How much does flexibility affect your ability to swim fast? I have never seen any discussion about this. It seems to me that if your hip flexors are tight like mine are then you will have drag in the water. Or if your sides are inflexible your reach will be limited. Why isn’t there a bigger emphasis on flexibility? Wouldn’t inflexible muscles affect your form and therefore your ability to go fast in the water? I am a slow swimmer and am starting to wonder if the answer to getting faster isn’t just to stretch more.
Just like any sport - flexibility won’t hurt. I have very flexible ankles and good flexibility in my shoulders. Other than that I am the least flexible person out there but am a good swimmer.
However, in my opinion you are looking for an excuse to avoid spending more time in the water. Technique work and time in the pool would do more for you than stretching. Get in the pool and work. I won’t get better at running by swimming and you won’t get better at swimming by spending more time in the gym.
Yeah, you’re probably right I was just looking for an excuse not to swim. (I’m serious, I was looking for an easy way out.)
But on the other hand, lets say I swim more AND stretch do I get better results than just swimming?
maybe…
Some folks feel like you might get a little loss of power, or encourage more injuries if you’ve got too much ankle fleixbility. Am not sure about the loss of power, but in terms of injury, my ankles are bendy enough that I’ve rolled them and essentially bounced the knobby outside bone of my ankles and it only hurt a little for about 50 feet down the pavement before I could settle back into the run. A true runner would have torn something doing that.
As for shoulders, the best thing you can do to get sport-specific swim flexibility is to swim more, think about range of motion when doing controlled parts of a workout, and do some butterfly and backstroke if you can manage it. Very few triathletes do so much swimming that they could come anywhere close to the kind of injury you can get from having too much shoulder flexibility, even if they’ve got mechanics issues.
I would think that if you can put your arms above your head and squeeze your head between your biceps then you probably have enough flexibility.
If not then you need to work on it.
jaretj
I think that flexibility can always help, but the real key is having good form.
Swimmers often tend to have very flexible upper bodies/shoulders. This isn’t because they focus a lot of time on stretching, it’s because the more you swim, the more flexibility you develop.
And with regard to the hip flexors: If you can stand up straight, then your hip flexors probably aren’t too tight to swim. If they were so tight that they forced you to drag your legs, then they would also cause you to walk around hunched over all the time.
The answer to getting faster is to swim more (with decent form of course). Simple as that.
That’s what I thought the swimmers would say. It’s just that I haven’t swam for two or three months and then today I went swimming. I was REALLY slow. While swimming, I realized that I was tight in a lot of places and that it was restricting my stroke. When I start swimming regularly, I suppose that will get me loose again in all the right places. Just wondering if I could speed up the process.
My n=1 is as a very inflexible frame and very poor swimmer, so I do think it's at least another hurdle to overcome.
Just like any sport - flexibility won’t hurt.
It could, actually. There is an inverse relationship between the flexibility and the stability of a joint. An unstable joint may be more susceptible to injury.
To the OP: ankle flexibilty in swimming = good for kicking. The shoulder flexibility will come as a result of swimming, you needn’t worry about that, spend time stretching in the pool instead. Triathletes might consciously work on ankle flexibility as running and cycling can keep them tight.
Shoulder flexibility is one of the fundemental hallmarks of a fast swimmer. (If as you state you “have never seen any discussion about this” it means you are not looking in the right places for your swimming info-its basic stuff). Any swimmer who is fast will have very flexible shoulders and many swimmers have freakish flexibility. Get a group of really talented swimmers together and get them going on some shoulder stretches and you’ll think you have wandered into a circus sideshow.
That being said, while stretching can be helpful a) by and large swimmers have flexible shoulders as a result of large volumes of swim training not because they have stretched themselves into being Gumbies and b) if you are not careful, you can really hurt yourself doing shoulder stretches if you don’t know what you are doing.
+1
I couldn’t raise my hands directly over my head as described because of tight rotator cuffs. It effects your position in the water a lot. Flexible ankles help with kicking (so I’ve been told).
A good way to stretch your shoulders is to hold a broom over your head and try to pass it over your head and behind your back. That sounds kinda weird, but it really helps.
Shoulder flexibility is one of the fundemental hallmarks of a fast swimmer
x2 - this is “common knowledge” among swimmers.
Back in competitive days we used to do ~15 minutes pre-swim structured stretching, then another ~10 minutes post workout, w/focus on shoulders, ankle, calf. Don’t know if my present-day flexible shoulders/ankles was caused by swimming/stretching or just genetic (x2 on Jills bending ankles while running), but it definitely helps.
What is a good way to work on ankle flexibility? I can’t kick more than 5 feet on a kick board.
My favorite is to trace the letters of the alphabet with my feet.
Also do calf stretches and anterior tibialis stretches.
In case you can’t find a wall to lean against…
http://www.allegromedical.com/gift-ideas-c573/prostretch-unilateral-p191740.html
IMO the really key areas where you need to be flexible for swimming front crawl are shoulders and ankles.
Ankle flexibility makes a huge difference to the amount of propulsion you get from kicking. It’s free speed, it doesn’t cost you any more energy to kick with your feet flopping up and down like fins than it does to kick with feet that won’t bend back. There are ankle stretching devices such as this:
http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/2968.htm
Another way is to watch TV while kneeling down on the floor with your weight on your heels so your feet are pushed back.
There is a lesser issue with toe flexibility. I have very flexible ankles but not so flexible toes, so I’m a reasonable rather than great kicker. I’ve considered making some sort of wooden block to push my toes back while kneeling on the floor, but I’m too lazy and enjoy swimming much more than stretching.
For shoulders, a really important type of flexibility is if you stand upright and hold your arms up so they are to the side and horizontal, you far back can you move them? I struggle to get mine back further than about 30 degrees, and feel this does limit my front crawl. I have spent time in the past working on this, and did my 1500m PB around that time. Again, I’m too lazy to keep it up, I love swimming, hate stretching. I’d much rather spend an hour in the pool than 10 minutes stretching. Have a look around the 30 second mark in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3paiELa7mA
Phelps does his trademark swinging of his arms before the start. My arms don’t go anywhere near that far back. The reason that type of flexibility is helpful is because it allows you to lift your shoulders out of the water during the arm recovery, which reduces drag, without having to use excessive upper body rotation.
Cool video of Phelps. BTW, my arms won’t even get half of what he gets in that stretch at 30 secs.
Listen to FLA Jill(: There are no shortcuts. The only way is to swim more.
Like you, after my last race early November, I did not swim for 6 weeks. That first time in, since the break, late December, it seemed I had lost it all. Was so slow. Had no feel, no flexibility nor range of motion. But the game plan, once I “broke the ice”, was to just put in short workouts/high frequency yardage. After about 6 workouts, I felt I was back to where I was at the end of last season.
Last week was the first week of base. Swam 4 times…8000 yards.
This week am shooting for 12000, today a double.
No shortcuts. Just swim every chance you have.