Courtesy of Gary Hall Sr., 10-time World Record Holder, 3-time Olympian, 1976 Olympic Games US Flagbearer and The Race Club co-founder.
Propulsion & Frontal Drag
There are two fundamental laws or forces that govern our ability to swim fast that often don’t agree on what position we should assume. The two forces are those that move us down the pool, propulsion, and those that slow us down, frontal drag. A good example of this disagreement is head position.
In order to assume the position of least frontal drag, the head should be in alignment with the body. That means the line of sight needs to be straight down toward the bottom of the pool. Not only does this head position straighten the body, creating the best position to reduce our drag coefficient, it also allows the water on the surface to pass over the tops of our heads, reducing wave or surface drag.
Most swimmers swim freestyle or backstroke with their heads positioned too high, looking forward slightly as they swim through the water, or in the case of backstroke, with the head perched up.
One of the reasons that they do this is defensive swimming. When the head is positioned properly for the least amount of frontal drag, looking down, one cannot see where one is going and must rely on the black line on the bottom of the pool, or the T at the end, to determine one’s position. When there are several swimmers in a lane churning up and down in a circle pattern, it only takes one bop on the head to make one swim like Tarzan with the head looking forward, avoiding potential collisions.
There is another reason why swimmers like to hold their heads up and that is propulsion. When a swimmer initiates the underwater pull, he or she is stronger with the back slightly arched and the head up, as opposed to a straight body position. If one considers doing a pull up, the initiation of the lift of the body is always done with the back arched, creating more power, rather than with a straight back. The same is true of the underwater pulling motion.
The Fastest Body Speed of the Cycle
Fortunately, the ideal times in the pulling cycle to create the least amount of frontal drag and the maximum propulsion are different. The fastest body speed of the cycle, when the hand of the recovering arm first strikes the water, is the best time to have the least amount of drag, since frontal drag is related to the speed squared. At that point, the head should be down and the body straight. The bow wave should pass over the top of the head.
The propulsion of the arms/hands begins with the hand about one foot in front of the shoulder. At this point the back should arch slightly, lifting the head somewhat to maximize the force as the hand moves backwards in the water.
One can achieve both of these positions, but it requires a steady movement of the spine from the straight position to the arched position as the hand moves through the cycle. In backstroke, the head is lifted slightly to initiate the pull and drops back at hand entry, allowing a small stream of water to pass over the goggles. By doing so, one can reach the best compromise between these opposing forces in order to maximize body speed.
At The Race Club camps, we teach our swimmers how to change their body positions during the stroke cycle in freestyle and backstroke in order to swim the fastest. Some great drills for learning to position the head down are shown in this video: http://www.theraceclub.com/videos/secret-tip-head-position-1of2/
Gary Hall, Sr., Technical Director and Head Coach of The Race Club (courtesy of TRC)
Yours in Swimming,
Gary Sr.
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I have always loved swimming from the time I was three years old and I’ll be 70 in September. When I swim the Australian crawl I always turn my head to the left which is very unusual. Does it matter? I’m just having fun anyway. Thanks!
hey
Interesting. I know, back in the 70’s and early 80’s, I was taught to raise my head (looking forward slightly) in freestyle sprints by many coaches as this was thought to reduce drag and create a slight bow structure like a boat; I guess the theory was that you planed on your face! It never felt comfortable and I think it compromised my stroke power, turnover rate, and efficiency and drove my hips down a bit. On the plus side, I was an occasional air-kicker like you say Thorpe was without this. Was anyone else taught this was THE WAY to sprint? I so wish I could go back to redo my club, high school, and college swimming days over… Read more »
I tend to feel a lot more stress on my shoulder when I try to begin the catch with my head facing down. So there may be a tradeoff among head position, shoulder strain, and what Gary Hall Sr. calls “swimming on the freeway”: A swimmer trying to avoid extra shoulder stress may have to start lifting the head before the hand in back is finished pulling (the highest speed/greatest drag phase of the stroke, when having your head down is most important); otherwise, if he waits until the back hand is finished pulling before raising the head for the front hand’s catch, there may be a delay between the finish of one pull and the beginning of the next… Read more »
Modern coaching today relies on science, not opinions and observations such as these offered by Dr. Hall–without empirical evidence of their validity. Nevertheless, these theories do offer interesting hypotheses that warrant further investigation. Drag can easily be measured and questions of proper head position answered empirically. Of course, the more the head is buried under water, the more surface area it presents and the greater its drag component. But raising the head drives the hips down. These trade-offs have long been known, but so far not thoroughly studied with science–not opinions.
With all due respect…everyone is entitled to their opinion and their theories, but I really felt the need to address this post.
“Drag can easily be measured and questions of proper head position answered empirically.” –
Well…not exactly. Coefficient of Drag measured while actually swimming (termed active drag) is actually very hard to measure and even today, there is not consensus in the real sports science community of exactly how to measure active drag. It’s actually not that easy.
“But raising the head drives the hips down. These trade-offs have long been known, but so far not thoroughly studied with science–not opinions”
Again…not true. This effect has been thoroughly studied dating back to 1970’s.
DR. EVIL HAS SPOKEN!!
Yes, Mr. Hall is obviously NOT a physicist, nor even, it appears, an aeronautical engineer or fluid dynamics engineer. He does pick up on a lot of techniques that are currently considered the best in swimming, and he knows a few buzz words, but to anyone in physics he sounds ridiculous.
But as I said, he does pick up on many of the currently used techniques, and therefore the result for most can be useful. Just don’t believe that there is anything to his pseudo-technical speak. I cringe every time I read his columns.
Yeah I doubt DOCTOR HALL is basing any of his statements based on science…..
Although backstroke is mentioned, the scope of the article seems to deal mostly with freestyle. Still, in a similar vein to Thorpe’s head and body position, a lot of high level backstrokers tuck their chin (if I remember Russell Mark’s presentation on backstroke trends, most or possibly all had a tucked head position). I remember reading something by Teri McKeever (possibly in the swim coaching bible) where she talked about having a “slightly curved shape” body position during the backstroke, where the chin is a bit tucked, looking toward the feet, and on the surface, the middle of the body is lower, and the feet are closer to the surface.
I was never entirely sure of the justification (she refers… Read more »
Kicking senselessly very fast IS non-propulsive and counter-productive. Kicking in connection with stroke is very much propulsive. Kicking into the stroke in backstroke is one of keys of fast backstroke. I do not believe in “looking back” head position ion backstroke because you are fighting water and gravity and spending too much energy for that. I believe the future of backstroke is no hip rotation (only upper body rotation) and avoiding speed killing scissor kicks, while using kicks for balance (keeping hips up) and kicking into the stroke for maximum extension. Backstroke is stroke driven at the first place.
No hip rotation in backstroke? Backstroke is stroke driven?
“When a swimmer initiates the underwater pull, he or she is stronger with the back slightly arched and the head up, as opposed to a straight body position. If one considers doing a pull up, the initiation of the lift of the body is always done with the back arched, creating more power, rather than with a straight back. The same is true of the underwater pulling motion.”
Pulling force required to move the body using a fixed object (pullup bar and gravity) verses water (not fixed and microgravity) are not closely related. (Specificity of Exercise) These non-evidence based blog posts really do not serve to advance the known knowledge base of our sport!
DR. EVIL HAS SPOKEN!!!
While I believe Ian looked forward too much, he actually does tuck the head down slightly after the breath and there (sometimes)is a trickle of water that passes over his head. Great as he was, I think he would have possibly been even faster with a head down further, particularly after the breath. But that is a great tribute to the strength of his kick. Remember that he is (I believe) generating more pulling power from the head forward position, so it is not all bad. Sun Yang, by comparison, will get his head completely submerged after his breath stroke…and I think he is smart to do so.
Thanks Gary for the input. If you ever find time I would love to see a video demonstrating this switching from straight to slightly curved back in the freestyle stroke. This makes sense to me and I would love to incorporate it into my work outs but fear that if I do it wrong it could lead to very bad form and adding time. I am starting to think that at the high level the spine must be constantly switching body positions during the stroke.
I have heard it said that this switching is very common in those with an asymetrical hybrid (one arm shoulder driven/one arm hip driven) freestyle. Think of Phelps and Lezak when they breath every two strokes. I think they lift their head up (and arch their back) when they breath and straighten their back and bury their head on the stroke that doesn’t include a breath.
I think Gary Hall Sr, would be able to explain this better than me though.
>Sun Yang, by comparison, will get his head completely submerged after his breath stroke…and I think he is smart to do so.
Very much so. He is doing it because he is doing 4 kick cycle and when he breaths he does not kick but glides only. Then with right arm entering the water he lowers his head and swims “downhill” using strong 4 kicks and gravity to his advantage.