Technique of swimming crawl. How to learn on your own?

Technique of swimming crawl. How to learn on your own?

4 tips that will help you practice the correct technique of swimming crawl by yourself.

It’s not hard to guess that scuba diving is too radically different from regular swimming. At my first training session, I had absolutely no idea what “underwater breathing technique” was or how to keep my body on the surface. It seemed that everything was against you: I couldn’t exhale into the water, and the intervals on the surface were too short to get oxygen into my lungs, and my body was inexorably falling down and didn’t want to stay on the surface. Now I realize that the whole point is that I should not have started at the limit of my abilities, and to begin with I should have paid proper attention to practicing the technique. Proper technique, body position and breathing during the swim can do wonders and teach you to make less fuss in the water.

First of all, let’s understand together: what is the correct (high) body position? It is a certain position of the swimmer’s body, when it is strictly on the surface of the water, at the same level. It is achieved through several components:

Stretching out when swimming in the “arrow”.

The so-called “arrow” is one of the exercises used in swimming when it comes to a small child. Before training, I watched very tiny beginner swimmers, 4-5 years old, stand in the “arrow”, stretch out and raise their arms above their heads, and the coach lifted them to a horizontal position above the water. As it was later explained to me, in this position the child feels the tension of muscles – in the sides, in the stomach and his body automatically begins to memorize the correct position for swimming. This is the way to stay in the water – stretched to the limit. Adults can use special boards for practicing the correct position of the body in the water.

It can also be helpful to stand against a wall at arm’s length. Then take a step back. And now try to reach the wall without taking your feet off the floor. You’re going to have to stretch to do that.

The rule of four: four fingers pointing strictly at the wall, thumb pointing to the side

Lean on the shoulder and side muscles – not on the palm. Rowing is done not by bending the elbow, but by moving the hand. From the starting position, when we are stretched out on the water, the hand goes back first, then the forearm, and only last of all the elbow. This is called a high elbow paddle. This is done so that the swimmer has a footing in the water. The rowing should resemble pushing off a wall.

Tip – i – If you have decided to learn to swim crawl in open water, a wetsuit can help you. Due to the special fabric, a wetsuit for swimming (not to be confused with wetsuits for boarding, for example) will push you out of the water. Therefore, you will be able to reach the correct (high) body position faster.

Leg work

This is always a tricky one. Footwork comes from the hip – this is very important – not from the knee. The toes should be pulled back and the knees barely bent, if we are talking about crawl swimming technique. Legs should be almost straight, knees free, foot relaxed, toes pulled back.

Head up: how to determine the correct position?

The head is lying on the water, with the ear pressed against the hand. Under no circumstances should it be scooted up strongly on the inhalation. This again leads us to the conclusion: the whole body tends to a horizontal position.

Next, we come to the position of the body as a whole. This is tricky, because in addition to the movements of its individual parts – arms or legs – there is a kind of through movement, namely the rotation of the body. This is quite accurately called “yachting” or shoulder turn. It is as if the body turns around its axis to the side coinciding with the rowing arm.