What it is
Three things for an excellent Position 11: keep your arms straight, stay on the surface, and look down. Position 11 is a foundation drill that comes after streamline; every competitive stroke extends the arms through this extended, in-front-of-the-shoulder position.
Essentials
- Keep your arms straight
- Stay on the surface
- Look down
Progression
- Begin with short distances: bench-to-bench, 5 body lengths, 25s.
- Add fins to make movement easier.
- Focus on all three things simultaneously and aim for excellence.
What goes wrong
- Swimmers want to doggy paddle → Keep arms straight even when breathing. Locked elbows, flat palms.
- Swimmers bob up and down on the surface when beginning → Emphasise "stay on surface" with a strong kick.
- Sculling with hands → Avoid sculling; keep palms flat and arms extended.
- Breathing causes the most sinking → Reinforce a "strong kick you breath" to keep the swimmer at the surface throughout.
- Breathing interrupts body position at the surface → Return to looking down quickly after each breath.
How you know it worked
All three cues held simultaneously through the full distance: arms locked and extended, body flat on the surface, face aimed down—without breaking form to breathe.
How you teach it
Arms: extend forward, or directly "above," or in front of the shoulders. Elbows straight, palms face down, fingers aim forward. Body relaxed and neutral, flat on the surface. Kick and maintain the arms at the surface of the water. Locked elbows and flat palms are the non-negotiables even during the breath.
Surface: Position 11 is done at the surface. Kick to move forward while holding the arms in position (each arm looks like a 1). It is natural for beginners to bob; counter it with a strong kick. The biggest threat to staying up is breathing—reinforce the phrase "strong kick you breath" so the swimmer associates the breath with a kick surge rather than a sink.
Look down: cue "drag your Pinocchio nose" on the bottom. Aim the entire face down. To breathe, lift the head quickly, take the breath, then snap back to the balanced face-down position. The "banana" bend of the torso to breathe disrupts body line, so the quick return to looking down is itself a balance drill: it forces the swimmer to re-find neutral posture every cycle.
Feedback strategy (from Level 2 guidance): give specific, progressive feedback rather than generic praise. Attempt 1: "Well done on kicking, remember to look down too." Attempt 2: "You kept kicking well, and you looked down, but now you forgot to lock your thumb." Attempt 3: "Well done on all three, Johnny!" Instructors should be in the water to the shoulders and demonstrate the position themselves.
Lesson integration: Position 11 sits after streamline in the sequence. A typical drill block is 3 × streamline, then 3 × streamline + 10 kicks held in Position 11, then a streamline rewind. In a 25-metre review set, the first 25 reviews the three things for Position 11; the second 25 reviews three things to make Position 11 easier (e.g., correcting dragging-hip arms where the swimmer drops the arms to the sides, losing speed, stability, and rhythm). Good Position 11 habits transfer directly to stroke: every freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly extension passes through this position, so drilling it well builds the foundation for all competitive strokes.
When to deviate: if a swimmer is sinking badly, add fins to reduce the demand on the kick and let them focus on arm position and face-down alignment. If they are consistently doggy-paddling, drop the distance to bench-to-bench and isolate the locked-elbow, flat-palm shape before re-adding the kick.