How To Balance Underwater

Hi I'm Paul. This is Theo from swimminglessonslondon.co.uk

We're going to give you a few tips on swimming today. You're more than welcome to contact us for any more information or to book a session.

Thank you. Okay, so now were going to look at how to balance in the water. So we'll look at Theo, he takes a big breath before he starts and he starts off by just stretching his legs and getting into a normal floatation position.

Quite relaxed, his arms dangling,, his knees dangling and slowly raising his hands to a stretched out position not quite above the water just below the water surface and his using his hands there to offset the weight of his legs, the air essentially in his chest is the pivot, like it is on a seesaw so by dropping his hands very slightly he can affect the height of his legs also. The most common mistake people make when they're trying to float is that their arms are too stiff and rigid and there is tension across their back and quite often their hands are actually above the water. Meaning that there is only one direction that the legs can go and that is down.

So by keeping his hands below the surface there is that he can maintain a pretty flat position. You can notice also that his head isn't too far pushed in just down to the goggles, just so his goggles are just below the water. Ok, so now were going to look at a drill that you can use to get into that floatation position.

So we'll look down at Theo and his just holding on to the side, relaxed hands, no too tight. It's essential that we don't have any tension throughout the hands, arms, and the back there. He's now stretched his feet as far back as he can, now he's taking little steps back and then just face down in the water, and he keeps his face down there and you'll see that the longer he keeps it there his legs eventually float up.

Now this is because he's relaxed. Ok, we'll try and avoid bending the arms at any point, keeping that same position and now you'll see he's actually letting go of the sides, and just keeping his hands flat on the water, but he's not relying in the sides at all. So this is a good way of starting.

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