Tips and Tricks for Body Position on Front

From a previous blog, floatation was discussed briefly with some great information to get you thinking about implementing this in the water.  Body position is our starting point. If your body is stiff, not streamlined with dragging arms and legs in weird angles, you might as well put a brick in your swim suit!

The Key to Floating

First of all push yourself up from the bottom of the pool with your arms out in front of you like a star onto your stomach. As you  slightly move forward take a deep breath and get your head down looking at the floor, let the legs move outwards to complete your star shape. If you are relaxed enough and not sticking your bottom in the air, then with some practice you will be floating as good as a beaver building a dam on a hot day. If this isn’t working then try adjusting your body into different positions that works best for you. The alternative is floating on your back, the best tip I have picked up was putting yourself on your back in a Y shape! This actually works best for me and the majority of my students I teach. As Neal from art attack would say  – “try it yourself!”.

Once you are feeling more confident with the whole concept of floating, let’s put it all together and try some common movements in the water.

Push and Glides

As discussed before (in the kicking section) this is a really good way of focusing on your movement through the water. If you are holding a flat streamlined body position, you will move through the water with ease. It sounds easy but you will be surprised to see the amount of people I have taught who think they can just do this straight away.

Steps to Remember:

• Before you push off the wall, have your head down and arms out on top of each other in front of you.

• Squeeze your ears gently so your face is in the water looking down.

• When you are ready to take action, take a breath, push off with two feet and hold the glide until you slow down. If you have rolled onto your back it is quite likely you have squeezed your ears and head too hard and not relaxed your body enough.

As with improving any technique, practice makes perfect! Repeat the processes until you are getting some good power off the wall, holding that lovely streamline body.

Need help prefecting your technique? Explore our programmes now to get yourself booked in for some lessons.