Position Eleven and a Balanced Freestyle
For many swimmers, the first the introduction to Freestyle is a combination of a push across the pool, a flurry of arm movements, and wild kicks. All of this is usually interrupted with frequent head lifts or rolls to the back to breath. While none of these are the techniques we strive to teach your kids, these three main concepts are a permanent part of a swimmer's Freestyle stroke for their entire swimming life: breathing, kicking, and arm strokes. Here at HTX Swims, we think that first working on a swimmer's posture and balance in the water will enable them to do these three elements correctly and successfully.
One way to do this is to position your body to be more buoyant and more rigid during your stroke by adding propulsion from your legs and arms. In doing this, a swimmer is now using 100% of their effort to move forward. A swimmer that doesn't float well or align their body is using some portion of their kick and/or arm strokes to float. This brings us to a drill that we continue to utilize for almost all ages: Position Eleven.
How to Do the Position Eleven Drill
Swimmers extend arms out in front of their shoulders with elbows locked straight. With their palms and under arms down, align the biceps to be even with and squeezing the swimmer's ears. Swimmer's nose points down to bottom of the pool while making one line from the neck through the hips. Swimmer's core remains engaged and glutes squeezed to help hold a rigid line. Swimmer's toes remain pointed and hands remain together.
Why We Do the Position Eleven Drill
Position Eleven allows the swimmer to get a sense of their body's balance in the water and how to utilize the buoyancy of their lungs to stay afloat. This drill also involves rote memory skills and the swimmer learns exactly where the hands should be placed during each stroke. Lastly, Position Eleven demonstrates good head alignment and a start/stop position for the head when not breathing.
Skills and Drill
Position Eleven Kick with Board: Swimmer places hands midway on kick board and flutter kicks with face in the water. This is a more effective natural body line kick then keeping the head up.
Position Eleven Kick No Board: Swimmer floats in the eleven position and then normal flutter kicks. This can be done with or without a snorkel. For non-snorkel swimmers, the chin should be slightly raised for a breath or a stroke can be taken to breath.
Position Eleven Catch Up: Swimmer starts and stops a stroke cycle in the eleven position while pausing their hands for a one-one-thousand count. Focus should be on a strong kick and making sure the hands always enter back in the same repeatable action.
Single Arm Position Eleven: Swimmer starts in the eleven position and does a single arm stroke ending back in position eleven. Swimmer should have a consistent kick and focus on "pulling on rails." Pulling on rails is making sure to have the hand pull fingers down under the underarm with depth, not slipping out or crossing the face. Focus on palm down light hand entry and not dropping the arm in the water.
In Closing
Its important to try and not follow a linear pattern for these drills. Learning the basic concept of position eleven then moving into regular freestyle is always a good start. Jumping back to a singular drill focused on one technique or concept of the eleven then back to freestyle will wield a more natural development and feel for the stroke. In the long run this drill should be used for the mainstay of your swim career. Be careful to not make this a high usage drill over time, it can cause shoulder issue over the long run if its down daily with frequency.
See you at the pool,
HTX Swims
