spent on wavemaking increases eightfold.
The key factor in wave drag is how smoothly you stroke. A rough, choppy, or rushed stroke increases turbulence, and turbulent water increases resistance. That's one of the reasons a long stroke is such an advantage: It lets you use a slower, more controlled turnover at any speed, which in turn means less turbulence, fewer waves — and less drag.
3. Surface drag is friction between the water and your skin. No technique can change this law of nature, but you can affect how it applies to you by wearing the right suit. Shed your billowy boxers for a skin-tight suit, and just feel the huge difference it makes. Racers, as you probably know, also shave down, and on top of that may don special racing suits of Teflonlike fabrics to reduce surface drag further still. So slippery is the material when compared to skin, that an increasing number of elite (and many subelite) competitors now wear styles that cover more and more of the body. For the rest of us, however, a well-fitting lycra suit will do the trick.
Tuning in to Drag
Besides the drag-defeating strategies noted above, the simplest and best strategy for slipping more easily through that wall of water is to pay attention to it. Alexander Popov may be the world's fastest swimmer, but he often practices swimming "super slowly" at speeds where he can feel the resistance trying to hold him back, so he can figure out how to minimize it. Even without Popov's super-sensitive "drag antennae" to pick up signals, there are ways you can heighten your own sensitivity to it:
First, intentionally create more drag. Push off the wall with your arms wide and head high. Feel the resistance. Then push off in the most streamlined position, and notice how much it's reduced. Use that "awareness training" in your regular swimming to recognize the ways in which the water resists you, and to the stroke changes — such as keeping your head in a neutral position — that enable you to feel less of it.
Second, use your ears. Tune in to how much noise you make while swimming. Do you splash, plop, or plunk? Sound is energy, and the less of your mechanical energy you convert into noise, the more remains to move you forward. More to the point, anything that results in noisy swimming is evidence of inefficiency. Working on "silent swimming" is one of the best ways to tune in more acutely to how you're flowing through the water, and can help you improve your fluency.
Third, use your eyes. Are there bubbles in your stroke? Goggles make it easy to tell, and marathon swimmer and TI coach Don Walsh uses his to observe one of the most available pieces of "swimming knowledge" you can have about yourself. In fact for a full year of practice, Don thought more about eliminating bubbles than about anything else and credits that focus with helping him complete the 28.5-mile Manhattan Island Marathon in 14,000 fewer strokes than his rivals.
That number is no figment. Walsh actually calculated it, by having his boat crew monitor his stroke rate and compare it with that of other swimmers. He swam just as fast at 50 strokes per minute as other swimmers did at about 72. That means in the nine hours it took Walsh to swim up the East River and down the Hudson, he took something on the order of 27,000 strokes, while virtually every other swimmer in the race — including many who finished behind him — ended up needing about 41,000! That many strokes would have sent Don halfway around Manhattan again! Viewed another way, he got a "free ride" of almost 14 miles by being so slippery. If you could learn to slip through the water rather than battling it, you'll see far fewer bubbles, and there will be much less turbulence in your wake.
Note: In 2002, inspired by Don's example, I swam the MIMS with a goal of beating Don's stroke count. I completed the 28.5-mile swim in 8 hours and 53 minutes at an average of 49 strokes per minute - for a total of just over 26,000 strokes. And with
The key factor in wave drag is how smoothly you stroke. A rough, choppy, or rushed stroke increases turbulence, and turbulent water increases resistance. That's one of the reasons a long stroke is such an advantage: It lets you use a slower, more controlled turnover at any speed, which in turn means less turbulence, fewer waves — and less drag.
3. Surface drag is friction between the water and your skin. No technique can change this law of nature, but you can affect how it applies to you by wearing the right suit. Shed your billowy boxers for a skin-tight suit, and just feel the huge difference it makes. Racers, as you probably know, also shave down, and on top of that may don special racing suits of Teflonlike fabrics to reduce surface drag further still. So slippery is the material when compared to skin, that an increasing number of elite (and many subelite) competitors now wear styles that cover more and more of the body. For the rest of us, however, a well-fitting lycra suit will do the trick.
Tuning in to Drag
Besides the drag-defeating strategies noted above, the simplest and best strategy for slipping more easily through that wall of water is to pay attention to it. Alexander Popov may be the world's fastest swimmer, but he often practices swimming "super slowly" at speeds where he can feel the resistance trying to hold him back, so he can figure out how to minimize it. Even without Popov's super-sensitive "drag antennae" to pick up signals, there are ways you can heighten your own sensitivity to it:
First, intentionally create more drag. Push off the wall with your arms wide and head high. Feel the resistance. Then push off in the most streamlined position, and notice how much it's reduced. Use that "awareness training" in your regular swimming to recognize the ways in which the water resists you, and to the stroke changes — such as keeping your head in a neutral position — that enable you to feel less of it.
Second, use your ears. Tune in to how much noise you make while swimming. Do you splash, plop, or plunk? Sound is energy, and the less of your mechanical energy you convert into noise, the more remains to move you forward. More to the point, anything that results in noisy swimming is evidence of inefficiency. Working on "silent swimming" is one of the best ways to tune in more acutely to how you're flowing through the water, and can help you improve your fluency.
Third, use your eyes. Are there bubbles in your stroke? Goggles make it easy to tell, and marathon swimmer and TI coach Don Walsh uses his to observe one of the most available pieces of "swimming knowledge" you can have about yourself. In fact for a full year of practice, Don thought more about eliminating bubbles than about anything else and credits that focus with helping him complete the 28.5-mile Manhattan Island Marathon in 14,000 fewer strokes than his rivals.
That number is no figment. Walsh actually calculated it, by having his boat crew monitor his stroke rate and compare it with that of other swimmers. He swam just as fast at 50 strokes per minute as other swimmers did at about 72. That means in the nine hours it took Walsh to swim up the East River and down the Hudson, he took something on the order of 27,000 strokes, while virtually every other swimmer in the race — including many who finished behind him — ended up needing about 41,000! That many strokes would have sent Don halfway around Manhattan again! Viewed another way, he got a "free ride" of almost 14 miles by being so slippery. If you could learn to slip through the water rather than battling it, you'll see far fewer bubbles, and there will be much less turbulence in your wake.
Note: In 2002, inspired by Don's example, I swam the MIMS with a goal of beating Don's stroke count. I completed the 28.5-mile swim in 8 hours and 53 minutes at an average of 49 strokes per minute - for a total of just over 26,000 strokes. And with
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