swimming is about coordination just like any other sport or activity you practice.  When learning a new skill we tend to tense our muscles.  We are thinking so hard on what we must to that our muscles don’t relax.  This one reason why fatigue settles in so fast in beginners.  As we get more fatigued we lose coordination and the task at hand seems impossible.  This leads to my best tip I can give a beginner swimmer: DON’T FATIGUE YOURSELF.

Your movements should be smooth; focus on your technique and not on how fast you are moving.  Speed will come with good technique.

There you have it the Best Tip I can give some one that is learning to swim.

Emotions are a great part of our everyday life.  Certain events can makes us happy, sad, disappointed, or scared.  Fear is an instinctive response that animals, including ourselves have when we feel our lives are in danger.  When we find ourselves in a threatening situation our hypothalamus activates releasing hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol (stress hormone) that generate certain physiological responses like:

Increase in heart beat.

• Increase in blood pressure.
• Increase in our senses.
• Pupil dilation.
• Muscle tension.
• Sweat.

If you have ever been in a really scary situation you have probably experienced that you have more strength, that you can run faster and further, you can see, smell and hear better, and your decision making is a lot better and faster.  All these are natural responses to the fear we have inherited from our ancestors to increase our chance of survival.

The problems begin when these responses become excessive and disproportionate towards events that are not threatening at all.  In these cases fear generates paralysis instead of action.  You literally turn to stone and not move.  Our imagination takes control and we start to imagine catastrophic scenarios that fill us up with anxiety and discomfort.  This is where fear creates suffering, discontent and uselessness. When anxiety is provoked by a nonthreatening event that affects our daily life, then we call it a phobia.

Hydrophobia or fear of water is a learned behavior.  It could have been taught by your parents, by a traumatic experience that you had as a child or as an adult, or by witnessing an event.  We all lived our first nine months in our mother’s womb that is fill with amniotic liquid and we had the ability to thrive in this environment.  Unfortunately, this ability is replaced, within the first few months of being born, by clumsiness and fear of water.

Hydrophobia is characterized by an anxiety that has the following components:

1. Physical
2. Mental
3. Behaviour

that are manifested in the presence of aquatic environments.

Physical Manifestations

In the presence of an aquatic environment a hydrophobe may feel,

1. An accelerated pulse
2. Ball in the throat
3. Blurry vision
4. Need to go to the bathroom
5. Knot in the stomache

There can be other feelings or sensations like the need to cough when water comes near the mouth or nose.  A beginner becomes alienated from his body when he is in the water.  He feels lighter, off balance, and all of these creates a feeling of discomfort with the water and himself.

Mental Manifestations

A hydrophobe is hypervigiliant and thus sees danger everywhere. His imagination fills his head with negative (failure and impotence) and irrational thoughts, and images of catastrophe related with drowning and sinking.  This person always thinks the worst is about to happen.  All his thoughts create a false reality around aquatic environments that feed his anxiety.  It is important to identify these thoughts and try to change them.

 Behavior

The most common behavior that a hydrophobe presents is to avoid aquatic scenarios.  This seems as a rational solution to the problem. For most people going to a pool or the sea is an easily avoidable situation.  The problem really starts when their fear gets to a point where they can’t get in the shower or drink water (they drink sodas or juices).  When confronting the water becomes inevitable, the behavior becomes rough and uncontrollable.  This panic attack can sometimes be more dangerous than the water itself.  The muscle tension provoked by the panic attack prevents the person from coordinating movements that can help buoyancy.  Breathing can also become anarchic opening the chance for water to get in the respiratory tract and complicate breathing.  For this reason the adaptation towards an aquatic environment must be progressive and taken step by step.

The Solution

The good thing about fear is it can be solved.  In my country we have a saying that says,” the only way to eat a whale is piece by piece” and this is how we are going to attack this problem.

The first piece we are going to eat is establishing comfort in a completely safe aquatic environment: your bathroom.  From here we will continue to place little bricks that will help us build confidence, and thus we can progress.

The second piece we are going to eat is becoming familiar with an aquatic environment.  Our body has to get used to moving in a different environment.  That is why we have to learn how to breath, hear, and feel all over again.

The third piece will be floating. This topic is probably the one that has the most taboos in beginners.  Here you will learn that everybody floats, and that some people float more than others.

The fourth piece is moving.  We will learn the theory and practice behind the flutter kick.  I love teaching this part because it is the first time you will actually move in the water.  This is the first sign that you are starting to gain confidence and adapting to the water.

In the fifth step we will learn our first stroke which will be backstroke.  We will avoid the deep end for now, but this stroke will help us get there with more confidence when it is time.

The sixth and final piece will be dominating the abyss.  When you reach this step you will have built an arsenal of tools that will help you conquer your fear of water.

This is all you have to swallow in order conquer the water.  At the end of this program you will be able to:

1. Develop a good cardio resistance
2. Relief tensión and stress.
3. Keep blood pressure stable.
4. Avoid injuries
5. Increased self esteem.
6. Improve levels of anxiety
7. Look better physically.

In my previous post I showed you a couple of exercises that you can use to start getting more comfortable with the water.  You also learned that your lungs, when kept full of air, are the best floating device you have.  In this post we are going to use those skills we acquired before and use them to help us float horizontally.

Here are some of the drills in I use to teach my students how to float.

Floating Facing Upwards “Star or Flower Pose”

Objective: Floating horizontally facing upwards

This drill is just like the “Float like a mushroom…” the only difference lies in that you will be facing up instead of down, and that your body will be stretched out instead of tucked.

How to do it: To start off this drill we need to bend our knees so that the water is at shoulder level; lay your head back until your ears are submerged.  This is extremely important, so if you feel any discomfort keep practicing it until you get used to it. Once you have managed this start stretching your legs (WITHOUT LIFTING YOUR EARS FROM THE WATER) until you find yourself lying on your back.  Spread your arms to the side, increasing your area helps you float better. Remember to keep your lungs filled with air, your buoyancy depends on it.

If you happen to feel scared to hesitate in asking for help or using the side of the pool, just don’t fall to dependant on having help around.

How to do it really, really well: There is not much you can do wrong in this exercise.  Remember to stay relaxed.  Breathe normally and don’t lift your head from the water.  If your feet happen to sink don’t worry this is normal, just make sure your face and chest are popping out of the water.

Streamline 2

Objective: Equilibrio y aprender la sensación de impulso.

How to do it: The following exercise is exactly like the last one, but with some modifications.  This exercise is going really going to show you how much confidence and skills you have acquired since you started.  We are going to start this exercise with either your right or left hand on the wall.  Now put both of your legs on the wall (left most picture below), and hold yourself with your hand.  Stretch your other hand in front of you, pointing to the direction you want to go.   This is the starting point. Now place your face in the water, let go of the wall, and place your hands in a streamline position. NOW PUSH OFF!!!

How to do it really, really well: Look at the exercise previous above.

Learning how to swim is a simple process (doesn’t mean it is easy) that anyone can do on their own.  There are four basic components to learning how to swim.  The first one would be learning how to breath.  As you may know, breathing is essential to staying alive, if you can’t breath you can’t live.

Breathing while swimming can be a bit complicated due to the fact that at the beginning you are thinking about your feet legs, catch, pull etc., which can lead to you breaking your breathing pattern (this is a fancy way of me say you’re going to swallow water).

When I teach my students how to breath I get them to practice breathing exercises in the water during the whole first day of class.  I want them to get it tattooed in the Central Nervous System so that they will swallow the least amount of water possible.  These are some of the drills they practice:

Bubbles

Objective: Learn to inhale and exhale.

How to do it: Stand somewhere in the pool where you are comfortable at.  Grab onto the edge a open your legs shoulder width apart.  When ready take a deep breath through your mouth (the amount of air you pull in should be the same as in a normal breath), put your face in the water, and blow bubbles from your nose or mouth or both…doesn’t really matter. Repeat around 10 times.  You can start blowing air before your face touches the water or when it is inside… your choice.

How to do it really, really well. To do this drill like a real pro it is necessary to carry out both inhalation and exhalation in different environments.  Let me explain myself. La exhalation should never be done when your face is out of the water, and the opposite goes for the inhalation (obviously).  Breathing is the phase in every stroke that slows us down; the less time we spend with our face out of the water the better.  As all the drills above you must be able to do this exercise naturally.  You must get at least 15 complete breaths done without stopping in order to consider this exercise complete.

Just say “No”

Objective: Learn to breathe sideways like in freestyle.

How to do it: This exercise follows the same principles as the last, but with a few extra details.  This time we start off with our face in the water and exhale with our ears submerged; then we tilt our head to the right and we inhale (Remember you must not be gasping for air).  Inhalation must be through the mouth.

How to do it really, really well:   When we tilt our head to inhale we must keep our ear in the water. We must NOT lift our head, just tilt it!!! All you have to do is rotate not lift.  Rotate your shoulders a bit if your having a hard time getting your mouth out of the water.  Exhale when your mouth is mack in the water.

“Float like a Mushroom, sting like a jellyfish.”

The following drill will be the first time you will lift your feet of the ground.  This is where you will start to learn to love the sport and the feeling of weightlessness.  You must have this skill completely mastered in order to continue to the next level.

Objective: Learn to float and depend on our natural buoy.

This drill isn’t very complex, but it does have a certain degree of difficulty because of the instability.

How to do it: Start off away from the border.  Take a deep breath and hold it, put your face in the water and just let your body float.  Your arms can be out in front or by your side, and your legs can be together or spread apart.  There is a chance, depending on body composition, that your feet don’t float.  Floatability can vary from person to person, and that is why we must do these drills… to learn how our body floats.  You must be completely relaxed.

Hold this position for 10 seconds.  If your having a hard time feeling secure don’t hesitate on using the edge.  Start off holding on with two hands, and as you build confidence let go of one hand and then the other.

To get up plant one foot under your belly button and lift yourself up.

How to do it really well: This drill is mastered when you don’t have to use the edge to keep balance. Ask yourself, “Did I feel comfortable doing this? Did I feel secure?  Inhale and feel how your lungs serve as your natural buoy.  Exhale and feel how you sink.  Play around with the amount of air inside your lungs to experiment different buoyancy sensations.

Practice these exercises and I promise you you will breath better when you swim.