How Should You Place Your Hands, Arms and Legs When Swimming?
Problem
What's the 'correct' way to do it? Does it matter?
Answer
What's correct according to one swimmer or teacher or era might not be correct for another.
In theory you don't even need arms to swim. I've seen international competitions in which an arnless swimming won, propelling themselves at huge speed through the water using only their legs.
I was amazed that they didn't sink, head first.
Several thoughts emerge. (Pardon the unintended pun.)
Arms may cause drag, holding you back.
Your head position keeps your eyes and mnouth and nose in or out of the water.
Speed comes from pushing though the water with either arms or legs or both.
What works is what works for you. I tried moving my hands back against the water. Then I tried pushing my hands diaognally down. Trhe effect is different. Move your hand back moves your forward. Pushing your hands down pushes you upward. When I pushed my hands down, my head came upward.
In many situations you would not want your head coming upward. You would get greater speed with your head half submerged wehnd doing the crawl. You only turn sideways or come up for air every other second / every backward arm stroke or every fourth second / second armstroke. My husband does two crawl armstrokes before breathing.
With breaststroke, the downward push brings your head up. Why would you ever need to do this? Maybe if you are a novice or panic easily and want to breath.
Pulling down deliberately with both arms simultaneously is the butterfly stroke. Exhausting.
Seeing Ahead And Being Seen
Maybe you want to watch where you are going. Maybe you want to be seen, by rescuers or companions or escorts in a boat. Maybe you want to avoid waves which wash into your mouth or face or eyes.
Maybe you want your face out of the way of obstacles, debris, or insects or other wildlife.
Why would you ever want to keep your head under water? To hide. (Like those horror movies, WWII, or River Wild, where you are the hero hiding from the human baddies pursuing you.) To see what is on the swimming pool base, search for items you have dropped or lost. Out in the sea to see the seabed below, to enjoy viewing wildlife, search for lost treasure - with or without goggles.
Try operating your arms like paddles, and see what different effects that has.
You can read about swimming on Wikipedia and see videos on Youtube. The disadvantage of links to youtube is that they are numbers and letters and don't tell you the contents. The wikihow links tell you what you are getting.
Useful websites
https://www.wikihow.com/Swim-the-Breaststroke
https://www.wikihow.com/Swim-the-Butterfly-Stroke
https://www.wikihow.com/Swim-Freestyle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_River_Wild
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and phtographer, author and speaker.
Problem
What's the 'correct' way to do it? Does it matter?
Answer
What's correct according to one swimmer or teacher or era might not be correct for another.
In theory you don't even need arms to swim. I've seen international competitions in which an arnless swimming won, propelling themselves at huge speed through the water using only their legs.
I was amazed that they didn't sink, head first.
Several thoughts emerge. (Pardon the unintended pun.)
Arms may cause drag, holding you back.
Your head position keeps your eyes and mnouth and nose in or out of the water.
Speed comes from pushing though the water with either arms or legs or both.
What works is what works for you. I tried moving my hands back against the water. Then I tried pushing my hands diaognally down. Trhe effect is different. Move your hand back moves your forward. Pushing your hands down pushes you upward. When I pushed my hands down, my head came upward.
In many situations you would not want your head coming upward. You would get greater speed with your head half submerged wehnd doing the crawl. You only turn sideways or come up for air every other second / every backward arm stroke or every fourth second / second armstroke. My husband does two crawl armstrokes before breathing.
With breaststroke, the downward push brings your head up. Why would you ever need to do this? Maybe if you are a novice or panic easily and want to breath.
Pulling down deliberately with both arms simultaneously is the butterfly stroke. Exhausting.
Seeing Ahead And Being Seen
Maybe you want to watch where you are going. Maybe you want to be seen, by rescuers or companions or escorts in a boat. Maybe you want to avoid waves which wash into your mouth or face or eyes.
Maybe you want your face out of the way of obstacles, debris, or insects or other wildlife.
Why would you ever want to keep your head under water? To hide. (Like those horror movies, WWII, or River Wild, where you are the hero hiding from the human baddies pursuing you.) To see what is on the swimming pool base, search for items you have dropped or lost. Out in the sea to see the seabed below, to enjoy viewing wildlife, search for lost treasure - with or without goggles.
Try operating your arms like paddles, and see what different effects that has.
You can read about swimming on Wikipedia and see videos on Youtube. The disadvantage of links to youtube is that they are numbers and letters and don't tell you the contents. The wikihow links tell you what you are getting.
Useful websites
https://www.wikihow.com/Swim-the-Breaststroke
https://www.wikihow.com/Swim-the-Butterfly-Stroke
https://www.wikihow.com/Swim-Freestyle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_River_Wild
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and phtographer, author and speaker.
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