Most of us think a lot about hand position in all our strokes, which is only natural. We feel the water with our hands, and they’re very sensitive to pressure on the water and where the water “slips” off.

Your distance per stroke tells only part of the story in terms of your stroke.

You’ve seen them, the kids at the pool doing a happy little social kick—with their arms stretched out over the kickboard—just chatting away as they cruise up and back along the lane in packs. You might even have a social kick at your Masters practice. But this can cause a great deal of tension in your lower back, upper back, and neck. And really, how often do you flutter kick in swimming with your head up like that? You shouldn’t ever, actually, unless you’re doing a drill or playing water polo.

Push and pull: You need both.

Think about it: When you swim, the most power comes from your hands when they’re below your shoulders. The problem is, in most of the strokes, your hands are out in front or above your head for a significant portion of each swim.

Of all of the freestyle stroke techniques we teach at The Race Club, where to position the head is probably the most controversial. Although most coaches believe that the head should be kept in alignment with the body—keeping the body in the straightest possible position for a low drag coefficient—arguments can be made for keeping the head down and for tilting it up slightly during a crucial part of the stroke cycle.

Unlike many sports, swimming is almost solely technique-based. Simply trying harder won’t make you faster. At the risk of overgeneralizing, if you want to run faster you simply pick up the turnover of your feet. Similarly, if we take away a bike’s gears, the secret to speed is pedaling faster. Want to hit a baseball or golf ball farther? Increase club head or bat speed.

Many of us over the age of 30 were taught that, during freestyle, our hands should enter the water thumb first. Some of us still swim this way. Others were taught to put our fingertips in first. You can see both styles being used today, even in the elite race pool.

Who doesn’t love that great warm-up mode—swimming nice, easy, happy laps in the comfort zone. This is good for the mind, body, and soul to be sure. But eventually, many swimmers want to see if they can go faster. For many, that’s when stroke rate overtakes efficiency, and although they’re working much harder, they’re not going any faster.

Different people have different learning styles. Some learn best by reading, some by hearing, and some by watching. And of course, there is doing—guided by expert feedback. We are most effective as coaches when we provide our swimmers the opportunity to learn through each of these modes. Let’s examine a few ways to maximize the impact of providing in-water technique examples during Masters swim practice.

As terrestrially based creatures, we need to breathe. In most sports, breathing happens naturally, without any real thought required by the athlete as to when or how much to breathe. But swimming is different, and sprint freestyle is even more so.