Question Help - Need some advice on DNF

[ShoheiIsokawa]

Hello from Japan.
I've recently started practicing DNF, and I'm currently stuck with this vexing problem. I can't maintain a horizontal streamlined position while I'm swimming underwater. To make matters worse, my butts are protruding upward profoundly for some unknown reasons. (I don't know what this is called, so I name it "butt protrusion" for the sake of convenience.) This butt protrusion gets remarkably worse during the arm stroke phases. My instructors point it out, but no matter how many times they tell me to keep my torso neutral, I can't correct it. It feels like somebody is pulling a string attached to my butts from above with some irresistible force. I don't know what's wrong with my body, and neither do my instructors. Does anybody here in this forum have any idea? Has any of you encountered a similar problem before? If so, how did you solve it?

 

[ShoheiIsokawa]

I uploaded a video of my recent training session. Just for any of you here to be able to better analyze what's going on with my body.

 

[7BDiver]

I would suggest doing a few stretches before you start your training, this would at least include the cat/cow, child's pose and leg cross-over stretches to help straighten the lower back and reduce tension in the hips. You should be able to lay with your lower back completely flat on the floor. From there incorporate overhead stretch with your arms while keeping your lower back flat to the floor. During stretching cross your hands over each other in the standard arrow form. In the water, a critical part of the arrow form is to have the hands together and arms tight to your ears or better to the back of your head. If there are significant gaps between the arms and the head little efficiency is gained and drag is created from water flowing between the arms and head similar to water between fingers. Just a curiosity, do you have the same form problem when swimming with your back to the floor?

 

[ShoheiIsokawa]

I would suggest doing a few stretches before you start your training, this would at least include the cat/cow, child's pose and leg cross-over stretches to help straighten the lower back and reduce tension in the hips. You should be able to lay with your lower back completely flat on the floor. From there incorporate overhead stretch with your arms while keeping your lower back flat to the floor. During stretching cross your hands over each other in the standard arrow form. In the water, a critical part of the arrow form is to have the hands together and arms tight to your ears or better to the back of your head. If there are significant gaps between the arms and the head little efficiency is gained and drag is created from water flowing between the arms and head similar to water between fingers. Just a curiosity, do you have the same form problem when swimming with your back to the floor?

Hi 7BDiver. Thank you very much for your advice. I got the cat/cow and child's pose, but I'm not quite sure if I got leg cross-over and overhead stretch right. I recorded myself doing what I thought you tell me to do.



Did I get them right? And these are also good for everyday stretching, right?

do you have the same form problem when swimming with your back to the floor?

You mean underwater? I'm not quite sure because I've never done that before. Should I try it in the next training session?

 

[7BDiver]

That looks about right, the hands simply need to overlap each other, enough to be effective but still comfortable. It appears you are plenty flexible for the position to be very effective. The leg cross you show is correct, in addition I would suggest laying on your back with foot across knee as shown below, this will help reduce groin strain from repeated leg kicks in the pool. This can be done while along the wall in the pool too during training. Trying DNF with back down may help determine if your butt up form is related to fighting buoyancy or legs floating but may be difficult to execute. Reduce your final breath volume or add weight and see this also improves form, personally I like a lot of weight with some distributed between my shoulder blades. Be careful with weight around the neck and the arrow position as to not end up squeezing the neck too much. Good luck and soon you will resemble a torpedo.

 

[ShoheiIsokawa]

Hi 7BDiver. Thank you again for your reply. Yes hopefully, I'd like to be able to dive like a torpedo XD
I really appreciate your additional advice on stretching. I will definitely add them to my daily routine.
I'm going to another training session tomorrow, so I will talk to the instructor about diving upside down.
If that isn't incorporated into her teaching strategy, I will still be able to see if the issue stems from buoyancy,
because I bought some extra weights as you suggested I do.

Just want to make sure I understand correctly how the upside-down test works:
If the issue comes from buoyancy, then I will likely have "belly protrusion" instead of "butt protrusion."
On the other hand if the issue has something to do with my posture, then I will likely create a mirror image of diving normally.

Right?

 

[7BDiver]

It may show many things, your form should be identical either way you are oriented and this exercise will determine if you maintain consistency. How does your form look while swimming or static on the surface in both orientations, these are easy ways to see what needs improvement. It would be difficult to bend backwards and perform DNF but if your legs are too buoyant it will be very noticeable and harder to control. One of the important things to eliminate in the form is the need to swim downwards to stay under the water, having the but up or body diagonal in the water is indicative of this issue. Changing the volume of your last breath and how much weight you use to sink your upper body will help stay level easier.

 

[musubi]

From the first video, it looks like your waist tends to bend a little when you do your arm pulls, causing your body kink and butt to rise. Otherwise, your body appears as streamlined as it can. I'm assuming this is what you're talking about. If so, see if you can be mindful in keeping your body straight on the arm pulls. You may want to watch underwater footage of swimmers performing the breaststroke just after the dive or after the turns as they perform this move underwater. I come from a long swimming background.

If you're concerned about the angle of your body (feet higher than your head), that's can be a little harder to control if your suit is buoyant.

Stretching is also great, as 7BDiver points out. Hopefully it helps you gets you where you want!