Body Extension and Awareness
A tight, streamlined body position starts from your finger-tips right until the tip of your toes. This fortnight, we will cover some exercises and stretches that I believe are key in training good body extension.
It is important to practice good body positioning to travel efficiently through the water. Extending out through the fingertips all the way out through your toes creates a nice tight, streamlined body position, minimising drag. Think of yourself as a knife cutting through a block of butter – ideally you want to be a sharp metal knife, as opposed to a soft plastic knife.
Training yourself and being aware of your own body positioning can help detect and refine any issues in your freediving and improve your performance, as well as develop a greater sense of ‘water feel’ making a dive feel more enjoyable. This can also mean more relaxed dives as maybe this is something you don’t need to actively think about during a dive because it is something you have trained your body to become accustomed to.
A strong core and good flexibility are essentials for good body extensions. Some drills for a strong core include:
- Planks
- Hollow Rocks
- Dead Bugs
Here are also some stretches for good shoulder, hip, and ankle flexibility.
Want something more? Check out this great shoulder flexibility routine here.
Next fortnight we will highlight some things to look out for when training and some drills you can do in the pool to develop better body extension and awareness.
Upcoming Events
Pool National Series
-
Queenstown: 17-18 September
-
Wellington: 17-18 October
-
Northland: 13-15 November
Happy Training,
Kelly
AFC Training Officer