i saw a trailer for the new Harry Potter film today. there's a sequence where he grows gills and fins and swims underwater. he swims with his arms by his side. so there you go... that's what Harry Potter chooses to do. 
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Alun said:i saw a trailer for the new Harry Potter film today. there's a sequence where he grows gills and fins and swims underwater. he swims with his arms by his side. so there you go... that's what Harry Potter chooses to do.![]()
That's a valid claim for swimming (or for fast freedivers), but not generally for freediving - as already explained in this thread, the muscular effort or tension needed to keep you in perfectly streamlined position increases the oxygen consumption, so you have to find a trade off between the streamlines and relaxation. While the oxygen consumption is not a big issue in swimming (you can take a breath as often as you want), it is the most important factor in apnea swimming). As shown on examples of several excelling freedivers, the relaxed (non-streamlined) position can and does often beat the fast streamlined (mostly monofin) swimmers.So far nobody has mentioned "Total Immersion" by Terry Laughlin with John Delves. Laughlin's approach to training and coaching swimmers is that slippery and streamlined will always win out, once you learn to be really streamlined.