Have you ever lifted your head a little totake a look at your freestyle hand entry, extension forwards and catch? It’s sosimple it’s amazing we don’t do it more often，You might never have tried this before butit can be very revealing about your stroke.
你在游泳的時候會稍微抬頭看你的手入水，伸展，抓水的過程嗎？這是如此簡單，但奇怪的是我們並不經常這麼做。你可能以前沒有試過，但對改善你的划水很有幫助。
First, check that you are not crossing the centre line in front of your head, astroke fault known as a ‘crossover’. Aim for a nice straight hand entry andextension forwards without crossing the centre line。It’s bestto try this exercise whilst swimming with fins on to keep your body positionhigh in the water, bring your head up so your goggles are just underneath thesurface and you’ll get a great view of the action right in front of you.
首先，看你是不是越過中線了，嘗試一個漂亮的直線入水並延展，不要越過中線。這項內容最好是在腳上帶上腳蹼，保持較高的身體位置，抬高你的頭部讓泳鏡剛好在水面下，這樣能把前面看得更清楚。
You can also check that you’re entering the water fingertips first, not thumbfirst，A thumbfirst entry is very bad for your shoulders and harms your catch.
你還可以看你的入水是不是指尖先入水，而不是拇指先入水，拇指先入水的方式對你的肩膀和抓水非常不利。
Also check you are not dropping your wrist and elbow as you extend forwards, ifyou’ve worked on lengthening out your stroke this often happens and introducesa dead-spot to your stroke:
檢查你手延伸的時候是不是肘部和手腕下沉，如果你一直在嘗試過度延長你的划水距離，這種情況就會經常發生，成為你划水的一個很大瑕疵。
Finally look for what happens when youstart catching the water. Are you pressing downwards? Or using a much bettertechnique by pressing the water backwards with a bent elbow?
最後再看你開始抓水的時候，是往下壓，還是用好的多的技術—用彎曲的肘部往後拉水。
This is just an exercise and will probably feel quite strange to look this farforwards but believe it or not there’s quite a few swimmers who need this headposition when they swim. The legendary Ian Thorpe looked straight forwards withhis goggles just beneath the surface.Ian had such a powerful kick he wouldliterally start kicking air without lifting his head to look straight forwards.
這也許是讓你感到奇怪的練習，但是相信我，有相當多的職業選手在游泳時頭部保持這個姿勢。索普在游泳的時候就是保持他得泳鏡剛剛在水面之下。那是因為他的打腿是如此有力，如果不保持這個姿勢的話，他的腿就會踢到空氣了。
You might not have an incredibly powerfulkick like Thorpie but if you are naturally buoyant in your lower body you toomay feel very unbalanced with a low head position. Try a mid-head position,looking at the bottom of the pool about 1½ meters in front of you.
你也許沒有索普這種不可思議的打腿，但是如果你天生下肢浮力較大的話，較低的頭部位置同樣會讓你不適。試一試中等的姿勢，看你前方半米左右的距離。
Or if you have very sinky legs, which theArnie Swim Type tends to suffer from, then it may be necessary to look straightdown towards the bottom of the pool to bring your legs up.
如果你腿部會下沉的話，那麼你就需要保持頭部向下的方式，來抬高你的腿部。
When looking at swimmers in the pool,always remember that head position is very much ‘horses for courses’,experiment with yours to see what feels best for your stroke. If you canmaintain your body position then a higher head position is advantageous foryour swimming posture, coordination of your stroke and for open waternavigation.
看別人在水裡游泳的時候，一定要記住頭部的位置要因人而異，要適合你自己的游泳方式。如果你在保持身體高位的時候還能維持較高的頭部位置，那對你來說就是一個優勢，能讓你的姿勢，划水的配合，及公開水域的視野更好。
