Tip of the Week: Reducing Water Resistance While Swimming

February 8, 2010

Want a quick way to reduce the amount of water resistance in your swim?  The trick is to tilt your head slightly up.  When your head is pointed straight to the bottom of the pool, you expose the flat side of your head to the water.  This creates considerable resistance as the water has to move around your head.  In the swimming world, we call this “bulldozing”.

Tilt your head up so that your forehead is submerged by about an inch of water, and no more.  This is enough to make sure the water flows over your face instead of hitting the top of your skull.  Don’t tilt any further, and do not raise the head up.  Either of these will constrict the windpipe and your ability to breathe, and will also force the rest of your body lower in the water.  Do this right and you should feel like a weight has been lifted from your swimming.

View previous swimming tips.