@markus_marthaler: Body position in freestyle is the one thing that affects every other part of the stroke, and most swimmers have never had it explained in terms of what is actually happening physically. The goal is simple. The body should lie as close to horizontal as possible, as close to the surface as possible, from head to heel. Not because it looks better, but because water is 800 times denser than air. Every part of the body that sits below the surface and at an angle to the direction of travel creates resistance that the arms have to overcome before any forward movement happens at all. The position is controlled almost entirely from the front. The head leads everything. Eyes looking at the pool floor, waterline sitting between the forehead and the crown of the head, neck relaxed. From that position the spine stays neutral, the hips sit high, and the legs follow naturally. Move the head up by a few degrees and the hips drop. The body pivots around its centre of mass and the back half becomes a brake. The chest provides the other control point. Pressing it gently downward into the water uses the buoyancy of the lungs as a lever, rotating the body around its midpoint and lifting the hips without any effort from the kick. This is why swimmers who press the chest down suddenly feel their legs rise. They have not changed their kick. They have changed the pivot point. Most swimmers try to fix a poor body position by kicking harder. The kick addresses the symptom at the wrong end. Fix the head and the chest and the hips follow. Technical fact: Frontal drag in swimming increases with the square of velocity and is directly proportional to the projected cross-sectional area of the swimmer. A horizontal body position minimises this area. Head elevation of even a few degrees creates a kinetic chain response through the spine that depresses the hips, increasing frontal resistance significantly. Lung buoyancy in the upper thorax provides a mechanical lever that elevates the hips when the chest is pressed downward. Everything starts with the position. Get that right and the rest becomes easier.

markus_marthaler

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Thursday 04 June 2026 15:49:01 GMT