While teaching this morning, I had my student focus on being long in the water by always keeping and arm forward while he swam freestyle AND by pointing his toe as he kicked lightly making him longer yet.  When he made this change, he swam better.

Observing the change made me consider Terry Laughlin’s and Total Immersion’s practice of striving to be long in the water.  The concept is that long boats travel faster than shorter boats due to the laws of physics.

Yet, what I also noticed was that when my student added a little length through toe pointing his kick he was also more streamlined.  Being a little longer also had the effect of being more streamlined with his kick staying sleek and narrow.   Just pointing the toe more reduced a wider kick that created as much drag as it did propulsion.

When a technique improvement positively effects another area of our stroke, we are really making progress with technique.  Being longer helps our streamline.  Being balanced in the water helps reduce drag.  Being balanced over our chest in the water helps us become longer in the water.

It really pays to get good coaching and pay attention to what we do when we swim.  Swimming can go from being a chore to being the art of “How good can I be?” when knowledge is added.