font size A A A

Turns - Learning the Underwater Dolphin - Step 2

Posted by Glenn Mills on Feb 02, 2010 11:30AM (3,336 views)

Last week we started a simple progression for learning the underwater dolphin. This week we'll progress to the next part of the sequence.

- Learn from Gold Medalists Misty Hyman's DVD!

Why Do It:
The underwater dolphin is the single most important skill for all swimmers to master. It should be used in every event in competitive swimming. Simply put, if you're not great at this skill, you limit your potential as a competitive swimmer.

How to Do It:
1.  Review the head-lead dolphin movement from last week.
2.  To advance to the next stage, simply move your hands to a streamline position in front. While streamline is the most effective position when executing this move in a race or in practice, it's OK to to use locked thumbs (instead of perfect streamline) in the learning stage. This will allow you a bit more freedom of movement through your chest and torso.
3.  Start on your stomach, and focus on keeping the hands about 6" below the surface of the water. Think about pushing the fingertips directly forward.
4.  Use the abs and hips to generate the undulating movement that travels through to the feet. Do your best not to bend the knees too much, but allow the knees and feet to react to the movement of the hips.
5.  Flip over on your back and continue the same movement.
6.  While on your back, be careful not to allow your hands to travel out of the water. Keep them below the surface. This will stretch out your abs, and keep your back flatter.
7. With your legs, try to allow just the knees and a bit of the thighs to touch the surface of the water.

How to Do It Really Well (the Fine Points):
Think about staying fairly rigid from the fingers to the head, but allow the body to start flowing from the head/shoulder area. Be careful not to brace with your palms at any point of this drill, but spear with the fingertips. Also try not to let your hips sink while you're on your back, which will require you to KICK and BEND your legs too much. If you're struggling for air while learning the underwater dolphin, use a centermount snorkel to allow you to practice this drill for a longer period of time.

Turns, streamline, underwater dolpin

Responses

vic	Responded Feb 03, 2010 12:08AM Thanks for the great videos. This is what I've been wanting to learn. Will try the drills from Step 1. I like that you have the transcript here, because occasionally I couldn't catch 1 or 2 words you say in the video. :)
Trev	Responded Feb 03, 2010 02:17AM The dolphin kick has always been one of the weakest links in my swimming. It's great to really start to learn it. These videos are fantastic. Thank you!
camy	Responded Feb 03, 2010 10:44AM Never mentioned it but thanks Glenn for the transcription : if vic who is English doesn't catch some words, I let you imagine how difficult it can be for the non english speaking members. Luckily your english is literary (not too many short expressions with up/out/for... we can't find in a dictionary) and your accent is very good and universal (I mean not typical of any state).
vic	Responded Feb 26, 2010 02:33AM I've practiced Step 1 and feel OK with it now, but I'm having problem with this Step 2, hand-lead. I do not know which part of the body should initiate the movement. When doing head-lead, I can get it going by pressing down the chest. But for hand-lead, pressing the chest is hard to do; and I actually doubt it's the right way. I just float on the surface with awkward movement without going forward. So where should be the whole dolphin-like movement be initiated? Chest, or lower back, or hips, or thighs? Any tips will be really helpful and appreciated.
Glenn Mills	Responded Feb 26, 2010 12:28PM Hi Vic. Do your best to keep the hands stable out front, and initiate the movement as close to the front as possible. That means, if you can keep the arms stable, and initiate the movement with the chest... great... if you have to move that back to the hips... that's fine too. What you want to avoid is using the hands to drive the body up and down, but rather, use the hands to drive you forward. Don't worry too much... I barely move doing this without fins, but the focus is on what the rest of the body is doing behind the arms. Hope that helps.
GW	Responded Feb 26, 2010 12:38PM Vic, Further to what Glenn has said, try to push the top of the chest forwards as well as down to intiate the momentum. I have found it works for me if I keep that in my mind as a picture of what I am trying to do. To avoid coming to the surface too early, make sure you are looking at the bottom of the pool rather than forwards. Hope that helps
vic	Responded Feb 26, 2010 02:59PM Glenn and GW, thank you so much for the quick and very helpful replies! So it sounds like it's all in the upper body (or as upper/front as possible)--the legs do nothing but just follow the upper body movement? Many thanks again! Will try it out and report any progress.