As a non-swimmer, I am continually trying to get better at improving my efficiency in the water. I have heard varying theories regarding proper head position. TI and others teach looking straight down at the bottom of the pool, while others recommend looking forward slightly. When I do the former, there is clearly less drag from my legs but I sometimes inhale water if I do not roll enough. With the head forward, I can sight and breathe better. Any input from the “ST swim gurus” would be appreciated.
Okay TriDoctor, I’ll give you my two cents.
First we have to acknowledge that drag is bad. Then we have to realize that “big drag” (like the body at an angel - as apposed to “smaller drag” like an arm cross over or “tiny drag” like a leg hair) is something that must be avoided and therefore being level in the water is good - if we can agree on those terms then…The human body in water is kinda like a seesaw - if you lift something on the front end then the back end drops, and if you lower something in the front end then the back end raises. There are 3 tools that we can use to keep level; 1 is head position, 2 is lead arm depth, 3 is pressure (if you press the upper part of the torso towards the bottom then the lower part of the torso raises).
I should also add that different body types require different degrees of head/arm/pressure combos. A swimmer with lots of adipose tissue around the hips and legs might getaway with water hitting at the hair line, a lead arm that’s supper shallow and no pressure at all and they are still level. While a very lean and muscular body type might need all three in spades to be level in the water.
With non-swimmers, as you’ve identified yourself to be, there is often a need to…here comes, a teaching term…purposefully exaggerate the depth of head, the lead arm depth and the pressure to get level and reduce drag. As swim proficiency increases we can “lighten up” on some of those and still stay balanced. Many of us like to reference world level swimmers…“so and so doesn’t keep his/her head in the water and they won three golds”. Right on! When a beginner has swam even a micro fraction of the yardage that a world level swimmer has then they can and usually will make changes.
You mentioned that it’s harder to breath when your head is deeper. I would begin with these suggestions:
- go earlier for breath: when the recovery arm passes through the air and at the moment the finger tips of that hand touch the water - begin the turn for breath.
- try turning the crown the head down and the chin up for air.
- also adjust your turn for breath as if you are looking back towards your shoulder a bit.
Regarding sighting - that’s for open water only, not in a pool and when you do it do it quickly and by lifting as little of the head out of the water as possible (leave chin in for sure). You might not see the buoy right away, that’s fine - sight again after a couple of strokes.
Ian
/not a swim guru, but I recently had a breakthrough in this area that may be helpful.
Per TI, if your head is in alignment with the rest of your body, you will get a bite of air if you rotate. You may have your head down too much.
For some people (possible those with buyancy issues), breathing requires the head to be moved a little too much, throwing off the rest of the alignment in your body resulting in your hips sinking and your legs splaying to keep you off the bottom of the pool (I know from watching tons of myself on video underwater).
By tilting your head forward slightly, you may more easily be able to get air while maintaining alignment.
With the head forward, I can sight and breathe better.
but you don’t need to sight EVERY stroke, particularly in the pool, and keeping your head up is going to push your hips down
how’s this - when you go into the wall to turn, you should see the very bottom of the ‘t’ on the wall. if you can see the whole thing your head’s too high.
IMHO, one of the common misunderstandings in swimming is that the body is a rigid plane, ie. the seesaw example. the body is not rigid, to raise the head a small amount does NOT dictate that the FEET must drop. there is a lot of chest, abdomen and hip between the two and they can take care of the effects of the head positioning. so, the issue is buoyancy. once you raise the head a bit then something must accommodate that action. it can be lowering the chest (a good idea since it has air in it) or the abdomen or the hips. but you don’t have to drop the feet.
now, if you raise the head a lot you will find it hard to not drop the hips and then the feet. this brings up the point of connecting the upper and lower body. to be able to maintain a horizontal position you need a degree of relaxation between upper body and lower body yet at the same time a strong core and a coordinated propulsion. this is what hours of swimming helps develop. a relaxed strength. this is when you are swimming and not fighting the water. This can be challenging for people with tight hip flexors from long hours of biking and sitting in front of a desk.
as to looking. of course you look ahead. to not is insane. ever try running while looking at your feet? ever try biking while looking at the front hub. you may be able to go in a straight line for 25yds in a pool but what good is that. you know what’s going to happen if you swim looking straight down in an ironman. it won’t be fun.
so, if you are going to look where you are going in a race then you ought to do that in practice too. so, the question is how to look ahead and not loose efficiency doing it. like running, you don’t lift your head up and stare at the sky. you pick a place about 40yds in front of you and kinda focus there and maybe look around some periodically. well, swimming is the same. you tilt, not lift, your head so you can see where you are going. so, your eyes may be directed 30-45* ahead, in a straight line of sight, but with eye movement and peripheral vision you can see pretty well what’s up ahead. periodically or as the situation dictates, you focus the eyes ahead but when things are clear you keep the eyes looking straight (which is the 30-45* angle). i don’t know if i explained that well but the head is tilted up such that looking straight is a 30-45* angle. you can move the eyes within the head to see more ahead but you don’t want to do this for the entire swim because it’s tiring.
so, learn to look ahead without dropping the hips. learn to know where your feet are and what position your body is in. learn to relax in the water so the body is not a rigid seesaw but a strong connections of flexible joints. just some thoughts…
You learned to breath with a high head, now you just have to learn to breath with a low head. It’s not that having your head down is bad, or that breathing that way is impossible, it’s just new to you. Persist with it and re-learn how to take a breath and you’ll be faster.
The problems is that it’s really easy to use the head to keep the hips pivoted into the correct position, and a lot of new swimmers figure that as long as that part of their stroke is functional, they want to leave it be so they can focus on other areas that need more dramatic work.
Which is a pretty significant mistake for an open water swimmer, IMO, because a nice stable core is pretty helpful in choppy water situations- the keeping your core stabile in those conditions makes it easier to be in an overall position to make good forward progress. If you’ve only got teeter-totter body position, you’re more likely to get tossed around like a ragdoll.
As for head position, I feel like you should be looking forward slightly to moderately at most times, but the idea is to get there by rolling the chin forward without throwing the head back.