As a professional swim coach, I have spent countless hours on pool decks reviewing students' swim strokes and finding various stroke flaws.

The most common and disruptive flaw is breathing.

You'd think that would be the easiest part of swimming. Breathe in, breathe out. What’s the problem? All  too often, I see the same mistakes over and over. The problem arises when swimmers, trying to avoid a mouthful of water, lift their head too high out of the water. I call this "high-head breathing."

It drags swimmers down by disrupting water flow and the forward motion the rest of your body is trying so hard to create. I am not just talking about the ultra-competitive swimmers, who'd shave their whole body to save a millisecond. I am talking about the weekend warriors and XTERRA athletes who want to have a smoother, faster swim. I'll give you four simple words to remember that should help streamline your swim:

KEEP YOUR HEAD LOW!

I call this "stealth breathing." Practice trying to swim with your head as low as you possibly can. Think of keeping one goggle in the water and one out as you take each breath. Watch what happens to your swim stroke.

Number one, it will lift your hips and legs (the densest parts of your body) to a higher position in the water. This automatically takes some pressure off your muscles, working to keep your body horizontal in the water. Less work in the swim means more energy for the bike and run.

Number two, it will create a better bow wave. When you swim you create a wave off the front your body, just like a ship. When you breathe with your head high, you create a high bow wave that in turn forces you to lift your head high. Keeping your head low makes a smoother, smaller wave so you can get air easily.

And number three, it increases stroke power. When your head is high, you may be using as much as 70 percent of your arm pull just to keep your head out of the water. That leaves just 30 percent to propel you forward. Drop your head and you flip that statistic in your favor. The majority of your effort goes into getting you out of the water fast!

Try these simple yet effective ways to improve your stroke. You'll not only have a better swim, you'll have a better race!

Think stealth, think low-in-the-water and you'll be first at T1.

Sure beats shaving!

Peter Hursty is a professional triathlete and swim coach based in Honolulu, HI