I was noticing the other day, that if I concentrate on pushing my chest down AND tighten my stomach muscles so my back isn't arched that my legs & butt float higher. This only partially agrees with what you said, but makes sense to me. Definitely encourages me to keep working on my core. I'm finding now that as I think about this position as I swim a length my position gets better & better. Hopefully, in a few weeks it will be second nature & I'll swim flatter all the time.

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Justin in Austin, get it? :)

Cool races:
- Redman
- Desoto American Triple T

I went to total immersion too and it taught me balance but not speed. I am not nearly good enough in the water to give you advice but one thing I have noticed lately is the more I warmup (with drills) the better swimmer I become at my main sets. I've been doing kicking drills with fins and 50m fist drill (25 fist, 25 swim) and things like that. So far so good.

Arching your back is a red herring. If you push the buoy, then you will be flat in the water with a flat back. If you do not have proper balance and try to correct it by arching your back, you will still be out of balance only now you will be all twisted up as well.

Stick with the TI drills. They won't get you onto the podium by themselves, but you've got to get balance down cold before anything else will happen.

What do you mean by push the buoy? How do I do it? What does it feel like? What muscles will get abused? How do I know I am doing it?

Flailing in Florida,

Sounds like you're engaging your core muscles a bit more...that's a good thing. However, by arching your back you are now swimming with a curved spine, which is not conducive to good hip and shoulder rotation.

My guess (without seeing you in the water) is that by pushing your stomach into the water, your legs are floating a bit lower, and you're kicking harder to compensate, and that the increased resultant propulsion forces are higher than the increased drag from a lower leg position. Purely a guess, based on your description.

Arching the lower back (meaning spine towards belly button) is not a good way to connect hip rotation to your swimming stroke. See any baseball players/golfers swing hard with a arched lower back? Try thinking about pushing your belly button to your spine to engage your core with a straighter spine, then rotate about the spinal line.

Just my $.02.

Dave

I don't know the TI drills for it, but try this:
Float face down arms at sides. Imagine a point midway between your shoulders and right below your adams apple. Holding your body straight (I mean don't curve your body to accomplish this) try and push this imaginary point down towards the bottom of the pool. This is mainly accomplished by moving your head down, You will feel your hips/legs come up and break the surface of the water. This is close to a balanced position.

Push off the wall a few times and glide. Notice how far you go normally, then get into this new balanced position. Notice how much farther you go. Do this a few times until you are comfortable and have found a good balanced position.

Now try swimming a 50 like this. Once you feel good, swim a few add-ups. Play around with the balance and you will see your add-ups change dramatically.

Add-ups are the addition of your time for 50 yards in seconds with the number of strokes taken. For example, I commonly run about 42 seconds for a 50 add-up. I'll take about 32 strokes (left and right) for an add-up of 42+32=74.

The add-up number will provide your testing platform for checking balance, stoke length, body roll, etc.

How hard are you swimming those Add-ups?

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"What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind and body can achieve; and those who stay will be champions."

Just hard enough to maintain proper swimming form.

It is very interesting to see the numbers change as you swim harder and easier for the add-up.