关于平衡的问题----全浸教练海尼斯

快乐悠悠

Watching each of my sons learning to walk, it was quite obvious that their first tentative steps required total focused concentration. Even then, they still fell down a lot. Now, at two and a half and five they both run everywhere and, I'm sure, give no thought to balance as they go about their important business. The issue of balance is now pretty much a no-brainer — they no longer spend much or any conscious brain cycles on the subject.

看我的每一个儿子学走路，很明显他们的每一步都需要全神贯注。即使是这样，他们还是经常摔倒。现在，当他们长大后，开始到处乱跑，我敢肯定他们不会去考虑平衡的问题了。平衡已经变成了不需要考虑的事，他们的大脑也不需要再花费时间思考这个问题。

该贴已经同步到 life的微博

Dire Consequences

We all learn early in life that staying balanced on our feet allows us to avoid falling down and all that entails — getting bruised or bloody, and looking really foolish — things I refer to as “dire consequences.” The prospect of falling down provided the motivation to keep total focused concentration on that balance thing till it worked flawlessly nearly all the time. Later in life we went through roughly the same concentration/consequences feedback cycle in learning to ride a bike. The skills were a bit harder to acquire but, as luck would have it, the consequences were enough more dire to keep our attention fully focused till balance on the bike was a no-brainer as well.

可怕的后果

我们小的时候学走路时都知道保持平衡可以避免摔倒。摔倒让我们更加注意保持自己的平衡。后来在学习骑自行车的时候又经历了同样的过程。这比走路要难学一点，但幸运的是我们学会了，不平衡的可怕后果提醒你保持全神贯注，直到平衡成为一件轻而易举的事。

Not Falling Down

Although we all know what it means to be balanced, bear with me as I get a wee bit more technical. Balance, on land, means that your body mass is properly distributed with respect to your support structure — in this case, your feet pressing on two small spots on the earth and those two spots pushing back on your feet with and equal amount of force (Remember those physics buzzwords “equal and opposite” from back in junior high school?). Assuming you can get your center of gravity aligned over a spot between your feet you can stand in one place long enough to buy tickets to a Moody Blues concert (did I just date myself?) without falling over. But, if your body mass becomes improperly distributed with respect to your support structure — as when a thoughtlessly placed patch of ice separates you from your balance — you fall down (or you quickly engage in an entertaining set of scrambling motions, then you fall down).

别摔倒

虽然我们都知道平衡意味这什么，但是请允许我从科学层面上解释一下。在陆地上，平衡意味着你身体的质量处于你的支撑结构之间，也就是你的两脚之间。如果你的重心是在两脚之间你就不会摔倒。但是，如果你身体的质量超出了你的支撑结构，你就不可避免地摔倒了。

Hey Coach,” you intone, “thanks for the visual image there, but what's all this got to do with swimming? I'm freezing my butt off standin' here on deck while you flap yer gums when I could be crankin' out some yardage!”

Bear with me O Ye of Short Attention Span. Presently, these things shall be made clear.

But first, allow me to digress in a seemingly unrelated direction.

嘿，教练，谢谢你的解释，可是这和游泳有什么关系呢，你说半天我都冻死了，你说话这功夫我都可以游好几圈了。

先忍忍吧，我们要先把这些东西搞清楚，先谈谈题外话

Buoyancy and Gravity

Let's say I cut off your legs and toss them in the water. Do they float or do they sink? For the vast majority of people likely to read this, they sink. For triathletes with only two percent body fat, they sink fast. How about if I cut off your arms and toss them in? Your head? Your lower torso? They all sink. In fact, for most swimmers the only part of the body that floats all by itself is the upper torso. Why? Your lungs - two sacs full of air that act as a buoy. If I cut out your upper torso and toss it in the water it'll float around like a cork.

浮力和重力

比如说我把你的腿砍了，扔到水里，他们是会浮起来还是沉下去？对绝大多数人来说，是沉下去。对铁三选手来说，沉得更快。那么如果是手呢？头呢？躯干的下半部分呢？他们全部会沉下去。实际上，对绝大多数人来说身体唯一会浮起来的部分是躯干的上半部分。为什么？因为你的肺，它充满了空气。如果你的看下上半身扔到水里，它就像个软木塞一样漂着。

Lemme digress even further. Visualize a water polo ball resting peacefully on the surface of a calm pool. The water pushes back on the bottom of the ball with exactly as much force as the ball exerts on the water — roughly one pound. Now, if you put your hand on top of the ball and press down with one additional pound of force two things happen: 1) the ball sinks down in the water a bit, and 2) the water increases its pressure pushing back up on the ball to match the sum of the ball's mass and the extra force you are pressing down with — a total of two pounds. Putting even more pressure on the ball causes it to sink further at the same time the water continues to match all downward (gravity and your hand) forces with upward (buoyant) forces. The harder you press the ball toward the bottom the harder the water pushes the ball back up (that “equal and opposite” thing again).

让我再跑题一会。想象有个水球在水面上，这时候球的重力和水给它的浮力是相同的。现在把你的手放上去，会发生两件事：1）球会往下沉 2）水会增加对球的浮力以对抗你手对球的力。继续增大手对球的压力，球会更往下沉，同时水会增加更多的对球的浮力来对抗压力。你对球的压力越大，水推球的力也越大，两者相同。

Not Falling Down In The Water

So, if balance on land is a matter of properly distributing your body mass with respect to your support structure then what is balance in swimming? Rephrasing a tag line from an old margarine ad campaign — “On land, in water, no difference.” (Dated again!)

别在水里摔倒

如果陆地上的平衡意味着，身体的质量在支撑结构之间的话，那么水里的平衡意味着什么呢？水里和陆地没有区别。

Your upper torso—your buoy—is just like that water polo ball. The harder you press it toward the bottom of the pool the harder the water pushes back on it. This upward force acting on your buoy is your support structure. Pressing your buoy toward the bottom, or leaning on it, raises the hips in much the same way that pressing on one end of a floating kickboard raises the other end. By properly positioning your body and consistently pressing your buoy into the water you can support your entire body, including your hips and legs, right at the surface of the water without needing to use your kick to keep your legs up. You can spot a well-balanced freestyle swimmer because the centerlines of the head, shoulders, spine, hips and legs are all aligned parallel to and close to the water surface with little or no kick in evidence.

你的上半身就是你的浮漂，也就像那个水球。你按它越越用力，水对它的力也越大。这种对你上半身的向上的力就是你的支撑结构。把你的浮漂往水里按，或是靠在上面，抬高髋部，就像按住浮板的一端翘起另一端。通过合理的身体位置，不断地按压你的浮漂，你就可以支撑你的整个身体，包括你的髋部和腿部，让它们靠近水面而不需要靠打腿。你可以轻易地识别出平衡好的自由泳，因为他们的头部，肩膀，脊椎，髋部和腿部都是一条线，平行靠近水面，而只需要很少甚至没有打腿。

Swimmers who are not properly attuned to using buoy pressure to maintain balance typically use their kick to keep their hips and legs from sinking (I liken this to using a cane or a walker on land to make up for poor balance). And even with a strong kick the hips usually sit down in the water well below the shoulders and head. This is what I call “swimming uphill.” This creates loads of unnecessary frontal resistance. A 4-6 inch drop at the hips (very common) is enough to double frontal resistance from what a well balanced position encounters.

不会用浮漂来平衡身体的人通常用打腿来避免腿部下沉，好比用拐杖来帮助走路。即使用很有力的打腿，髋部往往还是在肩膀和头部下面。这就是上坡游泳。这种方式产生了很大的阻力。髋部下沉4-6英寸，就会比平衡位置产生两倍的阻力。

Conversely, learning how to maintain balance using buoy pressure (and proper in-line head position) can raise those hips effortlessly to the surface and cut frontal resistance by half or more. In comparison to an unbalanced, low-hips position, this will feel like “swimming downhill” in two ways. 1) You'll feel as if you are tilting a bit down rather that a bit up (in fact you won't be tilting at all longitudinally, it'll just feel that way) and 2) Swimming will take less energy. Such a deal!

相反地，如果你知道如何用浮漂的压力来维持平衡（头部位置保持和身体一条线）就能不费力的抬高髋部，减少阻力一半甚至更多。相比于不平衡，低髋部的位置，感觉就像朝下坡游泳 1）感觉你的身体是朝下倾斜而不是朝上（实际上是水平的） 2）游泳需要更少的能量。真是很合算