Rock n’ Roll? First Roll, then Rock! (your Triathlon Swim, that is)
Okay, I admit it, the title is really corny. But it amused me and it got you to check to see what this post is about. So then, what is it about? Body roll.
Let me explain what I mean by body roll. When you take a stroke in freestyle, as your hand recovers (the portion of your arm cycle conducted above the water, that returns the hand to the front of the stroke), the related shoulder should drop down, allowing a greater reach. Meanwhile, the opposing shoulder should raise up as that arm completes the stroke and begins its recovery. This will rotate, or roll, your body to face out toward the side, rather than straight down toward the bottom. Please note that while this only ‘forces’ the upper torso area to rotate, proper technique calls for you to maintain a generally straight body, so you should rotate through your hips and legs as well.
Many of us were taught freestyle or the front crawl as being performed with our body facing toward the bottom. Today, a more apt perspective is the stroke being performed rotated toward your side, alternating back and forth to each side, in time with the arm cycle. Notice that I haven’t brought up breathing. In this specific area of the stroke technique, breathing is not material. Your body should rotate to each side equally, regardless of breathing. The correct amount of rotation is fairly common to our breathing side, as we utilize the rotation to make it easier to rotate our face out of the water for that breath. The non-breathing side, however, does not provide such an incentive for proper rotation. Over the past several weeks, I have seen a very large number of people making the same error; a dramatic under-rotation to the non-breathing side.
Under-rotation in your freestyle will cause or contribute to a number of problems in the effectiveness in your stroke. First, it will significantly limit the forward reach of your stroke, thereby shortening by an equal amount the length of each arm pull. Second, it makes a full extension and completion of your stroke on the other side of your body far more difficult. Third, it prevents a high arm recovery, as our shoulders simply don’t (generally) move that far behind the plane of our body. In open water, an excessively low arm recovery sets you up for catching your arm on an errant wave, which can disrupt a stroke pattern and cause rapid muscle fatigue.
Alternatively, if you do focus on getting a good rotation in your torso, particularly to your non-breathing side, you will find that it is far easier to avoid these errors. A note about the third issue I mentioned above – by rotating your torso, you do not need to attempt to elevate your arm behind the plane of your back in order to clear the water on recovery, as the natural angle of your trunk will provide plenty of incline for your recovering arm. This takes a substantial amount of pressure off of your shoulder, and will save you a significant amount of energy. And with a bike and a run coming up, I suggest you use no more energy than required for your swim.
So, now that you’re really Rolling, go Rock that triathlon swim! (Sorry, but… well, I just had to.)
David Wendkos lives in Annapolis, MD and has over 30 years of competitive swimming experience, coaching swimmers for the pool, open water, and triathlons. He can be followed on twitter at http://twitter.com/SwimMD or on the web at http://www.AquaticRhino.com. Email him at David@TriSwimCoach.com
I started swimming as part of my recovery from a cycling accident (broken collarbone), and used a front-mounted Finis snorkel because of limited flexibility of my shoulder. I have continued to train in swimming and race in triathlons, but continue to use the snorkel as it allows a much better view of the action ahead and facilitates drafting. I am not comfortable with lateral breathing, and use little body roll in my stroke. How much of a disadvantage is this? I am not doing badly in the swim section of tri races, but wonder if the proper rolling technique with lateral breathing would result in significant speed gains.
Thanks for any input.
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David.Wendkos Reply:
August 10th, 2010 at 6:30 am
Angelos,
Thank you for your comment. Without seeing your specific stroke and physical situation, I am at a bit of a disadvantage to speak authoritatively, but generally, a good body rotation should allow for far less strain and flexing of your shoulder. By rotating your body, you will not need to reach behind yourself during the stroke recovery, which should put much less pressure on the shoulder, and during the primary propulsive portion of the stroke, it should allow you to have a much better position for leverage, allowing you to engage more and larger muscle groups, such as your latisimus dorsi (lats), to a far greater degree.
In response to your statement that you are not comfortable with lateral breathing, I need to ask a question: Is it due to the injury, or because you have never properly learned the skill? If it is due to the injury, then I hesitate to give further advice on this, as I am not a physical therapist or doctor, and have not seen your stroke or body mechanics. On the other hand, if it is because you have never learned the skill prior to now, then I would strongly encourage you to let go of the snorkel for a while and deal with the discomfort of learning. We all feel awkward as we learn a new skill. Our bodies want to default to what they know already, and fight to do so. This is going to make new things feel strange. We need to then trust that as we become comfortable with it, we will become better swimmers, and at the same time, regain the sense of comfort we felt before the change.
A couple other thoughts regarding the snorkel, as well – I am unclear: are you saying that you are actually wearing the snorkel during the triathlon swims? Based on your comment regarding drafting and sighting, it sounds as if you are. If so, I would again recommend you learn to be comfortable without it. I believe that developing dependence on any equipment (that you don’t have to), puts you at risk of undoing yourself during a race. What happens when your snorkel breaks mid-swim? Do you then give up, or perhaps simply resign yourself to a bad swim? The only equipment you should absolutely need to operate to have a successful triathlon should be your bike, and your shoes. Goggles fail. Water gets warmer than expected and wetsuits get disallowed. Zippers fail. Train to be able to swim successfully no matter what does or doesn’t work in a triathlon.
The other thought on the snorkel is this; I use the snorkel in training and in coaching to help develop a good, symmetrical body rotation. Is it possible that you have a better rotation than you realize? By keeping your head down in the water, it allow a greater focus on an even back-and-forth motion, and can encourage a greater roll to allow for a more comfortable arm recovery. It may be worth exploring. I have seen time and again that what we think we are doing, and what our bodies are actually doing, are almost always different to one degree or another. (This is a huge reason for my pushing video analysis as a terrific learning opportunity).
Using that to get back to the original question, the greatest reason for a good rotation in triathlon swimming is, in my opinion, that by allowing for less strain and engaging more of the larger muscle groups, you should emerge from the swim into T1 with less muscle fatigue, feeling far more prepared to attack the bike. The secondary, though admittedly still very important, reasons are the reduction in drag in the water that you will create and the greater leverage during the stroke that you will experience. With these reasons in mind, and keeping in mind that I have not seen your stroke to truly understand your current physical limiting factors, I would say that from a physical standpoint, yes, it is probably causing a significant decrease in your effectiveness in the swim. However, if you are finding your current results to be good, you are still feeling fresh in T1, and you are not experiencing any other injuries that you otherwise might, then I cannot definitively say you should change how you are swimming.
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