To further explore the streamline position, lets look at the relationship between the hand lock, and head lock.

With the hands on top of each other, and the thumb wrapped around the side of the bottom hand, this will provide a bit of leverage to squeeze your arms against the side of your head.

By squeezing the arms together, you can see how sleek our swimmer appears.  If you’re lucky enough to be swimming outdoors in the sun, this is a great time to look at the shadow you’re creating.  That confirms that you’re in the right position.

You’ll notice that this swimmer is so committed to locking the hands, he’s developed a method that overlaps the hands and then brings them together with the top thumb immediately wrapping the side of the bottom hand.  As the hands come together, he squeezes the arms onto his head and then jumps off the wall.

By now focusing on the head lock, you will create a more rigid shape that will travel through the water with very little resistance.

To really practice this, try to hold this position until your body pops up to the surface.  That’s actually not as easy as it seems, but we’ll look more into that in the next lesson.


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Handlock and Headlock