I am getting back in the pool these days and see beginners making the same mistakes I made, thinking, “If I just increase my strength, then I’ll be so much better.” I’ve since read that swimming is 70% technique and 30% endurance/muscle. 
Much of the technique is learning how to move through the water-space with as little drag as possible. Drag slows you down. Drag makes you work harder for the same speed or distance. The take-away from this excerpt is to reduce your drag!
In this excerpt, we learn about reducing drag and increasing propulsion from the book “Swim Fastest“, reprinted with permission of Human Kinetics.
“Fundamentals for Reducing Resistive Drag
- Maintain lateral alignment in the front crawl and backstroke by
rotating the body around its longitudinal axis in synchronization with
the downward and upward movements of the arms. The entire body
must rotate, from head to toes, as an entire unit. Never try to
maintain one part—the hips or legs, for example—in a flat position
while the arms and shoulders
I am getting back in the pool these days and see beginners making the same mistakes I made, thinking, “If I just increase my strength, then I’ll be so much better.” I’ve since read that swimming is 70% technique and 30% endurance/muscle. Much of the technique is learning how to move through the water-space with as little drag as possible. Drag slows you down. Drag makes you work harder for the same speed or distance. The take-away from this excerpt is to reduce your drag!In this excerpt, we learn about reducing drag and increasing propulsion from the book “Swim Fastest“, reprinted with permission of Human Kinetics.
“Fundamentals for Reducing Resistive Drag
- Maintain lateral alignment in the front crawl and backstroke by
rotating the body around its longitudinal axis in synchronization with
the downward and upward movements of the arms. The entire body
must rotate, from head to toes, as an entire unit. Never try to
maintain one part—the hips or legs, for example—in a flat position
while the arms and shoulders are moving up and down. - To reduce form drag, keep the head in line with the trunk whenever possible.
The only time the head should be out of alignment is when it is lifted
out of the water for a breath in the butterfly and breaststroke. The
head should remain aligned with the trunk when it is rotated toward the
side to breathe in the front crawl stroke. - Maintain horizontal alignment by swimming through the water, not over it.
Any efforts to elevate the head and shoulders above the water will only
increase form and wave drag. The exceptions are the butterfly and
breaststroke, in which swimmers should raise the head and shoulders out
of the water to breathe. Even swimmers in these strokes should maintain
a horizontal body position during the propulsive phases of the
armstroke and kick, however, at least when it is possible to do so. - Body undulation is essential to propulsion in the butterfly
and, to a lesser extent, in the breaststroke, but it should not be
excessive. Swimmers should raise the head and shoulders out of the
water sufficiently to reduce resistive drag during breathing and, in
the case of butterfly, to allow arm recovery without forward dragging.
Undulation should take place at or just below the surface to a position
above the surface where the breath is taken. Swimmers should not push
the body underwater simply to increase range of undulation. Excessively
pushing the body downward will only increase form drag. - All entry and recovery movements of the arms and legs should be “soft” and smooth to reduce pushing drag.
Where possible, keep the limbs within the cross sectional area of the
body as they enter the water, and slide them forward through the water
with the smallest and most tapered surfaces, the fingertips, facing
forward. - The first portions of all underwater armstrokes, the downsweep and outsweep, are not propulsive.
Therefore, they should be executed softly and smoothly to keep pushing
drag to a minimum. Lead with the smallest and most tapered surfaces of
the hands and arms, the fingertips, when sliding them down and out
during the downsweeps and outsweeps of all four competitive strokes. - Don’t kick any deeper, higher, or wider than necessary to produce an optimum amount of propulsive force.
Kicks that are excessively wide and deep will increase pushing drag and
may disrupt horizontal and lateral alignment. Kicking upward
excessively will push the body downward. Where possible, maintain an
optimum leg spread that keeps the legs within the cross sectional area
of the torso in both lateral and vertical directions. - Don’t pull the legs into a flexed position in the flutter and dolphin kicks.
The legs should only travel upward to body level during the upbeat of
the flutter and dolphin kicks (downbeat in the backstroke). The
remainder of their upward motion should take place during the
subsequent downbeat (upbeat in the backstroke). Leg flexion at this
time may make it appear that the upbeat is still underway, but that
flexion should occur as the thighs are actually pushing downward. At
that time, the water underneath the relaxed lower legs will push the
body upward into a flexed position until the legs start to extend at
the knees. Use the minimum amount of muscular effort needed to flex the
legs forward during leg recovery in the breaststroke.
Guidelines for Increasing Propulsive Force
- Always wait until a high elbow catch position has been achieved before applying backward force against the water.
Inexperienced swimmers try to apply force when the arms are facing
downward or against the water. They must learn to wait until they have
positioned the undersides of the arms and the palms of the hands to
push back against the water before applying force. The arms and hands
should travel through approximately one-third of their underwater
armstrokes before swimmers begin to push backward against the water. - The arms should be flexed approximately 90° when the catch is
made, and they should not be extended or flexed further by any
significant amount during the propulsive phases of the strokes that
follow. In other words, swimmers should form a boomerang-shaped
paddle with the undersides of the arms and hands when they make the
catch, and they should press backward against the water throughout the
stroke without changing the shape of the arms appreciably. In this way,
the work of forward propulsion is done by the large adducting and
extending muscle groups of the shoulders and torso instead of the small
muscle groups that tend to rotate the forearms and hands. The only
exception to this rule occurs in the backstroke, in which the arms
extend backward and below the thighs during the propulsive phase of
their strokes. - Keep the palm of the hand and the underside of the forearm
aligned as though they were one jointless unit during the propulsive
phases of the various armstrokes. The tendency to rotate the hand
in and out in advance of the arm in the same direction and the tendency
to overflex or hyperextend the hand at the wrist during the propulsive
armstroke phase are two of the most common errors swimmers make. The
hands do rotate during the various underwater armstrokes, but this is
only because they are facing in the direction the arms are moving. This
rotation is not initiated by rotating the palm and allowing the arm to
follow. Swimmers should keep the palms of the hands aligned with the
undersides of the forearms and allow the direction the arms are moving
to dictate the pitch of the hands. - Always stroke in diagonally backward patterns during the propulsive phases of the underwater armstrokes.
Even though drag is probably the dominant propulsive force in swimming,
pulling and pushing the arms straight back through the water will not
provide the greatest distance per stroke, nor will it provide the
fastest forward velocity. Effective swimming requires deviations from
the straight backward application of force for all of the reasons
described in this chapter and in chapter 1. - Hand speeds should accelerate in pulses with each major change
in their direction, from the time they make the catch to the end of
each underwater armstroke. The hands accelerate in pulses during
underwater armstrokes, slowing as they make the transition from one
sweep to the next and then accelerating to the next point of
transition. Nevertheless, hand velocity does accelerate from the start
to the finish of their propulsive phases. Although they accelerate and
decelerate in pulses, the hands should never reach maximum velocity
until they are near the end of the propulsive phase of a particular
underwater armstroke. - Propulsive efforts should cease as the hands approach the legs on their way to the surface.
Many swimmers make the mistake of pushing against the water until the
hands reach the surface. Because the arms will be facing too far upward
after they pass the legs, applying force at that time will not create
any additional propulsion. Instead, it will push the body downward,
decelerating forward speed in the process.”
- Maintain lateral alignment in the front crawl and backstroke by