By Wayne Goldsmith
I often get asked to do pool deck sessions with swim teams when I travel.
Most of the time it’s drills and skills practices or “motivation” talks, attitude talks etc.
But there’s one session I love to do because it’s so important: Straight Line Swimming.
Swimming is a straight line sport.
We start in a straight line: it’s called Streamlining.
We swim in a straight line and avoid the lane ropes if we can.
We turn straight! We come to the middle of the lane to then accelerate into the turn so we can turn and push off in a straight line.
And we finish straight. We come to the middle of the lane and kick powefully to the wall to touch right in the centre of the lane.
We start straight - we swim straight - we turn straight - we finish straight.
When you think about it, we start and finish in streamline - as every great finish is Head forward, hips high, full kick and full stroke position on the wall.
Coaches it is important you teach and continually reinforce straight line swimming.
Why?
Because under the pressure of competition, swimmers will do what they've practised.
If we don’t teach them to start, swim, turn and finish in straight lines, then - when it really matters - they’ll be swimming in circles!
Swimming. It’s a straight line sport.
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Wayne
