Floating perfection horizontal without moving at all: Could everyone achieve this?

[Richardsk]

I have short legs , too but they still sink. I'n not sure if I can go right to the bottom just by exhaling, I think I may have to lift my arms as well. I'll try today. I can do a dead man float but I think my legs will be a bit lower than my chest. Another thing to try today.

My short legs don't seem to make me swim like Shinji. I think there must be some other explanation ;-)

[tiswimjapan]

Hello everybody,

Many adult-onset swimmers do not know correct push off. It is important you lean forward enough before you push off the bottom of the pool. We teach they need to lean forward until their shins get parallel to the bottom before pushing off the bottom.

[novaswimmer]

Originally Posted by Zenturtle

I can also float this way all day, but i also have short legs, long arms, so its mostly because of luck, not skill.
Still, aquatic posture , pressing the T, good kick technique,etc is important for everybody.
Even with the same natural balance I can not swim like Shinji.
Leg sinkers could look at coach Matt. His legs are quite sinky.

Not sure I understand. I have short legs too. When you say 'luck', do you mean 'the luck of the draw in genetic makeup'?

What is 'pressing the T'?

There are many factors besides length of legs that affect balance. These might include muscle and bone density, specific gravity, center of gravity, fat distribution, the size of rib cage / lung capacity, flexibility, one's ability to perceive body position and muscle movements (proprioception), degree of ankle flexibility and ability to use feet as paddles for propulsion rather than as drags slowing you down, and so on and so on. I think the more of these stacked up against you, the harder it will be to attain good balance.

I'm still trying to sort out which I can change and which I cannot! And for the ones that I can change, will they help compensate for the unchangeable?

[Zenturtle]

Lucky in the sense that I dont need much skill to float horixontal.
The natural balance is already close to it.
Change as much as you can, after that learn to kick as efficiient as you can, and do a lot of other things right in your stroke to not further worsen your balance.

pressing the T

http://www.breaststroke.info/presbuoy.htm
http://www.totalimmersion.net/forum/...read.php?t=165


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIzX7jQpn30

[jenson1a]

IngeA

When I asked if you sink, what I really meant was do you go to the bottom? This I can't do. When in deep water and then exhaling, I start with the water around between chin and lips. When I exhale, the sinking goes just a little below eye level. If I push down with my hands, I go down and pop up like a cork. Someone had once suggested that I am not exhaling enough and that is the crux of my breathing problem. Could be.

Sherry

[jenson1a]

Originally Posted by tiswimjapan

Hello everybody,

Many adult-onset swimmers do not know correct push off. It is important you lean forward enough before you push off the bottom of the pool. We teach they need to lean forward until their shins get parallel to the bottom before pushing off the bottom.

How do you get the shins parallel to the bottom? That would mean that the toes are still touching the bottom, but can't visualize how the shins can be parallel to bottom.

Sherry

[IngeA]

Really deep sinking is indeed a matter of training. You need to train overcoming the breathing urge (which normally is beginning long before you really have a lack of oxygen). You can train this on the sofa at home and then in the pool.
But be careful, it isn't without risk.
So don't try in the pool without supervision (even in the swallow part).
And never hyperventilate before sinking/ diving if you don't have really much experience.
The deeper you go, the faster you sink because of the higher ambient pressure.

I don't dive as a sport, i just tried it out last winter in a quite swallow area (1,5 m) so my "knowledge" is mostly theoretical,
I just wanted to know how much extra buoyancy i need NOT to sink to the pool when maximal exhaling.

[Richardsk]

I tried sinking in the deep end (2.2 meters) yesterday with hands at sides and my feet touched the bottom just as my lungs emptied more or less completely. Floating vertically, my natural position seems to be at a slight forward angle. I may need to do more experiments to check this because one might think that that would mean that I should float horizontally with a slight downhill orientation, which I don't think is the case. I didn't remember to check my dead man float position. Perhaps later today.

In answer to the question above, 'pressing the T' refers to an action of pushing the chest and shoulders into the water with the object of attaining a downhill orientation. I gather that hydrodynamicists deny the utility of this, but still it seems that some swimmers find it useful.

Perhaps it's something like the 'impossible' feat that every cat can perform of landing on its feet if dropped upside down. I remember reading an article about that years ago with photos, probably in New Scientist.

[tiswimjapan]

Originally Posted by jenson1a

How do you get the shins parallel to the bottom? That would mean that the toes are still touching the bottom, but can't visualize how the shins can be parallel to the bottom.

Sherry

If the pool is deep, you need to "hop" to go down in the water.