Streamline

For people new to swimming (and some who are not), I have found streamlines to be the most underrated and under-practiced element of the sport. It is an easy fix and something that will cut your 100 time down drastically if you just spend a little time working on it. 

Putting your body in a streamline means making yourself as narrow as possible. Arms overhead, hands overlapped, head squeezed between your biceps. Every time you push off the wall, regardless of stroke, you should be in as streamlined a position as possible. Like you are doing a pencil dive. Not superman arms, you aren't in the air. You are in the water.

YOU ARE NOT SUPERMAN. YOU ARE A MTHRFKIN TORPEDO.

a torpedo.

Long. Hydrodynamic. 

If you don't believe me that over the course of just a 500, or 20 pushes off a wall, that this will make a difference both in your speed and your energy levels, try one push off the wall looking like the swimmer above, and another with your hands simply shoulder-width apart.

Ideally this should be something you think about every time you push off the wall. But if this is a new concept for you, I highly recommend doing a short set every workout--it can be warm up, warm down, a recovery set--where the base is super easy and you just focus on the walls. Really think about keeping your streamline tight and try to make it past the flags on each push off.

Here is a short video on how to do a streamline from our friends at Swim Technique TV.

Streamline. It's easy, and it makes a big difference. Work on it. Help yourself.