Front Crawl Swimming Drills – Hand-Lead Nose Up / Nose Down

Hand-Lead Nose Up / Nose Down is the last one of our balance drills for the front crawl stroke. It lets you practice balance floating on your side with one arm extended forward. This is useful because you will roll from side to side into this specific side position while swimming front crawl.

This swimming drill also lets you practice dynamic balance, where you successively switch between a face up and a face down position. Being able to maintain balance while rolling on your side is useful because you roll in a similar way to breathe in the front crawl stroke.

TopSync

Drill Instructions

Start in the same position as in Head-Lead Side Balance:

• Your body is horizontal in the water.
• You float partly on your back and partly on your side.
• Your face is turned upward.
• Your arms are at your sides.
• You use a supple flutter kick for propulsion.

Extend your body in the water as you learned to do in Hand-Lead Side Balance:

• Extend the bottom arm forward until it is straight, in an overhead position, and parallel to the water surface or slightly angled down.
• Take a few moments to adjust your balance.

Now roll in the downward position:

• Rotate your head downward so that you are looking directly at the bottom of the pool.
• At the same time your body follows along and rolls completely on the side, now being at a 90° angle with the water surface.
• Continue to flutter kick in this position until you need to breathe, then roll in the upward position to get air, and then downward again once you have taken a few breaths.
• Alternate sides with each length.
• Practice until you can seamlessly switch between the face up and the face down position and you feel completely comfortable floating on the side.

BottomSync

Swimming Drill Tips

• Exhale continuously as soon as the face is in the water, don’t hold your breath.
• Make your body as compact and slippery as possible, try move it through the smallest cylinder of water possible.
• You should feel that the arm extended forward acts like a counterweight of your hips and legs and helps keeping them up, and especially so when the face is turned downward.
• You should have the sensation of moving forward and slightly downhill when the face is turned downward.

 Previous Drill – Hand-Lead Side Balance Next Drill – Under Switch