Gaining Better Balance

To improve your swimming stroke one thing that you can do is, get better balance. Naturally the more balance you have the more naturally you will move through the water. You will not end you looking like a fish out of water in the water in front of your friends. In the book it states, to start gaining better balance in your swimming you should start by doing backstroke and going slowly and steadily while only rotating a small amount (Laughlin 39). I did this when I went to the pool and noticed my balance was improving already.

When I was doing this I began to notice that when you rotate more while still staying balanced, you move quicker through the water. Now when I am at the pool and working out with my team or racing I stay balanced on my center of gravity and rotate just enough to give me that extra push through the water. Another thing that the book says it that there are three key thing to getting better balance, “Make your body longer, swim on your side, and find your center of gravity in the water” (Laughlin 40). I did these three thing in my practice and my coach noticed a substantial difference in my backstroke and was impressed.

Do you play any sports that need a lot of balance control?

Michaela Childress

Laughlin, Terry, and John Delves. "The Slippery Swimmer." Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. 39-40. Print.