Last Updated on January 23, 2024 by admin
In this article, we will provide advice, hacks and tips on how to reduce swimming drag.
- Swimming drag is sometimes referred to as frontal drag.
Swimming drag: what is it?
Water is approximately 800 times denser than air.
- Swimming drag* is the resistance caused by your head, body or limbs, as they move through the water.
- * Hydrodynamic drag, to give it, its full and proper name.
Types of swimming drag
There are three types of swimming drag, friction drag, pressure (form) drag and surface (wave) drag.
- All types of swimming drag can slow you down and they all increase with the increase in swimming speed.
Friction drag
Friction drag is caused by the water moving against and over your clothes and skin.
Pressure (form) drag
Pressure drag is commonly built up around your head and shoulders, as they move through the water.
Surface (wave) drag
Surface (wave) drag occurs as you create waves as you cut through the water at speed.
Ways to reduce swimming drag
Body alignment
The rotations and undulations performed by your body to create propulsion during the stroke can create significant swimming drag.
- The key to reducing this drag is for you not to over-rotate or over-undulate.
- They should ensure that they keep your body as aligned (straight) as possible.
- While swimming freestyle should ensure that you do not rotate your body more than 40 degrees.
- When swimming backstroke you should not rotate their body more than 30 degrees.
- You should also ensure that your upper body, hips and lower body rotate together.
- While swimming backstroke you should engage your core to ensure you do not arch your back.
- This will help to ensure your hips and shoulders will not sink too much and create extra drag.
- Having a developed core can assist you in controlling your body undulations, and rotations and helps keep your body position aligned.
Related article on developing your swimming core
We have produced a related article on developing your swimming core. You can view it by clicking this link: developing your swimming core
Head position
Keeping the head in alignment with the body can help you significantly reduce surface drag.
- There is less drag underwater than on the surface, as it eliminates surface drag.
- As drag is increased as your speed increases, ideally you should submerge their head at the fastest part of the stroke.
- Breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle have a fast point where your head should be underwater.
- When swimming freestyle, you should ensure that they do not breathe with their head out of the water.
- By lifting your head, you will naturally drop your hips into a position that significantly increases drag.
- The ideal head position for a freestyle swimmer is to have their head continually in the water and as they breathe, rotate their head so they have one goggle lens in the water, and the other goggle lens out of the water, looking across the surface.
- When swimming backstroke, you should ensure that the head is not too high out of the water, which will drop your hips and help to create extra drag.
- Ideally, the level of the water should cover your ears.
- When swimming butterfly, you should keep your chin as close to the surface as possible, to help ensure that your hips won’t drop and create extra drag.
Pull with a high elbow
The pulling action of all four competitive strokes causes drag.
- You should ensure that they keep your elbow high and near the surface during all strokes, except breaststroke.
- This can help to maintain an aligned profile to help reduce the drag caused by your upper arm during the pull.
Controlled kicking
You should focus on controlling your kicking action, to help reduce drag.
- During backstroke, butterfly and freestyle, you should ensure that they reduce any excessive knee bend whilst kicking.
- Freestyle and backstroke you should generate their kick from their buttocks.
- During backstroke, you should ideally position your feet just underneath the surface.
- When swimming breaststroke, you should focus on keeping your knees in line with or just inside the hips.
Pointing the toes
Having good swimming ankle strength and flexibility is a key attribute to having an effective leg kick.
- As well as helping you to produce more effective propulsion.
- It also enables the feet to be placed in a more streamlined (plantar flexion) position, thus reducing drag.
- This can be especially important during your starts, turns and towards the end of a breaststroke kick.
Related article on swimming ankle strength and flexibility: an introduction
We have produced a related article on swimming ankle strength and flexibility: an introduction. You can view it by clicking this link: swimming ankle strength and flexibility: an introduction
Streamlining
Positioning yourself in a form that presents very little resistance to a flow of water over your body, helps to increase speed and ease of movement through the water, this is called streamlining
Effective swimming streamlining not only reduces drag and maintains your speed in the water, but it also increases the distance during the starts, turns and transitions for all of the competitive events.
- Swimming streamlining is also a key skill while performing underwater dolphin kicking.
- During both breaststroke and butterfly, you should complete each stroke in a tight streamlined position.
Related article on an introduction to swimming streamlining
We have produced a related article on an introduction to swimming streamlining. Which you can view by clicking this link: an introduction to swimming streamlining
Shaving
Many top competitive swimmers shave their body hair before an important competition, to reduce friction drag.
- Please note this is not recommended for pre-puberty swimmers
Wearing a swim cap
Most competitive swimmers wear a swim cap to help reduce the drag that can be caused by their hair.
- Some swimmers will wear an additional cap that places their goggle straps between the caps.
- Those swimmers who prefer wearing a second cap often ensure that the second (outer) cap is thicker than the first (inner) cap, to help smooth any potential bumps and thus help to reduce drag still further.
Wearing low-profile goggles
Many competitive swimmers use low-profile goggles to help reduce drag, especially during competition, as they tend to be smaller and more streamlined in design.
Race suit
Wearing a tight-fitting (but not restrictive) race suit can help to reduce friction drag.
Develop stroke technique
You should continually seek to improve your stroke technique and reduce the effects of drag.
- Many swimmers monitor the effectiveness of their stroke by monitoring their stroke count
Related articles on stroke count and stroke rate
We have produced related articles, on both how to use stroke count and stroke rate and stroke count and stroke rate drills. You can view them by clicking these links: how to use stroke count and stroke rate | stroke count and stroke rate drills.
Takeaways
In this article, we will provide advice, hacks and tips on how to reduce swimming drag.
- Swimming drag is sometimes referred to as frontal drag.
- Water is approximately 800 times denser than air.
- Drag is the resistance caused by the swimmer’s head, body or limbs, as they move through the water.
- There are three types of swimming drag, friction drag, pressure (form) drag and surface (wave) drag.
- All types of swimming drag can slow the swimmer down and all types of swimming drag increase with the increase in swimming speed.
Swimming Publications
We produce a growing range of publications on a wide range of swimming subjects.
- These include competitive swimming drill publications for backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
- Which are now available in both Amazon Kindle and paperback formats.
- For information regarding our portfolio please follow our link: Swimming publications
Swimming Resource Library
We have produced a swimming resource library.
- This contains links to all of our blog posts.
- These are subdivided by swimming category
Categories include: Swimmer Development | Swimmers Health | Swimming Coaching | Swimming Competition | Swimming Drills | Swimming Dryland/Land Training | Swimming Equipment | Swimming Psychology | Swimming Training
- To access any article simply click on the attached page link: swimming resource library
The Competitive Swimming Exchange – Facebook Group
The Competitive Swimming Exchange is a Facebook group to help exchange ideas and information to collectively improve the sport we love.
- It’s an international group for all swimmers, coaches, teachers, masters, triathletes and swimming parents.
- It’s for all those who are interested in competitive swimming, either in the pool or in open water.
For more information about joining this group please use the following link: The Competitive Swimming Exchange