Basic Balance Drills

Learn Basic Balance with Head-Lead Drills

By Terry Laughlin

Head-lead drills are the most critical "starter" drills -- those that most quickly teach you how to get the water to support you. Once you learn to let the water support you, all of your swim movements will be more relaxed and less inhibited. Even if you feel you already have efficient strokes, these drills will increase your ease and efficiency.

Head-lead drills help because, for most swimmers, the tendency to use the arms as stabilizers – just as you might instinctively reach out for a wall while standing on one leg – will be powerful. Head-lead balance drills are also effective in creating greater self-awareness because, without your arms extended, you’ll feel any incorrect head movement or positioning much more immediately and dramatically.

When trying these drills for the first time, practice for very short repeats -- 25 yards or less (a short pool is perfect!) -- and put no emphasis on speed. Your most important objectives are to do the drills easily, gently, and silently. The key sensations associated with balance are stillness, stability, and the feeling of being effortlessly supported by the water. You can find photos of the key points of these drills (and more advanced drills) in two books by Terry Laughlin: SWIMMING MADE EASY, and THE TOTAL IMMERSION POOL PRIMER FOR FREESTYLE AND BACKSTROKE. The drills are also demonstrated on the 40-minute video FREESTYLE AND BACKSTROKE: THE TOTAL IMMERSION WAY. Click PRODUCTS at www.totalimmersion.net for more information or to place an online order.

Position #1: Balance on Your Back

What it teaches: This is the easiest way to learn ease and relaxation. Without having to move your head to breathe, you can more easily learn how to get the water to support you.

Here's what to do:

• Hide your head. Ears under the surface and only your face showing above it.

• Lean on upper back until your hips feel light and you feel total support.

• Compact, silent flutter.

• The test of true balance is being able to do nothing with your arms.

• Just lie there, kicking gently and letting the water do the work. This feeling is the essence of how balance feels! Keep it in the other balance drills.

• Look directly at the bottom and Hide your Head (just a sliver of the back of your head showing above the surface). Feel as if any wavelet could wash over the back of your head.

• Kick with a compact, quiet, gentle flutter. The lazier the better.

• Lean on your chest until your hips float freely.

• Breathing forward upsets your balance, so you have two goals. Keep your kick so lazy that you don’t have to breathe very often; this allows you to focus on feeling stable. Second, breathe with as little fuss or upset as possible, then rebalance after each breath.

• Lie on one side, looking directly down. Your hip and shoulder point directly up. Keep your head "hidden" -- exactly as in #2.

• Lean on your shoulder until your other arm is "dry" from shoulder to wrist.

• Slip your body through the smallest possible "hole" in the water. Try to lengthen your bodyline from head to toes and shape your body like a torpedo, arms hugging your side.

• To breathe, swivel your head to nose-up and roll back enough so that you can get air easily. Keep feeling like a "long, balanced needle" as you breathe, then return to nose-down.

• Start as in drill #3, balanced on your side, looking directly down, kicking easily with a long leg and shaped like a long, balanced needle.

• When you feel balanced (head hidden, arm showing), swivel your head and roll back until you can breathe easily, then stay there the rest of the length.

• If you don’t feel great, roll back another 5 or 10 degrees, until you feel more comfortable and able to keep your needle shape.

• Once balanced, practice slipping your body through the smallest hole in the water.