SIP 020: Philosophy of Horizontal Forward Motion

Why we teach front glides and back glides immediately instead of doggie paddle.

 

Positives

Glides are face in

Glides are easier to move farther with less effort

Glides when done correctly have same body position as all other strokes, Fr, bk, be, fly

Proper glides have arms in same position as swimming the strokes

Requires one body position to do well, position 11 or soldier.

 

Negatives

Requires face in the water, first difficult hurdle, may keep from progressing.

After initial push low mobility

Difficulties changing direction

No emphasis on breathing

No emphasis on arms making propulsion at first.

 

Doggie paddle swimming, survival swimming

Benefits

Can learn how to breathe

Any direction relatively easy

Head can stay above water

Survival swim

Can teach palms pushing against water makes you move

 

Negatives

Exhausting

Requires bad body position unrelated to any stroke

Difficult to keep head above water

Inefficient movement to energy expended.

 

 

Considering those things, we focus on glides and ignore doggie paddle and discourage its use entirely.

For safety, we feel that bobbing or rolling onto backstroke glide is more effective than teaching head up doggie paddle

We teach palms pushing and arm motion as an addition to glides to create extra movement and use plat to teach palm pushing for movement.