The alarm goes off at 5.10am and soon after I reluctantly roll out of bed. First my feet hit the ground then I rub my eyes and stretch my arms above my head. I stand up, put my feet into my track pants, slip on a shirt, roll on the socks and walk out of the room leaving my partner to snooze it out. All of this I do in the dark and without falling over or bumping into anything. Most daily routines like this we take for granted. We have spent our entire life perfecting the art of moving on land. Every cell in our body is finely tuned to work with the laws of gravity and the vertical nature of our being. When it comes to swimming it is a different story. We no longer have solid ground beneath to hold us up and our centre of gravity works against us. Now it’s about the centre of buoyancy and being horizontal rather than vertical. We have to make a total adjustment in the water otherwise we’ll sink. All of a sudden locomotion in the water becomes 100 times harder than on land. This is why a lot of people find swimming hard - it is a total change from land-based activities and requires a relearning process. Much like a child learns to roll, crawl, stand up and walk, you the swimmer need to learn how to breathe, float and locomote in the water. This process is different from the land and can be made complicated by a fear of drowning.

If you’re a non swimmer, beginner or experienced swimmer you still need an understanding of the basic principles in swimming. Non swimmers need to learn them while experienced swimmers need reminding of them. Whether you think you’re good or not you still spend more time on land practising being vertical.

Here are the principles I use for the delivery of the Gliding On! - improve your freestyle swim programme:

1/ Correct body positioning
Provides a sound basis from which a good efficient freestyle stroke can be built and maximum speed maintained.
More gain can be made when you reduce the water resistance against your body, otherwise known as drag, than can be made improving propulsion. This does not mean propulsion doesn’t matter but rather is secondary to a good streamlined body position. A stable horizontal body roll will allow for most of your propulsive energy to be used for forward movement rather than keeping your body afloat.

2/ Timing is everything.
Where your recovery arm is in relation to your stroking arm will have an effect on streamline, stroke length and rhythm. Poor timing will limit your speed and efficiency causing you to do more work for a given distance. During the stroke cycle the recovery arm exits the water as the stroking arm begins the catch. As the recovery arm travels past the head, the stroking arm begins to pull back. The timing is such that the stroking arm in front is quickly replaced by the recovery arm. This presents a long narrow profile underneath the water helping minimise drag, maximise speed and improve breathing rhythm. The effect is the recovery arm is catching up to the stroking arm. Your swimming appears to be gliding between stokes even though you’re still moving water backwards. With good timing you’ll notice a smooth transition from one stroke to the next. Your speed will be maintained in a fluid manner rather than a stop start action.

3/ A good range of motion around the shoulders, back, hips and ankles allows for greater speed and efficiency potential.
One of the keys to having a great freestyle action is functional flexibility around moving joints. This mobility allows you to perform the correct freestyle movements with greater efficiency and less resistance. Swimmers with tight muscle groups often compensate for their lack of range by creating additional inefficient movements. This usually leads to poor body position and excessive use of oxygen.

4/ Kick is important.
The kick provides balance, rhythm and power to your stroke. As an endurance swimmer a good kick will support your body in its quest for maximum speed and efficiency. A bad kick will work against your upper body slowing it down and could demand a disproportionate percentage of your oxygen consumption.

5/ Torque technique contributes to stroke power and endurance.
Torque is the force used to cause body roll. Different parts of your body contribute toward body roll combining to improve stroke power and endurance.
Using only the arms to propel yourself forward could be one of the biggest misconceptions in swimming. If your arms are used in isolation your shoulders will tire quickly and less power can be exerted into each stroke. However, using your whole body behind the arms will maximise the full complement of muscles in your trunk, to first share the workload and second to generate torque force. Torque is the power generated from your legs and arms during specific phases of your stroke cycle - these cause the body to rotate. This rotation in turn increases stroke power by contributing a greater muscle mass to do the work. Movements are brought together sequentially improving stroke efficiency, timing and rhythm. Muscle development increases and there is a more efficient use of oxygen.

6/ Specific swim drills will help achieve the above 5 principles.
The goal of specific swimming drills is to break down the complete action into parts and to practise those parts. By doing this you are able to simplify the action and concentrate on it. Ultimately the parts are brought together into a fluid freestyle action. By using a part (drills) and whole (complete freestyle action) method of practice, you give yourself the opportunity to understand the stroke more fully.

Over the coming articles my goal is to look more closely into these principles, explain the freestyle action, show you ways to improve your stroke and give you some practical training tips. If you are a visual learner these concepts will seem harder to grasp. You could log on to my website www.glidingon.com to see some snippets of my DVD to illustrate the points of this article.

With this column I hope to inspire you to relearn the freestyle stroke to become a faster and more efficient swimmer.